The End: Visions of Apocalypse
The end: Visions of Apocalypse
So, the blog tour has finally reached us! The anthology is still doing extremely well, much better than we expected. It's available here for the entire cost of nothing.
I’m sure all the contestants would like to thank the two main contributors, Hugh Howey and Michael J. Sullivan, for helping the book reach top places in both free science fiction short stories and anthologies.
The will to live has always been something we believe to be the telling factor in the continued existence of all animals. And after all humans are still another animal. This theme led us to create a story set in the aftermath of an apocalyptic event, when survival of the fittest is the only rule that matters.
Our story might have missed the mark with some readers, because the setting wasn’t entirely original. Especially given that the audience doesn’t know the competition’s monthly theme was fire. Provided with the chance to re-write the story, we would have done things a little differently.
We loved a lot of the stories in the anthology, so it made choosing only one, quite a hard task. But in the end, the idea of supergerms eradicating most of mankind is certainly plausible, scary and perhaps only years away! Here is an excerpt from Julia’s Garden, by Michael Aaron.
***
“She disappears into the dead trees, a dash of colour in the grey.
It's a good thing she didn't check up on me. I take out the petri dishes, all of them empty except for sterile Agar nutrient. I've decided on a different test.
I open the lids and spit into them. My saliva forms a wet, bubbly island on the gel.
The sun is out and the sky is blue. I sit back and close my eyes, soaking up the warmth. For an instant I can picture children playing, mothers and fathers watching with fear and pride.
They only wanted what was best.
The super-bugs. The drug-resistant strains. The return of diseases that were supposed to have gone forever. Something had to be done.
And so we made a glorious beast to hunt for us. A killing machine forged from lipids and proteins, sold to anyone scared of death.
Don't care about infectious diseases? It's also a miracle weight-loss pill. With your gut flora dead, all that food they used to digest goes straight through. No more farts without those pesky bugs metabolising polysaccharides. Good-bye bad breath, body odour and tooth decay! They flew off the shelves.
We deserve everything we got.”
***
The imagery sparkles in this section and the flashbacks really help to connect with the character and the desperate situation she’s faced with. We also enjoy the theme of human ignorance playing a large part in our demise. We don’t want to spoil the tale, but be prepared for a bumpy ride!
Thank you very much to all the other competitors and especially to Nila. E. White for putting together the entire anthology. We had a great time and we’re looking forward to the next competition!
You can check out all the other blog entries here:
Michael
J. Sullivan, N. E.
White, Chris
Mitchell, Wilson
Geiger, Igor
Ljubuncic, Norman
Gray
Luke and Garrett
