75 WORD WRITING CHALLENGE - April 2012 -- VICTORY TO DIGS!

[mosaix]

There’s None So Blind…


"Have you seen the morons in the next valley? We need explosives, weapons and ammunition. Armour and maybe some kind of flying machine would be useful too."

The alien shrugged and flapped his gills. "We’ll give you wooden spades, shovels, rakes and hoes. Seed for two seasons. Also food, clothing and shelter to get you through the first winter. And this – a copy of your Desiderata."

"What! You promised to help!"

"Believe me, we are."

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

THE COVENANT

Dust. Dust of cities, forests, multitudes.

Only the nomads remained, digging up relics for off-world trade. The old man followed, singing hymns of a lost religion in his wavering voice.

Fording one of the sluggish rivers, he grew agitated, babbling incoherent prophecies. Kind hands drew him on; no one looked back.

But there in the shallows ... a flash of green: green shoots growing where none had grown for a thousand years.

 

[juelz4sure]

Hope

In a matter of minutes the world was set ablaze,
Air reeked of death.
Kneeling, tears flowed down the her young face,
Staring over the ruins.
Silent bodies littered the streets,
"Life will prevail" she promised.

***

Decades had passed since the first bomb exploded,
Peace quickly ensued.
Tears etched into her aged face,
Still upon her knees, pearly wings outstretched.
Now trees litter the ruins where bodies laid,
"Life, Without man," she said turning slowly...​

 

[Azzagorn]

Road to Nowhere


"Are we there yet, Pah?' She asked as they continued down the dusty road.

" No, not yet kid." He reached down and ruffled her hair and smiled.

It was the great flash that had started them on this journey. Once everything had settled all that was left was dust.

There was only one place in the country unaffected by the flash. The man laughed, Swindon of all places.

 

[kiffinyjean]

Getting Out

Get out of the lowCamps and into the Ultradorms now!!! Pod 86 is looking for healthy, fertile men and women. Agritech training a bonus! MUST have CURRENT Thoughtjack cranial processor -- NO fundamentalists allowed.

Pod 86 is offering a generous 2 year fertility window, with bonuses for multiples -- including the newest cranial processor. No twitchers, no tickers -- no family history of bloodflux within three generations. Process at your local BioKiosk now!!!

 

[Vertigo]

Reparation

Dekker collapsed. He’d gambled on finding food and water. He’d lost.

Bitterly he gazed across the scorched, blasted desolation. Prairie no longer. The aliens were dead but ultimately they’d won; the Earth was dying.

Then he saw it. They weren’t all dead then. Vengeful rage rose. He grabbed for his gun…

Metallic words issued from its translator. “Wait! Offer… succour. Invading ship… rogue… pirates. We… condemn! We come… endeavour… restore planet… civilisation. We make… promise!”

 

[johnnyjet]

All That Is Broken

Troll-like, it crouched under the burning bridge. Broken, it moved slowly, dragging a useless leg.

Flames poured from the broken jet strewn across the countryside. The horizon was aglow in red.

Finally, it found what it was searching for, the brain capsule of President Xooman, cracked, yet still pulsing with life. It picked up the capsule and shook it violently.

"You promised," it said, voice cracking. "I leaked all their secrets. Where is my fortune?"

 

[Erin99]

The Rose


‘Promise me.’ Her eyes held mine, emerald like the grass of yesteryear.

‘No.’

Her hands were warm. They used to be soft, not cracked like the dry riverbeds.

‘Promise me,’ she said again.

I wanted to turn away, to lift her into my arms and dance as we used to. She smiled. I cried.

‘Go now,’ she whispered. ‘Please.’

Slowly, her hand went limp in mine.

I closed her eyes and held her. ‘Never again.’​

 

[DrGorakk]

Supper's Ready​

Thomas was hallucinating; it must have been due to the shock. The liquid fire that
had ravaged and engulfed the land had finally ended and humanity was struggling to survive. Thomas wiped his eyes, choked back a sob and looked at his father, who
had been dead for 30 years. Trumpets blared over the cacophony of disaster as a
figure stood in the sun. Thomas grasped his father’s hand and approached.

 

[The Procrastinator]

BLESSED

After a while the city was silent. Completely and utterly silent. More time passed and two survivors came out, skittering cautiously, eventually climbing up on the massive corpse of one of their predecessors to get a better view. An orange sun shone weakly through the dust and smoke.
One of the cockroaches turned to the other.
“So. The meek was us all along.”

