Its Not A Normal Day

It’s not a normal day

Jamie awakes to the snarls of the approaching zombies. From a distance, he can tell they’re in the hallway of his floor.

“The alarm is blaring. I am late for work,” he tells himself, stuttering each syllable. He hastily slips into his pants, fumbling with the zipper.

“OW!” His zipper has caught the dong.

"Get out of here. They heard you." Jamie mutters.

In a strident bang the door of his apartment slams onto the ground, as zombies swarm the room gnashing their teeth.  

He grabs his Bug-Out bag, throws the window open.

The zombies face the creak of the window hinge. Then they scramble over, knocking furniture over.

“I need to get my car.” He hops out of the window. Just as the zombies throw themselves at him.

Jamie grasps a pipe. Watching the zombies toss themselves three stories below. “There is no gasoline in the cars anymore.”

Jamie swings his free hand onto another pipe. He climbs to the roof. He looks down to see zombies climbing after him. He kicks one in the face. Another snaps at his ankles. Jamie hoists himself over the anti-suicide railing.

As his blood races, he tells himself. “I am in a mad rush in traffic. It is a Monday.”

Jamie dashes towards the ledge of the roof and leaps. He lands and rolls. He gets onto his feet and continues sprinting. The zombies are a few yards behind him.

“My boss is angry,” Jamie huffs.

Jamie leaps onto another rooftop. He slides down a house’s roof and pounces onto another. He looks behind him, panting and inhaling the smokey air. Watching the zombies following his exact movements.

“Shit, they are learning how to chase.”

He continues his flight. It’s been half a year since the Covid-19 mysteriously mutated into the zombie virus.

Jamie has spent six-months burrowing in his apartment as chaos erupted around the world.

Jamie leaps over an alley. Then he plummets. He clings onto the side of the roof as the zombies bare their black teeth behind him. Jamie’s heart pounds in his chest as the zombies disappear from view. He looks upwards.

A zombie roars into his face. Jamie slips. “I am at my office talking about cat videos with that hot accountant chick.” He assures himself with his delusion as he falls.

Thump! He lands in a pile of ancient rubbish. Roaches crawl onto him. Jamie shrieks as the zombie falls towards him. A loud gunshot shakes him to his core. The corpse of the zombie, missing half of its head,  flops onto him.

He blinks, hoping everything is a nightmare and he is living out his normal life. A gloved hand reaches out to him.  Jamie clutches it, feeling the first human warmth he has felt in months. He climbs out of the stinking bin. Two people covered with blood-stained scarves, with heavy hoods obscuring their faces, stare at him.

“We are the marauders. Welcome to the gang.”

“Um… I am late to work.” He stutters in awe, looking at the first people he has seen in a long while.

People laugh. He stares down at his feet.

The person on the left says. “There is no job to go back to.” He has the gruff voice of a middle-aged man.

The other person, a girl, says in a softer tone, “Should we take him back to base?”

“No, this guy doesn’t even know where he is. We can’t add crazies into our ranks.”

“I know. I am just coping,” Jamie affirms.

Jamie thinks, “It’s about time I let go of the delusion. Things will get to normal.”

The girl cheers, “C’mon let’s get going.”

Jamie smiles as he follows them into the desolate city, one foot behind finally not alone.

Lulz, I guess I am guilty of that.

Attention all writers

Don’t. Delete. Your work. Don’t throw it away, burn your paper notes and scribbles, character doodles and failed verses. Keep a record of everything you do, every trip and every hilariously bad piece of work. Because often its hard to see the quality of your own work up close. In a few years, you’ll be rummaging around trying to find a different paper, and you’ll find some scrumpled draft scene from a book you started writing but gave up on. And you’ll read through it, and there’ll be lines that /sing/. You won’t recognise your work for the first few lines, and you’ll be thrown out of the writers chair and into the audience for the first time, and you’ll be able to have the magical experience of hearing your own words and not knowing how the sentence ends. And yeah, sometimes it’ll be laughably bad, but then you can see how far you’ve come. And when its not bad, its usually really, really good. Keep your notes. Keep copies of your drafts and keep your old notebooks. You are your own best inspiration.

Maybe I should post something.

A Collection of horrors

Hi all! Today I’m excited to present the May/August event here at alexprompts, which is…

A Collection of Horrors will be a collection of short stories and images in the horror genre.

I’m hoping to turn it into a PDF which is free and accessible, along with using the usual masterpost format I previously have used on this blog. This will be uploaded sometime in September or October depending on how the formatting goes. Any name you would like attached will be included, along with your tumblr username at the time of upload.

