WebWorld

I was in the mood for an apocalyptic adventure story. This is what came of that.

Cherry
Pick of the Month

WebWorld (1.1)

Part 1: Global Warming 1. “It’s getting worse down there.” I didn’t need to walk over to the window and look down on the street to know that. I’d...
Gold cherry

WebWorld (1.2)

2. So: the apocalypse. You don’t expect to be ever actually living through it. You don’t think it happens to real people. This happens to characters...
Cherry

WebWorld (1.3)

Well, we bloody found out. And it all started out so small, so tiny. I remember walking home from work and just happening to glance down at the...
Cherry

WebWorld (1.4)

We probably shouldn’t have gone. But really, in what universe? And along with my misgivings there was that itching curiosity. What the fuck’s going...
Cherry

WebWorld (1.5)

Okay, so if I ever find out who cursed me to live in interesting times, I’m going to stick my foot so far up their butt they’re going to be able to...
Cherry

WebWorld (1.6)

Burning it didn’t work. Poisoning it didn’t work. Trying to scrape it up with bulldozers didn’t work. Washing it away with water cannons didn’t do...
Gold cherry

WebWorld (1.7)

It was a sunny morning, just a little bloody, with the promise of later rain. I looked out on a horizon that was gold mixed with a truly grisly shade...
Cherry

WebWorld (1.8)

The Battle for the Ground Through Fourth Floors. That’s what I’ve been calling it in my mind. I suppose it was something that was always on the brink...
Cherry

WebWorld (1.9)

She threaded her way through the crowd, trying not to push, but hearing my voice and hearing its desperation, which added to her own fear when she’d...
Cherry
Story of the week

WebWorld (1.10)

The air-drops came. And then the air-drops stopped coming. I used to like this apartment for its view. That view went sideways during the apocalypse...
Gold cherry

WebWorld (1.11)

Getting the hell out was well and good. But we needed a plan. And since I’d been thinking about this pretty solidly for weeks on end, I’d started to...
Cherry

WebWorld (1.12)

Okay, not night exactly. Tail-end dusk with just touches of grey and red and turquoise still soaking into the air. There’s that thing isn’t there,...
Cherry

WebWorld (1.13)

Well, I guess you know this is not the story of how I was jumped and killed – and eaten – by some gum-horror leaping out of the web. It was close...
Cherry

WebWorld (2.1)

Part 2 - The Road North 1. I’d like to say it was an uneventful drive and we got to our destination without incident. Sadly, the truth gets a lot...
Cherry

WebWorld (2.2)

We were making good time. We’d made the decision – without really making it - to avoid the main highway, to avoid going through larger towns where...
Gold cherry

WebWorld (2.3)

My home town. There’s just something about the place you grew up, isn’t there? Especially if you were born there, and spent your entire childhood...
Cherry

WebWorld (2.4)

We walked through unmitigated white. It was thick and everywhere. The town pool would be filled and bursting with it, ruptured and ruined. This ski-...
Cherry

WebWorld (2.5)

Sunset turned to night. Darkness made all the difference. We were driving through an eerie world of invisibility. A darker world than we were...
Cherry

WebWorld (2.6)

“Zara…” “Nate…” I was having some trouble getting my bearings here. We’d just crashed. The windshield was shattered, I could taste blood, and my neck...
Cherry

WebWorld (2.7)

Pitch black. There was a hollow in the hillside, just off the road, and in this spot, it was pitch black. I couldn’t see Zara, not even the outline...
Cherry

WebWorld (3.1)

Part 3: Foggerty Family 1. “I remember this table, you know.” I was sitting at it, with my fingers tracing the semi-paisley pattern, which had...
Cherry

WebWorld (3.2)

There was a tiled courtyard with plants in big ceramic pots. Hopscotch and four-square games were painted across them in multiple colours. There was...
Cherry

WebWorld (3.3)

“I’m okay,” Tamsin insisted in her quiet, implacable way. “Well, you’ve been through some shit.” “You guys haven’t?” Touché . Zara put a hand softly...
Cherry

WebWorld (3.4)

Zara was going to make a life for herself as an artist; I was going to be something of a handyman and a librarian. We based this mostly on what we...
Cherry

