Tag: survival
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COLD TEARS
They huddled closer together as the roar passed overhead. The stone walls of the barn did little to protect them from the frost outside. Their breaths formed white clouds in the air, their cold tears stung their faces. They heard an explosion in the distance. Then a series of cracks like gunfire. They had come…
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INVASION
Forage duty. They try to tell you it’s a privilege, an honour. You’re special, a chosen one. The truth is it’s dangerous. You’re expendable and you’re exposed. Return empty-handed and you will be punished. That’s why I’m still out here as the light fails, still hunting. They only come for us at night. It’s suicide…
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ROAD TO NOWHERE
They couldn’t be it. After following the track through the forest for three days, this couldn’t be the end. The broken track hung in mid-air. The others looked at him. They were tired, hungry and desperate. And angry. It was Barnaby that challenged him. ‘What now?’ He had no answer. They had trusted him, and…
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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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WORN
Back stooped, legs bowed. Face weathered and scored with lines, each one telling a story of a long life. She has lived through a pandemic, the third Great War, the rise of the machines. Still she walks on, unbowed. Her family is long gone: her true love long ago when the disease caught him; her…
Iain Kelly 