How to get involved

To get involved in this collection of stories, all you need to do is create your story or image following these guidelines and be following @alexprompts​. Please also reblog this to help spread interest! 

Make sure to also tag @alexprompts​ in the piece so I get notified about your work, and to include #alexpromptsacollectionofhorrors in the tags.

Works can be uploaded from the 1st of May. You can upload multiple submissions, however depending on the amount of participation only one may be included. Please label the one you want included as such.

Please also include any name you would like to be credited as.

STORIES

The guidelines for stories are as follows:

the piece needs to be between 500 and 3500 words. Please include a word count in your post somewhere

anything particularly graphic or triggering needs to be tagged appropriately as such with relevant warnings

an image can also be included that you associate with your story, however it needs to be an original one (created by yourself).

IMAGES

The guidelines for images are as follows:

any submitted image needs to be original

all forms of art are welcome

if an image is particularly graphic or contains images that may be triggering to some, please tag appropriately with the relevant warnings

Taglist Information:

The Collection of Horrors taglist is open for those who are interested! If you are, please send a message, ask or reply to be added.

Below the cut is the current alexprompts taglists. This is the only circumstance under which you will be tagged in this, including in reminders and the final collection post unless you ask otherwise or are on the permanent taglist. 

Keep reading

Update on my previous post “It’s real shit”

Luckily, I don’t have Covid-19. In fact I am still healthy, and alive even. I am starting a novel called Void. Its about a boy who suddenly found himself in a shape shifting hellscape and he has to play 7 games representing the seven deadly sins to escape.

I am using the lock down to my advantage to write it. :)

Image source: https://chrisdevoss.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/since-hollywood-is-out-of-ideas-some-suggestions/

I kinda want to continue this prompt.

“That’s my cat,” the hero said.

“No. It’s mine,” the villain retorted, eyes narrowed. 

“…It’s a stray.”

“I feed it!” 

“I feed it too! Oh, what now?” the villain waved their weapon around in frustration, “Are you gonna tell me that you have a name for it?” 

“…Yes.”

“Well, screw you, I have a name for it too.” 

TIME TO DO EVERYTHING OPPOSITE OF THIS LIST!!!!

because i’m a little salty

i sometimes worry about certain types of writing advice i see on the twitter sphere in terms of neglecting your physical health. maybe this was just a few one-offs or whatever but i’m usually going, “hmm, are you five or are you thirty?”

so that said:

Please use the restroom when you need to. Don’t wait until you’ve reached whatever wordcount you’ve set for yourself. This is how you get UTIs and other bladder infections, and if you’re in the US, that can be expensive to treat. (Also, UTIs suck. Speaking from experience).

While coffee is a quick energy giver, you will crash. And it will suck. Too much can cause the shakes. It’s okay to consume coffee if you like it! But try to go for an alternative healthy route if at all possible. If you like tea, drink tea. But be sure to drink water!

That said, take breaks when necessary and EAT!! Make a small snack or make lunch or dinner or start meal prepping. It’s okay to step away and do something else. Writing isn’t a be all, end all sort of situation. You will get stuck if your brain isn’t being given sustenance.

Experiencing wrist/hand pain is a very good sign to stop. Either for the day, or for awhile. Do some stretches, go outside if you can.

“I write for days on end, barely any sleep” isn’t healthy. Your brain needs to rest. Your eyes need to rest. This is a surefire way to get yourself very sick, very easily. (I speak from experience, but I don’t have the best immune system. If someone is sick, I tend to pick up whatever they have after a day or two so. I mean, this is dependant on the person).

TAKE BREAKS. ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU GET TIRED!

Anything that promotes neglecting your needs is advice to be ignored.  Idfc if they have “New York Times #1 Seller” in their profile, if they’re suggesting you neglect your physical needs for hours, ignore them. 

This is supposed to be fun.

This is supposed to be fun.

It’s okay if you don’t write for a few days, it’s okay if you don’t finish a novel in a month. Seriously, take your time. This is not a race. Yes, you might want to finish the rest of your story within a couple of days, but don’t push yourself until you burn out. You’ll likely just hate yourself in the end.

tl;dr: i’m a grumpy old person who hates seeing advice that promotes unhealthy activities, whether in jest or in seriousness. there is someone out there who will take it seriously. when you’re writing, just take care of yourself.

(even take this with a grain of salt lmao)