Prompt Me

What a Waste(land)

What a Waste(land) (Writer's Digest)

Song: Crown The Empire - Prisoners Of War

POST-APOCALYPTIC WASTELAND: It's 50 years in the future, and the world is at war. Luckily, when the nuclear bombs dropped, you had a bomb shelter under your house to hide out in. When your monitors tell you it's safe to go outside a year later, what do you find? Who is still alive? Have the plants and animals been affected by the radiation? What will you do now that the world has totally changed?

The year was 2066 and the world was finally coming to an end - in my opinion anyway. You see, World War 3 broke out four years ago and had yet to come to an end, and I was starting to think it never would. Not until every last living thing on the planet was dead. Unfortunately, I had a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that was telling me the ending result wasn't far from coming true.

About two years ago, the military started creating and stocking up on nuclear bombs. Of course, they were trying to keep that all hush hush, but I had seen them for myself and knew what was about to happen. This, in turn, gave me the idea to build my own bomb shelter underneath my house so I would be prepared when the shit finally hit the fan.

Naturally, this took me quite some time to do - even with the help of my three best friends - and the entire time I was hoping and praying to whatever deity who might be listening that I was able to complete and stock it before disaster struck. Thankfully, the universe took pity on me and let just that happen. About a week after everything was done and I had stocked my little shelter with everything I could possibly ever need - and mass quantities of it at that (you don't want to know how many strange looks I got while shopping) - the bombs finally dropped.

I shot upright in bed as the alarms throughout my house started blaring away and immediately bolted to the nearest window.

"Oh, shit," I muttered to myself as I watched the bombs fall from the sky.

I stumbled over to my nightstand and turned the lamp on as I one-handedly fumbled around for my cellphone.

"Hello?" My best friend, Meagan, whispered hoarsely upon answering my call.

"Get your ass over here now!" I said urgently. "The bombs are finally falling!"

She groaned. "Not this again, Glen. We were all hoping you'd finally stop raving after we helped you build that damn shelter."

"No, seriously. Look out your window!"

There was the sound of shuffling before a whispered. "Oh, fuck." And the line went dead.

I hung up and immediately dialed my friend, Derek, as I awkwardly danced into my jeans.

"What?" He spat in annoyance.

"Look out your window!" I said and hung up.

The same thing followed with my third best friend, Riley.

Thankfully, the three of them made it to my house just in time and we all shuffled down the stairs and into my shelter below the basement. The door had just been sealed tight when the sound of the first explosion rang out through the room, sounding like it had hit my house just above our heads.

"What is going on, Glen? We all thought you were just crazy when you went on and on about building this thing!" Meagan said hysterically.

I sighed and sagged wearily against the door. "I saw them making the bombs about a year ago. I figured it was only a matter of time before all the countries started nuking each other and thought it best I be prepared when that finally happened."