Zine from the Future Describing the End of Civilization

Short-listed for BEST POLITICAL ZINE of 2021 by Broken Pencil Magazine in Toronto, Canada.

This zine is not radioactive. This zine is not a biohazard. 16 pages. Color. 5 x 7 inches. Sheathed in faux-lead radioactive-proof bag. THOROUGHLY DISTRESSED. Each copy of this zine is handmade by me personally and slightly different from every other copy.

In a future form of English (extrapolated from modern texting habits) we read the story of an apocalyptic end to humankind, and the possible fate of those responsible for it.

Posting a link to this fiction on Reddit got me banned from r/anonymous. Yes, THAT Anonymous.

You can read the future-English version, which appears in this physical zine, at EYESHOT, the literary e-zine which first published the text in 2014 (http://www.eyeshot.net/flashmob.html). A modern English version of the text appeared in the UK-based zine SEIN UND WERDEN in 2017 (http://www.kissthewitch.co.uk/seinundwerden/summer16/page3.html). The two versions appear side-by-side on my website (http://www.johndishwasher.org/stories/flashmobtitle.html).

But none of these virtual versions have the same chilling affect as pulling a zine which has survived riots in the future out of a radioactive-proof bag and holdings its thoroughly distressed pages in your hands. The world has gone to shit in this zine, and humanity has decided to hold those responsible for the collapse accountable.