The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Ashen Catastophe   
by Kathleen McCluskey 

In the heart of the desolate wilderness, where the trees stood like silent sentinels amidst a landscape of white ash, figures huddled within the dilapidated remains of a rundown cabin. Memories of the cataclysmic event that had shattered the world haunted their every waking moment. The memories danced like specters in the shadows of their minds.

As the wind whispered its mournful secrets through the remaining fir trees, the survivor’s thoughts drifted back to the day the nuclear facility collapsed. The blinding flash of light, the deafening roar of destruction and the suffocating cloud of ash that enveloped everything in its path. They remember the frantic scramble for safety, the desperate flight through a landscape torn asunder by chaos and devastation. The unmistakable stench of burning human flesh wafting through the air. All were grim reminders of the monstrous transformation inflicted by the nuclear fallout.

Now, alone in their sanctuary, the survivor’s fragile grip on sanity began to slip. His fellow survivors either fell victim to the radiation or to the monstrous creatures that lurked in the forest. Every creak of the cabin’s timbers, every rustling of leaves outside and the howling wind, sent shivers of dread down his spine. Beyond his fragile refuge lurked the mutated creatures that roamed the wasteland. Their grotesque forms twisted by the ravages of radiation.

As night descended like a shroud over the desolate landscape, the survivor huddled closer to the feeble warmth of their flickering fire. He sat and listened to the eerie symphony of the forest. In the darkness, unseen eyes watched and waited, hungering for the taste of human flesh. Twisted by radiation’s touch, the mutated creatures prowled the forest with a sickening grace. Their once recognizable forms contorted into nightmarish beings. Eyes glowed with an unnatural gleam amidst jagged claws and misshapen limbs. Their guttural growls echoed through the desolation like a song of despair and suffering.

The survivor knew that he was trapped in a world of perpetual darkness and dread, with no escape from the horrors that lurked beyond in the dusty thicket of trees. In the silence of the forest, amidst the whispering winds and the mournful cries of the mutated creature, he resigned himself to a life of solitude. An existence that was defined by the relentless march of time and the ever present specter of fear.

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Fiction © Copyright Kathleen McCluskey
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com 

More from Kathleen McCluskey:

The Long Fall: Book 1: The Inception of Horror

Lucifer always cunning and intelligent challenges father to a battle of wits. Being the angel of light he casts a judgemental eye upon mankind. He begins a war with his fellow archangels and God. Michael, along with his siblings defend their home and mankind from their deranged brother. Broad swords and hand to hand combat drench heaven in blood. The four apocalyptic steeds are released, each having their own destructive power. Betrayal and lust are at biblical levels. Understand the very creation of evil and the consequenses that transpire in the first of THE LONG FALL series.

Available on Amazon!