Subterra Heart
- Reads 4,056
- Votes 713
- Parts 60
Ongoing5h 41m
Last published Sun, Apr 20, 2025
Connor is sick. Always has been, always will be. It's left him jaded and strapped for cash, but at least it's not bloodrot. He's still got his sanity. When an estranged family member offers him a lifetime supply of his meds for an itsy bitsy bit of exploring, however, Connor accepts and ventures out into the dark tunnels of Par-12. This is well outside the relative safety of the subterranean mega-city of Heart. And it's a stupid decision.
Meanwhile, Tess - his pharmacist's little sister - finds herself in a pickle. This isn't too unusual, given her knack for sticking her nose where it doesn't belong. However, it is the first time she's been plucked from her home and dumped outside of Heart.
And there are things out there in those dark, dark tunnels - things that were once people. Tess and Connor are not alone.
*Content warning: occasional strong language and somewhat graphic descriptions of a poorly handled disease.
**Special thanks to @RicBlow for the lovely cover art!
All Rights Reserved
Text-to-speech
#71
tunnel
Join the largest storytelling communityGet personalized story recommendations, save your favourites to your library, and comment and vote to grow your community.
You may also like
The Box Has Twelve Sides: Thirteen Curious Tales to Delight and Disturb
A homeless man discovers a mysterious box which transports him back to his childhood. On each side of the box, both inside and out, a new world reveals itself to him: He experiences another man's worst day of luck. An old, dying man befriends an alien creature and shares an inexplicable bond. A unique blanket helps a young woman in a time of crisis. Another man's grief of losing his dying wife is tempered by a ghostly haunting. The first manned mission to Mars reveals a personal past for one colonist. An Indian Brave concludes a ritual as a rite of passage to adulthood. The end of the world brings a woman and her ailing father together for the last time. A man has an opportunity to right one wrong from his past and realizes the true meaning of regret. Another man's senses are replaced one by one with something alien. A golfer in the aftermath of the apocalypse sets out on a quest to keep the game he loves alive. A conversation between two sides of one man's psyche reveals something in us all. A snowbound woman holds the fate of the world literally in her hands. Once all sides of the box are revealed, the homeless man discovers the promise of a new future built on memories from a past he never had. The Box Has Twelve Sides is a collection of thirteen stories all connected as visions given to a homeless man in search of his future. I will be posting each story as a chapter every few days until all are published and the book marked as complete. Please check back and pick up the next story in the overall arc.Complete
The Price of Innocence
"Some ghosts don't haunt to scare you. They haunt to remind you what you lost." Thandi's innocence echoed in every memory she shared with her sister. She's accepted the truth - her sister is gone, and nothing can change that. But everything shatters the moment she sees her again. Alive. Smiling. Real. Now caught between the sister she loves and the man she's come to care for, Thandi must make an impossible choice - one that will teach her that even innocence comes with a price. In a world of power, secrets, and ruthless ambition, every choice has consequences. Loyalties will be tested, hearts will be broken, and betrayal lurks in the most unexpected places. Survival is only the beginning; when nothing is as it seems, even the purest hearts cast the darkest shadows.Complete
THE RISKS
"You can't tell me there isn't something here worth risking everything for." [New Adult Apocalyptic Romance] Summary: There are some things that you can't outrun. That becomes all the more obvious when the world is ending, when there's nothing left but the feral creatures that were once people, consumed now by a virus that's made them cannibalistic and ravenous. It might just be easier to end it all, but Claire still has one last thing to fight for. Her younger sister. And she intends to keep her safe, no matter the cost. So, with no other options and her sister in tow, Claire ventures out into the dangers of this new, unforgiving world in search of safety, security, and answers to some long burning questions. The first two things -along with some new, unexpected questions- she finds in an unlikely place: a stranger who she's become indebted to. She has a feeling he can help her answer all her questions, if she can allow herself to fully trust him. Trust, she thinks, is a fragile thing. Humanity, a construct. Love, a weakness. But these are the thoughts of a survivor, and she's beginning to wonder if surviving is all she wants. Maybe she wants to live.
