WebWorld
I was in the mood for an apocalyptic adventure story. This is what came of that.
- 530 reads
WebWorld (1.1)
Part 1: Global Warming 1. “It’s getting worse down there.” I didn’t need to walk over to the window and look down on the street to know that. I’d...
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- 1318 reads
WebWorld (1.2)
2. So: the apocalypse. You don’t expect to be ever actually living through it. You don’t think it happens to real people. This happens to characters...
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- 1087 reads
WebWorld (1.3)
Well, we bloody found out. And it all started out so small, so tiny. I remember walking home from work and just happening to glance down at the...
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- 493 reads
WebWorld (1.4)
We probably shouldn’t have gone. But really, in what universe? And along with my misgivings there was that itching curiosity. What the fuck’s going...
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- 444 reads
WebWorld (1.5)
Okay, so if I ever find out who cursed me to live in interesting times, I’m going to stick my foot so far up their butt they’re going to be able to...
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- 246 reads
WebWorld (1.6)
Burning it didn’t work. Poisoning it didn’t work. Trying to scrape it up with bulldozers didn’t work. Washing it away with water cannons didn’t do...
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- 391 reads
WebWorld (1.7)
It was a sunny morning, just a little bloody, with the promise of later rain. I looked out on a horizon that was gold mixed with a truly grisly shade...
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- 719 reads
WebWorld (1.8)
The Battle for the Ground Through Fourth Floors. That’s what I’ve been calling it in my mind. I suppose it was something that was always on the brink...
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- 404 reads
WebWorld (1.9)
She threaded her way through the crowd, trying not to push, but hearing my voice and hearing its desperation, which added to her own fear when she’d...
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- 416 reads
WebWorld (1.10)
The air-drops came. And then the air-drops stopped coming. I used to like this apartment for its view. That view went sideways during the apocalypse...
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- 687 reads
WebWorld (1.11)
Getting the hell out was well and good. But we needed a plan. And since I’d been thinking about this pretty solidly for weeks on end, I’d started to...
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- 780 reads
WebWorld (1.12)
Okay, not night exactly. Tail-end dusk with just touches of grey and red and turquoise still soaking into the air. There’s that thing isn’t there,...
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- 285 reads
WebWorld (1.13)
Well, I guess you know this is not the story of how I was jumped and killed – and eaten – by some gum-horror leaping out of the web. It was close...
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- 254 reads
WebWorld (2.1)
Part 2 - The Road North 1. I’d like to say it was an uneventful drive and we got to our destination without incident. Sadly, the truth gets a lot...
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- 519 reads
WebWorld (2.2)
We were making good time. We’d made the decision – without really making it - to avoid the main highway, to avoid going through larger towns where...
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- 277 reads
WebWorld (2.3)
My home town. There’s just something about the place you grew up, isn’t there? Especially if you were born there, and spent your entire childhood...
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- 799 reads
WebWorld (2.4)
We walked through unmitigated white. It was thick and everywhere. The town pool would be filled and bursting with it, ruptured and ruined. This ski-...
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- 648 reads
WebWorld (2.5)
Sunset turned to night. Darkness made all the difference. We were driving through an eerie world of invisibility. A darker world than we were...
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- 208 reads
WebWorld (2.6)
“Zara…” “Nate…” I was having some trouble getting my bearings here. We’d just crashed. The windshield was shattered, I could taste blood, and my neck...
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- 222 reads
WebWorld (2.7)
Pitch black. There was a hollow in the hillside, just off the road, and in this spot, it was pitch black. I couldn’t see Zara, not even the outline...
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- 205 reads
WebWorld (3.1)
Part 3: Foggerty Family 1. “I remember this table, you know.” I was sitting at it, with my fingers tracing the semi-paisley pattern, which had...
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- 361 reads
WebWorld (3.2)
There was a tiled courtyard with plants in big ceramic pots. Hopscotch and four-square games were painted across them in multiple colours. There was...
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- 773 reads
WebWorld (3.3)
“I’m okay,” Tamsin insisted in her quiet, implacable way. “Well, you’ve been through some shit.” “You guys haven’t?” Touché . Zara put a hand softly...
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- 337 reads
WebWorld (3.4)
Zara was going to make a life for herself as an artist; I was going to be something of a handyman and a librarian. We based this mostly on what we...