WebWorld (3.5)

They were Tristan and Greg. But we didn’t know that then. All we knew to begin with was that they were coming right at us, and they could be friend...
Cherry

WebWorld (3.6)

Tristan and Greg arrived for breakfast the next morning armed with crates and boxes of food. I had to give them credit for ingenuity. I had to admit...
Cherry

WebWorld (3.7)

Our family grew again three weeks later. We were just starting to settle into a pattern of sorts. Getting up in the morning and checking the traps,...
Cherry

WebWorld (3.8)

I don’t know whose idea it was for an obstacle course Olympics. It was just one of those things that kind of grew out of a throw-away comment, and...
Cherry

WebWorld (3.9)

It was the long night. The one that seems like it’s never going to end. If I thought I’d had nights like that before, this night was proving me naïve...
Cherry

WebWorld (3.10)

Stay close. Don’t split up. And we’d never meant to. Just… in the heat of the battle… We all converged on Penny. “What happened? Where was she?” “She...
Gold cherry

WebWorld (3.11)

We held a funeral on a cloudy day with a bitter taste in the air. It was two days later and we were all still in freefall. I hardly knew Dinah,...
Cherry

WebWorld (4.1)

Part 4: Supply and Demand 1. The trees were all turning summer-green. Small fruits were forming at the ends of branches. We had apples, plums, pears...
Cherry

WebWorld (4.2)

We departed at dawn. Zara stood on the main porch, her hair tied raggedly back in what I think was the sleeve of an old jersey. There was something...
Cherry

WebWorld (4.3)

Short answer: it was. Of all the places for a cake stall. But it was. It actually was. Tristan and Greg were stopping the car, and I stopped right...
Cherry

WebWorld (4.4)

“‘Any chance I could meet this Karen?’” Tristan hissed at me as we were led through a series of narrow, wood-panelled hallways. “What?” “ Meet her?...
Cherry

WebWorld (4.5)

We didn’t talk about it at first. We had things to do. It appeared that the first thing we might have to do was to stay alive. We drove in over the...
Cherry

WebWorld (4.6)

I don’t like to admit how long it took for me to gather up my wits – although in my defence I had a headache like nothing I’d ever had before, like...
Cherry

WebWorld (4.7)

When the light came back, I just wanted to swim away from it. I was having crazy visions. I was swimming in a sea of light; but then the light became...

WebWorld (4.8)

“No, no, no.” Tristan whispered. “He doesn’t have to be dead.” His face was wrapped, covered, his whole hanging body was. Tristan grabbed my knife...
Cherry

WebWorld (4.9)

Daybreak came harsh and in too much of a hurry. A white-gold sunrise dug at my shuttered eyes, until they couldn’t resist its prodding. Consciousness...
Cherry

WebWorld (4.10)

I stood in front of the mirror and ran my hands over my skin. The scaly infection had all but doubled in size over the few days since I’d had that...

WebWorld (5.1)

Part 5 - Seth Underwood 1. It was somewhat before high noon, but we were facing off against each other as if a gunfight was imminent. Barring the...
Gold cherry

WebWorld (5.2)

“He has a name,” Tristan was saying. At the same time as I was saying, “What do you mean, me?” “Nate, isn’t it?” “It is.” “We have a lot to talk...
Cherry

WebWorld (5.3)

And so began our time as prisoners. To say that it was weird feels like an understatement. And at the same time, it doesn’t. Because we did an...
Cherry

WebWorld (5.4)

As we drove out, I allowed myself to hope that there’d be nothing there, that we’d reach the commune, and find that they’d all just packed up and...
Cherry

WebWorld (5.5)

Seth and co took us down a rugged route into the bush. It wasn’t designed even for four-wheel drive vehicles, and we bounced around, jostled and...
Cherry

WebWorld (5.6)

We were under water. Or it felt as if we were something like that. We were through the looking glass, out the back end of the wardrobe, on the other...
Gold cherry

WebWorld (5.7)

Well, this isn’t the story of how I died. If it was, I wouldn’t be here to tell it. Maybe Zara would have told it from the best of what she knew, how...