I will never forget the night when I last saw my family. I'm not sure how, because it has been so long. It started out like an ordinary day. My siblings and I rushed through our morning routines so we could catch the bus and my parents did their best to hurry us along, so they could leave for work. School was just like everyday before it and, I assume, that if it weren't for that night, every day after. I got off the bus and walked home, and just like every day after school, I started my homework and took a break to eat dinner. After dinner, I took a walk in the nearby park. It was autumn and the light breeze made the temperature perfect for a nice stroll. This is where my day took a sharp turn for the worse. I heard a baby crying in a car and even though I had been warned that was a ruse used by "bad guys" I thought nothing bad could happen to me, after all it was a small town in the daylight, even though the sun was going down within the hour. I was unbelievably wrong. I walked up beside the car, when out of nowhere I was pulled into the car and hit over the head with what I assumed was a crowbar. When I regained consciousness, I kept my eyes closed, but I could hear at least one person talking, barely loud enough to be heard above the sound of the local news station on the radio. I couldn't hear what was being said, but I just stayed as still as possible. I must have been out cold for a long time because when I finally mustered up the courage to open my eye, ever so slightly, and saw the morning sun. I still do not understand why we stayed in the car so long. It would have been safer if we would have gone directly into the house where we stay now, but my captor has evaded capture for nearly nine years, so I guess she knew what she was doing. She is a mean alcoholic. The first couple of months I tried relentlessly to escape, but to no avail. Every time I tried she caught me, she became more aggressive. She drowned out my screams with more to drink and the more she drank, the harder she hit. It took me a while to learn this correlation, but when I did, I stopped yelling as much as I did before. She kept me in a tiny little box in the corner of what I think was her basement, but it doubled as her "laboratory." She would bring all kinds of animals down and do experiments on them when they were still alive. It started with bugs and rodents, but she has continuously been bringing down larger ones, like cats and more recently dogs. After every single one of her failing experiments she would mumble under her breath, three times "Nothing shocks me. I'm a scientist." She proceeds to throw her animal of choice into a garbage bag and takes a huge swig of what ever she is drinking that particular day. She only takes the bag out at the end of the week, so it smells and attracts all kinds of bugs and rats. They come over to me all the time, running up and down my legs and doing their business all over the place. In the beginning, I would cry and try to get them off of me, but now it's one of the many things that have become normal to me. I have asked her what that means she means when she says that and why it is always three times. But when I speak she gets mad and lashes out, so I am usually as quiet as possible when she works. It is typical of her to write down anything she finds to be interesting in a large notebook that is so gross that I can hear the pages being unstuck from across the room when she opens it up. Maybe if I was stronger than I would have found a way out by now, but I can't handle the pain. I guess that's my own fault. I wish I was stronger because all I want is to see my family and know that they are okay. I feel like I have missed so much of my life stuck in this predicament. I feel as though it is almost my time to be apart of one of her experiments. I'm still trying to figure out what she is trying to accomplish by these inhuman acts, but I think it may be more sadistic than anything else.
She seems to enjoy the squeals that propel from the bottom of the poor little creatures. I never understood that, she hated it when I screamed. Maybe she thought that someone would her me, maybe she is just really messed up. She hasn't let me see the light of day since I have been here, but I think that has made it better, I think it would bring back memories that would only hurt me; I have spent so much time trying to block out all those things in order to cope with my new situation. It would be like ripping the band-aid right off if I saw outside again while still being stuck in here. The image of the sun and stars and grass are slowly fading from my memory. I have to go through the night I was taken everyday so I don't forget, but I won't forget, I will never let that one go. I don't remember much about my life before her, but I had a really great family who loved me more than anything in the world. They always told me they wouldn't let anything bad happen to me, but I guess life didn't go our way. Part of me hopes they haven't stopped looking for me, but I wouldn't blame them if they did, they need to move on. Nothing is the same as it was when I got here. I'm bigger, but my muscles have withered away, probably because I haven't done much moving and now when I try it hurts so bad that I give up almost instantaneously. The future doesn't look to bright for me, but I can't give up now, not after all this time.
This story left me with so many questions, I love it. Boy or girl? Who knows. How old are they? Good question. Where did she take her/him? Even better question. If you were to continue this story and make it a full-blown book, would you have any other answers to these questions? And as you wrote this story, do you have any further explanations on this story already made up that you just excluded in order to leave the reader with questions? Did you come up with an ending to this story?
Your story is pretty creepy and it makes the reader wonder about a lot of things and leaves somethings to their imagination. Your vocabulary and adjectives were very good and helped a lot with the story.
Part 1 As I walked through the familiar automatic sliding glass doors, I was faced with the smell of bleach and cleaner. Another appointment. Another chance to see if anyone knew what was going on. Another doctor, another medical bill. Another thing that I couldn't afford. Another thing I didn't want to deal with. It started when I was seventeen. The appointments, the doctors, the medications. The unexplained. They thought it was cancer. All different types. Although each time they diagnosed me with early signs of a certain type of cancer, the symptoms would go away. Bone cancer, brain tumors, skin cancer, lung cancer, almost any kind you could think of. Every medical scan they performed on my body rarely showed signs of anything. Doctors were confused. My family was worried. I couldn't go to school much anymore. If I didn't have a doctors appointment, I stayed home because of new and growing pains in different areas of my body. Sometimes I got sick. Very sick. It was worse than a fever or the common cold. I experienced seizures, fainting, you name it, I've been there. My parents grew increasingly unsteady about my recovery, if one was ever to be had. I could no longer attend school regularly, so my parents signed me up for an online school. With the increasing medical bills, they could barely even afford to provide me with education at all. I did, however, attain my GED. It wasn't very hard for me. It was the end of my junior year when I was forced to educate myself from home, and, being one of the top ranks in my class, most of the online schooling came easy to me. The next problem, however, came with college education. I my parents couldn't afford it, and neither could I. I had a job before I became sick, I worked at a local sports clothing shop down by the boardwalk. But both my boss and my parents decided that it would be best if I discontinued working after I started having unexplainable outbursts of pain in different locations of my body. I had no money, I couldn't afford college. My parents barely had enough money to support my medical needs, and not many schools were willing to provide scholarships or financial aid to me due to my increasing illness. So when my parents could no longer afford my bills, I lived off of the government. I had no other choice. I couldn't work, even on the days where I felt good. No place would hire me because of my inability to keep a consistent schedule. Occasionally I wrote articles for the local newspaper, although they didn't enter my articles very often and they payed me very little. The only other source of income I had was the money that they payed me to be a test subject for new medications that could possibly give me some relief from this illness which dominated my life. Despite my lack of income, I had to keep up with the appointments. The hospital was like my second home. They prescribed me antibiotics, vitamin supplements, almost anything you could think of. Some of them helped for a little bit, but they always seemed to stop after about a month. Each time one of them worked, I got my hopes up just a little bit. The hopes that life could give me a sort of refund, in a way. The hopes that one day, I would be freed rom this sickness and be able to lead a normal life, with a college education, a wife, and children. With a job that payed well, a perfect family, and a chance for me to make up the time of my life that I lost to the illness that I was enduring now. But each time, my hopes came crashing back to earth when I was once again faced with the reality of my problems.
