Ash Tales | Stories of the Apocalypse

Ash Tales | Stories of the Apocalypse

Short stories exploring the end of the world. From nuclear Armageddon to bio-engineered super plague, humanity has an age-old obsession with the end of the world. Each week, we'll be sharing a self-contained short story, exploring what life might be like at the end of the everything. Learn more: https://ashtales.com/

Episodes

November 1, 2020 14 mins
The snow has stopped falling for now, the gloomy black clouds have gone their separate ways, leaving a strangely pretty dusk. My thoughts are shattered by the badly aging intercom speakers crackling and hissing a demand. "ALL STAFF TO WARD 5, ROOM 3, IMMEDIATELY." Read "Lakeside Doomsday Cult" on Ash Tales: ashtales.com/episodes/lakeside-doomsday-cult About the author: Benjamin Blake was born in the July of 1985, ...
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After nearly a decade of analysis, the Linguistics Department of Gabonium University cracked the enigma that is the Sea Lords Script. Read "The Sea Lords Script" on Ash Tales: ashtales.com/episodes/the-sea-lords-script About the author: Jason E. Maddux is an aviation attorney, who uses writing speculative fiction and children's stories as a creative outlet each night once his two daughters are in bed. After spending ...
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October 10, 2020 11 mins
It’s dangerous out there, especially when food becomes scarce and crime picks up. But when you wear body-parts jewelry, well - people take you seriously. Read "Body Parts Jewelry Store Man" on Ash Tales: ashtales.com/episodes/fourteenth-birthday-chat About the author: Michael Carter is a short fiction and creative nonfiction writer from the Western United States. He’s also ghostwriter in the legal profession, a Space Camp...
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September 25, 2020 12 mins
The generator fails, the temperature begins to rise, and you realise: this may be the last conversation you ever have. Some birthday, eh? The Green Priest, on sale now: https://www.rainmakerwritings.com/ Read "Fourteenth Birthday Chat" on Ash Tales: ashtales.com/episodes/fourteenth-birthday-chat About the author: Sharni Wilson is a New Zealand writer of fiction and Japanese-to-English literary translator, whose work has ...
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May 10, 2020 9 mins
Follow two sisters, Terra and Ada, as they forage through humanity's far-future, in a world littered with high-tech relics and ruins from a civilisation long-since destroyed. Read "The Poppies' Secret" on Ash Tales: ashtales.com/episodes/the-poppies-secret Discover more original post apocalyptic stories: ashtales.com/episodes Get featured on the podcast: ashtales.com/submit
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May 3, 2020 19 mins
One man and his dog retrace their footsteps through the wreckage of a life forever changed by a deadly disease. Read "Digging" on Ash Tales: ashtales.com/stories/digging Discover more original post apocalyptic stories: ashtales.com/stories Get featured on the podcast: ashtales.com/submit
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January 12, 2020 11 mins

In the wake of catastrophe, the return to normal life happens slowly, uncertainly, as Mia and Anders reclaim forgotten memories and desires, piece by piece. Read "The Supermarket" on Ash Tales: ashtales.com/stories/the-supermarket Discover more original post apocalyptic stories: ashtales.com/stories Get featured on the podcast: ashtales.com/submit Get 25% off The Green Priest with the code ASHTALES25: https://ashtales.com/t...

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January 5, 2020 12 mins

As the New Year rings in and the sky is illuminated by the glow of red, white and blue, a deadly conspiracy unfolds in the heart of London. Read "Happy New Year" on Ash Tales: ashtales.com/stories/happy-new-year Discover more original post apocalyptic stories: ashtales.com/stories Get featured on the podcast: ashtales.com/submit Get 25% off The Green Priest with the code ASHTALES25: ashtales.com/the-green-priest

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December 9, 2019 29 mins
It has rained for centuries, and the sprawling cities of the Elders have drowned beneath the floodwaters. The survivors of Shelter, a hollowed-out mountain-side refuge, eke out a simple existence amidst the flooded, overgrown ruins of a forgotten civilisation. But at the edge of every tale can be found rumours, whispers and nightmares of the Green Priests, a mythical religious order with powers beyond reckoning and secrets beyond...
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November 24, 2019 16 mins

