A writing prompt that I decided to build out into a story. I was thinking of the old twist at the end pulp stories in terms of the genre with a bit of a supra-normal element. A Reddit subreddit called r/red63tennis has some strange coincidences until one of its users seeks some help. It's a short piece but I had fun writing it.
After some sudden and unspecified catastrophe has depopulated England, the countryside reverts to nature, and the few survivors to a quasi-medieval way of life. The first part, The Relapse into Barbarism, is the account by some later historian of the fall of civilisation and its consequences, with a loving description of nature reclaiming England. The second part, Wild England, is an adventure set many years later in the wild landscape and society.
Wilbur Murphy sought romance, excitement, and an impossible Horseman of Space. With polite smiles, the planet frustrated him at every turn--until he found them all the hard way!
Foraminifera 9-Hart Bailey's Beam is bored. He relieves that boredom by traveling back in time to sometime before the high radiation levels and after the invention of anesthesia-you know, in case of accidents. He's read of the Mafia in New York City of the 1950s. He think that might be a place to start. He finds five you men, all dressed in same color jacket, and asks directions to the recruiting office of the "dread Camorra." He assures them he has plenty of money in his carry-all...
You're all alone in a deserted city. You walk down an empty street, yearning for the sight of one living face--one moving figure. Then you see a man on a corner and you know your terror has only begun.