Tag: earth
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SURVIVAL
I tried not to vomit as I peeled the fetid sock away from my foot. It came off in tattered patches, stuck to the putrid flesh underneath. The pain was excruciating. I had to look. It wasn’t my foot any longer. I didn’t recognise it. It was just a lump of red-purple meat. There were…
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PRESENCE
She held up the old photograph in front of her. ‘This is definitely the place,’ Xavier said. He was right. The same trees on the crest of the hill. The wild grass meadow, the hedgerow dividing the fields. This was the right place. So where had the rocks gone? They walked through the long grass,…
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IT CAME FROM AFAR
The mass rolled towards them from afar. She came from the snow-peaked mountains, tumbling over the hills, obscuring the clear blue sky. ‘How long?’ ‘A day, at most.’ ‘We should go.’ ‘She will find us. There is no point in running.’ The darkness would one day cover the whole world. The light would be blocked…
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THE HARVESTERS
We have to keep them safe. We have to keep them secure. One day they’ll be able to do it all themselves, they’ll know what’s safe and what’s dangerous; what’s right and what’s wrong. Don’t touch that, don’t go there, don’t go out, don’t make a sound. There are so many bad things out there…
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A GLIMMER IN THE DARKNESS
I like to sit up here and watch the dawn. That first flicker, the unsteady fragile glint of sunlight peaking over the horizon. It means that a hundred and fifty million kilometres away, the searing ball of gas is still glowing, emanating warmth and light towards us. One day someone may sit in my place…