Part 2 I was familiar with the routine. I would go to a doctor, they would prescribe me medicine. It would work, then it wouldn't. They would send me to a physical therapist, an emotional therapist, or some other person who would try to make my life seem like it wasn't so bad. Then they would give me another medicine. It would work, then it wouldn't. "I'm sorry," they'd say. "we can't seem to help you here. Our hospital isn't advanced enough to figure out the problem." Then, after that, they would almost always suggest I visit a different doctor, someone they were friends with, who knew a lot more about these types of sicknesses and would have the technology and knowledge to help me. It was a lie, it all was. Nobody knew anything. At all. And with this routine of appointments, I somehow reached my way to the top of the medical world, working with the best doctors in the country. Even then, most of them were confused. Eventually, I found myself in a lull. A period of time when I had seen almost every doctor, and there was nothing to be done but test, retest, and experiment more on my body. I was twenty three at this point, and all of these tests seemed pointless to me. The same routines, over and over. Tests, no results. Scans, no results. Everything was sending mixed signals. After every one of my tests, Dr. Balfe was always the doctor to provide me with the results. Each time, he gave me about the same answer. This time, however, the routine diagnostics meeting was a bit different. He was scheduling me a meeting with a different doctor, one who had recently proved himself to be a world-renowned doctor. His name was Dr. Michalski. That is how I ended up here today, in a hospital in Missouri, taking in the all-too-familiar scent and sight of the hospital. I was having my first meeting with this doctor. I expected it to go like every single one of my other appointments, with confusion and unanswered questions. Looking back on it now, it pretty much did. I was called into his office almost as soon as I got there. Here we go, I thought. Time to start this all over again. "Good morning, Mr. Tenison. It is nice to meet you." We ran through all of the standard formalities which are the basis of every new encounter. "I'm going to be honest with you," he said, "I do not know much about your case, and I'm not sure if I will be able to help you. However, I will do my best. Would you mind running me through a synopsis of your problem?" So I did. I started from the beginning. He analyzed my story, took some notes. I told him of how nobody was able to help me, how nothing was ever discovered on any of my problems. He seemed unamused. Great, the last doctor who might be able to help me doesn't even have the slightest hint of interest in my problem. I was getting angry. I broke out. "I've been seeing doctors for the past six years of my life, and not even the best in the world can help me. Doesn't any of this scare you? Shock you? Interest you? Anything?" "Nothing shocks me anymore, Mr. Tenison," He said. "Im a scientist who concerns himself with medical issues. And while your case is unusual, I am not scared, but I am interested. I do not, at the moment, know where to start with you, but I will put my thoughts into this case, and I will do everything in my power to discover the root of your illness." Now, I am twenty seven, and this man is the reason I am still here.
Your story was rather sad at first and continued that way the whole time until the very end. Glad there was a happy ending. It was very well written and I liked it.
I like how your story doesn't revolve around a scientist, but rather a young adult who is going to many doctors who consider themselves to be scientist. It made me wonder what was wrong with the patient; was it a psychosomatic illness, or something totally "made up"? I think it was a good addition to talk about the struggles associated with being sick that are some times over looked like dropping out of school and not being able to afford college or pay the medical bills.
I was really hoping someone who be able to help the patient in the story and the doctor in the ending did just that. I really enjoyed the perspective you had with this prompt because it included the views of many different scientists and I was glad that the story had a happy ending.
The crash echoed across the empty barren wasteland that I once called my home.
CRASH!
Over to the south there was the place where Aria and I would go when we would skip. Those days when the Proctors thought they knew what they were doing, keeping the thing hidden.
BA BOOM
I turned back to look at Lulu, sweet little Lulu, my only family left after the first of the Explosions. She had just turned five last month. I remember that night like it was only yesterday.
~~~~~~~Happy birthday, sweet Lulu, happy birthday to you!
All you could see was a bright face smiling over a huge cake, disastrously decorated by yours truly. It came out of the oven completely burnt, but Lulu would have nothing of it. She said it was perfect and refused to let me drive to the store for another cake. It’s not like our parents were going to do that for her. They were too into their work, something about making the world the best it has ever been. They work in this huge corporation called the Agency, which hires scientists worldwide to come up with the cure to the Plague, their first failed plan of world betterment. When the Plague was new, it was never called anything bad. It was the new thing, what everyone wanted and needed.~~~~~~~~~~~~
CLANG
The next Explosion wakes me out of my reverie into the reality of the Rebels killing off people by the hundreds. The only thing they wanted was the people who made the plague to be silenced like they were. That and to get the Cure for everyone, not the few that the government will give them to, even though they have enough for everyone.
“Lulu! Follow me; we have to get out of here.” We can’t end up like Aria.
She whimpered but followed me nonetheless. She’s tough for a five year old, most of her class at Primary had been killed by now, being too loud or scared or sobbing. I go too hard on her sometimes because I forget just how old she actually is.
“Listen, when we get out of this, we can have a big house and blankets and movies and candy. I will get you anything you want. Okay? We just have to get out of this.”
“I want mommy back,” she said, while looking deep into my eyes, as if to see my soul through them.
I stopped in my tracks, staring at her. “You know that isn’t possible.”
She sighs and looks down, “I know,” she looks up at me, almost pleading me with her eyes, “But they aren’t really bad people, are they? God still loves them, right?”
Like he even cares about us now. “Yeah. Yeah, darling he does.” I said this through a lightly veiled film of anger, never being able to forgive those two wretched people I had once loved for what they had done to me.
~~~~~“I think I got it!” James called gleefully across the lab to his wife. “I think I made the Cure!”
She comes leisurely strolling up to her husband, as she had heard this exclamation many times a week. “Really,” she drawls out, unbelievingly. They made the Plague, making the people think they were buying something to help them be the best they could ever be. Rather, they were taking a free poison that would make them go completely crazy until they were able to get the Cure. The whole plan was under the table dealing with the government to make the people listen and depend on them more.
“Look at this! The subject is back to normal on all their vitals. I really think this one worked!”
She looked through the charts on the subject, all of them showing results of going back to normal. She knew she was a scientist, but she still felt some remorse with the whole study. She looked up at her husband, “None of this was abnormal? Nothing odd or off about it at all?”
He scoffed in her direction. “Please. You would think you would know if the subject was back to normal, what with us knowing him his whole life.”
She sighed, realizing this was true. Nothing should surprise her, being a scientist in this era and whatnot. She still felt that pang of guilt of testing unknown materials on someone so close to her heart, her only son.~~~~~~
Anyone who reads mine, I am very sorry, but I could not get the italics to work, so the sections of text with (~~~~) these around them are supposed to be italics.
I really love your approach to the prompt. I like how it is only dialogue. It sets the scene in a very unique but also very effective manor. I also think that it is a really creepy and thoughtful situation. Great work.
First of all, write a book. Second of all, give me that book. And third of all, I really like your story. It reminds me of the first chapter of a book that I would definitely read. It leaves us with questions, and it ends with a sort of cliffhanger. I also think that your use of italics (sort of 😂) create the perfect feel for a flashback, and they give your writing so much more body. I like this a lot. Good job!
My name is Dr. Antonio Watson and I am a scientist. I am famously known for my interviews where I am asked questions about scientific discoveries and I relay information to the public about how these scientific acts are possible. I am always able to show how these things occurred by giving facts and showing examples of these situations occurred. I am also famous for my saying "Nothing shocks me. I'm a scientist." I've worked on many cases and showed how science effects everyday life. One of my recent interviews was about two twins that where born connected at the head and surgeons were able to successfully separate them. I was able to explain many of the procedures used in this surgery and explained how it is possible for both of the infants to still be alive. The surgery took over 35 hours to complete. When the interviewer asked me the question "Dr. Watson are you shocked at how long it took for the surgery to happen?" I replied with "Nothing shocks me. I'm a scientist. It makes since that with all of the procedures required that it took as long as it did." Another case that I covered was that of a United States Marine that had the entire left side of his face ripped off due to shrapnel from a grenade explosion. The marine was able to get surgery that placed new skin on his face and an ear that had been grown on a mouse. When talking about this the interviewer asked "Doctor are you shocked that after the surgery the marine is able to look so natural with an ear that was grown on an animal?" I replied with "Nothing shocks me. I'm a scientist. It makes sense that the ear looks so natural because it was grown from actual human cells." I did interviews on global warming, surgeries, technology, animal experiments, human behavior, and countless other topics. I had done dozens of interviews and I was fully convinced that nothing could shock me. All of this was proven to be false however, due to the discovery of an astronaut in space. This was no ordinary astronaut however. Five years prior to his discovery this astronaut had been planning to return to Earth with his crew. Before starting the flight home, he needed to go to the outside of his ship and do some repairs. While he was out there the tether that had been keeping him attached to the ship broke. The signal on his space suit was still close enough to the ship to connect and because of this the pilot thought that he was on board. The ship began its return to Earth and no one realized that they had left that astronaut behind until they returned to Earth. NASA decided that it would be impossible to find his body in the abundance of space and that he was surely dead by now, so no mission was ever sent out to look for him. Five years later at a Russian space station the members on board notice an object floating by in the distance and went out to retrieve it. The object was the American astronaut that had been lost in space five years ago. The craziest part was that when they brought him on board they noticed that is suit was still functioning and it relayed the information that he still had a pulse. They later woke him up and returned him to Earth alive. I knew that I was going to be asked to do an interview because of how amazing it was that this mans body was still after being in space for five years. After examining his suit I noticed that where his tether broke off was a large hole. As soon as it opened up it would have instantly frozen his body and stopped all of his blood flow. His helmet stayed air tight for five years though because it was being charged from the solar panels on his suit that were getting energy from the sun. His body had been frozen and preserved for five years. This was truly amazing and in my interview when I was asked if I was shocked to see that this man was still alive after all that time in space I had to tell the truth and say that I was truly shocked that he was able to live through all of the things his body had been through.
