u/Ok-Fudge-6233

The city was dark and dirty. The air was stale and it made it difficult to breathe. I was running for my life, gasping for air, trying to dodge every car I passed. The highway above me on the bridge was close enough that I thought I could make it up, so I hopped onto the underpass and began to climb. Behind me I heard a loud swirling noise, getting closer with every step I took. I could hear moaning in the swirling mass. I stopped for a brief second, just to look back and lost my footing, I grasped for the stone and caught myself just as I was starting to tumble. Had I fallen, it would have been the end of me. Up, up, up I went and when I reached the top, I hopped over to find…nothing. The world was a void. No people, no animals, no birds, just thick and grimy nothingness.

About 2 months ago, life had been perfect. I had just bought the condo on the beach, my girl was moving in with me and my job was my dream job. I should've known that something was going to get screwed up, I just didn't realize it would be the entire world. It started small, little things that not everyone noticed. More gray days, less sounds of nature, just a bit here and there. I noticed because as a photographer, it was my job to notice things. Then a bit later, more obvious signs came. The clouds had a weird tint and never seemed to disappear, the ocean was lifeless and the mountains seemed to almost sag in disappointment. This is when people started noticing. The next things that happened were the big ones. One of many were the tornadoes. The hellish lightning, the sounds of screaming as people were being pulled into the swirling air of debris and earth. Next came the torrential downpours and devastating fires that roared all over the world. It went on for days, and after, only half of the planet was alive. Those of us who survived were left trying to find each other and figure out what to do next.

I stood there looking at the nothingness for a moment, but knew I could not stop for long. I ran down the empty bridge and barely got to the other side when I heard the cracking of stone and metal behind me. Again the moaning too. I sprinted to the hill running past nightmarish scenes of bodies twisted and dismembered. Pieces of houses nailed some of them to the ground. No one was moving and the only sound I heard was the moaning from the demon swirling behind me. I didn't know where I was running to, I was just running…..

My girl didn't make it, neither did my parents or anyone I even knew. I ran into a few survivors here and there, and we banded together to try to restart our world. The radio and tv stations weren't operating anymore, but someone in our group had a police scanner and we finally picked up a trucker over his CB. He was 2 states away and said the destruction was just as bad there. Our group continued moving, trying to dodge the swirling masses, the rain and the fire. By the time we stopped, there were considerably less of us. It was in this group that we learned the tornadoes were alive. Not alive like you and I, but living none the less. One of our members got brave and decided to go out on his own in search of food. He didn't make it even 5 yards before one of the swirling masses took him. It picked him up with arms, the arms of other victims it had claimed. He struggled and as much as we wanted to help him, we all knew there was nothing we could do but watch and try to learn from the moment. The arms that grabbed him held him in the air, then threw him into itself. The moaning got louder, as if it was enjoying it. Then, as we all stood still, holding our breath, it swirled away.

I heard someone calling “come over here, over here, quickly!” As I scrambled to get away to safety, I fell over something and landed in a wet, gooey pile of what used to be a human being. I struck my head on a piece of metal and as I was blacking out, I saw a hand reaching for me. I did not know if this hand was friend or foe and then the blackness gobbled me up.

The tornadoes weren't the only things that were alive. As we watched our world burn, we could see faces flickering in the flames. You could almost hear crying in the downpours and everytime a wicked bolt hit the ground, it sounded like a snarl. What is this? Where did it come from and why now? Our world had been trying to be better, recycling, moving away from fossil fuels, cleaning up the ocean. Was it all for nothing? Was this always going to happen?

I woke up in my bed, my girl laying next to me. My window was open and I could smell the ocean, feel the breeze and hear all the lovely sounds of nature. Thank God, it had only been a dream. A scary, heart attack inducing dream. I rolled over and pulled her close, smelled her hair and smiled because I was back in my perfect world. Then the sounds stopped and the clouds gathered.

