Reading Through the Rain in 1976
By @john1208
I was currently sprinting through the mud, clutching my smuggled romance novel, with the commune leader hot on my heels. My crime? Refusing to dig ditches. The Vesnian Republic in 1976 is no place for a cheeky girl whose only ambitions are snacking on honey-cakes and reading fiction. While the ambitious educated youth, Irsa, scrambles to buy into the new state bonds to earn her way back to the capital, I happily marry Gavril - a quiet, towering local who obsessively scrubs the floors and cooks endless meals just to keep me pampered. I absolutely refuse to invest in the bonds because it requires attending weekly patriotic meetings. But behind my shameless laziness lies a heavy secret: a hidden government mandate I discovered reveals this entire valley will be flooded for a dam in exactly twelve months. As Irsa exhausts herself for a merit badge that won't exist, Gavril and I use our saved rations to prepare. But when the rain starts falling and the officials lock down the town, will my cozy little life be enough to keep my little brother and my devoted husband safe from the rising tide?
4
The Deluge on Vulture's Crag
By @john1208
Bronik died choking on mud when the rural basin of Ostran was swallowed by a catastrophic megaflood, betrayed by the woman he loved. Waking up three months before the disaster, he wastes no time. In a smoke-filled tavern, he signs away his fertile farmlands to his ex-fiancée and her arrogant new lover in exchange for a ruined watchtower on the highest, most worthless crag in the valley. Mocked as a spiteful madman, Bronik barricades himself away with a paranoid local brewer and a fiercely independent apothecary, stockpiling timber and rations. When the skies finally tear open and the valley transforms into a churning inland sea, the arrogant villagers come begging at his reinforced gates. Bronik is perfectly happy to let them drown. But his grim satisfaction evaporates when he realizes a terrifying truth he never lived long enough to see in his first life. The floodwaters are still accelerating. With a hidden second surge coming in exactly ten days that will submerge even the mountain's peak, Bronik must decide - will he use his former tormentors as desperate labor to build a floating ark, or let his vengeance drag him back to a watery grave?
2