APOCALYPSE: An Anthology by Authors and Readers Read online

  APOCALYPSE

  An Anthology by Authors and Readers

  Jase Brantson

  Kate Charles

  S.L. Dearing

  R.M. Gilmore

  Brittany Hiester

  Kimberly Hennessy

  Grayce Jantson (Jason Brant)

  Heather Kirchhoff

  Jon Messenger

  Jocelyn Sanchez

  Nicki Scalise

  Copyright for each story is held, all rights reserved, by the individual authors.

  Edited and Compiled by Cynthia Shepp

  http://cynthiashepp.wordpress.com/

  Cover Created by Rene Folsom with Phycel Designs

  http://www.phycel.com/

  License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of these authors.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  FOREWORD

  This started out as a contest but grew into an idea. This anthology came together due to a contest on my Facebook page. The authors and readers were given the opportunity to write a short story that had to be written using the guidelines provided. I was in shock and awe at the entries I received. I knew that more than the followers on my page needed the chance to read these stories, so I decided to put together an anthology and publish it. These stories come from already published authors as well as readers who aspired to write.

  The guidelines used to write these short stories were ones that I thought would appeal to the audience:

  *I want you to imagine that the world as we know it has ended. Total Apocalypse. You only have yourself and one other person you can rely on (your choice). There is no power, no water, and you are armed with only a backpack of supplies. In your backpack there are matches, four bottles of water, enough food to make it three days, and one weapon (your choice). Spin me a story and tell me what you would do. Spin a web of survival, danger, and conflict. Tell me why the world as you knew it ended, tell me your fears, make up a world in which nothing is the same and survival is hard, and the world is against you. Tell me what you would do, where you would go, how you would get food and water, how you would protect yourself, and how you would make your life over again. You could even throw in some romance and meet some new people to help you on your journey.*

  I believe that the authors of these short stories more than met the guidelines; they exceeded even my expectations. I hope that you enjoy reading these as much as I did. Please leave a review when you are finished on Amazon or Goodreads and let us know what you think. Also, please take the opportunity to connect with these amazing authors. Author links are included on the individual title pages of the stories.

  Enjoy your read!

  Cynthia Shepp

  http://cynthiashepp.wordpress.com

  http://www.facebook.com/cynthiashepp

  DEDICATION

  This Anthology is Dedicated to:

  My wonderful husband, Scott, for putting up with me when I get so immersed in a project, and my children, Jake, Colee, and Spencer. I love you all very much.

  It is also dedicated to the wonderful people that helped me get this anthology out there. All of the fantastic authors that submitted their work, Rene Folsom for her fabulous cover art and for helping me through the process of putting this together, Cassie Hoffman for helping me keep everything going, Jason Brant for giving me my first break, Jayce for making me laugh and encouraging me to do this, and to all of my amazing Facebook and blog followers: without y’all none of this would be possible.

  Cynthia

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Fade to Black by Jase Brantson

  Artificial Life: The End of Humanity by Kate Charles

  Shelf Life by S. L. Dearing

  Welcome to the End of the World (Population: Unknown) by R.M. Gilmore

  Lotion by Grayce Jantson (Jason Brant)

  Until the End by Brittany Hiester

  I Know My First Name is Clossiana by K.T. Hennessy

  Save Me by Heather Kirchhoff

  Canyon Bound by Jon Messenger

  What If by Jocelyn Sanchez

  Cheyenne Mountain by Nicki Scalise

  THE END

  FADE TO BLACK

  JASE BRANTSON

  Dedicated to:

  Tony Nix

  Author Info:

  Jase Brantson fancies himself the survivor of SEVERAL zombie apocalypses and assured me that it was no trouble at all for him to submit FADE TO BLACK to us from the safety of his underground bunker located at parts unknown....

  Fade to Black

  FADE IN:

  “WAIT! Waitaminute! C'mon, man!”

  “Give me one good reason not to cave your skull in with this crowbar!”

  “Look around, man… You got them all. They attacked me! I'm the good guy… Whaddaya say? Can I get up?... Take all the time you need to decide... Yeah, look at 'em, dude; you saved my life, man... You don't wanna spoil that by caving my head in, do you? Besides, you'd get zombie blood on me—”

  “They're not zombies!”

  “They are definitely not zombies… Can I get up, man?”

  “Get up.”

  “Whew! Thanks, man. Hey, I'm Rex—sorry. Note to self: no shaky-of-the-hands… Relax, man—”

  “Stop calling me man, man!”

  “Hey, sarcasm! Sarcasm is good… Better than head-caving-in…ness. Let me try again. Me, Rex…you…? Whoa-whoa-whoa! Sorry, ma—uhh…Mr…a little help?”

  “I'm Jack. You talk too much.”

  “Me? What about you, yammerin' away just now?”

  “What's in the pack?”

  “Oh, uhh...nothing really; just some supplies—”

  “Hand it over.”