(This is my first short horror story. I also posted it on

r/horrorstories)

The city was dark and dirty. The air was stale and it made it difficult to breathe. I was running for my life, gasping for air, trying to dodge every car I passed. The highway above me on the bridge was close enough that I thought I could make it up, so I hopped onto the underpass and began to climb. Behind me I heard a loud swirling noise, getting closer with every step I took. I could hear moaning in the swirling mass. I stopped for a brief second, just to look back and lost my footing, I grasped for the stone and caught myself just as I was starting to tumble. Had I fallen, it would have been the end of me. Up, up, up I went and when I reached the top, I hopped over to find…nothing. The world was a void. No people, no animals, no birds, just thick and grimy nothingness.

About 2 months ago, life had been perfect. I had just bought the condo on the beach, my girl was moving in with me and my job was my dream job. I should've known that something was going to get screwed up, I just didn't realize it would be the entire world. It started small, little things that not everyone noticed. More gray days, less sounds of nature, just a bit here and there. I noticed because as a photographer, it was my job to notice things. Then a bit later, more obvious signs came. The clouds had a weird tint and never seemed to disappear, the ocean was lifeless and the mountains seemed to almost sag in disappointment. This is when people started noticing. The next things that happened were the big ones. One of many were the tornadoes. The hellish lightning, the sounds of screaming as people were being pulled into the swirling air of debris and earth. Next came the torrential downpours and devastating fires that roared all over the world. It went on for days, and after, only half of the planet was alive. Those of us who survived were left trying to find each other and figure out what to do next.

I stood there looking at the nothingness for a moment, but knew I could not stop for long. I ran down the empty bridge and barely got to the other side when I heard the cracking of stone and metal behind me. Again the moaning too. I sprinted to the hill running past nightmarish scenes of bodies twisted and dismembered. Pieces of houses nailed some of them to the ground. No one was moving and the only sound I heard was the moaning from the demon swirling behind me. I didn't know where I was running to, I was just running…..

My girl didn't make it, neither did my parents or anyone I even knew. I ran into a few survivors here and there, and we banded together to try to restart our world. The radio and tv stations weren't operating anymore, but someone in our group had a police scanner and we finally picked up a trucker over his CB. He was 2 states away and said the destruction was just as bad there. Our group continued moving, trying to dodge the swirling masses, the rain and the fire. By the time we stopped, there were considerably less of us. It was in this group that we learned the tornadoes were alive. Not alive like you and I, but living none the less. One of our members got brave and decided to go out on his own in search of food. He didn't make it even 5 yards before one of the swirling masses took him. It picked him up with arms, the arms of other victims it had claimed. He struggled and as much as we wanted to help him, we all knew there was nothing we could do but watch and try to learn from the moment. The arms that grabbed him held him in the air, then threw him into itself. The moaning got louder, as if it was enjoying it. Then, as we all stood still, holding our breath, it swirled away.

I heard someone calling “come over here, over here, quickly!” As I scrambled to get away to safety, I fell over something and landed in a wet, gooey pile of what used to be a human being. I struck my head on a piece of metal and as I was blacking out, I saw a hand reaching for me. I did not know if this hand was friend or foe and then the blackness gobbled me up.

The tornadoes weren't the only things that were alive. As we watched our world burn, we could see faces flickering in the flames. You could almost hear crying in the downpours and everytime a wicked bolt hit the ground, it sounded like a snarl. What is this? Where did it come from and why now? Our world had been trying to be better, recycling, moving away from fossil fuels, cleaning up the ocean. Was it all for nothing? Was this always going to happen?

I woke up in my bed, my girl laying next to me. My window was open and I could smell the ocean, feel the breeze and hear all the lovely sounds of nature. Thank God, it had only been a dream. A scary, heart attack inducing dream. I rolled over and pulled her close, smelled her hair and smiled because I was back in my perfect world. Then the sounds stopped and the clouds gathered.