The Last She: A Sci-Fi Romance
WATTPAD BOOKS EDITION "Ara . . . I made a mistake, we all did . . . go back to the beginning . . . it's not too late." As the only female to survive the devastating virus, Ara hasn't seen another human in months-not since her father disappeared. The plague has swept away humanity, and Ara's world is desolate, haunted by the ghosts of her former life. Her mother. Her sister. Kaden and his crew live by a code: stay alert, stay alive. When they catch Ara stealing from them, they are furious-and confused. She is the first girl they have seen in three years. And while Kaden knows taking her captive is wrong, he tells himself he's doing it to protect her. But with Ara determined to follow through on her father's mission-Go back to the beginning. End the plague-Kaden becomes mesmerized by Ara's will and beauty. He knows he will do anything to help her, even if it tears their worlds apart.Complete
The Boss Is Dead
All Sarah wanted was a cry in private after her wedding was called off. Instead, she finds her co-worker rising from the bathroom stall - with an insatiable hunger for human flesh. ~~~ Sarah had locked herself in the office bathroom, sobbing after her fiancé, Mark called off the wedding. Through her tears, she heard strange groans coming from the next stall. "Ugh, someone has food poisoning," she thought. But when the stall door swung open, the slouched figure that emerged was not sick-it was dead, with lifeless eyes and decaying flesh. Sarah opened her mouth to scream just as the infected co-worker lunged at her. She was trapped, as the entire office went into lockdown due to a zombie outbreak. There would be no easy escape from the horror that was breaking out in Manhattan.Complete
Virulent
[ONC 2023 SECOND PLACE WINNER | AMBASSADORS PICK 2023] An unwilling but gifted geneticist must find a way to safeguard humanity against the deadly pathogen she's forced to design or die trying. *** The planet's population is pushing past 11 billion and counting. With resources spread thin, widespread famine, and health systems crippled everywhere, the governments of the world are running out of ideas. Then a scientist proposes a controversial solution and the classified Project Rescue is born. But when the lead scientist on the project and his entire team mysteriously die, his young microbiology prodigy is brought into the secret government agency to take over where he left off. Ezra Mayur always hoped that her brilliance in pathogen studies would land her a secure job one day. This seems like a dream come true. Full food rations and safety for her struggling family, and a job in the field she is the most interested in. But the project is not quite what Ezra expected and her moral compass is tested when she has to choose between protecting her family or the world. *** PROMPTS that will make an appearance: 12. An evil sorcerer offers you an immense amount of power--but it comes with a price. (Modified: an evil corp offers you an opportunity of a lifetime, but it comes with a price.) 5. Flip the coin and make a life choice with it. Two choices, one coin, and no turning back. Do you dare? FEATURED ON: @ScienceFiction 'Pandemic' list (Oct 2025) @ScienceFiction 'Viruses & Zombies' list (Sept 2024) @dystopianapocalypse 'Pandemic&Outbreak' list. (May '23) @fright 'AAPI: Celebration' list. (April '23) [NOTE: Trigger warning may apply. Violence and gore. This work is solely the property of Eva Acharya writing as E. A. Martin, and thus, no translation, copying, or distribution in part or whole of this story is permitted.]Complete
Steel Horizon
Four months ago, Earth was attacked by a cyborg species called Scrappers. Two months ago, the Scrappers stopped killing and started taking. None of the captured have been seen again. ** The eyes looking back at me weren't black. His hair was plastered to his head, the same as mine, and that also surprised me. Scrappers didn't sweat. They also didn't breathe heavily, as this one was doing now. He was just as frantic as I was, and his eyes were also just as fearful and wide. He was human. But his arm wasn't. ** Now, within dead cities and abandoned highways, Morgan fights to stay hidden from the Scrappers as they search for humans. She travels alone and trusts no one but herself. But when Morgan meets a boy named Jude with a metal arm, something only the Scrappers could have given him, she chooses to trust him despite her fears telling her otherwise. Not only was Jude taken by the Scrappers, but he was also the first one to survive them and now they want him back. With the Scrappers still hunting them, Morgan and Jude travel east in hopes to find more humans. As their group slowly grows, Jude hides the secret about his arm but when one of their group betrays them, he's found out. When they leave Jude behind for the Scrappers to find, Morgan surrenders herself over with him, even when it may cost her her life. As final a battle rages around them between humans and Scrappers, Jude and Morgan may be the key to ending it all.Complete
