It’s almost Halloween, so I’m continuing on with excerpts from several related short stories I wrote this summer, all interconnected and dealing with the apocalypse.

Here’s what we have so far:

• “Special” – a pair of twins with special abilities living in caves due to airstrikes
• “The Graveyard” – a plague kills off most of a western mining town
• “E.L.E.” – two polar opposite campers must work together to survive a meteor strike
• “After the Flood” – a naive, pampered girl tries to survive when the economy crashes and anarchy becomes the ruling system

This week I’m pulling from “Passing,” the story that ties together all the other ones. This excerpt picks up from last week’s.

* * * * * * *

Jet slowed and held his immobilizer ready.

A small boy sat on the forest floor, tear tracks streaking his dirty face. Jet’s specs tried to scan him but blinked out, and he pushed them off his face.

<<Specs are down,>> he sent to Luce.

<<Mine too. I don’t like this.>>

Specs were Spark-proof; they might go down, but both sets at once?

Jet aimed his immobilizer. Just as his finger began to squeeze down on the trigger, the kid winked at him. Static burst across his comlink as the kid mutated into his energy form, and then all went black.

* * * * * * *

I’m planning to release the whole collection next weekend, so you’ll be able to find out just what Sparks are and who Jet is.

Post a link to your eight sentences blog entry, or join the fun at the Weekend Writing Warriors website.

And if you’re a writer, sign up to be a Friday Five author, which gets you and your latest work featured on my blog.

It’s almost Halloween, so for the rest of the month I’ll continue on with excerpts from several related short stories I wrote this summer, all interconnected and dealing with the apocalypse.

Here’s what we have so far:

• “Special” – a pair of twins with special abilities living in caves due to airstrikes
• “The Graveyard” – a plague kills off most of a western mining town
• “E.L.E.” – two polar opposite campers must work together to survive a meteor strike
• “After the Flood” – a naive, pampered girl tries to survive when the economy crashes and anarchy becomes the ruling system

This week I’m pulling from “Passing,” the story that ties together all the other ones.

* * * * * * *

Jet cringed as static crackled over his comlink. It wasn’t loud, and their target was just a kid, but one could never be too sure what Sparks would pick up on. He smacked at his helmet and the line cleared.

<<See him?>> his partner Luce sent over the link.

He scanned the forest around him. <<Negative.>>

<<Roger that – I’m moving towards 325; keep on towards 35.>>

He rolled his eyes – with their link and his specs, he knew exactly where Luce was, and he knew the plan, too; he’d head out in one direction and she’d go the opposite, then after 100 meters they’d move back towards each other. He considered telling her to knock it off with the drama, but she was one of the best in the Department of Threat Assessment and Mitigation. Maybe she was less than professional sometimes, but she always got her Sparks.

* * * * * * *

My goal is to have all these stories polished, compiled, and out by Halloween, but I have several big school projects coming up, so who knows if I’ll meet this self-imposed deadline (although on the other hand, with so many projects I tend to procrastinate on them and focus on other less-pressing stuff, so maybe I’ll get this done soon after all?).

Post a link to your eight sentences blog entry, or join the fun at the Weekend Writing Warriors website.

And if you’re a writer, sign up to be a Friday Five author, which gets you and your latest work featured on my blog.

For September I’ll be pulling from several related short stories I wrote this summer, all dealing with the apocalypse.

Here’s what we have so far:

• “Special” – a pair of twins with special abilities living in caves due to airstrikes
• “The Graveyard” – a plague kills off most of a western mining town
• “E.L.E.” – two polar opposite campers must work together to survive a meteor strike

This week the story is “After the Flood.” It’s a bit more political than the other stories – a naive, pampered girl tries to survive when the economy crashes and anarchy becomes the ruling system.

* * * * * * *

Looking back, what happened was a lot like when a dam bursts. There are little warning signs at first, like maybe there’s more water flowing out than normal, or tiny little cracks that the engineers only notice if they’re watching closely, but of course they’re not watching closely; they’re in the control room with their feet up, looking at porn on the internet. And then there’s a boom, water is everywhere, and in the aftermath half the towns downstream are littered with trees, chunks of houses, and dead bodies.

Our situation was similar. If you read the papers, you’d see little signs: “Multinational Bank lays off 5000 workers;” “Factory closing devastates BFE town;” “Police arrest hundreds of protesters after pipeline spills into waterway.” Or, more likely, you’d read the papers and not see any signs because they weren’t getting reported.

I certainly didn’t notice any impending doom, at least when I was in the moment. I didn’t think to hire myself a mercenary to guard my house, or cash out all my stock options and buy a thousand batteries and cans of chicken noodle soup, or build a bunker in the backyard or buy a remote cabin in Montana.

But my grandpa did.

* * * * * * *

Based on a comment from last week’s post, I think I’m going to compile all these stories, plus a couple more, into an ebook. Look for more details in the next few weeks.

Post a link to your eight sentences blog entry, or join the fun at the Weekend Writing Warriors website.

And if you’re a writer, sign up to be a Friday Five author, which gets you and your latest work featured on my blog.