I like how your story starts off with the scientist never being shocked, but then there is something so bizarre that he must say he didn't see it coming. I like how there were two things that are a little out there that he sort of brushed off, but then the last one he was amazed by. I also think it was interesting that you set it up as an interview style, but it still told a story.
I think you did an extremely good job incorporating the necessary quote into your blog very fast and effectively. It really does set the scene for the rest of the story. I also really loved your ending. Great job.
Part 1- "The Wild, Whispering Woods" Larue Latimer, but a humble navigator of the tumultuous forest was I. The years just before the day of my birth marked the time in which the world, as my kinsfolk knew it, was thrown into complete and utter disarray. The woods defined us so, from that day forward, forever scorning the thick of our town with the label of "hell on earth". Demi-human creatures skittered and scattered among the towering timber surrounding the disaster-site, their eerie clicks and the pop of electricity being the only warning one would detect just before their foretold demise. The government had resorted to "endorsing" those of us that had so unceremoniously been referred to as the "Felkistown few", as we seemed to be the only souls unaffected by the chaotic waves of radiation the area of anomalies seemed to undulate. That was what baffled most- the fact that the majority of their aerial forces couldn't come within 80 miles of the site- without losing all function of the craft. Mother Earth seemed to condemn any machinery or high-tech equipment that dare enter the chaotic perimeters, rendering most technology useless. The big brains of the political and scientific worlds alike declared that we had again entered "the time in which man must prevail with his own two hands", which marked the beginning of tragic tours into the depths of the disaster itself. Those of the Felkistown few that remained in our homeland, though not necessarily by choice, served as guides to the endless stream of young men and women that came pouring in to try their luck. Most became mere examples of what the next was not to do, while others were remembered only by their echoing cries of agony and regret. Headlines circulated constantly, mostly pertaining to the infamous beasts that were more or less equal to the hellhounds of the wilderness. I recall one article in particular describing their unusual epidermis, and how it proved to be impermeable to all our known firearms. Some officials suggested simply launching a large-scale bombing of the area, to be rid of the eerily man-like demons once and for all. Though this hastily-construed plan bore no fruit, as it would likely only succeed in pushing the beings further from their radioactive home, since they had withstood all else that had been thrown at them.
Despite it all, I could never forget the morning of my very first tour, and how thickly dread weighed over my head. I'd finally reached the age where the few laws that had sheltered me from the horrors expired, which meant I too would have to fulfill my duty as a guide to the foolish. Little Larue, that was me, characterized by the shock of red insulating my skull. Only then I feared I was about to associated with a different sort of red entirely.
Part 1 It was an evening of terrible weather, the stream of rain seemed as if it would never, as did the pounding of the thunder. A terrible night it truly was, and it surely set the scene for the events to come. As I tossed and turned, trying to block out the constant noise of the storm, I felt a presence, the presence of something, someone that is not quite like anyone or anything I've ever felt. The feeling that I was being watched lingered throughout the night, and I eventually became paranoid, grabbing my father's shotgun for protection. The gun did little to suppress my fears. Instead, I found a marvelous hiding spot behind the front door, a place where I decided was safest because it was out of sight from any window. So, there I sat trembling with fear and grasping my father's gun because I knew something was off. I must of been sitting there for hours, or what felt like hours just waiting for my parents to come home from the block party down the street, but they never came. I called, and I called, but there phones must have been off because they did not answer. So I decided it was best to just sit in my hiding spot and wait until they got back home because it would definitely have to be soon. As I sat, I began to dose off. I began to forget of my fears and fall into the temptations of sleep, a thing I could have surely used at the time. So as I began to fall asleep using my father's gun as a pillow, I heard a scratch at the door. I immediately jumped, finding the trigger to the shotgun as fast as I could. I knew it could not be my parents for they have a key and would have just walked in knowing I should be asleep. So my anxieties increased, as I began to fear the worst. The scratchin persisted over an over, the same slow scratching continued, each one increasing my adrenaline and heart rate. I do not remember what it was, but something came over me. I began to think to myself, if I just open the door and have my shotgun pointed, how could someone be prepared for that? I knew I had the upper hand. So, I eventually gathered up the nerve to open the door. I flung it open, and shut my eyes ready to blow the guy's head right off, but to my surprise, that would not be needed. In fact, none of this would be needed because it was simply a stray dog causing me all this grief. I, being a devout dog lover, instantly forgot all my fears and took the animal inside to feed and care for. The dog had a personality I've never seen, he was always happy and energetic like a new born baby, even though his life looked like it could have ended at the very moment. He was a rather small dog but had the appetite of a lion. The more food I gave him the more he wanted, never seeming to be satisfied. It was as if he was a teen boy in the middle of his growth spurt. I swear he was growing by the second due to the food given to him.
Part 2 I know this couldn't be true, but as my biology teacher at Cal U always says to my class, "Nothing shocks me. I'm a scientist." I have always tried to live by that motto, but the rapid growth of this dog before my eyes was putting that line to shame. There is no way this can be happening. I put the food away to stop myself from thinking I was crazy, but as soon as I did, the animal seemed to become possessed by a demon or something that would turn even the most innocent of creature into a monster. It began to attack my house, destroying everything in sight, I'm sure it would of destroyed me, but I climbed on the top of my counter escaping its possessed jaws. This vicious rampage continued for ten or fifteen minutes, and then his demeanor changed. The dog seemed to have been struck by a tranquilizer. He instantly passed out. I rushed to make sure it was still breathing, and that he was however there was blood pouring from his mouth. My science classes taught me that this has occurred from internal bleeding, and boy, I could not have been more right. The animal still passed out began seizing, his stomachs began to rupture. His stomach exploded, and what came out made me question everything I know. It was a creature I never saw before. It was not from this planet, of that I am certain. I wanted to get a better look at it, but as fast as it came out it left screaming through my front door. After that day, I've been looked at as the crazy man who thinks there is life out there other than our own, but I know there is, I saw it. My parents may have not believed me, my friends may have not believed me, but they will see. They will see when the creature comes back. I won't just be the crazy old man living in a nursing home. I'll be the savior, the one who warned everyone, but know one listened.
Part 1: The year was 1E 37, the Martian atmosphere was thick with heat and sand. It had only been 37 years since the inhabitation of Mars and the situation on the ground was worsening. The United Space and Planetary Exploration Corps had cut of the supply of care packages from earth because a Third World War had broken out. Mars had civilization, it in fact had three; Euphon, Eris, and Platonei. Each was considered to be a capitol. Euphon was on the equator, Eris in the North Pole, and Platonei in the South Pole. Each of these capitals was bound by the Martian Capitalization Act. It was set up so each capitol could control a region of Mars. The system was strong, but governed by the United Nations back on earth. When the UN split due to the war, Mars has been cut off of supply for nearly a year. This is a major problem because Mars cannot support life without aid from earth. Our only means of contact and transportation to earth was the USPEC frigate and capitol ships that brought supplies to the red planet. In the recent months, Mars began experiencing raids from enemy factions on earth. They came in hijacked USPEC ships, which made us figure we were receiving undeclared aid from earth. The raids were set up to steal large amounts of mineral X, an unnamed element recently discovered on Mars which houses 10 times more energy than uranium. I assume they want it to power war industry, or new vehicles and weapons. The raiders were almost like pirates. They worked under a black flag and did whatever they needed to obtain their treasure. I, Doctor Antoine J. Toulouse, am a head mineral X technician, engineer, and scientific researcher. I work with the Eris Association of Energy in leu of finding more effective ways to release energy from mineral X. The mineral powers our civilization on Mars. I also work in conjunction with Mineral X power plants from Euphon and Platonei. The raids of our power source will eventually leave us with no power and hundreds of thousands dead. The Martian atmosphere has no gasses fit for human respiration, it experiences temperatures as high as 380 degrees Fahrenheit and as low as negative 100, and experiences violent storms with extremely high winds. If we had no power our protective energy domes would drop and leave our structures vulnerable. The raids continue to occur, now by many different factions and more frequently.
