My first story I'm posting is one I did as an exercise in class to pick two stories (or poems, or combination), and write my own story with the same themes or style. The two pieces I picked were The Day the Saucers Came by Neil Gaiman, and The Last Night of the World by Ray Bradbury.
Enjoy! Or don't. Both are valid options.
Alone
in the Dark at the End of the World
“Do
you think the bombs dropped yet?” he asked through the darkness.
“Probably,”
she answered. “That might be the reason the lights went out.”
They
were quiet for a while. She gathered her legs up to her chest and
leaned against what she assumed was the refrigerator. Despite the
lack of light in the shelter, she could pick out where he was from
his breathing. After a minute, or maybe an hour, she couldn't stand
the silence. “Are you awake?” she asked.
“Yeah,”
came his answer.
She
scratched her cheek. “What's your name?”
“Um...it's
Will.” She could hear him readjusting. “What's yours?”
“Heather.”
“Oh!
I thought you looked familiar. Were you in Struber's bio class? There
was a Heather who sat two rows in front of me.” She was not that
Heather and told him so. His next words seemed to deflate a bit at
the revelation. “I guess it's a pretty big campus.”
“Was,”
she corrected. The radio had died a few minutes before the clock
went, and the clock went just before the lights flickered out, but
the last word they had heard was that the missiles had been launched.
Then the darkness had come.
He
cleared his throat. “So...what are you looking forward to most
about the end of the world?”
“Free
tampons,” she declared with no hesitation. “You?”
He
had laughed at her answer and needed to be asked again. “I don't
know. No lines, maybe. And stores will always be open now, right?”
“Yeah.”
The
silence settled in again. This time he
broke it by asking if she was awake, and when she said that she was,
he said, “Cool.” He took a deep breath and asked the question she
had been thinking about asking. “Do you think anyone else could
have survived?”
“I
don't know,” she said, shrugging to herself. “Could be it's just
you and me left.”
“If
that's true, would you want to repopulate the Earth?”
She
thought about it. “Probably not. I don't think we deserve
to. I think we were supposed to die out and you and I were a fluke.”
“So
sex is off the table, I guess?” He asked it with a chuckle that was
meant to say he was joking.
“I
didn't say that. Condoms'll be free too.”
They
both laughed, him first, and her joining in when his laughter proved
too infectious. It died down and she did not know what to say next.
“Did
you...have a boyfriend? Before?” She did, but it didn't matter
anymore. It had actually been her boyfriend who put her in the
little-known panic room behind the kitchen while he went off to find
some of their friends. He never came back.
She
told him that she didn't. “Cool,” he said again. She could hear
the smile in his voice.
“Yeah.”
“Do
you want to see what's happening outside?” he suggested.
“I
guess. But I can't even find the door.” His outline began to move toward her, crawling, and as he came closer his features became more distinguished. She could see the sharp angles of his cheeks, the tousled yellow hair, and the grin across his face. He reached out and touched her forehead.
“There,” he said. “I found you. That's the hardest part out of the way.”
“There,” he said. “I found you. That's the hardest part out of the way.”
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