CLIMATE FICTION COMPETITION WINNER
We We re Hull
by Dominic Bell
Dominic Bell is an oil rig worker from Hull, East Yorkshire, and writes as a break from either staring at the sea off Norway or looking after three teenagers in his time off. His main writing project is endlessly editing a series of First World War novels, the number of which increase by one annually due to NaNoWriMo. He tries to enter almost all the WM short story competitions to diversify his writing and have the satisfaction of actually finishing something. This is his seventh WM win.
Iwas starting to get anxious how long Lena had been and was relieved to see the boat approaching. I pulled on my waders, went downstairs, and splashed through the mud of the hall to open the steel door. She piloted the boat smoothly into the living room, securing it on the riser pole in the half lit gloom. The steel and concrete made the room more like a bunker than a place where I had played in as a child front of the gas fire. Gas! Those were the days.
Lena passed me a rucksack out of the boat, and I plugged in the charge cable.
‘They’re short of food again,’ she said. ‘Jon said they don’t want to over-order because it is so expensive now.’
I nodded. That was due to the breakthrough into the Vale of York the year before. There and Lincolnshire and Kent and Norfolk and Somerset. Salted fields don’t grow much.
‘He said it’s expected to be the highest spring tide yet. Leaving aside the storm surge.’
‘I know. Which is why you should head to Beverley. That’s high enough to be safe.’