Nukes!

[pbsplatter]

The subject matter is plenty shocking as well as all too plausible, but I'm thinking of horror stories that take place against the backdrop of WWIII/nuclear war. Trying to stay away from straight SF here. I know John Maclay put out an anthology Nukes that had three novellas, the only one of which I've read is "Tight Little Stitches in a Dead Man's Back" by Joe R. Lansdale (which I don't even remember being that nuke-oriented 


One already covered here by Dem from James Herbert.

"James Herbert - Breakfast: The nuclear bomb has laid waste to London but the Blitz spirit prevails and the few survivors attempt to carry on regardless. Oblivious to the flies, maggots and assorted creepy crawlies feasting on her very dead husband Barry and the kids, the old woman gets on with the business of preparing their morning meal. A suitably bleak and horrible vignette, originally intended for inclusion in the bloated Domain." (From Scare Care).

Another snippet from Domain that would go here is this one:

James Herbert - Maurice and Mog: In the aftermath of the nuking of London, cranky old Maurice and a cat make a go of it in a fallout shelter. Their eventual falling out proves disastrous for both. (Masques II ed. JN Williamson, 1987).


A couple others in SPOILER territory, the first of which has already been summarized by dem. 


Robert R. McCammon- I Scream Man!: After the Big Bang, a man sits alternating between plugging rats and playing a game of Scrabble with the oozing corpses of his dead kids. The men in radiation suits come to remove the cadavers in an ice cream van. He chases the vehicle through the streets. (From Blue World and originally appeared in The Horror Show)

J. S. Russell - City of Angels: The Bomb has hit Los Angeles, and whatever normalcy our protagonist had seems to have been lost when miscreants gang-raped his lady with a carving knife. Now he's one of the deteriorating wasteoids that stalk LA, doing the usual rape-kill-eat (in some order) to whoever they find while melting apart themselves. (Splatterpunks, ed. Paul M. Sammon).

Bruce Jones - The Waiting Game: Our hero patiently waits for his wife to come back so they can finish their Christmas shopping, but finds the mall is becoming an unfamiliar, nightmarish landscape. Pretty similar to the McCammon piece above, but it's engaging enough.

Steven R. Boyett - Emerald City Blues: Air force pilot gets sucked into interdimensional portal and winds up nuking the Wonderful Land of Oz; Threads-style grimness ensues. (Midnight Graffiti, ed. Jessica Horsting, 1992)

Stephen King - Graduation Afternoon: Grad party gets interrupted by unwelcome geopolitical news (Just Before Sunset). 

Honorable mention to King's "Battleground," in which the vengeful toy soldiers wind up employing a "full-scale thermonuclear weapon".