Defying Doomsday: Stories of Fear, Hope and Survival

by Tsana Dolichva

People with disability already live in a post-apocalyptic world. Stairs remain at stubborn right angles. Communications can wash over us, unheard, unseen. Some social interactions elude—a millimetre away, a mile away. Impairment and chronic illness can make negotiating the everyday world that little bit more difficult. So much of our world is a not-made-for-us space that disaster may as well have already struck. And that’s exactly what makes the stories in this anthology so crunchy and interesting—we are already fighting and thriving in interesting and diverse ways. When the apocalypse comes, we’ve got a head start.

“Look, we can’t help—if they—everybody should receive the same treatment.” “Except it’s not the same if it hurts some but not others, is it?

“Equality means that … even if we’re not the same, we get the same chances. “But here’s the thing. People like me, or like those in the med bay—I’m not confident about our survival chances. I know you aren’t, either.” I shifted my weight. “You can’t promise us we’ll live. I get that. But you can promise us that, if we don’t survive, it’s not ‘cause you didn’t give us an equal chance. It’s not ‘cause you sped it along.”