Part 2: So my current employment, and the employment of thousands of other scientists has changed to utilize what is left our precious mineral to build a huge capitol ship, using Mineral X as Its power source, to take us to an earth like planet outside of our galaxy. It would be the first intergalactic travel. We have not much time, only about a year before we are exhausted from our provisions of food in every capitol. I am heading the operation. One day about one week from completion of our project, my lead engineer told me that he had received information that a planetary occupation fleet was approaching from earth capable of destroying every last soul on Mars and our capitol ship. The engineer said, "Does any news shock you, we need to ramp up our completion of this ship or we will all perish including our ship, they may be even less than a week out!" I said, "we can't rush perfection, we'll make it, and of course nothing shocks me I'm a scientist." The day of completion came and the occupation fleet had arrived. They immediately went to Euphon to occupy the center of the planet, only every remaining inhabitant traveled to Eris to board the completed capitol ship. They were confused, but immediately proceeded to Eris. We were pressed for time to get our massive ship out of the atmosphere. Everyone was boarded, but the core was cold and needed to warm up so the engines could fire. We could see the occupation fleet coming down upon us. Just then, the engines of our massive ship fired and we were airborne. The captain of Red Star, our new ship, opened fire on the occupation fleet's capitol ship with our massive energized photon cannon destroying it with one hit. We then broke the atmosphere with some frigates still on our tail, we jumped to hyperspace and destroyed them in our massive slip space rupture. We had escaped Mars. The Red star was on course and we would soon enjoy peace and relish in our technological achievements. I felt very accomplished to head such a great operation, but even more happy to have saved the lives of thousands now safely on board. We had achieved, with Mineral X, something never achieved before.
Your story really kept me on the edge of my seat. I was afraid that the crew was not going to escape Mars or the war in space. It was very creative and fun and shows a new perspective on a scientist because it was based in space and new technologies.
Nothing shocks me. I am a scientist. It is now 2045 and I work for the President of the United and I conduct experiments and work on projects for him to aid his work. My most famous work is as a lawyer who focuses mainly on taking science and ethics cases in Washington D.C. I have seen many interesting cases and worked on numerous projects for the president and for the citizens of Washington D.C. After the years I had thought that I had seen everything or solved every case because in addition to my law degree I have a degree in science. I would consider myself more of a scientist, but I could never find a stable job in this occupation, hence my job as a lawyer. On one crisp Tuesday morning, I had been taking a walk through the park when a a women came running up to me. She asked me if I was the the science ethicist lawyer in the Washington D.C and asked me to represent her in her case. Little did I know that this would be a case in which the entire country would be involved in. This women was none other than the First Lady of the United States. This was the biggest court case I would have to take on in my entire career, at least so far. Anyway I walked into the court room with my head held high and confident I would win the case. The court room was completely empty. I looked around confused and I wanted to figure out what was going on. I looked back to the First Lady and I could not believe my eyes because she was not really the First Lady. On the television screen next to this women was a live news report of the First Lady giving a speech with the President in California. This imposter was a clone. I woke up in a room with all white walls and I escaped the room to find a clone that was made of myself. I could not believe my eyes and I was truly shocked. I had been recruited to help create a clone army for a scientist in Washington D.C. who wanted to overthrow the government. If I agreed, I would be betraying my country, but if I disagreed I would surely die. I knew my only chance was to escape. I quickly ran to find my clone that had been made and I used it as a decoy. I was able to slip out the back and return to the White House. I had warned to President of the plans of the scientist and was honored when he asked me to represent the case in court. I entered the court room which was packed with people and presented my case. The scientist was thrown in jail and his plans for cloning people were destroyed due to their unethical ways. Cloning any person is unethical, especially the First Lady of the United States. I can now say that I have been shocked as a scientist in this case of cloning, but I'm sure nothing in my future can be as shocking as this case.
"GOOD morning, you MUST be Larue!" The way he'd said my name sounded as if he would've dreaded seeing any other.
I turned from the bench where I'd been lacing my boot- casting a stale look over toward the doorway. The man barely blocked any sunlight that filtered in, in other words, he was just a wee thing. At first glance, the atmosphere of him wasn't all that different from any other I'd seen head in, he carried himself with same naivety that'd taken so many lives prior to his arrival.
"I'm Damien Cyprien, pleased to make your acquaintance." He must've took my silence as a "how do you do?", because before I knew it, he was slapping my shoulder like we were old chums.
I shrugged away from his gloved mitt without guilt, shortly thereafter rising to my full height and nodding somewhat politely at the cheeky chump I was to guide. "Right, I've been given orders to set off in no less than twenty minutes." It was true I had, but I mostly just yearned for him to stop talking.
The coily-tufted fellow had responded with something of a "righto" before the equipment shed was cloaked in a temporary silence. I donned the gear necessary to ensure at least some minuscule level of protection, though I snorted in disdain at the thought of how it wouldn't matter if I were fried alive.
"All set, Larue?" The young man chirped almost impatiently, the clacking of his peculiar instruments already giving me a bit of a headache.
On our long trek to the mere starting point of the doomed-to-be hellish tour Damien took it upon himself to learn a bit about who would be navigating him through the unforgiving wilderness. He asked meaningless things of me, or at least, they should've been meaningless to him.
All too soon though, we'd entered the "ring of fire", as some called it. There was no mistaking it. Towering pines were twisted and distorted as if they were made of rubber, making for a rather inconvenient path of travel. The bright smile Damien had been wearing turned to a respectful pucker, the mechanized gloves he wore so proudly were held out in front of his relatively small body. The weight of anticipation weighed heavy on him, it seemed, as it did with me as well. Only a much sicker thought had crossed my mind, even after having relinquished rather personal information to this fellow I barely knew. Perhaps that was why I had been so open- because I thought he might not live to tell another soul either way. That was before the whispers began. We both paused, without words, and without need for visual confirmation. There was certainly one gazing upon us, waiting and watching. I spared a look at the gloved man from my peripherals- sweat carving a path down my forehead. In that moment- that millisecond of distraction from my surroundings- it descended. I could feel it's warm, heavy breath on the back of my neck. The creature flung itself from the clot of trees just behind me, landing between us with as much grace that could be accredited to it's many appendages. For a moment only the crackling of electricity and the sniffering of its nostrils filled my canals, as my eyes were too blinded by the utter hideousness of its body to fully alienate one specific detail. Deciding it was, likely trying to figure which man wasn't tied to the area, and it quickly deduced just who was who. Three of its sparking arms flew at Damien, followed by a resounding "boom". Before I knew it, I was thrown back, my spine smacking hard against the bark. There were moments were black danced at the edges of my vision, and my ears rung, but I forced my head to clear. I lifted my head from the dirt to find the creature gone, leaving a sizzling heap of man in its wake. Only this man was very much alive- laughing even.
"H-how?" I struggled for words, my cranium still pounding from the delayed hit I'd taken.
"Nothing shocks me," He'd said, flexing his electrified mitts.
![#702
“Nothing shocks me. I’m a scientist.”