As the winds roll in and ash blankets their town, there's only one chance left to the survivors: dancing up the sun, and chasing away the eternal Winter. Read "Dance up the Sun" on Ash Tales: ashtales.com/stories/dance-up-the-sun Discover more original post apocalyptic stories: ashtales.com/stories Get featured on the podcast: ashtales.com/submit

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November 17, 2019 12 mins

The fat-cats sheltering in their vaults might be safe from the nuclear fallout, but they haven't escaped the Handyman. Read "This Is Not An Exit" on Ash Tales: ashtales.com/stories/this-is-not-an-exit Discover more original post apocalyptic stories: ashtales.com/stories Get featured on the podcast: ashtales.com/submit

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November 13, 2019 19 mins

The seas are rising and the end is sight for the final few residents of a once tropical paradise. Read "After the Deluge" on Ash Tales: ashtales.com/stories/after-the-deluge Discover more original post apocalyptic stories: ashtales.com/stories Get featured on the podcast: ashtales.com/submit

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August 10, 2019 6 mins

Scouring winds are blowing on the last cherry orchard, and Bastian, the garden's caretaker, is waiting for the end. Read "The Last Cherry Orchard" on Ash Tales: ashtales.com/stories/the-last-cherry-orchard Discover more original post apocalyptic stories: ashtales.com/stories Get featured on the podcast: ashtales.com/submit

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August 3, 2019 9 mins

The palisade that surrounds the survivors of Lakewall can only offer protection for so long. Listen to the original post-apocalyptic story from John L Davis IV. Read "Lakewall" on Ash Tales: ashtales.com/stories/lakewall Discover more original post apocalyptic stories: ashtales.com/stories Get featured on the podcast: ashtales.com/submit

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Jacob and Katy travel with their family through the shattered ruins of a forgotten world. But from within the empty buildings that line the roads, a strange beautiful music can be heard... a siren song too alluring to resist. Listen to the mesmerising short story from author by AE Stueve. Read "Jacob and Katy and the Building People" on Ash Tales: https://ashtales.com/jacob-and-katy-and-the-building-people/ Discover more or...

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July 17, 2018 13 mins

Who said the end of the world had to be so serious? In today's episode, we're entering the lives of lonely, disillusioned moon colonists, stranded on the lunar surface when the world ends. Written by Tyler Bumpus, author of "The Swallowed World" series, today's story is a pitch perfect combination of sci fi horror and dark humour. Read "Mooners" on Ash Tales: https://ashtales.com/mooners/ Discover more o...

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May 28, 2018 22 mins

Today, we're exploring a world wracked by rain and flood water, overgrown and unrecognisable. Set hundreds of years after the downfall of civilisation, we're following a mysterious order - known as the Green Priests - as they investigate a suspicious disappearance, and try to quell a dangerous insurrection in the process. Read "The Gates of Morbach" on Ash Tales: https://ashtales.com/stories/the-gates-of-morbach Dis...

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July 5, 2017 15 mins

Today's story comes courtesy of Lorin R. Robinson, author of the Climate Fiction compilation "Tales from the Warming". Earth Day 2117 follows the plight of the McIntyre clan, as they seek refuge from a seemingly unending climate catastrophe, known as "The Warming", in an isolated and hidden valley. Like his Cli-Fi contemporaries, Lorin's fantastic and poignant short story shines a much-needed light on climat...

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April 10, 2017 15 mins

Today's episode is written by Melissa Dykes. Melissa is the author of All the Elders Orphans, a powerful & moving post-apocalyptic novel that pits one woman’s humanity against the dark realities of a brutal new world – and at the heart of it all, a child’s life hangs in the balance. The story we're sharing today is part of Melissa's debut novel - it's one of the best indie novels I've come across in the last...

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March 21, 2017 11 mins

In today's episode, we're discovering the story of Elani, a lonely huntress, cast adrift in a world of violence and magic. Set hundreds of years after the Apocalypse, Elani's world is one of constant danger - and, thanks to a disaster, long lost to memory, home to a never-ending storm that threatens to swallow the earth. But, Elani isn't the only inhabitant of the Drowned World - and upriver, darker creatures dwell....

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