The competitors:

• BoredCrow
• Pyre Destiny
• Wolfe_boy
• Vanderbleek
• KayTi
• halogen
• darklight
• dee_boncci
• wrenbird
• tigertinite
• TaleSpinner
• meg.stout
• Mauvemuse
• Yours Truly
  

Let the games begin!

quote:

---

Paradise Sanitation's sacks are assembled out of recycled nylon. Stitched up the backbone are three thick rubber belts with auto-locking buckles. These bags will hold a three hundred pound corpse ripe in the suffering of rot without splitting.

I was glad to be distanced from the days when we hauled the dead in bedsheets and plastic bags. I remember when the transports overflowed with a chopped salsa of bodies and garbage.

"Johnny, I've made fifteen burritos, what's your status? Over." Diego's voice came over the radio wrapped in a thick layer of white noise.

"Seven. I've got some barricades on ten and need assistance. Over." I reply.

---

There was a strange old man sittin' on a box on my way back from the bazaar with a crowd gathered around him. I always liked stories and the old people usually had some good ones, sometimes even left over from before the fall. He was startin' and I wormed my way closer so I could hear him, the stuff I'd traded for clinkin' in my backpack. Sounded like he was recitin' some kind of poem.

“Listen here come one come all,
As I relate how came the fall,
Brought on by people in a fix,
And a shortage of Taco mix.

As Father and I trekked across the snowy wastes, he was as grim and silent as a fresh snowfall. I shivered and pulled my bearskin cloak tight against the harsh wind. I was tired. Tired of moving constantly, of not having a real home; tired of living with father’s constant paranoid fear that something was hunting us. But Father seemed indefatigable. His composite walking staff rose and fell in a steady rhythm as we trudged into the winding pass that led down into the massive canyon—a remnant of the Great War—on the only path to Crater Town.

It was times like this that I wondered how Mother had ever had time to give birth. But I could never ask Father that. My birth was the death of her, and sometimes it seemed like he blamed me for it.

Edited to change taught to tight. Thanks Corky.

quote:

---

pulled my bearskin cloak taught

---

Doctor Laura Laporte pedalled her bike towards Laughton, enjoying the morning colours of the town's slate greys against yellow hills of rapeseed and green hedgerows.
The University's clock tower rose high above the landscape. It always seemed to Laura like a beacon of learning -- and today, she wished Laughton's new Mayor respected learning. But, pandering to his Creationist voters, he planned to ban research based on the theory of evolution. 'He wants to stop my work,' she said to herself.
Arriving at the University, she strode straight into the office of the Professor of Biology, Dave Dean.
'Mayor Charles Craven's an idiot,' she said.
'Craven? Yes. We've got to stop him.' Dave was sitting

Rabbit Stew

They say it wasn’t my fault, but I don’t believe that. It’s always my fault, according to those that know me. It might have been the fact that I didn’t mend the garage roof, or it might have been the hot water tank. I should have gotten it fixed sooner, I’d had plenty of opportunity, but that’s me. Why do today what I could next week. Only next week never arrives; it’s always today.

Then again, this may turn into a novel - I found I had a lot of avenues I didn't have time to adequately explore.

Here are my first 13, titled, inventively enough, Apocalyptic Taco Mix:

"Sis, you're getting worse." Nate said, trying to mask the worry in his voice. His sister, Sylvia, was in the midst of a coughing fit and didn't answer him. When the coughs subsided, she looked up at him with those blue eyes he knew so well, except today they were ringed with red and carried dark circles underneath.

"I'm not letting you leave on some hare-brained scheme to save me, Nate. No way. I couldn't do this without you, and it's too dangerous outside." Sylvia dabbed at the corners of her mouth with a tissue and tried to hide it in her hand, but not before Nate saw the tissue was tinged with blood.

"You're kidding yourself if you think this is going to get better, Sylvia. I'm not going to sit by and watch you die." like I did with mom and dad, he thought to himself.

Some days are great, some days are fine, and some days make you think “what in Heaven’s name was I thinking when I got out of bed this morning?” Today was one of those days. Between four assignments due for my various classes and the two tests that I completely failed; I just wished that the ground would open up and the world would swallow me. On top of that the Mets lost their home game and I managed to split my toe open while rushing to class in flip-flops.
The nightmare of classes finally over and my last test finally finished, I checked my watch, ten fifty. I hadn’t eaten since yesterday night, three bowls of macaroni and salsa, the perfect recipe for a time starved college student like myself. Unfortunately it was also not the most filling and my box of

The competitors:

• Bored Crow - Tacos of the Apocalypse
• Vanderbleek - Apocalyptic Taco Mix
• KayTi - Apocalyptic Taco Mix v3
• halogen - Sanitation Blues
• darklight - Rabbit Stew
• tigertinite - Taco
• Tale Spinner - Halos, Husbandry and Hallucinogens
• meg.stout - Crying
• Mauvemuse - Tacos and Freshman Year
• Yours Truly (Yes, this is my special occassion suit) - The Third Rule

Since voting has begun, all other stories are disqualified. (I let meg.stout in a day late, because I'm not sure of time zone differences.)

Pyre Destiny, Wolfe_boy, dee_boncci, and wrenbird, although you haven't completed your stories in time, I hope you'll still finish them. You're welcome to post them in F&F, and I--for one--will read them.

Thanks for everyone's participation. I hope everyone enjoyed the challenge, and will polish their story for submission. To the ten who completed the challenge: CONGRATULATIONS! No matter the turnout of the voting, you're already a winner.