  “Aw, c'mon, m—Jack. It's just my stuff; I'm trying to get to my sister's compound. Okay…okay… Reason vs. Crowbar...Reason's head gets caved in—Take it easy, Jack! That's my food!... Wow...when's the last time you ate, Jack? Uhh…there's only four bottles of water left; go easy, okay? Jeez...well, maybe it'll rain…”

  “For the love of god, shut up! Where did you get this stuff? Where are you from?”

  “Jack, you just yelled at me to shut—Where to begin? I was born—”

  “We've got to get moving; there's always more of them. C'mon.”

  “Okaaay… I guess you wanna carry my pack—that's good; that's fine… And where are we going?”

  “My hole.”

  “That doesn't sound too inviting, Jack. I mean, not that I don't appreciate the whole ninja-zombie-killer thing—”

  “They're not zombies!”

  “Got it. They are not zombies. You don't happen to actually know what they are, do you? And what is this hole? Hey, c'mon, wait up! I was just nearly killed by a pack of zom—zom...zomething of which I don't know what it is… man—Jack! I know that the world has ended, and all, and that we don't have much of a chance for survival, but you have really got to lighten up!”

  FADE OUT.

&nb
sp; FADE IN:

  “HOW much farther? I think I've got a rock in my shoe… Can I have a drink of water? You know, my water? Jack, if they're not zombies, what are they? How did you find me out here, anyway? Was that just a fluke? Do you have any idea what happened to cause all this? All I know is the Internet crashed and took everything with it, it looks like… Jack? C'mon, Jack! Wait up! (They act like zombies… You don't know everything…)”

  FADE OUT.

  FADE IN:

  “AW, c'mon, Jack…I don't think I can fit through there…”

  “Quit complaining and crawl through. It's getting dark; they'll be out in force.”

  “Jeez…Okay! I can do it! Don't push! My shirt is hung—you tore my shirt; thanks a lot, Jack. You know what? Just go ahead and cave my skull in!”

  “Is that your favorite shirt, or something?”

  “Now he wants to talk. Look, Jack—Wait—Hey! You can't leave me out here alone! Okay, I'm gonna try again! Jack? (Just abandon me, why don't you?) JEEZUS! I hope that's you that grabbed my hand—Waaaaiiitttt—aaauuuggghhhh!”

  “This is my hole.”

  “Jack, that hurt. And you tore my shirt some more… You don't care. Fine. Nice place, Jack—I mean, as best I can tell in the near pitch darkness.”

  “Funny man. I'll build a fire as soon as I block the entrance.”

  “There's some natural ventilation, I hope. You're gonna move that rock? Do you need some help—no, I see… So this is a cave? This is where you live?”

  “We'll talk after I get the fire lit.”

  “You're lighting a fire?”

  “Yes; what does it look like I'm doing?”

  “Uhhh…well, Jack—”

  “We'll talk after I get the fire lit!”

  “Okay. Sorry. I can wait. (Last thing in the world I'd wanna do is interfere with a man while he's—) Sorry! Sorry. I'll just sit down and wait patiently for the fire. Just anywhere, I suppose? Is this okay? Right here?—Sorry! Not another word, not another word....”

  FADE OUT.

  FADE IN:

  “ANY progress? Smoke, at least? Sorry, Jack; not another word....”

  FADE OUT.

  FADE IN:

  “MATCHES? You had matches, and you let me kill myself starting that fire?”

  “I tried to tell you, but you wouldn't let me talk!”

  “All you do is talk!”

  “Have a granola bar, Jack! Right there in that other pocket.”

  “Don't worry, I will! What else have you got stuffed in this thing?”

  FADE OUT.

  FADE IN:

  “THAT'S maybe three days' worth of supplies. What were you gonna do then?”

  “Maybe find some wild berries—”

  “Berries? When's the last time you saw a wild berry?”

  “I just took what I could fit in the backpack, okay?”

  “Razors…Deodorant?. . . You do realize that you sacrificed room for food and water just to have things that are probably only going to insure that your corpse is nice and neat, right? Though, the toilet tissue will certainly be a luxury....”

  “Look, Jack, you could use a shave and some deodorant...and this whole place stinks! Do you use the bathroom in here?”

  “When I have to; five gallon bucket with a board for a lid. Just around the bend there. Got to go?”

  “Jeez, noooo!”

  “I hate to cloud up your sunny day, Pollyanna, but all the niceties of so-called civilized society are dead. Welcome to the literal post-apocalyptic wasteland. Only, unlike in the movies and books about it, those of us who have survived stink! We don't shave, we don't bathe regularly—if at all—our clothes are filthy, our breath is foul, and we crap in the dirt! Or maybe a bucket... Have you seen a woman lately?”

  “Not a normal one...”

  “Probably for the best. The last one I saw I had legs, armpits, and a crotch as hairy as mine. And she smelled like a sewer gone bad.”

  “Why was she naked?”

  “She was being raped by about thirty walkers.”

  “Walkers?”