 

[booksforlunch]

Reboot
​

She arrived at the camp twelve days after the world stopped. She brought the things she had created from animals, science and nightmares.


We hid while gun shots, roars and the screams of death dug scars into our souls.


“I remade the world. For you,” she told us, later. “You must surpass those before you.”


We were 8,000 frightened children in a new Eden raised from our parents' bones, and we promised her we would.

 

[Alex The G and T]

Seeds of Hope

Five years. We hunker like furtive rats in the bunker. One day, at last, Scout returns through the decontamination chamber; naked, laughing. "It's clean! We can go outside!"

We scratch a patch of scorched earth into a semblance of a garden plot. The few carefully hoarded seeds are brought from storage and planted reverently.

Weeks. We watch the ground with hope and apprehension.

Not a single sprout has shown. Every last seed has rotted.

 

[Aun Doorback]

Soul mate



Promise me everyday?

That’s a lot of promises.

Hope so! So swear, without crossing your fingers.

OK! I’ll always be here for you.

And you’ll keep talking to me, even when I piss you off! I’ll go mad if you quit.

Yes, but shut up now, we need to burn rubber.

Jack snapped shut the vanity mirror, tucking it safely into his overcoat pocket and began to steer his shopping trolley, alone across the wasteland.

 

[Nott Hraezla]

New Master

"No. That is not what he promised me."

"He is gone."

"You can't amend contracts with the dead."

"I will release her, but I still need your help in this dead world."

Eyes weary, he rubs them, desiring his end. "Fine."

She smiles and tightens her fist. A drop of blood escapes. "There."

He collapses into ash.

She throws herself to the ground, enraged, and strikes his dust. It scatters, revealing his silver lined grimoire.

 

[paranoid marvin]

The King's Shilling


Sign up lads
Join the Corps
Don't miss out
On World War Four!

Though we lost
Number Three
We will win
This time, you'll see!

Take up arms
Make mum proud
Shield her from
The Mushroom Cloud

Sign up now
March to war
'Neath the flag
Your dads died for

* * * * * * * * *

What's up men?
Just sticks and stones?
It's all we've left
To fight this one!

 

[Parson]

Memories and Melodies
​

Her pain was excruciating but Deborah walked to “The Ledge of Noble Death.” The “Goodbye Melody” reverberated from the valley. It was her tribe’s greatest tribute. She was the oldest of them. She alone remembered the better times. The future was bleak at best. She could no longer feed herself. She would keep the covenantal promise. “I will die to save the others.” She bowed her head; “Lord, let my daughter live.” and stepped.

 

[Kamosis]

Apocalipse

“I am the Beast. –The angel of black feathers announced- And for me was promised the destruction of the human race! It was my divine right to destroy and burn every human city, to obliterate every human achievement and purge the land from every trace of its existence. But all that I can find is rotting bodies and destruction!


“Humans did it first.” –The last living human coughed in his last words.

 

[chrispenycate]

Broken promise, shattered dream.


For fealty our leaders guaranteed protection,
Proved powerless sustain their oath.
New wilderness reveals their imperfection,
Their failure of act and foresight both
Believing none would pierce their indirection
Before society dissolved in blood and fire.

Now, for revenge 'gainst shelter population,
Descendants of destruction-courting sires,
Cutting their water, pow'r, destroying ventilation,
That all die; famine, thirst or suffocation,
Survival's not an option, much less integration
Humanity's extinction our entire desire.
​

 

[Moonbat]

The Pledge

Hubert, battered andbloodied, stayed defiant to the last. They couldn't force the wordsfrom him. Earth's hero would never willingly submit.

Gnarg revealed theenormous death ray aimed squarely at Hubert's groin.

Hubert cleared histhroat.

“I Hubert Brown ofmy own free will, and certainly not under threat of groin aimed deathray, do hereby swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegianceto our alien overlord 'Gnarg the Unreasonable.'”

 

[Lucifal]

SEARCHING FOR JANE

It fell like snow, swirling and drifting in eddies around the devastation. So, this was London. Was London.

My suit was failing, stunk of my vomit. I no longer cared. Dust seeped through numerous tears and the Geiger told me I was a fool to be here. But she was here too. Had to be.

I stumbled. Lost consciousness.

“Simon?” A muffled voice. Unstuck eyes looked into hers. Not Jane’s, but it would suffice.