Tag: Character Stories

Microfiction – Family

“Let’s go, Carl. They should have been here by now.”

“I know, but I promised TJ we’d look after ’em.”

“Jim and Mike are old enough to take care of themselves, now let’s go, the rest of the boys are getting restless and could give two shits about them. Truthfully, we were all tired of hearing their bullshit. You sending them over Beech Mountain to hunt was a blessing to our ears.”

“Maybe so, but TJ is going to be none too happy if I show up without his brothers.”

“Listen, I know your families go way back, but times are different. And we’ve been helping them out for a while now with little in return. That bunker of theirs is the only reason they’ve made it this long. And their dad built that. They’re all a bunch of freeloaders, if you ask me—drained their poor dad down to nothing before he died. We should have killed them all and took their food right after Yellowstone blew.”

“Family is Family up here, you know that. We”d all be dead if we hadn’t been watching out for one another. Look at the Hedrick brothers over there; they saved your ass last summer. Earl, Larry, hell, all of us have stepped up when needed, and the Jones boys will too.”

This piece of microfiction is a character story from my apocalyptic novella Every Yard Is A Grave. Character stories are small glimpses into a character’s life before, during, and after the book.

Microfiction – Looters

“Lisa! Get our bug-out-bags; we have to leave. I’m going to run the livestock into the woods; meet me there.”

It’s been a year and a half since the eruptions, and the volcanic winter that ensued has turned the world gray leaving survivors to fend for themselves.

At the gate, Lisa found her husband shooing the last of their chickens into the woods, hoping the thieves would not get them all. “Let’s go,” she said, “I don’t want to reach Maidie’s after dark.”

And with that, Jeff and Lisa Wilson left everything behind to seek shelter on the other side of the mountain. Would anything be left upon their return?

“Too many to fight.”
“I know, replied Jeff as he watched looters kick in their front door. Five years earlier, he had carried her across the threshold, and it was all he could do to keep from killing the man in his crosshairs.

This piece of microfiction is a character story from my apocalyptic novella Every Yard Is A Grave. Character stories are small glimpses into a character’s life before, during, and after the book.

Microfiction – Cold Red Sky

Roy Snyder had a decision to make; resign and focus on family or remain Sheriff of the highest town this side of the Mississippi. What’s left of it anyway. Beech Mountain’s survivors were few, and he only saw them occasionally.

“There’s nothing left to protect,” he raged, turning over a file cabinet in the process.

His world was dying under the cold red skies of a volcanic winter. The awards hanging on the wall meant nothing to him now; he went home.

This piece of microfiction is a character story from my apocalyptic novella Every Yard Is A Grave. Character stories are small glimpses into a character’s life before, during, and after the book.

Microfiction – The Woman

Lying in bed, Tyler tries to sleep, but the woman won’t let him. Standing in the doorway, naked, her skin white from the acid thrown on her. She tries to talk, but painful sounds are all he hears—a haunting memory. The alarm rings again, “Engine 15, infant choking, 225 Kilborne Drive.”

This piece of microfiction is a character story from my apocalyptic novella Every Yard Is A Grave. Character stories are small glimpses into a character’s life before, during, and after the book.

Microfiction – Resin

Lilly was wet and needed to warm herself. Breaking off a dead pine tree limb, she ran to an overhang and used her striker to light the wood’s resin. “Thank you, Daddy, for teaching me how to survive,” she whispered as she fell asleep by the fire.

This piece of microfiction is a character story from my apocalyptic novella Every Yard Is A Grave. Character stories are small glimpses into a character’s life before, during, and after the book.