  “Same as the ones who jumped you, only too many for me to do anything about it. I checked on her after they left, but she had been dead for quite a while before they were even finished. Threw my binoculars away that day…probably a mistake, but…”

  “They raped her?”

  “To death. And they'd've done the same to you—unless they were hungry instead of horny. In that case, they just start eating. I think they actually like the screams…”

  “Jeez-us!”

  “That's right. And you were just traipsing along like you were out on a hike! Don't you know what's been happening? Or are you just the kind of guy who fights horror with humor?”

  “I didn't know stuff like that…”

  “All right, grab something out of this bag to eat, and start filling me in on where you've been and where you were going.”

  “Where I am going!”

  “We'll see…”

  FADE OUT.

  FADE IN:

  “ALL I know is that somebody must've seen it coming because I got a call from my sister, telling me to get some place safe as quickly as I could and hide. Then, when things eased up, to make my way to her and her husband's place where we'd all weather the storm. She didn't know exactly what was gonna happen, just that something was going to. First time I ever regretted not watching the news! Then, when it did happen, I found out I couldn't get my car to start, my phone and laptop were dead, the electricity was out—everything! I just took off with nothing—stupid, I know—and headed for her place, knowing it'd take me a long time if I had to go the whole way on foot. I came up to an out-of-the-way convenience store that I knew about, but there were dead people scattered around it—which freaked me out. None of the cars would start. There was no electricity there either, and I started to panic a little bit. The place had been looted pretty good, but I found a key to a locked stockroom, and I just barricaded myself in there for the night. I'd go out during the day, looking for some method of transportation or communication that worked, but never found a thing. I guess I stayed there two or three weeks, before I loaded up a backpack and started walking toward my sister's. The last month has been the scariest of my life, even though I never saw any more dead people or any zom—walkers—until you came upon me when you did. That's it. That's my story. If you know what happened, I'd sure love to know....”

  “Well, I don't know, but my guess is some kind of electromagnetic pulse knocked out all the power. Had to be deliberate because, like you said, there was tension in the air, but I wasn't paying attention, either. And the power outage is nothing compared to the rest of it. Somehow…some way, it's like a pre-programmed subliminal command was activated in nearly everyone… Manchurian Candidate kind of stuff. People just walked away from…everything! They quit talking and just began to wander aimlessly—at least, that's what it seemed like at first. I saw my own family—my mother and father, and two brothers—just walk away…Their eyes…died…and they just walked away. It terrified me, Rex—I didn't do anything to try and help them. But I know now that I couldn't have anyway; they were gathering into herds… Or maybe that should be hoards—I've seen them in feeding frenzies where they will kill each other just as quickly as they will one of us who hasn't been affected. I fled out here to this place that I've known about for years. There's a small creek not too far away; I've had to stay close to it for water, but I've done some recon, and what I've seen isn't very encouraging…”

  “Why aren't we affected?”

  “Don't know.”

  “Was there a nuclear exchange? Isn't that where EM pulses come from?”

  “They do, but I don't know if that's the only way to produce them—I'm no scientist—but I haven't seen anything that looks like a bomb has gone off anywhere.”

  “You think our government did this?”

  “Not on purpose, if they did. We were a docile people, as far as revolutionary tendencies are c
oncerned. About the only thing that would've ever moved us to really rebel is if the government did turn everything off. No e-mail? No cellphones? No Facebook? No online gameplay? That's when our lazy asses would revolt! No, it was in the government's best interests to keep our toys working—we'd endure anything from them as long as we could log on to something…”

  “Then what was it?”

  “I don't know.”

  “Man—Jack—we've got to get to my sister's. Her husband is a cop; they've got guns, an electric fence—”

  “Not electric anymore. Whereabouts would they be?”

  “Just outside Shawnee.”

  “That's too close to a city.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The cities are nightmare zones, Rex. The walkers migrate toward them. That group that you met today was probably the advance party of a much larger herd. They were probably heading to Shawnee…”

  “But you killed them!”

  “Listen…I don't know how—telepathy, I guess—but they communicate with each other. They'd've been in contact with the walkers that are already in Shawnee, and they were in contact with their own herd....”

  “That's crazy! How do you know that?”

  “…You can hear them sometimes, yourself…”

  “I've never heard them!”

  “You have to listen.”

  “Forget it, man! I'm not listening for zombie signals! And I am going to Shawnee!”

  “Don't you get it? Your sister has probably been gang-raped and eaten by n—umph!”

  “…I'm sorry, Jack, but I'll hit you again if you keep that up…”

  “…Okay—ow... Well, you have got some backbone…Let's get some rest, and we'll discuss it some more tomorrow. Maybe you're right…”

  FADE OUT.

  FADE IN:

  “OKAY, the water bottles are re-filled, and we may still have three days of food if we take it easy. You're sure you want to do this?”

  “We have to, Jack. It's my sister. Her whole family… Plus, it may be the only place that we can be safe around here!”

  “I still think it's a pipe-dream, but let's go.”