Category: Bad Survivalist

“We Followed the Goldfinches”: A Bad Survivalist Short Story by George L. Hickman

The year that Jack and I rejected everything man-made, we drove into the mountains. Our 2010 Corolla was man-made, but we didn’t mind that. Its low hum encased us, carrying us through rolling hills. How strange to plunge into our new life in the outdoors from behind the walls of a sturdy metal tube. How…
“Creamer”: A Personal Essay for Bad Survivalist by Marlene Olin

I’m not a demanding person. All I need is my morning cup of coffee. Plus a teaspoon of sugar and a little creamer. Fuck! I’m out of creamer. My fingers dance on the keyboard, and I can’t believe my luck. The creamer’s coming. Not in five days or six but today. But the driver no habla…
“An Offering of Space”: An Essay for Bad Survivalist by Whitney Kerutis

My body wakes me one morning as a crater collecting water. I ring out the stiffness, twisting my torso left and right. Keep my eyes shut. Hold myself like a spouse whose body is easy to swallow. * One morning, a woman seated two rows ahead of me on the bus tries to find the…
“Homestead”: A Flash Fiction for Bad Survivalist by Bryan Harvey

You could get to it by a shortcut through the swamp. Or you could take the bridge near the church and the cemetery as long as you left before dusk and held tight to your senses. But you could also take the mountain pass, which would still require little imagination and beating the sun in…
“A SLOW RADIOACTIVE DEATH (IN AN ENDLESS LOOP)”: A Short Story for Bad Survivalist by Joshua Rodriguez

<!DOCTYPE dog-shit><head><meta name=“robots” content=“noindex, nofollow, noarchive” /><meta name=“viewport” content=“width=device-width, initial-scale=1 /><meta name=“description” content=“Joschua Blau has all the leverage. Yours Truly doesn’t stand a chance, and what’s worst, Yours Truly is used to being subjugated, exploited, and discarded. We welcome abuse like a long-lost twin separated at birth—this is the story of Joschua Blau, the perennial…
Bad Survivalist: Three Poems by Rikki Santer

Alteration Love Finds Neighbors turn into bears, golden vanilla coats, curriedyawns, yellow teeth. We stroll through backyards, aroundboxwood fences. At the party we hunker into a worn couchinside a screened front porch. It’s a plague, someone mutters,wash your hands in ways you’ve never done before.In the morning, I’m a banshee snoring. Bursts of tiny breathsagainst…
Guffy Bergman: Three Poems for Bad Survivalist

Opening Holes of Escape in the Tight Fabric[1] Dirt settles into mounds around our feet,brown hard-contrasting with the boom-pinkcolor we imagine for our bones—yes,it’s like that, images standing innot for the thought but that thought’s tenor,jackrabbits twitching at the entranceto the hutch, taking wordless breaks, and the great blue herons, commonin the creek, flash their…
“The Shapes in the Carpet”: A Short Story for Bad Survivalist by Stephen Piccarella

Both of my parents are dead. I live with Zeke, my older half-brother, and we take care of each other. We grew up together in the house we live in now, a one room unit like a truck with no wheels, out in the middle of the woods. The house is flat on every side…
Bad Survivalist Short Story: “Along the South Shoreline” by Josie Tolin

Lorna scanned her reflection in a full-length mirror, sucking in her stomach as she forced the button through the hole. The skirt hadn’t always fit this way. When she exhaled, her belly spilled over the waistband, and Lorna smacked her hands against her abdomen and watched the skin quiver like Jell-O. Her mom called it…