This Will Never… #flashfiction #scifi #reenasxplorationchallenge

Reena’s Absolutely challenging Challenge –> Welcome back! RXC PROMPT #233 ravaged inner space unable to account for entries and exits who came, who destroyed, who left? a soul transformed forever 

It had happened. The event that all of us had trained for.

“This will never happen…” Our O.T. said loudly to our group.

“Why are we doing this then?” An intern very young, very inexperienced had asked.

“They always ask us to do things that they cannot explain the rationale for…” A very seasoned staff person chimed in.

We went through the drill. Most of it was what you would expect; it was the immediate shut-down no matter who was in the facility that bothered us.

“What happens to civilians?” One of my co-workers whispered.

“Hopefully they are in the unit when close-down initiates or they will be radiated.”

“Even kids?”

I gulped not wanting to answer the affirmative.

“But this will never happen..”

Those words were in a free fall as the yellow then red lights began their cycle of warning. Layers of lead, silicone and carbon were forming a domelike shield around our installation. We were essential personnel and our lives were more valuable than gold. Each of us had a skill set that would keep things going indefinitely.

“Health inspector 1 you must report to the infirmary – double time.”

I grabbed my insulated helmet and ran to my post. I ran past people who were clearly in shock. Those empty eyes wanted to scream ‘Help.’

All my medical training was of no assistance. They were civilians caught in inner space with no role to play and no exit except a few moments of 500 millirems/ min radiation (a deadly amount) if they were to exit.

“My daughter. I can’t find my daughter.” A woman screamed.

Against protocol, I called in a request to divert to find the child.

“Inspector 1 – what is your ETA?”

“Can you cue in a 10 minute diversion code. I need to help a civilian.”

“Negative Health 1 !!”

I never pulled my rank. Number 1 reflected that I was the highest grade health practitioner on the facility.

“No problem main operator. I am calling off as sick. Maybe some radiation leakage. I will check back in tomar…”

“Health 1 you are cleared with a 10 minute diversion.”

“Excellent.” I turned my walkie off.

I looked at the frantic mama and grabbed her hand. “We will find that girl of yours. We will not allow her soul to be transformed forever…”

Photo “Sealed Off” © moondustdesigns 2015

This flash fiction is sparked by the prompt and the picture that is a bomb shelter beneath a museum.

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It’s Greek #prompt #microfiction

What did you say?

είναι ελληνικό για μένα *

can you be clearer?

είναι ελληνικό για μένα

this is making No sense

είναι ελληνικό για μένα

‘My Greek’s rusty. I think he said “great idea”‘

‘I think it’s Greek to him as well ‘

What are we agreeing to???

*it’s greek to me…

Reena’s prompt is the image above – Treat the two images as two stages, and write about what happened in between. You can change the order as you wish, or even add more stages in between.

Wow Reena knows how to make a challenge xploration challenge #230

The Boxes… #layers #alittlehorror

Here’s the prompt from the talented Reena Saxena @ xploration challenge

“I have untapped abilities waiting to be discovered.”

If you find it complex, you can use Layers as a theme for your piece.

*

It was a journey that I look back upon and wish I had never begun. There are many layers to this journey. Too many…

It began with a wonderful life with an intelligent, witty, charming partner. I couldn’t have asked for more enjoyment. We shared many of the same interests: poetry, writing, going on adventures and playing games.

I wish now (for his sake) that I had never ever had a curiosity for boxes but I always had. There is something about lifting the top of a box if only to peek inside the corner. Boxes seemed potentially to hold treasure.

My interest in boxes is now a curse but I’m slightly ahead of this story.

The home I moved into with my husband had a basement filled with boxes. There were thousands of them. Some were very big while others were quite small.

“What’s in the boxes?” My curiosity to open each box caused me to ask.

“I don’t know. Most of them were left by the man I bought the house from. He was my auntie’s husband. Some of the boxes were dropped by my brothers and others left by my former wife. Those over there are my own.” He pointed to a neat stack of games. Many of those games we had already played with friends or family.

With too much time on my hands, I started looking at the boxes from a distance. They did not belong to us but they were in our home.

Then on a cold windy day, I opened the first one. It was a pretty box with shiny ribbon. There was a beautiful poem written with a lady’s elegance.

I put the box away, walked up the stairs and reflected on the beautiful poem. I got out my own poetry journal and began to write. My husband later remarked that these were the best poems I had ever written.

