WebWorld
I was in the mood for an apocalyptic adventure story. This is what came of that.
- 474 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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- 1257 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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- 1024 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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- 438 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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- 396 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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- 232 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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- 344 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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- 689 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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- 360 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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- 373 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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- 648 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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- 722 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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- 266 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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- 214 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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- 482 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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- 264 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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- 771 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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- 594 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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- 191 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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- 200 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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- 189 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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- 336 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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- 649 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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- 293 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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- 220 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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- 185 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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- 198 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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- 216 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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- 206 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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- 197 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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- 192 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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- 767 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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- 224 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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- 242 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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- 260 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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- 371 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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- 224 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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- 245 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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- 233 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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- 186 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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- 219 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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- 204 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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- 201 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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- 512 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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- 191 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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- 210 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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- 216 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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- 195 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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- 634 reads