[This one is from a set of 300 Common Core aligned writing prompts that I put together.]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vM5u4Iqwo315fmlnOpXrYILlGpVLuTx4iPS_iFrTJwgOX5O3p01zrMzA7GPCmnTUbxl5uX4FtBhJMocCo1H2NtyTmWgV5crywDEQgGY_Ls3fEsBdM4YA7v_3jT20n35KHCeV5Tn3xfV78mebJP5UCkyJ3TGBZTVhYjXcGZDumvGNg=s0-d)
I will never forget the night when I last saw my family. I'm not sure how, because it has been so long. It started out like an ordinary day. My siblings and I rushed through our morning routines so we could catch the bus and my parents did their best to hurry us along, so they could leave for work. School was just like everyday before it and, I assume, that if it weren't for that night, every day after. I got off the bus and walked home, and just like every day after school, I started my homework and took a break to eat dinner. After dinner, I took a walk in the nearby park. It was autumn and the light breeze made the temperature perfect for a nice stroll. This is where my day took a sharp turn for the worse. I heard a baby crying in a car and even though I had been warned that was a ruse used by "bad guys" I thought nothing bad could happen to me, after all it was a small town in the daylight, even though the sun was going down within the hour. I was unbelievably wrong. I walked up beside the car, when out of nowhere I was pulled into the car and hit over the head with what I assumed was a crowbar. When I regained consciousness, I kept my eyes closed, but I could hear at least one person talking, barely loud enough to be heard above the sound of the local news station on the radio. I couldn't hear what was being said, but I just stayed as still as possible. I must have been out cold for a long time because when I finally mustered up the courage to open my eye, ever so slightly, and saw the morning sun. I still do not understand why we stayed in the car so long. It would have been safer if we would have gone directly into the house where we stay now, but my captor has evaded capture for nearly nine years, so I guess she knew what she was doing. She is a mean alcoholic. The first couple of months I tried relentlessly to escape, but to no avail. Every time I tried she caught me, she became more aggressive. She drowned out my screams with more to drink and the more she drank, the harder she hit. It took me a while to learn this correlation, but when I did, I stopped yelling as much as I did before. She kept me in a tiny little box in the corner of what I think was her basement, but it doubled as her "laboratory." She would bring all kinds of animals down and do experiments on them when they were still alive. It started with bugs and rodents, but she has continuously been bringing down larger ones, like cats and more recently dogs. After every single one of her failing experiments she would mumble under her breath, three times "Nothing shocks me. I'm a scientist." She proceeds to throw her animal of choice into a garbage bag and takes a huge swig of what ever she is drinking that particular day. She only takes the bag out at the end of the week, so it smells and attracts all kinds of bugs and rats. They come over to me all the time, running up and down my legs and doing their business all over the place. In the beginning, I would cry and try to get them off of me, but now it's one of the many things that have become normal to me. I have asked her what that means she means when she says that and why it is always three times. But when I speak she gets mad and lashes out, so I am usually as quiet as possible when she works. It is typical of her to write down anything she finds to be interesting in a large notebook that is so gross that I can hear the pages being unstuck from across the room when she opens it up. Maybe if I was stronger than I would have found a way out by now, but I can't handle the pain. I guess that's my own fault. I wish I was stronger because all I want is to see my family and know that they are okay. I feel like I have missed so much of my life stuck in this predicament. I feel as though it is almost my time to be apart of one of her experiments. I'm still trying to figure out what she is trying to accomplish by these inhuman acts, but I think it may be more sadistic than anything else.
ReplyDeleteShe seems to enjoy the squeals that propel from the bottom of the poor little creatures. I never understood that, she hated it when I screamed. Maybe she thought that someone would her me, maybe she is just really messed up. She hasn't let me see the light of day since I have been here, but I think that has made it better, I think it would bring back memories that would only hurt me; I have spent so much time trying to block out all those things in order to cope with my new situation. It would be like ripping the band-aid right off if I saw outside again while still being stuck in here. The image of the sun and stars and grass are slowly fading from my memory. I have to go through the night I was taken everyday so I don't forget, but I won't forget, I will never let that one go. I don't remember much about my life before her, but I had a really great family who loved me more than anything in the world. They always told me they wouldn't let anything bad happen to me, but I guess life didn't go our way. Part of me hopes they haven't stopped looking for me, but I wouldn't blame them if they did, they need to move on. Nothing is the same as it was when I got here. I'm bigger, but my muscles have withered away, probably because I haven't done much moving and now when I try it hurts so bad that I give up almost instantaneously. The future doesn't look to bright for me, but I can't give up now, not after all this time.
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DeleteThis story left me with so many questions, I love it. Boy or girl? Who knows. How old are they? Good question. Where did she take her/him? Even better question. If you were to continue this story and make it a full-blown book, would you have any other answers to these questions? And as you wrote this story, do you have any further explanations on this story already made up that you just excluded in order to leave the reader with questions? Did you come up with an ending to this story?
DeleteYour story is pretty creepy and it makes the reader wonder about a lot of things and leaves somethings to their imagination. Your vocabulary and adjectives were very good and helped a lot with the story.
DeletePart 1
ReplyDeleteAs I walked through the familiar automatic sliding glass doors, I was faced with the smell of bleach and cleaner. Another appointment. Another chance to see if anyone knew what was going on. Another doctor, another medical bill. Another thing that I couldn't afford. Another thing I didn't want to deal with.
It started when I was seventeen. The appointments, the doctors, the medications. The unexplained. They thought it was cancer. All different types. Although each time they diagnosed me with early signs of a certain type of cancer, the symptoms would go away. Bone cancer, brain tumors, skin cancer, lung cancer, almost any kind you could think of. Every medical scan they performed on my body rarely showed signs of anything. Doctors were confused. My family was worried. I couldn't go to school much anymore. If I didn't have a doctors appointment, I stayed home because of new and growing pains in different areas of my body. Sometimes I got sick. Very sick. It was worse than a fever or the common cold. I experienced seizures, fainting, you name it, I've been there.
My parents grew increasingly unsteady about my recovery, if one was ever to be had. I could no longer attend school regularly, so my parents signed me up for an online school. With the increasing medical bills, they could barely even afford to provide me with education at all. I did, however, attain my GED. It wasn't very hard for me. It was the end of my junior year when I was forced to educate myself from home, and, being one of the top ranks in my class, most of the online schooling came easy to me. The next problem, however, came with college education. I my parents couldn't afford it, and neither could I. I had a job before I became sick, I worked at a local sports clothing shop down by the boardwalk. But both my boss and my parents decided that it would be best if I discontinued working after I started having unexplainable outbursts of pain in different locations of my body. I had no money, I couldn't afford college. My parents barely had enough money to support my medical needs, and not many schools were willing to provide scholarships or financial aid to me due to my increasing illness.
So when my parents could no longer afford my bills, I lived off of the government. I had no other choice. I couldn't work, even on the days where I felt good. No place would hire me because of my inability to keep a consistent schedule. Occasionally I wrote articles for the local newspaper, although they didn't enter my articles very often and they payed me very little. The only other source of income I had was the money that they payed me to be a test subject for new medications that could possibly give me some relief from this illness which dominated my life.
Despite my lack of income, I had to keep up with the appointments. The hospital was like my second home. They prescribed me antibiotics, vitamin supplements, almost anything you could think of. Some of them helped for a little bit, but they always seemed to stop after about a month. Each time one of them worked, I got my hopes up just a little bit. The hopes that life could give me a sort of refund, in a way. The hopes that one day, I would be freed rom this sickness and be able to lead a normal life, with a college education, a wife, and children. With a job that payed well, a perfect family, and a chance for me to make up the time of my life that I lost to the illness that I was enduring now. But each time, my hopes came crashing back to earth when I was once again faced with the reality of my problems.
Part 2
ReplyDeleteI was familiar with the routine. I would go to a doctor, they would prescribe me medicine. It would work, then it wouldn't. They would send me to a physical therapist, an emotional therapist, or some other person who would try to make my life seem like it wasn't so bad. Then they would give me another medicine. It would work, then it wouldn't.
"I'm sorry," they'd say. "we can't seem to help you here. Our hospital isn't advanced enough to figure out the problem."
Then, after that, they would almost always suggest I visit a different doctor, someone they were friends with, who knew a lot more about these types of sicknesses and would have the technology and knowledge to help me.
It was a lie, it all was. Nobody knew anything. At all. And with this routine of appointments, I somehow reached my way to the top of the medical world, working with the best doctors in the country. Even then, most of them were confused.
Eventually, I found myself in a lull. A period of time when I had seen almost every doctor, and there was nothing to be done but test, retest, and experiment more on my body. I was twenty three at this point, and all of these tests seemed pointless to me. The same routines, over and over. Tests, no results. Scans, no results. Everything was sending mixed signals.