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- 234 reads
WebWorld (3.5)
They were Tristan and Greg. But we didn’t know that then. All we knew to begin with was that they were coming right at us, and they could be friend...
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- 206 reads
WebWorld (3.6)
Tristan and Greg arrived for breakfast the next morning armed with crates and boxes of food. I had to give them credit for ingenuity. I had to admit...
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- 214 reads
WebWorld (3.7)
Our family grew again three weeks later. We were just starting to settle into a pattern of sorts. Getting up in the morning and checking the traps,...
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- 229 reads
WebWorld (3.8)
I don’t know whose idea it was for an obstacle course Olympics. It was just one of those things that kind of grew out of a throw-away comment, and...
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- 219 reads
WebWorld (3.9)
It was the long night. The one that seems like it’s never going to end. If I thought I’d had nights like that before, this night was proving me naïve...
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- 226 reads
WebWorld (3.10)
Stay close. Don’t split up. And we’d never meant to. Just… in the heat of the battle… We all converged on Penny. “What happened? Where was she?” “She...
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- 204 reads
WebWorld (3.11)
We held a funeral on a cloudy day with a bitter taste in the air. It was two days later and we were all still in freefall. I hardly knew Dinah,...
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- 802 reads
WebWorld (4.1)
Part 4: Supply and Demand 1. The trees were all turning summer-green. Small fruits were forming at the ends of branches. We had apples, plums, pears...
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- 239 reads
WebWorld (4.2)
We departed at dawn. Zara stood on the main porch, her hair tied raggedly back in what I think was the sleeve of an old jersey. There was something...
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- 258 reads
WebWorld (4.3)
Short answer: it was. Of all the places for a cake stall. But it was. It actually was. Tristan and Greg were stopping the car, and I stopped right...
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- 285 reads
WebWorld (4.4)
“‘Any chance I could meet this Karen?’” Tristan hissed at me as we were led through a series of narrow, wood-panelled hallways. “What?” “ Meet her?...
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- 435 reads
WebWorld (4.5)
We didn’t talk about it at first. We had things to do. It appeared that the first thing we might have to do was to stay alive. We drove in over the...
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- 245 reads
WebWorld (4.6)
I don’t like to admit how long it took for me to gather up my wits – although in my defence I had a headache like nothing I’d ever had before, like...
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- 261 reads
WebWorld (4.7)
When the light came back, I just wanted to swim away from it. I was having crazy visions. I was swimming in a sea of light; but then the light became...
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- 252 reads
WebWorld (4.8)
“No, no, no.” Tristan whispered. “He doesn’t have to be dead.” His face was wrapped, covered, his whole hanging body was. Tristan grabbed my knife...
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- 204 reads
WebWorld (4.9)
Daybreak came harsh and in too much of a hurry. A white-gold sunrise dug at my shuttered eyes, until they couldn’t resist its prodding. Consciousness...
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- 242 reads
WebWorld (4.10)
I stood in front of the mirror and ran my hands over my skin. The scaly infection had all but doubled in size over the few days since I’d had that...
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- 217 reads
WebWorld (5.1)
Part 5 - Seth Underwood 1. It was somewhat before high noon, but we were facing off against each other as if a gunfight was imminent. Barring the...
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- 221 reads
WebWorld (5.2)
“He has a name,” Tristan was saying. At the same time as I was saying, “What do you mean, me?” “Nate, isn’t it?” “It is.” “We have a lot to talk...
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- 551 reads
WebWorld (5.3)
And so began our time as prisoners. To say that it was weird feels like an understatement. And at the same time, it doesn’t. Because we did an...
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- 210 reads
WebWorld (5.4)
As we drove out, I allowed myself to hope that there’d be nothing there, that we’d reach the commune, and find that they’d all just packed up and...
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- 229 reads
WebWorld (5.5)
Seth and co took us down a rugged route into the bush. It wasn’t designed even for four-wheel drive vehicles, and we bounced around, jostled and...
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- 237 reads
WebWorld (5.6)
We were under water. Or it felt as if we were something like that. We were through the looking glass, out the back end of the wardrobe, on the other...
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- 217 reads
WebWorld (5.7)
Well, this isn’t the story of how I died. If it was, I wouldn’t be here to tell it. Maybe Zara would have told it from the best of what she knew, how...
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- 679 reads