Day 129 Writing Short Stories

Danger

The toxic fumes glowed bright green on the rubbish heap. Beyond it, the once huge complex of the trash plant had fallen into ruins, as had everything else in the society. There was nothing left but a wasteland of decay and dead bodies, and odd flora and fauna here and there that had survived the bombing.

If she took her gas mask off, there was no telling what kind of danger the fumes would get her into. Her thick rubber boots creaked underneath her against the half-melted rubbish. But this was her best bet on anything. The old abandoned houses were looted a long time ago. There were no treasures left except here for the daring and the willing. And she was willing. If she didn’t come back with something to sell or trade, she wouldn’t eat today either.

She knelt down and rummaged through the electric cords and metallic cases. The true treasure would be a hard drive, or a PSU, or even a graphics card would suffice. Something she could trade.

Umbrella

It was raining hard outside. She watched as people stepped outside, willing to get their heads wet just not to open up their umbrellas inside. It was bad luck, they said. She pushed her umbrella open and listened to the gasp spreading around her in the small office building. People stepped away from her in fear that they could catch bad luck from her. But early on, even as a kid, she had learned that the opposite was true to her. When she saw a black cat cross a street, she would get something she had wished for so much. Her parents had bought her a kitten. Now she wished that opening the umbrella here would get her the job she had just been interviewed for. She smiled and stepped out in the rain, unfazed by it.

2304

The planet just outside Earth’s solar system looked majestic with its vast oceans and landmass. She watched the clouds swirl over the blue oceans. The earlier readings indicated that there was only primitive life on the planet. It would be harmless to land as long as they followed the right protocols. She had been selected for the mission to collect and categorize flora samples. They had reserved five hours for the landing until they had to be off the planet.

She stepped through as the last one on the planet through the sterilization gate. She kept her head down and talk to a minimum as the others chatted away their excitement. Susie heard her mother’s voice at the back of her head, insisting on her speaking up and joining in. “See, they have already bonded, and all you can do is try not to exist.”

She ignored her mother’s voice and headed away from the group to get her samples. Susie lost her sense of time as she moved from one strange thing to another, only to awaken to the roar of the engines. Her stomach lurched. This couldn’t be happening again. It was just like when she had been on a school field trip and they had forgotten her.

Susie watched the rocket soar high into the atmosphere, past the huge tree-like plants, and leave without her. There was that sense of threat again. The feeling of being an invisible child. But there was also the joy of being alone. She knelt back down and began categorizing the flora again. It was magnificent. She inserted the samples into the temperature-conditioned satchel on her shoulder, happily working her worries away. They would either come and get her or leave her there to survive; both were out of her hands in a way. The spacesuit would keep her hydrated, fed, and circulated for at least forty-eight hours more, and by that time, something would happen. That was the law of the universe.

Susie just didn’t expect the law to be so instant. She took a step deeper into the forest, where the thick undergrowth was so much like Earth’s, but still slightly tweaked to feel ever so alien, and she was surrounded by a group of small creatures standing on two feet. They looked lucid with their gummy-bearish bodies and giant oval heads. They had stubby feet.

“Err,” she said, unsure if the creatures turned out to be better company than humans ever were or would be; this might be the time to run.

“Err,” the creatures repeated in a chorus.

“Hi,” she dared to say.

“Hi,” they repeated.

“I’m Susie, and I come from Earth,” she continued on as the creatures hadn’t attacked her.

“Susie,” they tasted the word.

At least they had a four-to-six-year-old child intelligence, being able to repeat after her. She also noted that they had to have vocal structures similar to humans to be able to mimic her.

“Susie?” they said again as she had remained silent.

“Yes?” she asked.

“Follow,” a creature said, startling Susie.

“Follow?” she asked, stupefied.

“Yes, or harm,” the one who had spoken, the one who looked like a blue gummy bear, said.

“Harm?” she asked.

“They pointed deeper into the forest, and there came a loud roar.”

The Prompts are from the book A Year of Creative Writing Prompts.

Oh, oh, oh, oh. Today’s prompts were divine. It was as if the writing gods had heard me. Of course, it’s not about my mood or the cycle of the prompts or anything realistic like that. It’s the writing gods.

I woke up early today because plumbing maintenance was starting before the crack of dawn, and I had to do my exercises and shower before they cut the water off. I feel a lot fresher than I do when I sleep an hour later. I don’t know why waking up at 5 a.m. works for me. It always has. I just have to make sure I go to bed early enough to read a few pages before falling asleep. I sleep a lot better when I read.

Thank you for reading! Have a divine day ❤