After every one of my tests, Dr. Balfe was always the doctor to provide me with the results. Each time, he gave me about the same answer. This time, however, the routine diagnostics meeting was a bit different.
He was scheduling me a meeting with a different doctor, one who had recently proved himself to be a world-renowned doctor. His name was Dr. Michalski.
That is how I ended up here today, in a hospital in Missouri, taking in the all-too-familiar scent and sight of the hospital. I was having my first meeting with this doctor. I expected it to go like every single one of my other appointments, with confusion and unanswered questions. Looking back on it now, it pretty much did.
I was called into his office almost as soon as I got there. Here we go, I thought. Time to start this all over again.
"Good morning, Mr. Tenison. It is nice to meet you."
We ran through all of the standard formalities which are the basis of every new encounter.
"I'm going to be honest with you," he said, "I do not know much about your case, and I'm not sure if I will be able to help you. However, I will do my best. Would you mind running me through a synopsis of your problem?"
So I did. I started from the beginning. He analyzed my story, took some notes. I told him of how nobody was able to help me, how nothing was ever discovered on any of my problems. He seemed unamused.
Great, the last doctor who might be able to help me doesn't even have the slightest hint of interest in my problem. I was getting angry. I broke out.
"I've been seeing doctors for the past six years of my life, and not even the best in the world can help me. Doesn't any of this scare you? Shock you? Interest you? Anything?"
"Nothing shocks me anymore, Mr. Tenison," He said. "Im a scientist who concerns himself with medical issues. And while your case is unusual, I am not scared, but I am interested. I do not, at the moment, know where to start with you, but I will put my thoughts into this case, and I will do everything in my power to discover the root of your illness."
Now, I am twenty seven, and this man is the reason I am still here.
Your story was rather sad at first and continued that way the whole time until the very end. Glad there was a happy ending. It was very well written and I liked it.
DeleteI like how your story doesn't revolve around a scientist, but rather a young adult who is going to many doctors who consider themselves to be scientist. It made me wonder what was wrong with the patient; was it a psychosomatic illness, or something totally "made up"? I think it was a good addition to talk about the struggles associated with being sick that are some times over looked like dropping out of school and not being able to afford college or pay the medical bills.
DeleteI was really hoping someone who be able to help the patient in the story and the doctor in the ending did just that. I really enjoyed the perspective you had with this prompt because it included the views of many different scientists and I was glad that the story had a happy ending.
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ReplyDeleteBOOM!
ReplyDeleteThe crash echoed across the empty barren wasteland that I once called my home.
CRASH!
Over to the south there was the place where Aria and I would go when we would skip. Those days when the Proctors thought they knew what they were doing, keeping the thing hidden.
BA BOOM
I turned back to look at Lulu, sweet little Lulu, my only family left after the first of the Explosions. She had just turned five last month. I remember that night like it was only yesterday.
~~~~~~~Happy birthday, sweet Lulu, happy birthday to you!
All you could see was a bright face smiling over a huge cake, disastrously decorated by yours truly. It came out of the oven completely burnt, but Lulu would have nothing of it. She said it was perfect and refused to let me drive to the store for another cake. It’s not like our parents were going to do that for her. They were too into their work, something about making the world the best it has ever been. They work in this huge corporation called the Agency, which hires scientists worldwide to come up with the cure to the Plague, their first failed plan of world betterment. When the Plague was new, it was never called anything bad. It was the new thing, what everyone wanted and needed.~~~~~~~~~~~~
CLANG
The next Explosion wakes me out of my reverie into the reality of the Rebels killing off people by the hundreds. The only thing they wanted was the people who made the plague to be silenced like they were. That and to get the Cure for everyone, not the few that the government will give them to, even though they have enough for everyone.
“Lulu! Follow me; we have to get out of here.” We can’t end up like Aria.
She whimpered but followed me nonetheless. She’s tough for a five year old, most of her class at Primary had been killed by now, being too loud or scared or sobbing. I go too hard on her sometimes because I forget just how old she actually is.
“Listen, when we get out of this, we can have a big house and blankets and movies and candy. I will get you anything you want. Okay? We just have to get out of this.”
ReplyDelete“I want mommy back,” she said, while looking deep into my eyes, as if to see my soul through them.
I stopped in my tracks, staring at her. “You know that isn’t possible.”
She sighs and looks down, “I know,” she looks up at me, almost pleading me with her eyes, “But they aren’t really bad people, are they? God still loves them, right?”
Like he even cares about us now. “Yeah. Yeah, darling he does.” I said this through a lightly veiled film of anger, never being able to forgive those two wretched people I had once loved for what they had done to me.
~~~~~“I think I got it!” James called gleefully across the lab to his wife. “I think I made the Cure!”
She comes leisurely strolling up to her husband, as she had heard this exclamation many times a week. “Really,” she drawls out, unbelievingly. They made the Plague, making the people think they were buying something to help them be the best they could ever be. Rather, they were taking a free poison that would make them go completely crazy until they were able to get the Cure. The whole plan was under the table dealing with the government to make the people listen and depend on them more.
“Look at this! The subject is back to normal on all their vitals. I really think this one worked!”
She looked through the charts on the subject, all of them showing results of going back to normal. She knew she was a scientist, but she still felt some remorse with the whole study. She looked up at her husband, “None of this was abnormal? Nothing odd or off about it at all?”
He scoffed in her direction. “Please. You would think you would know if the subject was back to normal, what with us knowing him his whole life.”
She sighed, realizing this was true. Nothing should surprise her, being a scientist in this era and whatnot. She still felt that pang of guilt of testing unknown materials on someone so close to her heart, her only son.~~~~~~
Anyone who reads mine, I am very sorry, but I could not get the italics to work, so the sections of text with (~~~~) these around them are supposed to be italics.
ReplyDeleteI really love your approach to the prompt. I like how it is only dialogue. It sets the scene in a very unique but also very effective manor. I also think that it is a really creepy and thoughtful situation. Great work.
DeleteFirst of all, write a book. Second of all, give me that book. And third of all, I really like your story. It reminds me of the first chapter of a book that I would definitely read. It leaves us with questions, and it ends with a sort of cliffhanger. I also think that your use of italics (sort of 😂) create the perfect feel for a flashback, and they give your writing so much more body. I like this a lot. Good job!
DeleteMy name is Dr. Antonio Watson and I am a scientist. I am famously known for my interviews where I am asked questions about scientific discoveries and I relay information to the public about how these scientific acts are possible. I am always able to show how these things occurred by giving facts and showing examples of these situations occurred. I am also famous for my saying "Nothing shocks me. I'm a scientist." I've worked on many cases and showed how science effects everyday life. One of my recent interviews was about two twins that where born connected at the head and surgeons were able to successfully separate them. I was able to explain many of the procedures used in this surgery and explained how it is possible for both of the infants to still be alive. The surgery took over 35 hours to complete. When the interviewer asked me the question "Dr. Watson are you shocked at how long it took for the surgery to happen?" I replied with "Nothing shocks me. I'm a scientist. It makes since that with all of the procedures required that it took as long as it did." Another case that I covered was that of a United States Marine that had the entire left side of his face ripped off due to shrapnel from a grenade explosion. The marine was able to get surgery that placed new skin on his face and an ear that had been grown on a mouse. When talking about this the interviewer asked "Doctor are you shocked that after the surgery the marine is able to look so natural with an ear that was grown on an animal?" I replied with "Nothing shocks me. I'm a scientist. It makes sense that the ear looks so natural because it was grown from actual human cells." I did interviews on global warming, surgeries, technology, animal experiments, human behavior, and countless other topics. I had done dozens of interviews and I was fully convinced that nothing could shock me. All of this was proven to be false however, due to the discovery of an astronaut in space. This was no ordinary astronaut however. Five years prior to his discovery this astronaut had been planning to return to Earth with his crew. Before starting the flight home, he needed to go to the outside of his ship and do some repairs. While he was out there the tether that had been keeping him attached to the ship broke. The signal on his space suit was still close enough to the ship to connect and because of this the pilot thought that he was on board. The ship began its return to Earth and no one realized that they had left that astronaut behind until they returned to Earth. NASA decided that it would be impossible to find his body in the abundance of space and that he was surely dead by now, so no mission was ever sent out to look for him. Five years later at a Russian space station the members on board notice an object floating by in the distance and went out to retrieve it. The object was the American astronaut that had been lost in space five years ago. The craziest part was that when they brought him on board they noticed that is suit was still functioning and it relayed the information that he still had a pulse. They later woke him up and returned him to Earth alive. I knew that I was going to be asked to do an interview because of how amazing it was that this mans body was still after being in space for five years. After examining his suit I noticed that where his tether broke off was a large hole. As soon as it opened up it would have instantly frozen his body and stopped all of his blood flow. His helmet stayed air tight for five years though because it was being charged from the solar panels on his suit that were getting energy from the sun. His body had been frozen and preserved for five years. This was truly amazing and in my interview when I was asked if I was shocked to see that this man was still alive after all that time in space I had to tell the truth and say that I was truly shocked that he was able to live through all of the things his body had been through.
