Day's End - Micro-fiction
The wastrels were dragging something along the beach. Mindy and I hid in the tall grass. It seemed we were always hiding.
She hunkered down. “Maybe we could walk to the next town. It’s only seven or eight miles.”
“No, it’s not safe. They are out in force, now.”
“Bobby, I can’t take this anymore. I live in constant fear. There’s no place to hide.”
I didn’t answer. Because there was no answer. If we stayed, the wastrels would find us. They were vicious survivalists, bearing knives and hand-made nunchucks. The most frightening weapon looked like a cat-o-nine tails -- capable of maiming one of us in a single blow. But how could we get away?
It was nearly sunset. Mindy looked to the road. “No one has come along in days.”
“I know. I fear they have taken over the surrounding towns.” I touched the dead cell phone in my pocket -- the last vestige of the society we once knew.
On the beach, some of the shabbily-clad children were chanting around a fire. Others were laughing, stomping, shaking weapons. When the fire reduced to embers, they heaped the thing upon it. I heard it sizzle and burn.
Mindy grabbed her nose, trying not to sneeze. Then she did, quietly, her dirty fingers squeezing tightly.
One child looked toward us, sniffing the air.
I grabbed the pack. “Come on.” We crouched and crossed the road. Ahead of us was a canopy of forest, and the mountains beyond. Somehow, we would survive.
Thanks for reading! This is my micro-fiction story of the week, based on the "sunset" prompt. It is exactly 250 words. Each week I run a micro-fiction contest (here's last week's contest post), and participate just for fun.
Note: Image sourced from Pixabay.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://jaynalocke.com/2019/01/19/days-end-micro-fiction/
Beautifully done. I'm with Katrina, and hope they make it to safety.
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Thank you for reading and commenting, @crescendoofpeace!
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You're welcome. Glad to read your entry.
Fantastic! Way to set a mood. I hope they survive.
Thank you, @katrina-ariel!
So this is your pared down version? It's great. I'd love to see the original if you'd like to provide it. I have no idea how you come up with so much in five minutes. None of mine have been over 180 words! But I might try to get one down to 100 to enter it that way.
That's boggles my mind. I hope I can do that someday. thanks!
It's fun when it happens. Sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn't. The "muse" is fickle.
Actually, the story came out this way the first time. 😊
I wrote it as a micro-fiction piece, but I did not start with a timed freewrite. Sometimes I do quite a bit of editing. In this case, it was just a few words here and there.
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