It snowed a few days later and I again went down the stairs to open one box. This box had blue geometric shapes on it. There was a note inside that said:

“You should look under the third tree to the right of the boundary. there is something interesting there.”

“It’s too cold.” I said to the note carefully putting the top back on the box. “Let’s see what’s in one more.”

“Listen to what you read or someone could end up dead.” A note was written in large bold print with a hefty exclamation point.

“Is this some kind of joke?”

A box fell on the flor. I opened it.

“No!!!” Even bolder letters stated.

I can’t tell you how fast my heart was beating but it was fast I assure you. I tried to calmly put each note back into their respective boxes and then back on the shelf they had come from. I turned to find the them back on the floor. Another had fallen and the lid off. The note opened “GO!”

“Okay I’m going.”

This time I left the boxes and grabbed gloves and a shovel. I forgot a winter jacket.

“What am I doing?” I spoke to the shovel as I walked toward the boundary of our property.

The tree looked slightly different from the others and I knew it was the right one. I dug. I didn’t need to dig too deep. There I found the bones that had belonged to a woman’s hand.

Not knowing what to do I put the hand back in the hole and covered it. I then went to the basement to put the boxes away and lock the door to the basement.

Another box had fallen and the note said “put it in here.”

I screamed.

“The hand?”

Another box fell. I didnt even bother to read it.

I rushed upstairs grabbed a bag to put the hand in. I wrapped the hand, covered the hole, ran back to the basement, put the hand in the box, taped that box together with all the tape I could find, put the rest of the boxes that had opened away, ran out of the room, locked the door, went upstairs, made some tea, look a long sigh.

I forgot about the shovel until my husband came to me with the shovel and a note…

Did I mention my undiscovered ability (underdiscovered) is as a closet horror writer?

It’s a deadly Assortment #flashfiction #challenge

I thought I was having a dream until my senses were overwhelmed with the odor of fish.

Then I heard:

“There are 15 pieces of sushi. You must eat five of them. Your best friend’s life depends on it.”

Lizzy was tied to a chair in the corner.

” I must mention that three of the items will cause instant death and two well it might be possible to make it to hospital. You have four minutes to decide and 1 minute to eat. “

This is not a dream. This is a NIGHTMARE!!!

“Your time starts Now.”

The above picture is the prompt for this week’s Xploration Challenge – moderated by the talented Reena Saxena

Did I mention I love flash fiction with all the fixins…

It Never Rains… #California #HappyNewYear

“So this is Sunny So Cal. “

“Welcome – we’ve had better days. Right now you can’t see the sun. Pollution always prevents you from seeing it from several parts of LA but the beach is beautiful.”

” What’s that smell?”

“Hmm well we are very close to the ocean and presently there is beach scum a weird phenomenon probably caused by reversed global polarity.”

“Yeah we have noticed in the East that our weather is off but we never smell anything like that.”

” Let’s skip the trip to the coast today. There are other places that I thought you might take me . How about Disney?”

“Yes that’s always a good place to visit but they have posted the limits and the park is already full for the next week.”

” How is that possible?”

” People stay or they are waiting in line until their turn comes up. Ya know we could go north. There are some great wineries once we get out of the valley.”

” I heard many of the best wineries were burned by that last fire y’all had.”

” Oh you mean the So/ North fire? It started in a small forested area but now it connects the no and some of the state. That’s why the air looks brown.”

” I wondered what that burnt smell was. Kind of a combo of over burnt marshmellows and plaxtic mixed with…

“”Well there are many great restaurants in our area. You name it they have it.”

” American?”

“Oh yeah there’s a greasy spoon drive in that’s open.”

” No not really into grease but I do like Middle Eastern.”

” Hmm yes we had a wonderful place the dishes are wonderfully spicy. Someone burned it to the ground. What about seafood? “

“After smelling the seascum I think Ill pass It’s probably radioactive.”

” Well I have a loaf of bread and a can of tuna at my home.”

” Where’s that? “

“Out toward the dessert.”

” Isnt that flames?”

“Well yes yes. We have been evacuated Ive been living in my car. Hmmm How about the airport?”

” Good idea. I think I’ve seen all the best parts of LA. “

“Well please come back and bring some clean air and water with you…”

***

2020 was a crazy year. Hoping that there’s air to breathe and water to drink in 2021 and that Cali gets a break from …

My Tent #home #sixwordstory

I

Pitched

tattered

thing

my

body

This just one of many offerings for the Saturday Six Word Story Prompt.