ReplyDeleteI like how your story starts off with the scientist never being shocked, but then there is something so bizarre that he must say he didn't see it coming. I like how there were two things that are a little out there that he sort of brushed off, but then the last one he was amazed by. I also think it was interesting that you set it up as an interview style, but it still told a story.
DeleteI think you did an extremely good job incorporating the necessary quote into your blog very fast and effectively. It really does set the scene for the rest of the story. I also really loved your ending. Great job.
DeletePart 1- "The Wild, Whispering Woods"
ReplyDeleteLarue Latimer, but a humble navigator of the tumultuous forest was I. The years just before the day of my birth marked the time in which the world, as my kinsfolk knew it, was thrown into complete and utter disarray. The woods defined us so, from that day forward, forever scorning the thick of our town with the label of "hell on earth". Demi-human creatures skittered and scattered among the towering timber surrounding the disaster-site, their eerie clicks and the pop of electricity being the only warning one would detect just before their foretold demise. The government had resorted to "endorsing" those of us that had so unceremoniously been referred to as the "Felkistown few", as we seemed to be the only souls unaffected by the chaotic waves of radiation the area of anomalies seemed to undulate. That was what baffled most- the fact that the majority of their aerial forces couldn't come within 80 miles of the site- without losing all function of the craft. Mother Earth seemed to condemn any machinery or high-tech equipment that dare enter the chaotic perimeters, rendering most technology useless. The big brains of the political and scientific worlds alike declared that we had again entered "the time in which man must prevail with his own two hands", which marked the beginning of tragic tours into the depths of the disaster itself. Those of the Felkistown few that remained in our homeland, though not necessarily by choice, served as guides to the endless stream of young men and women that came pouring in to try their luck. Most became mere examples of what the next was not to do, while others were remembered only by their echoing cries of agony and regret. Headlines circulated constantly, mostly pertaining to the infamous beasts that were more or less equal to the hellhounds of the wilderness. I recall one article in particular describing their unusual epidermis, and how it proved to be impermeable to all our known firearms. Some officials suggested simply launching a large-scale bombing of the area, to be rid of the eerily man-like demons once and for all. Though this hastily-construed plan bore no fruit, as it would likely only succeed in pushing the beings further from their radioactive home, since they had withstood all else that had been thrown at them.
Despite it all, I could never forget the morning of my very first tour, and how thickly dread weighed over my head. I'd finally reached the age where the few laws that had sheltered me from the horrors expired, which meant I too would have to fulfill my duty as a guide to the foolish. Little Larue, that was me, characterized by the shock of red insulating my skull. Only then I feared I was about to associated with a different sort of red entirely.
Your writing is worded beautifully, like a poem put into a short-story form. It is nice to read
DeletePart 1
ReplyDeleteIt was an evening of terrible weather, the stream of rain seemed as if it would never, as did the pounding of the thunder. A terrible night it truly was, and it surely set the scene for the events to come. As I tossed and turned, trying to block out the constant noise of the storm, I felt a presence, the presence of something, someone that is not quite like anyone or anything I've ever felt. The feeling that I was being watched lingered throughout the night, and I eventually became paranoid, grabbing my father's shotgun for protection. The gun did little to suppress my fears. Instead, I found a marvelous hiding spot behind the front door, a place where I decided was safest because it was out of sight from any window. So, there I sat trembling with fear and grasping my father's gun because I knew something was off. I must of been sitting there for hours, or what felt like hours just waiting for my parents to come home from the block party down the street, but they never came. I called, and I called, but there phones must have been off because they did not answer. So I decided it was best to just sit in my hiding spot and wait until they got back home because it would definitely have to be soon. As I sat, I began to dose off. I began to forget of my fears and fall into the temptations of sleep, a thing I could have surely used at the time. So as I began to fall asleep using my father's gun as a pillow, I heard a scratch at the door. I immediately jumped, finding the trigger to the shotgun as fast as I could. I knew it could not be my parents for they have a key and would have just walked in knowing I should be asleep. So my anxieties increased, as I began to fear the worst. The scratchin persisted over an over, the same slow scratching continued, each one increasing my adrenaline and heart rate. I do not remember what it was, but something came over me. I began to think to myself, if I just open the door and have my shotgun pointed, how could someone be prepared for that? I knew I had the upper hand. So, I eventually gathered up the nerve to open the door. I flung it open, and shut my eyes ready to blow the guy's head right off, but to my surprise, that would not be needed. In fact, none of this would be needed because it was simply a stray dog causing me all this grief. I, being a devout dog lover, instantly forgot all my fears and took the animal inside to feed and care for. The dog had a personality I've never seen, he was always happy and energetic like a new born baby, even though his life looked like it could have ended at the very moment. He was a rather small dog but had the appetite of a lion. The more food I gave him the more he wanted, never seeming to be satisfied. It was as if he was a teen boy in the middle of his growth spurt. I swear he was growing by the second due to the food given to him.
Part 2
ReplyDeleteI know this couldn't be true, but as my biology teacher at Cal U always says to my class, "Nothing shocks me. I'm a scientist." I have always tried to live by that motto, but the rapid growth of this dog before my eyes was putting that line to shame. There is no way this can be happening. I put the food away to stop myself from thinking I was crazy, but as soon as I did, the animal seemed to become possessed by a demon or something that would turn even the most innocent of creature into a monster. It began to attack my house, destroying everything in sight, I'm sure it would of destroyed me, but I climbed on the top of my counter escaping its possessed jaws. This vicious rampage continued for ten or fifteen minutes, and then his demeanor changed. The dog seemed to have been struck by a tranquilizer. He instantly passed out. I rushed to make sure it was still breathing, and that he was however there was blood pouring from his mouth. My science classes taught me that this has occurred from internal bleeding, and boy, I could not have been more right. The animal still passed out began seizing, his stomachs began to rupture. His stomach exploded, and what came out made me question everything I know. It was a creature I never saw before. It was not from this planet, of that I am certain. I wanted to get a better look at it, but as fast as it came out it left screaming through my front door. After that day, I've been looked at as the crazy man who thinks there is life out there other than our own, but I know there is, I saw it. My parents may have not believed me, my friends may have not believed me, but they will see. They will see when the creature comes back. I won't just be the crazy old man living in a nursing home. I'll be the savior, the one who warned everyone, but know one listened.
