I just stumbled upon this writing prompt over at Write On Edge. The challenge is to write whatever comes to mind about the picture below. The linkup is only open for 16 hours. Since I’ve been in a fiction frame of mind lately, this is what I came up with.
“There she goes,” Jonathan said. “It’s the last one and we missed it.”
“Sweetie…” Jamie placed a hand on her husband’s shoulder. “There will be others.”
Jonathan sighed and looked up at the vanishing vapor-trail. “No, that was the last. We’re stuck here.”
“But the Spacing Committee said…”
“I know what the committee said!” Angry eyes glared at Jamie. “Chairman Stern assured us all that there would be plenty of Evac runs. That we would all get to leave, but it isn’t going to happen!”
Jonathan turned and stalked towards the waiting hovcar. He stopped and turned back after a few steps.
“The Invaders are already in the next province! They’ll be here within the week!” Jonathan took a step back towards his wife, raising his hands. “Don’t you know what that means? The Spacing Committee doesn’t have enough time to ready another Evac shuttle. Dammit, Jamie, think! We’re stuck here! We’re going to die here! You know what the Invaders do when they reach a populated area!”
Jonathan turned and headed to the hovcar once again. “Are you coming?” he spat over his shoulder.
Jamie watched her husband go as he climbed into the hovcar and slammed the door.
She turned back towards the southern sky of Titan. The vapor-trail was completely gone, borne away by the strong winds of the Uranus moon.
Looking down, she laid both hands on her belly.
“There has to be one more. There just has to be,” she whispered.
I liked this piece. I didn’t click away after the first few sentences. In fact, your blog looks interesting. Thanks for the quick read.
Oooh. Very nice. I could totally picture this. Could see this scene in a Star Trek movie. Good stuff!
Very nice take on the prompt – and I’m not just saying that because it parallels mine…or that the title of your blog is my own personal motto (T-shirts coming soon). I like the fact that Jonathan’s fear and anger was as palpable as Jamie’s quiet and desperate hope.
Fun!
I may not be the only one who recently watched Fantastic 4.
Thanks for coming by my own submission.
Fun! A little futuristic sci-fi, a little real-life drama, nice clean prose…
Thanks for writing along.
Always love sci-fi
This is what I’d usually do with a prompt like this. So glad you took the ball and scored. well done.
Whoa, I loved it. What a great direction to go in. Plus the ending was a bit gut wrenching. Nice!
Nice. I found the characters believable…her comforting him;him painfully honest. Their relationship is clear.
That was chilling. I loved the ending, where in spite of evidence her husband clearly considers incontrovertible, the wife insists on believing, because she has to for her unborn child.
Wow! I didn’t expect such a positive response to this! Thank you all so much for reading and leaving kind words. It means a lot!