TILL DEATH DO US PART
[COMPLETED: Book two in the works] **Disclaimer: This book was written on impulse, out of the creativity of my rotting mind. Take that as you will. Will have darker themes as its setting is based in a dystopian/apocalyptic society. Readers please be at least 16+.** "Finally, I could get a look at his face as his eyes scanned over the landscape and it wasn't long before his eyes met mine. Ba-dump. I felt my heart thump in my chest. I stared openly at him. My eyes wide and full of curiosity and anticipation. He was everything that I had been searching for. I lifted my hands when I saw his grip tighten on his knife and showed that I was not going to attack him and meant no harm. But his green eyes only narrowed with skepticism and suspicion. He looked like he was ready to kill me, while it was all over for me, I was beginning to believe in the corny idea of love at first sight. I was already set on capturing his heart and becoming his partner. He was perfect." - Mila, a lone survivor, obsesses over the idea of finding love and fulfilling her childhood dream to get married before the world ends. Finally she meets the guy of her dreams, another survivor named Everett. But as they reluctantly band together they find surviving against the human rabies virus to be the least of their worries. Instead, they must face a Facility that poses as a utopia for survivors and uncover its darker secrets. Will their lives end before she can accomplish her dream to fall in love?Complete
THE FALL OF ROSENROT STATION
When a deepspace research facility goes silent the company sends Even Tennec to investigate. Here he finds an unimaginable horror. This is at its heart a story about a mystery. It is a story about survival in the face of horror. Story is a draft. There will be errors and problems. Edit: Draft is now complete. I enjoy comments so if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask. It is the year 2519 AD. Humanity has spread to the stars. Rosenrot RD104 is a red dwarf system on the outskirts of populated space. It has a single known satellite, a so called super earth, about which orbit a handful of moons and the ill-fated Rosenrot Station. Even Tennec is a company investigator, with a reputation for achieving results no matter the cost to others or himself. Even has secrets. Some secrets even the company does not know. But secrets are everyday life on Rosenrot Station.Complete
𝐑𝐞𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐈𝐧 𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐬
She was shattered, her past erased by pain, her voice stolen by trauma. He was a ruler-not just of politics but of the shadows where justice was a debt paid in blood. Ruthless to those who took justice for granted, yet never cruel to the innocent. At an early age, he learned one truth-power commands justice. Without it, you're nothing. That night, their worlds collided. He found her-battered, nameless, drowning in silence. He should've walked away. But something about her... felt familiar. A forgotten memory. A name lost in time. A connection buried beneath scars. She had no past she was willing to share. He had a childhood he never let go of. But fate doesn't ask for permission-it rewrites the story in the most ruthless ways. Some scars don't just heal... they reveal. And when the truth surfaces, will it mend what was lost or destroy them both? A story of pain, justice and an unexpected love that blooms in the darkest places.
A homeless man discovers a mysterious box which transports him back to his childhood. On each side of the box, both inside and out, a new world reveals itself to him: He experiences another man's worst day of luck. An old, dying man befriends an alien creature and shares an inexplicable bond. A unique blanket helps a young woman in a time of crisis. Another man's grief of losing his dying wife is tempered by a ghostly haunting. The first manned mission to Mars reveals a personal past for one colonist. An Indian Brave concludes a ritual as a rite of passage to adulthood. The end of the world brings a woman and her ailing father together for the last time. A man has an opportunity to right one wrong from his past and realizes the true meaning of regret. Another man's senses are replaced one by one with something alien. A golfer in the aftermath of the apocalypse sets out on a quest to keep the game he loves alive. A conversation between two sides of one man's psyche reveals something in us all. A snowbound woman holds the fate of the world literally in her hands. Once all sides of the box are revealed, the homeless man discovers the promise of a new future built on memories from a past he never had. The Box Has Twelve Sides is a collection of thirteen stories all connected as visions given to a homeless man in search of his future. I will be posting each story as a chapter every few days until all are published and the book marked as complete. Please check back and pick up the next story in the overall arc.
More detailsContent Guidelines