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ReplyDeletePart 1:
ReplyDeleteThe year was 1E 37, the Martian atmosphere was thick with heat and sand. It had only been 37 years since the inhabitation of Mars and the situation on the ground was worsening. The United Space and Planetary Exploration Corps had cut of the supply of care packages from earth because a Third World War had broken out. Mars had civilization, it in fact had three; Euphon, Eris, and Platonei. Each was considered to be a capitol. Euphon was on the equator, Eris in the North Pole, and Platonei in the South Pole. Each of these capitals was bound by the Martian Capitalization Act. It was set up so each capitol could control a region of Mars. The system was strong, but governed by the United Nations back on earth. When the UN split due to the war, Mars has been cut off of supply for nearly a year. This is a major problem because Mars cannot support life without aid from earth. Our only means of contact and transportation to earth was the USPEC frigate and capitol ships that brought supplies to the red planet. In the recent months, Mars began experiencing raids from enemy factions on earth. They came in hijacked USPEC ships, which made us figure we were receiving undeclared aid from earth. The raids were set up to steal large amounts of mineral X, an unnamed element recently discovered on Mars which houses 10 times more energy than uranium. I assume they want it to power war industry, or new vehicles and weapons. The raiders were almost like pirates. They worked under a black flag and did whatever they needed to obtain their treasure. I, Doctor Antoine J. Toulouse, am a head mineral X technician, engineer, and scientific researcher. I work with the Eris Association of Energy in leu of finding more effective ways to release energy from mineral X. The mineral powers our civilization on Mars. I also work in conjunction with Mineral X power plants from Euphon and Platonei. The raids of our power source will eventually leave us with no power and hundreds of thousands dead. The Martian atmosphere has no gasses fit for human respiration, it experiences temperatures as high as 380 degrees Fahrenheit and as low as negative 100, and experiences violent storms with extremely high winds. If we had no power our protective energy domes would drop and leave our structures vulnerable. The raids continue to occur, now by many different factions and more frequently.
Part 2:
ReplyDeleteSo my current employment, and the employment of thousands of other scientists has changed to utilize what is left our precious mineral to build a huge capitol ship, using Mineral X as Its power source, to take us to an earth like planet outside of our galaxy. It would be the first intergalactic travel. We have not much time, only about a year before we are exhausted from our provisions of food in every capitol. I am heading the operation. One day about one week from completion of our project, my lead engineer told me that he had received information that a planetary occupation fleet was approaching from earth capable of destroying every last soul on Mars and our capitol ship. The engineer said, "Does any news shock you, we need to ramp up our completion of this ship or we will all perish including our ship, they may be even less than a week out!" I said, "we can't rush perfection, we'll make it, and of course nothing shocks me I'm a scientist." The day of completion came and the occupation fleet had arrived. They immediately went to Euphon to occupy the center of the planet, only every remaining inhabitant traveled to Eris to board the completed capitol ship. They were confused, but immediately proceeded to Eris. We were pressed for time to get our massive ship out of the atmosphere. Everyone was boarded, but the core was cold and needed to warm up so the engines could fire. We could see the occupation fleet coming down upon us. Just then, the engines of our massive ship fired and we were airborne. The captain of Red Star, our new ship, opened fire on the occupation fleet's capitol ship with our massive energized photon cannon destroying it with one hit. We then broke the atmosphere with some frigates still on our tail, we jumped to hyperspace and destroyed them in our massive slip space rupture. We had escaped Mars. The Red star was on course and we would soon enjoy peace and relish in our technological achievements. I felt very accomplished to head such a great operation, but even more happy to have saved the lives of thousands now safely on board. We had achieved, with Mineral X, something never achieved before.
Your story really kept me on the edge of my seat. I was afraid that the crew was not going to escape Mars or the war in space. It was very creative and fun and shows a new perspective on a scientist because it was based in space and new technologies.
ReplyDeleteNothing shocks me. I am a scientist. It is now 2045 and I work for the President of the United and I conduct experiments and work on projects for him to aid his work. My most famous work is as a lawyer who focuses mainly on taking science and ethics cases in Washington D.C. I have seen many interesting cases and worked on numerous projects for the president and for the citizens of Washington D.C. After the years I had thought that I had seen everything or solved every case because in addition to my law degree I have a degree in science. I would consider myself more of a scientist, but I could never find a stable job in this occupation, hence my job as a lawyer. On one crisp Tuesday morning, I had been taking a walk through the park when a a women came running up to me. She asked me if I was the the science ethicist lawyer in the Washington D.C and asked me to represent her in her case. Little did I know that this would be a case in which the entire country would be involved in. This women was none other than the First Lady of the United States. This was the biggest court case I would have to take on in my entire career, at least so far. Anyway I walked into the court room with my head held high and confident I would win the case. The court room was completely empty. I looked around confused and I wanted to figure out what was going on. I looked back to the First Lady and I could not believe my eyes because she was not really the First Lady. On the television screen next to this women was a live news report of the First Lady giving a speech with the President in California. This imposter was a clone. I woke up in a room with all white walls and I escaped the room to find a clone that was made of myself. I could not believe my eyes and I was truly shocked. I had been recruited to help create a clone army for a scientist in Washington D.C. who wanted to overthrow the government. If I agreed, I would be betraying my country, but if I disagreed I would surely die. I knew my only chance was to escape. I quickly ran to find my clone that had been made and I used it as a decoy. I was able to slip out the back and return to the White House. I had warned to President of the plans of the scientist and was honored when he asked me to represent the case in court. I entered the court room which was packed with people and presented my case. The scientist was thrown in jail and his plans for cloning people were destroyed due to their unethical ways. Cloning any person is unethical, especially the First Lady of the United States. I can now say that I have been shocked as a scientist in this case of cloning, but I'm sure nothing in my future can be as shocking as this case.
ReplyDeletePart 2- "The Frivolous, Friendly Fellow"
ReplyDelete"GOOD morning, you MUST be Larue!" The way he'd said my name sounded as if he would've dreaded seeing any other.
I turned from the bench where I'd been lacing my boot- casting a stale look over toward the doorway. The man barely blocked any sunlight that filtered in, in other words, he was just a wee thing. At first glance, the atmosphere of him wasn't all that different from any other I'd seen head in, he carried himself with same naivety that'd taken so many lives prior to his arrival.
"I'm Damien Cyprien, pleased to make your acquaintance." He must've took my silence as a "how do you do?", because before I knew it, he was slapping my shoulder like we were old chums.
I shrugged away from his gloved mitt without guilt, shortly thereafter rising to my full height and nodding somewhat politely at the cheeky chump I was to guide.
"Right, I've been given orders to set off in no less than twenty minutes." It was true I had, but I mostly just yearned for him to stop talking.
The coily-tufted fellow had responded with something of a "righto" before the equipment shed was cloaked in a temporary silence. I donned the gear necessary to ensure at least some minuscule level of protection, though I snorted in disdain at the thought of how it wouldn't matter if I were fried alive.
"All set, Larue?" The young man chirped almost impatiently, the clacking of his peculiar instruments already giving me a bit of a headache.
"Let's go."
On our long trek to the mere starting point of the doomed-to-be hellish tour Damien took it upon himself to learn a bit about who would be navigating him through the unforgiving wilderness. He asked meaningless things of me, or at least, they should've been meaningless to him.
ReplyDeleteAll too soon though, we'd entered the "ring of fire", as some called it. There was no mistaking it. Towering pines were twisted and distorted as if they were made of rubber, making for a rather inconvenient path of travel. The bright smile Damien had been wearing turned to a respectful pucker, the mechanized gloves he wore so proudly were held out in front of his relatively small body. The weight of anticipation weighed heavy on him, it seemed, as it did with me as well. Only a much sicker thought had crossed my mind, even after having relinquished rather personal information to this fellow I barely knew. Perhaps that was why I had been so open- because I thought he might not live to tell another soul either way. That was before the whispers began. We both paused, without words, and without need for visual confirmation. There was certainly one gazing upon us, waiting and watching. I spared a look at the gloved man from my peripherals- sweat carving a path down my forehead. In that moment- that millisecond of distraction from my surroundings- it descended. I could feel it's warm, heavy breath on the back of my neck. The creature flung itself from the clot of trees just behind me, landing between us with as much grace that could be accredited to it's many appendages. For a moment only the crackling of electricity and the sniffering of its nostrils filled my canals, as my eyes were too blinded by the utter hideousness of its body to fully alienate one specific detail. Deciding it was, likely trying to figure which man wasn't tied to the area, and it quickly deduced just who was who. Three of its sparking arms flew at Damien, followed by a resounding "boom". Before I knew it, I was thrown back, my spine smacking hard against the bark. There were moments were black danced at the edges of my vision, and my ears rung, but I forced my head to clear. I lifted my head from the dirt to find the creature gone, leaving a sizzling heap of man in its wake. Only this man was very much alive- laughing even.
"H-how?" I struggled for words, my cranium still pounding from the delayed hit I'd taken.
"Nothing shocks me," He'd said, flexing his electrified mitts.
"I'm a scientist."
[These were supposed to send with the first part but they didn't for some reason.]
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