Photo: “Fisherman’s Shack” copyright moondustdesigns 2016

The Date #wordprompt #sixwords

One

drop

on

the

calendar date

The prompt at 6WSP is Date

In the long run…#photography #microfiction #sixwordstory

old rails

yesterday's memories grasped at forever's horizon

it’s amazing what six words can do.

Check out My Random Ramblings and this is the Saturday Six Word Story (6WSP) Prompt “Forever”. where six words tell powerful stories.

I Smell A Rat #newcago #horticulture #pandemic #flashfiction #reading

 

New Cago was not a very cultured metropolis before the epi & pan demic. Kids were shoving things up their noses or in their veins. It made sense that there was no room for something for the mind to synthesize.

Then the libraries were closed. So most people read their cereal box for entertainment. But Lily kept a lovely assortment of classical and tasteful books.

Her favorite subject was horticulture.

I could read it and be out like a light at the end of a shift.

But after she died, I started noticing her hand writing and circles in the margins.

Hard not to notice what she had been researching before the wild fire epidemic.

Lil, this is bizarre- the night after you died circles started to appear in red.

One of her notes, ” good if given early but a little too much and they won’t wake up – ever.”

Another had lines through it and question marks. “I know this should work but I’m not seeing the results…” and another comment “why is this only working on a few people????”

And another one that rose the hairs on my back it read more like a sci-fi. “Subject should have demonstrated signs of immunity. I inoculated myself at the same time. If my research is correct, he will start to exhibit…”

“Oh Lil.   OH LIL!!!” I took my head and my hands wondering again if her research was the cause of her death.

“Death” some days it sounded so peaceful.

“Sam. Sam.” I heard a pounding on the steel grate of the door.

“Yeah coming. Hey Peely.” Here was the one good kid in the neighborhood.

“This is for you.”The errand boy that we were both so fond of handed me a box. Our eyes looked at each other then at the brown square.

I opened the box. It was that hat with rounded corners. “I’ve been looking at this for months.” The card underneath was in her handwriting.

“Peel, ya know what I hate most about this town?”

“Yeah Sam, I know. It’s so damned lonely.”

“and unpredictable.” My head felt like a pinball machine with the silver ball hitting every bumper and bell possible.

I looked in the envelope flap and saw the four names with the same prefix: R-A-T.

‘And that’s where we will start at cleaning up this mess Lil.’

 

Okay you caught me chasing a pandemic. I’m blogging about elderly issues, but sometimes I get sidetracked.

Reading is important for the elderly. One 90 year old (with Alzheimers) is reading one of his many favorites: a biography about Einstein. The only thing I can understand is the title and the pictures.

Keeping the mind engaged through reading and even the visuals in books is important. We can create new pathways even in an old brain.

 

How do you keep your mind active???

 

 

I’m revamping a Noir crime series I wrote in 2013. The story centered around crime in a metropolis called New Cago but the main antagonist was a deadly disease ( pandemic) lurking in dark corners. If you like Noir and you have time to read come back for more in the days to come. The stories do stand alone so they can be read in any order.

An Old Dilemma part 1

An Old Dilemma part 2

Whats the worst that can happen

Someone Needs to Survive

The Letter L #atozchallenge #noir #fiction

 

I slowly traced the letter “L” in the thick wool carpet. I left her blood stain to help me keep my edge.

“Lily I can’t let go of this. I know you would want me to help”

I felt a tug was it sleep? a drug? pulling me down, down down…

****

A scream erupted the silence

I took off in a sprint into a darkening alley

that sucked me along

Further and further I ran

There’s a wall no way up, no way around.

Then I saw it an old rusty hinged door.

Blocked

A dame screamed

blood splattered onto the backdrop of the fog

 the door slowly opened

 it was more like a portal to…

The bleeding woman was gone

                                                          the place seemed familiar

precariously

I hung on a ladder

no top and no bottom

just endless rungs.

I could taste the sepia tinged air

the haze burned my eyes

another scream reverberated in the ladder’s metal.

I knew this was not Newcago

it seemed wherever I go

someone needs help

I looked down,

considering.

I pulled my makeshift mask

taught against my face

“Climb I must”

***

Happy Tuesday. If you are visiting from the A to Z Challenge, I took the easy way out and took one of my two posts for Tuesday. I’m writing about elderly issues for most of the challenge.

 

NewCago is a noir, metropolitan area that is plagued with a string of  bad guys and a deadly disease without a cure. (these stories written in 2013.) Sam (a private detective) seems to be the only one who can stay alive long enough to protect the citizens. How long can his luck last???