This is the 87th in a series of 365 Flash Fiction stories I’m writing. You can find out more about the challenge here.
Applications, by Jonathan L. Lawrence, 28th February 2013
Word count: 541
The story:
Within five years the world was beyond altered. Five years. I was a teenager when we hit the Green Cliff, oceans rose, weather became devastatingly unpredictable, vast super storms that lasted months and flooded continents, and being above the water didn’t help as there were winds strong enough to break a man and carry him miles away.
The wheels of industry were smashed to smithereens, either directly or because of a lack of resources. I remember the news prophesying millions of deaths, but it was more like billions. I was painfully aware of this because I was with my dad in a government bunker, front row seats to the end of the world as we knew it.
Five years later things calmed down, we left our shelters to make a new life. Then the snow and the ice came in winters, summers were hot and dry, but as the years swung between we learned to cope.
It doesn’t matter, life goes on, but it’s a struggle. There isn’t enough to go round, there are those that choose to take from others. There are diseases the super storms dug up, and summers as affective as any genetic lab created, that if your lucky took you quick. Too many were slow debilitating diseases that robbed you of good friends inch by inch.
Britain, my home, it’s a third smaller in size, the ocean had claimed any low lands. It hardly matters, there’s still more than enough room, there aren’t many people anyway.
There aren’t many people, yet there isn’t enough food, clean drinking water, or creature comforts to go around. There’s no government now, no police. It was inevitable that those who could would take from those that couldn’t.
I made do, I have a farm now with my family, and a couple of other families. We have a community, we farm together we watch out for one another. Our farm is off the beaten track, so we don’t get bothered by outsiders much.
Unfortunately it’s not always so perfect, aside from the bad winters, and the hot summers, sometimes the raiders and looters make there way here. Until now we’ve let them have their head, stayed hidden and lived with the consequences. Staying alive, keeping my family safe is the priority.
That’s why I’ve decided to take things to the next level. I have my two daughters, one of them only months old, to think about, so I’m organising weapons and laying traps, no longer will we be victim to acts of terror. They’re still going into hiding, along with all the other families, except for my best friend in this new world who will stand with me.
I’m going to lie in wait, and I’m going to protect my family, my community, my food. Charity had no place with these bastards, they’ll take anything not hammered down. Even then they’ll make a good go of it.
It’s funny when I was in school, back before this all happened, I wanted to be in television. I wanted to be a news reporter.
Instead I’m about to kill men, who’s crime is trying to survive.
All we want is a stable life, and protection. I’ll get it, homemade explosives will make a big difference.
Aspiring 