Apocalypse-writing

Calista climbed easily over the rusted, wrought iron fence. She waited for her mother to do the same and they trudged toward some houses in the distance hoping to find something worth scavenging. Calista used a machete to cut down the tall grass and weeds in her path. She jumped as her blade hit something hard, her arm stinging from the impact. Moving closer, she discovered a large polished stone. It was sticking up out of the earth, engraved with a name and two dates. Taking a moment to look around she noticed the stretch of land between the forest and the houses was filled with these large slabs of rock. “What is this place?” sh

A few decades ago, the Final War began. The world went to hell and the war itself lasted two weeks before the nuclear bombs fell... I don't really know much about it besides what my parents told me when I was a child. All I know is that my parents managed to survive because they were in a cave system when it happened, along with fifty-something other people. The cavern was obviously large enough for all those people, having been a popular tourist destination before the war. There's a medical bay, restroom, small library, storage area and a steady supply of natural, if slightly irradiated cave water. There's also a communications room, but not

Norman woke to beauty. The world around him looked more real than he could ever remember anything being. The sunlight that filtered through the blinds painted gold highlights on everything it touched. He sat up and marvelled at how easy it was. A life time of aches and pains had been taken from him and Norman couldn’t remember a time when he felt better. None of it was real, he knew, as he stared up at the ceiling. Somewhere far below the earth his body was being kept on the edge of life. Somewhere he was being fed through a tube. Some where the world had ended, but not here. Norman’s mind had been hooked up to The Grid, a gover

I was around for the end of the world. It didn’t happen all at once, it started with little things, warmer summers, colder winters, storms that got more and more severe, and a volcano or two. No one would have said it was the end though. These events were just blips, hiccups in the global order. The world still turned, I still went to work with everyone else the world couldn’t be ending. It wasn’t until people started dying in droves that anyone cared. One summer there was a worldwide drought. That took care of the poor. New diseases spread and ran rampant through the cities. That took care of the weak and the unlucky. My w

As I walked down the path towards ‘The Boneyard,’ I could see rubble and old beat up machines scattered ‘bout. A lot of the machines looked like they had guns, others didn’t. They were all burnt up and some were torn to pieces.  The ground was black as charcoal and crunchy like it was made of it too. I walked slowly, afraid of what I might find. The wind whistled through the old machines with an eerie ringin’. Tattered flags made of old clothes and blankets waved in the breeze. Dust boiled up from the ground, fillin’ the air with a harsh dryness. I could hardly see through the ‘wall’ that the d

Nicole swears to God that she's had it up to here with Simon's shit- crap. Crap. She isn't cursing, because she knows that if she slips up in her mind, her mouth is just going to spew out words that she only sort of means like there's no tomorrow. And there sort of isn't a tomorrow, right now. The Apocalypse has gone down in Death Valley in the middle of July. Nicole figures that someone up there has something against them, like maybe in another universe, the earth is full of former bullies who spilled that someone's ice cream all over their nice, clean shirt or stole their lunch money or some other petty crime. It is the lovely aliens kno

I'd been paranoid of Ian's intentions since the first reactor exploded.  That was about three months ago, shortly after the New Year had begun.  I assumed that the approaching end of the world could bring out the worst in anyone.  He insisted that he would never carry knives; I found some in his backpack while we were squatting in an abandoned apartment building.  He lamented that there was nowhere to go in the world anymore, but I found a map of his with a route marked to the south.  If he slept on his backpack like I did, I probably would have never doubted him. He was going to kill me the

It's been a long time since there has been nothing but silence, but we took that golden moment for granted.  Now the structure of this dilapidated house quivers, dust is shaken from the rafters, and no one can ignore the moaning that comes from the other side of the walls. Obie turns from one of the windows and notices me glaring at him.  He removes the toothpick from between his lips before he speaks.  "What are you lookin' at?" "Maybe you could come up with a better plan instead of trying to stare them down," I quip.  I haven't been too testy these last few weeks, but I don't work well under pressur