Alert

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An official phone alert wakes you up from a deep sleep. It says, "We are under attack. Lock your doors and bar your windows." Hundreds of random numbers are sending, "Let me in." Write a short, fast-paced story to match the urgency of the situation.
[YWP Photo Library, photo by Samantha Aikman]

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Responses to this Challenge

Apr 15

nonfiction 2 comments challenge: Alert

Forever young

unspoken horrors

The door shuts behind as Mom and Dad leave for their "special night out", leaving me with my naughty little sister. I turn to her, putting my hands on my hips. "Okay, this time you do not get up in the middle of the night and try to take Venisa on a walk, okay?" I ordered her, pointing to our sad blue beta fish who I had to put on top of the fridge, just in case. Julia nodded, smiling widely and a drip of drool hanging from her chin. I sighed, rubbing my eyes and pulling Julia by her puggy hand into our TV room. I put on Julia's favorite show, The Backyardagins, and let myself slowly drift off.
I awoke later to find that our power had seemed to have been shut off. All the lights in the house where off, and the only thing that was illuminating the room was the weak light of my phone. Which was buzzing, as if it was alive and panicking. I picked it up, squinting at the words that apeared on the screen:

Posted: 04.15.19

Mar 30

fiction 0 comments challenge: Alert

Buckl

The texts just wouldn't stop coming. Hundreds and hundreds of messages saying ¨Let me in, Let me in.¨ But when I looked outside there was no one there. I saw no attackers and definitely no let-me-in-right-now people. I was confused and scared. I called my brother and he said he had the same problem. Hundreds of texts but no one outside. They kept coming. One after another. Hundreds of thousands of texts from random numbers. It was driving me crazy. I decided to ignore the governments warning and I went outside. At first I saw nothing. Then I was swarmed by hundreds of thousands of alien-human hybrid things. They ripped me limb from limb. And I died. The End.

Posted: 03.30.19

Feb 28

fiction 0 comments challenge: Alert

Paigebrammell2022

1:37 am

I wake up to the annoying sound of my alarm going off. It’s supposed to be Saturday why in the world is my alarm going off. I open my eyes and gather my surroundings. It’s dark out still. This was odd, It hasn’t been this way for a couple of months. I check the time and it says it’s 1:37 am. As I was checking the time I noticed that it wasn’t my alarm that was going off. There is a notification saying “breaking news…” I unlock my phone. Having no clue what could be happening that is so important that I have to know. I’m a 15-year-old kid. I honestly don’t care about the news. I just assumed it was important. I clicked on the notification. It pulls up a long page stating that an experiment escaped from a nearby science lab. I live close to a college campus. It mostly teaches science majors. I didn’t think much of it, I thought it was just some rat with an ear on it and it was “of utmost importance to find it and bring it back”. I got out of bed to ask my mom if she knew about it.

Posted: 02.28.19

Feb 21

poem 1 comment challenge: Alert

ploofc

Panicking

She didn’t know what to do when the phone alert came.

She didn’t know what to do when panic overtook her mind, clouding her logical decisions.

“We are under attack. Lock your doors and bar your windows.”

Scampering off of the couch in something akin to shock, the girl nearly tripped as she flung herself up the steps.

Whimpers and yells of “mom!” ran out of her mouth at fast speeds as she turned the corners and pushed open doors, trying to find her mother.

Suddenly, mid-step, she became aware of the pinging.

It was coming from her phone.

“Let me in.” was being sent to her phone, from hundreds of numbers that weren’t familiar to her.

Releasing a choked gasp, the girl sucked in a deep breath before letting it out with a shudder. Her blue eyes filled with tears that were scrambling out at an alarming speed.

Posted: 02.21.19

Feb 07

fiction 0 comments challenge: Alert

zekefrancislutz

Middle-of-the-night Texts

It was one of those middle-of-the-night texts. An official phone alert says there has been bombing in the city. They are telling everyone to lock your doors and to stay in the basement and stay in touch with your local radio. Outside, we can hear police cars zooming across the streets and helicopters with a radio yelling to go inside. My mom, brother, and I are huddled together in the basement because that is what you’re supposed to do.

Posted: 02.07.19

Feb 06

fiction 1 comment challenge: Alert

Rovva

They're Here

Pluto was sitting next to me on the couch with her head on her paws.
She seemed to be sleeping soundly despite the light from the lamp.
It was one in the morning and I was finishing a paper for my writing class.
The light from my laptop was harsh on my eyes and I was sure that I was going to have bags under them in the morning, but I was nearly finished and decided to power through.
I had the TV on so I could have a bit of background noise.
Without it, the room would be quiet aside from the ticking of the clock,
begging me to slip into bed soon.
I had the news on, but I wasn’t paying any attention to it.
There was really nothing to watch at this time of night,
but sometimes I would find a golden treasure of movies running on various channels.
There was nothing on tonight though, so it was going to have to be the news.
I never worked without background noise. It blocked my concentration with thoughts of the silence.

Posted: 02.06.19

Feb 06

fiction 0 comments challenge: Alert

campbellg

Middle-of-the-night Texts

It was one of those middle-of-the-night texts when an official phone alert wakes you up from a deep sleep. It says, "We are under attack. Lock your doors and bar your windows." Hundreds of random numbers are sending, "Let me in." The planet Earth is under attack by pencil sharpeners. A dumb teacher created them and now they are attacking the world. They are shoving people in the sharpener and shredding them into pieces and then taking people’s phones and texting them, “Let me in!”, so they can sharpen them into flaming, hot pieces. It shreds the people and torches them after they are shredded. Some of them do this because they are electric and some do not because they are just hand-held pencil sharpeners.

Posted: 02.06.19

Feb 04

fiction 2 comments challenge: Alert

byamt

A Red Glow

Something was buzzing. I rolled over drowsily, groping for the sleep button on my alarm clock.

Crash! I had made contact with my alarm clock but the buzzing continued. I groggily opened my eyes and found the source of the good-for-nothing noise. My phone was glowing red and buzzing loudly. An alert was flashing on the screen.

“We are under attack. Lock your doors and bar your windows.”

Suddenly I got a text message, then two, then three, they kept coming until there were hundreds of text messages on my phone. The texts were rolling in. I didn’t know any of the numbers but they all had the same message, “Let me in.”

Posted: 02.04.19

Jan 25

fiction 0 comments challenge: Alert

Cksgl

Alert

I awake from my nice dream hearing a loud, strange noise on my phone. I bolt upright and grab my phone, concerned. An alert says, “We are under attack. Lock your doors and bar your windows.” I am already vigilant and freaking out, locking all the doors.

“What’s happening?” My little sister Izzy asks, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

Posted: 01.25.19