August Short Story Collection

apocalypse

August 18, 2019

The four teenagers sat around the dining room table, eating pizza. They had been friends since the third grade when they had all been added to the same reading group. Now at sixteen, they all continued their little reading group.

There was Jan, Cassidy, Dylan, and Timothy. All were fairly different people, based on stereotypes you wouldn't think to put them together.

Jan was the scholar, she focused on her grade most of the time and was determined to get into the best college she could.

Cassidy joined the cheerleading team and had fallen in love with science, specifically biology.

Dylan was on the football and basketball team which took up the majority of his team, but he still enjoyed sitting down with a good book when he had the chance.

Timothy had joined the robotics team but had quickly discovered this it was not for him, he now spent his time working on photography.

"Okay, but post-apocalyptic stories just need to stop," Jan said right before taking a large bite of her veggie pizza.

"Yeah, I agree, it's kind of an exhausted genre at this point." Timothy agreed.

"But they were so good!" Cassidy exclaimed.

"I mean, some were, but not all. Remember The Maze Runner?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right. That movie could've been so much better."

They talked a bit about their favorite post-apocalyptic movies and books. The more they talked about each story they began to wonder about which post-apocalyptic world they would like to live in.

"So how 'bout it?" Dylan asks, "What apocalypse would you like to endure?"

They thought for a moment before Cassidy spoke first.

"Slightly controversial, but probably The Hunger Games."

"Why in the world would you choose The Hunger Games?" Jan asks.

"Well, yeah it would kinda suck if you were chosen if you were in the Capital though life would be pretty sweet."

"What if you were in one of the districts? Say district 12?" Dylan asks.

"Hmmm, it would probably suck. But I probably wouldn't get chosen, right? And I could live a simple life." At this point, it sounded like Cassidy was mostly trying to convince herself.

"I'd love to be in a Mad Max apocalypse. Not forever, just for a bit." Timothy says, "I want to build my own car and drive across the desert. And have a cool face mask."

"I have a tiger face mask upstairs in my bathroom if you want a cool face mask." Jan teased Timothy.

"You know what I mean!"

"I'd love to test my skills in a post-EMP apocalypse," Dylan says.

"A what?"

"You know, an EMP. I can't remember what it stands for but it sends out an electromagnetic something, oh yeah that's right, an electromagnetic pulse and it kills everything that uses batteries and stuff. So if you were in the city there would be no lights, no power, most cars wouldn't work, and eventually, everyone would run out of water."

"And why do you want to live in a world like that?" Timothy asks.

"As you said, I wouldn't really want to live their per-say, but I'd love to test my survival skills."

"What about you Jan?"

"Hmmm, I think I'd have to go with Divergent. Given that I wasn't a divergent I think that I could live pretty well in one of their factions. As long as we're talking before everything that happens in the series."

The teens continued to talk while finishing their pizza about the possibilities each apocalypse left them. Each was dreary, but they seemed to be able to find something good about each world. 

Word count: 623