magisternihil's 100-word story for December 14, 2025

magisternihil wrote the following micro-story on Hectalex on December 14, 2025. Each story on Hectalex is inspired by a daily visual prompt and must be exactly 100 words.

They try to fool us with replicated scenes of outdoor life but we’re not idiots. We know we’re more than a hundred stories underground. Granted, it does give a brief glimmer of hope, like one day we may see the sky again, feel the cold mountain air on our faces, not the musty, recycled filth that comes through the vents that tastes of iron. But we know there’s nothing left. We felt the earth shake with each bomb that hit. We know it won’t be safe up there for hundreds of years. The mountain does look lovely, though, doesn’t it?

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