My short story “Numbers Count Deliverance” is free to read here: https://gavagai.com/posts/4319

It is about a group of religious fanatics who pray for a rapture and then have to live with its ramifications once their prayers are seemingly answered.

This story is not about what caused the apocalypse, that doesn’t matter. It’s not even about how humanity might eventually recover. It’s about a few individual people dealing with the immediate aftermath of this horrific event they had wanted.

The seduction of apocalypse cults are difficult to ignore. One day you have all your problems and the world to contend with, the next, all those problems are gone. What a tempting thing to wish for when the means can be ignored.

“At best, the only leaders I’ve known have ruled through suggestion and coercion. Manipulation can’t be my way forward, even if they ask for it. For the next little bit, I know. We survive thinking about the minute by minute until we can think ahead. We stick together; if we don’t we won’t make it, or the making it won’t matter.”

How do you reckon with who you used to be, when you wished for the death of unknown strangers?

Who do you become when you survive the end of times?

If you gave it a read, let me know your thoughts in the comments. Do you have a favorite apocalypse story?

It’s basically about a group of religious fanatics who pray for a rapture and then have to live with the ramifications of it when those prayers are seemingly answered.