No Escape

Below you will find my 100-word (actually, 99-word) response to this week's Flash Friday Fiction, brought to us as usual by MadisonWoods. You can visit her site and read all the other stories at http://madisonwoods.wordpress.com/flash-fiction/pathways/

No Escape

We call them “wasps”. This is because of the low buzz that drones from their bodies, but they are much worse than an irritating insect. When they sting, they almost always destroy more than one house or car. They circle endlessly over our mud-walled huts, using electronic and infrared devices to seek out those whom someone has identified as a “terrorist” for small sums of silver. If we use the old pathways through the forest, we can sometimes travel without detection, but that is getting harder to do. No one is safe. How can we fight a non-human enemy.

The Heist

This week's 100-word Friday Fictioneer prompt can be found at
http://madisonwoods.wordpress.com/flash-fiction/vertigo/

The Heist

Sirens wailed in pursuit as he raced through the streets, tires screaming in protest at his haste because he had never expected Agents to be waiting for him, but it didn’t take long to lose them and soon he pulled into The Park and, snatching the precious valise and slinging it over his shoulder, he leapt from the car and sprinted to the ball field searching for the rope ladder he knew was waiting to take him away, but when he finally reached the hatch his heart stopped because something was horribly wrong.

This wasn't the MetLife blimp he had ordered!

Desolation

http://madisonwoods.wordpress.com/flash-fiction/desolation/
This week's 100-word Friday Flash Fiction
Photo credit belongs to Douglas McIlroy
(Actually, I wrote two this week, and both are one hundred words ... I guess I liked the prompt)

In The Lab

He straightened his tie, brushing stray wisps of fluff from his lab coat. He hated the fact he always had to tinker with the models at the last minute to make them work correctly. Damn! Someday, Federation funding would be adequate so he could do things right, instead of improvising. But there was no more time for whining. They were here, silently filing into the Observation Quarters. He cleared his throat against the deafening silence. "Gentlemen. We believe this is how tectonics work on this Blue Planet." He pressed the small button on his console, and gears began to grind.

Omens

Perhaps they should have heeded the omen on the desolate mountain pass before descending into the land of whiteskins. Altan shivered at the quiet. It was wrong. Their ponies shied at a rattling wind as they rode through fields grown wild from neglect. Shriveled fruit hung from branches. No tracks or prints marked the unkempt road. They crossed an empty bridge, coming upon clusters of wooden huts. No fires. No lights. The dark land was empty. Then, the crumbling ruins of a village. Human bones littered the ground near the largest stone building.

They must have come here to die.

It's In The Genes

May 24, 2012 Flash Friday Fictioner 100-word story from Madison Woods prompt at http://madisonwoods.wordpress.com/flash-fiction/moths-at-the-drive-through/

It's In The Genes

“Here we are!”

“What’ya mean? That sign says MacDonalds!”

“You sure? … I thought it said Monsanto.”

“Wishful thinking doesn’t bring us home.”

“Ok, Mr. braniac, what’s ‘MacDonalds’?”

“It’s like that Mobil station where we stopped last, only this place is for people too lazy to prepare their own meals to line up and get meat, not gas. I knew I shouldn’t trust you. Dark ones just can’t seem to learn to read”

“Are you saying I’m lazy?”

“No, not laziness … just a question of genetics. Aw heck … since we’re here, we might as well go inside and get some horsemeat.”

Rainbow Promises

Friday Fictioners 5/18/12
This story is written in response to the prompt found at http://madisonwoods.wordpress.com/flash-fiction/rainbows/

Jason stood arrogantly to the side. Phineas Barnum finished another mouthful of dove and grapes. Iris disappeared into the rainbow from whence she came, while Calais and Zetes hovered nearby. The rest of the crew lounged near the banquet table.

“Step right up, son,” Barnum finally bellowed. He added, “You seem trapped between twin dangers.”

“Literally and figuratively,” Jason muttered.

“Well, normally you wouldn’t leave before I found a silver lining in this crowd … but you did rid me of my harpies. Just take one of my doves and follow it closely between the rocks … you probably will get through.”

“Isn’t there an easier way to Georgia?”

Changes

Friday Fictioneers 5/11/12
This story is written in response to this week's photograph at http://madisonwoods.wordpress.com/flash-fiction/moon-and-sky/

Changes

Lying alongside her in the dry grass washed away his fears like the rain that was sure to fall tomorrow would rinse an entire summer’s arid dust from the leaves of his crops. That golden halo augured reprise from a drought that threatened his and everyone’s harvest. The moonlight danced on her face, radiating hope and courage and satisfaction. It had been eight years, to the day, that he had lost his beloved Sasha in the flash flood. Work had become his lifeblood. He had avoided others, erecting a barren cocoon of isolation. Until now.

Tears welled. He softly cried.

Scratching

100-word Flash Fiction: FridayFictioneers
A story inspired by this photo provided by Madison Woods.

Scratching

Dawn looked up, pensively. "What's that noise?"

Keith muted the TV. "Sounds like something scratching inside that wall."

"A mouse?"

"Too big. Listen! There are thumps, too!"

"Keith, should we call someone?"

"No. I'll open it and see what's inside."

Keith started carefully. Five years ago, he had repapered it himself, hoping to take Dawn's mind off the loss of their daughter. Soon, he worked more feverishly. The scratching slowed.

Finally, he had demolished most of the drywall and could see inside.

"It's Trina!"

"How can that be?"

"I don't know. But she hasn't changed a bit in five years!"