Paradigm

Post-apocalyptic Fiction

Photo by Velizar Ivanov on Unsplash

The Isle was the one last sanctuary — or, at least, that’s what my mother told me before the Rot got to her too. It had been so innocuous, a walk through our once-green paradise, when she fell and scraped her knee.

Her eyes, wild with panic, had told me the truth before any words escaped.

Run. For god’s sake, Isolde, run!

That was the last time I saw my mother before I made my way to the decrepit castle up on the hill. I crossed the drawbridge and tried not to cry as I drew it back up so nothing else could follow me.

Those who had the Rot could not pass water. That was why the Isle was probably the safest place left to humanity.

But I was the lone survivor. The Rot had not gotten to me yet.

As I thought of my mother-left to fall into insanity in the elements — there was yet another sorrow that came to my mind.

Her heart-shaped locket, with the last pictures ever taken of my father and little brother, had gone with her. I hadn’t even thought of it till I was safe back in the castle.

But now it was lost forever, the path so many things in this world had taken.

I don’t know why I’m wasting the paper, but here I am. I feel like time is slowly beginning to lose all meaning for…