Short story / Literary fiction
Not the End
A suburban dad sleeps through the rumble of a nuclear blast half a world away, and keeps tuning it out until the collapse reaches his street.
- Status
- Outlined. Writing it here, scene by scene.
- Length
- Nothing drafted yet
- This draft
- First draft, October 2026
A rumble wakes Henry Walker in the middle of the night. He dismisses it and goes back to sleep. It was a nuclear blast that wiped out a city half a world away.
Henry is in his late thirties, an office guy in the suburbs with a wife, Sarah, and a baby, and he keeps his routine while the news moves on to celebrity gossip. Then the protests turn into riots, and the distance stops protecting anyone.
- Five chapters, from a man who can't be bothered to a man who'll do anything to protect his family.
- The thread running through it is his phone: full of news at the start, then trivia, then nothing at all.
- Set in an ordinary suburb, told close to Henry.
Nothing drafted yet. This is where they'll show up as I write them, so check back.
Version history1 draft
Current · October 2026
First draft
The first draft, written in the open. Scenes appear here as they're finished.