Your cart is currently empty!
The Desperate Hour
An unreleased short story from the book:
Disconnected: Hyperinflation: Dark Tales of a Broken Economy
The clock had become their cruelest enemy.
Sarah watched it tick, each second stretching like an eternity. The world outside was no better than it had been hours ago—chaos had taken root long ago, festering and spreading until it consumed everything. The government was gone, the currency was useless, and the once-bustling cities were reduced to rubble. The streets outside their window were filled with the sound of screams, the clashing of metal, and the desperate whispers of those willing to do anything to survive.
Inside the small apartment, Sarah’s family sat, hollow-eyed, starving, and broken. Her husband, Tom, sat slumped against the wall, his hands twitching in restless anticipation, though he hadn’t spoken in hours. Their two children, Liam and Molly, huddled close to Sarah, the vacant look in their eyes betraying their confusion and hunger.
“What’s the point, Mom?” Liam had asked earlier, his voice small, almost lost in the tension that clung to the air. His thin body trembled, the emptiness in his stomach mirrored in his eyes. “Are we ever going to get out of here?”
Sarah had no answer. How could she? There was no answer anymore. The world was too far gone. She had tried to keep them safe—tried to shield them from the horrors that had turned their world upside down—but it was a futile struggle. The stores had long since been looted, the power grid was down, and food was a luxury only the powerful could afford.
The day had started like all the others: bleak, empty, and full of impossible choices. The last of their supplies had been used up the night before, and Tom had gone out that morning, hoping for something—anything—that might keep them going for just a little longer. But when he had come back, empty-handed, his face had been pale, and his eyes had been haunted with something darker than fear.
“They’re offering food,” Tom had said, his voice barely above a whisper. “But it’s not just food. They want something in return.”
Sarah had known what that meant before he even said it.
“We can’t,” she’d replied, her voice trembling with the weight of the decision. “We can’t give them anything. Not our children. Not our souls.”
But Tom had shaken his head. “It’s too late. They’ll kill us if we don’t comply. You know they will.”
The air in the room had grown colder, the walls closing in around them. Sarah had wanted to scream, wanted to claw at the walls in sheer frustration, but she had swallowed her cries, knowing that even in this hell, nothing could change. The choices had already been made for them. Their humanity, their moral compass, had already been chipped away with every passing day. What was left?
And now, as the minutes ticked away, she realized the choice was here. They would either lose themselves completely or survive at a cost so terrible, so unbearable, that it would forever twist who they had once been.
Tom had told her that the man at the door—the one offering the deal—was someone they had known before all of this. Someone who had been a neighbor, a friend, someone who had once been just as frightened, just as lost. But now, he was a monster. The man had become a part of the new world order, his heart hollowed out by his own desperation. He had risen from the ashes of society, a predator, a dealer of lives.
They had no choice but to go to him.
The knock came just as the clock struck twelve.
Tom looked at Sarah one last time, his eyes empty of anything but fear. They both knew this moment would define them—for better or for worse. The world had already decided who would live and who would die. The only thing left was whether they could hold onto what little of themselves remained.
“I’ll do what I must,” Tom said quietly, standing to open the door. “We’re not dying here. We’re not.”
But even as the words left his lips, Sarah felt a cold numbness settle in her chest. She didn’t know what they were walking into, but she knew that once they crossed that threshold, there would be no turning back. It was a place of no return.
The man standing in the doorway was unrecognizable. The once-familiar face was gaunt, eyes sunken deep into the skull, his skin gray and sallow. His clothes were tattered, his hands shaking, but the smile he gave them was sharp and cruel. He welcomed them inside with a gesture, as though he were offering them salvation, not destruction.
“I’m glad you came,” the man said, his voice cold and practiced. “The deal is simple. You want food? You want your children to survive? You give me what I want, and you get what you need. It’s that simple. No questions. No escape.”
Tom nodded, his expression hollow. “What do you want?”
The man’s gaze flickered to Sarah and then to the children. He smiled again, and for a moment, it felt like the room had gotten even colder.
“You know what I want,” he said, his voice dripping with malice. “I need one of them. Your son. I need him to… work for me. He’ll serve a purpose. I’ll keep him safe—if you give him to me.”
Sarah’s heart stopped. The world around her spun, her breath catching in her throat. “No. You can’t—he’s just a child.”
The man’s smile faltered, and then his voice dropped to a whisper, full of venom. “It’s that or none of you eat tonight. Make your choice.”
Tears welled in Sarah’s eyes, her body trembling, her world crashing down around her. She looked at Tom, but he was already shaking his head, his face pale, his mouth dry. He was already gone, already lost to the desperation that had overtaken him.
“Do it, Sarah. Do it for them. For us,” he whispered, his voice hollow.
The silence stretched on. Every part of Sarah screamed to fight, to refuse. She wanted to reach for her son, to hold him close and tell him everything would be okay, even though she knew it wouldn’t be. But she also knew, deep down, that they had already crossed a line. They had already lost.
And so, with a heart blackened by hopelessness, Sarah did the unthinkable. She handed her son over.
As the man took Liam from her arms, she felt the last vestige of her humanity slip away. There was no turning back now. Her soul was already gone.
Later, after the man had disappeared with Liam, Tom and Sarah sat together, their eyes blank, their hands empty. The taste of survival was bitter, as was the unbearable realization that in order to live, they had sacrificed everything.
The clock continued to tick, but in that moment, Sarah knew. Time was the one thing they had truly lost.
And in the desperate hours that followed, all that remained was the haunting echo of their decision—the cost of survival, paid in flesh and blood.
If you enjoyed this short story you will probably like our latest release available now:
Hyperinflation: Dark Tales of a Broken Economy
$3.99
In Hyperinflation: Dark Tales of a Broken Economy, the collapse of the financial system takes center stage, and the disturbing consequences of a world plunged into chaos unfold in brutal, unrelenting detail.
Leave a Reply