The Farmer by Adam Hulse
from Dystopia: a PUNK NOIR Magazine series
Crops won’t grow in poisoned earth so I let my father’s tractor rust into flakes.
Where once he sowed seeds I now set traps. The barn collapsed years ago but it feeds my fires well enough. My field is home to twenty-five pits I dug with my younger brother, Pete. Of course, he ended up at the bottom of the last one because hunger beat me in the end, I suppose. I knew it would. I am sorry about that, Pete but I saw that same hunger in your eyes too. The leaders? Well, they ruined everything just so their neighbour couldn’t get their hands on it and now I’m living the same in my own way. The wretched overspill of war is forced to roam these lands but I stay put. I can clean my own water and the traps keep me busy enough. I’ll admit to feeling bad about that from time to time but survival is all that matters to me now. Those stumbling across my property end up at the bottom of a pit. Then it’s a simple matter of burning it out and retrieving the meat. You see, greed taints us all in the end.
This story appears as part of Dystopia, a PUNK NOIR Magazine series.
Bio
Adam Hulse’s debut the Tales of Tupuqa three novella horror series was published by Raven Tale Publishing in 2021. His poem The Summit made Punk Noir Magazines “21 Essential Punk Noir Stories and Poems” list for the same year. Adam’s flash fiction and short stories feature in highly successful anthologies 206 Word Stories Horror, Something Bad Happened, A 3-B Halloween, Sinister Stories By The Ten, and The Nightmare Never Ends. May 2023 saw the release of his Dystopian horror novella, Below Economic Thresholds (3-B Publishing) while his debut horror/sci-fi collection Not A Good Fit At This Time (Infested Publishing) was also released in 2023.
The Growth Ultimate Edition was released through Infested Publishing in 2024. Adam’s Bonded in Blood micro fiction was published by Punk Noir Press in May 2024. January 2025 saw the release of his sci-fi novel, The Forgotten War (Infested Publishing).
Adam lives in a small town in decline (St Helens) in the North-West of England where he is learning everyday thanks to his two strong daughters. He is currently hoping to uplift working-class voices by running Infested Publishing with his partner.
Twitter – @HulseAdam
Instagram – ratty_writer
TikTok – @infestedpublishing
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