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Weekend Writing Warrior 7/15/18 #8Sunday

After All coverIt’s been almost a year since I’ve participated in WWW!

This week’s excerpt is from one of my end-of-the-world stories, “Special,” that’ll be included in an upcoming collection.

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Growing up, Niko didn’t do anything special. He played with the other children in the caverns into which we’d moved to shield us from the airstrikes. He matched their outlandish stories about their dead fathers’ exploits with ones about our own father, trumping them by including the adventures of his namesake, even though no one had heard of him.

One day, when we were about eight and Niko was running screaming with the others playing king of the hill, he pulled out the boldest story of all: “I have grass growing under my bed.”

Szymon paused from shoving him off our dirt pile hill. “No one has grass growing anywhere.”

We’d read about grass and about other plants, and once we’d even toured the hydroponics labs the soldiers maintained. But no one actually had plants of their own. How would they grow in the caverns, without sunlight?

* * * * * * *

Read the rest of “Special” over at Medium, then post a link to your eight-ten sentence blog entry, or join the fun at the Weekend Writing Warriors website.

About After All:

Nuclear war. Plague. Asteroids. Financial collapse.
Dystopian governments determined to exterminate anyone different.

Through it all, humanity struggles on.

And if you’re a writer, sign up to be a Friday Five author, which gets you and your latest work featured on my blog.

14 Comments

  1. How intriguing! I do wonder if he’s telling the truth about the grass. :-)

    1. He’s a narcissistic 8-year-old trying to impress his peers. So…no. :)

  2. Interesting! I’m going to guess he is telling the truth.

    1. He’s not, but that doesn’t stop him from having a plan to make them think he’s telling the truth!

  3. Welcome back! Excellent excerpt – I’m always fascinated by post apocalyptic tales. I too wonder if the grass could possibly be real!

    1. My son is interested in various apocalypses, and so he’s gotten me hooked on them too. There are so many possibilities!

  4. This passage characterizes Niko (boasting about the impossible) and establishes the setting (grass being the impossible thing). Nicely and efficiently done!

  5. Welcome back. Fascinating snippet.

    1. Thanks for stopping by!

  6. Welcome back! Great snippet and I love it!

  7. I admire the kid’s moxie, but it’s a bad idea to lie about something easily checked. And if he isn’t lying, color me intrigued!

    1. It’s definitely checkable, and he has a plan to prove it to his friends.

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