Creative writing story London Ten Years on ….

Ten Years On

I’m sitting in the devastation that used to be London. Right here where I am sitting now used to be Stamford Street; where there is uncertainty if you’re going to survive, there used to be a Pret A Manger; where there are heads on spikes in the zone of execution, there used to be a nursery playground surrounded by railings and bunting. I remember it so well – the innocent expressions of the smiling children. Even the birdsong – it’s just a distant memory now. I would give anything right this minute  to have back the ordinary dull smells of the city, car fumes mixing with the freshly baked bread from the supermarket round the corner mixed with rain. Now there is this impenetrable fog that stinks: it’s everywhere and anywhere, and you can not get away from it. Then there’s the rotting bodies turning rancid in the heat.

Ten years ago, before this world turn’t corrupt because of the big war that caused a massive destruction and thousands of deaths, I was still at school. I was on my way to a degree in medical care. Then the bomb wiped out everything.  Homes, lives and families were decimated in a matter of seconds . The aftermath was worse : people became savages, doing whatever it took to survive, even if it meant sacrificing their own family. London was now a place full of war, torture and suffering. How can a human being endure such pain ? I can see a scavenger stumbling across the wasteland that was London Nautical School, limbs lost and scars all over them ; it just comes to mind how incredibly resilient the human body can be under such extreme circumstances with all the beating we’ve endured through the never – ending ten years of corruption. You can’t trust nobody around here :civilization is destroyed forever. The conflict is unrelenting ; citizens are killing each other and stealing from one another – it’s become a way of life . Bullets are flying everywhere and you can never be sure if you’re safe due to the corrupt so called Metropolitan Police abusing their power – assaulting, abusing, taking money from the citizens. The police will kill anyone with no remorse because they have the power and the heavy machinery and the high-tech gadgets making them invincible, untouchable. Anyone can get away with any crimes as long as they have enough ration cards (money) to bribe the police. They’re impossible to get hold of.

I can just dimly remember when I could wake up from a sleep not thinking that my life was in danger due to the constant gunshots and bombings, ‘civilians’ killing and torturing, screaming in fear. I would give anything just to wake up and listen to the beautiful singing birds and feel the warm windless sunshine. Instead I look through my window and see destroyed vehicles and buildings ready to crumble apart. This place is a war zone, friends and family fighting each other for survival in this corrupt inhuman depraved wasteland. This country used to stand for  Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness but instead it’s just another fallen idol.

3 Comments

  1. I really like how this is shaping up and some of the ideas here.

    Some thoughts for development:
    Is it 10 years or 20 that the world has been in chaos? You seem to contradict yourself a little.

    Where should your starting point be? Plan your world that little bit more – what would your character see when they wake up? What does it smell like? What do they have for breakfast? Who is the first person they see? Do they have any dependents? Are they dependent on anybody?

    Try working through these questions and then we can plan where your starting point should be.

  2. Hello,

    Rather than telling us about the massive destruction that has been caused by the nuclear bomb, why not think of some clues that you might give us that will lead us to infer about the cause of the destruction?

    How might the impact be shown? What would your character see? What are the after-effects?

    How might you subtly release these details throughout your piece to gradually build up the believability of this world?

  3. Hafiz,

    A few more technical errors for you to correct:
    1) Use capital letters when needed throughout
    2) Be strict with paragraph length
    3) Always re-read and edit sentence length

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