Today is National Flash Fiction Day!
In celebration I have decided to put up a PDF of The Doomsday Collection for 24 hours as a free download! It contains many of the flash fictions from this blog plus some of my short stories and novelettes plus a few poems.
Just click on the image above. Also Jaw Breakers and many other ebooks for free down load at the NFFD website.
Antha was sixteen, the palace thronged with preparations and her father beamed down at her from his golden steed Melock. A thin trickle of smoke laced its way up from the dragons nose and it blinked it’s large jewelled eyes at her. She could feel it’s power and knew the creatures intelligence and loathed it for the bond it had with her father. Only a select few could tame the dragon and it was a bond no child or lover could even create and she was turning sixteen.
‘Good luck Antha I shall see you at the ceremony.’ his tones vibrated off of the dragon and were amplified in echos that seemed to surround her. They ambled out of site.
Her future blazed towards her, she had seen the gilded cage arrive and heard the fearsome roar, her father had no doubt that she would be a Dragon Queen, her mother however, had retired to her chamber already and refused to see anybody especially Antha.
Maids came to comb out her hair, they were gentle and did not speak, stray strands fell to the floor like red gold, her skin was pale something that would alta once… if she became a dragon tamer. She wondered what it would be like to fly. She had vague memories of climbing onto Melock’s back but not of flying.
The maids put her in her golden satins and cream silks and then the heavy gold affect armour, it was a thin layer of foil inorder to actually act as armour and not just a dead weight. With the scroll work on it and fitting, it was worth more than it’s weight in gold. She stared at the woman in the mirror. A server pout and hair tied back with golden rows of pearls. Her time was almost up.
A young groom smelling slightly of singed fabric appeared, ‘My Lady!’ he stammered and bowed, she nodded and followed him, he hesitated as if to say something but maintained his silence and she needed that more than anything. They had been children together, climbing trees and finding caves they never got to explore. He had been sent away to train at Dragon Tending. She almost hadn’t recognised him, the same shock he must have felt seeing her in her Dragon Queen apparel. He may have selected the very creature to kill her. She could tell this was his same thought by the tenseness of his shoulders. Tears burned at her eyes at the sight of her father sitting upon his mount, her mother was pale and closed face holding a leash on the great green beast. Antha had never seen a dragon on a leash before.
The gilded cage contained a ball of fiery rage, fear seized her insides though she carried on to her place. She didn’t know what was supposed to happen, she assumed the dragon would be released at some point. The groom scuttled forward and took a loot out of his waist band – it was to lull the creature to sleep or a more passive state at the least. A sudden rage burned within her – how dare they do this to something so fine and magical, it’s beauty should not be contained in such away. If it was going to kill her then so be it!
She stepped forward shouting commands for it to be released, the groom stood still and looked at her, their eyes locked and he nodded, cooning he reached his hand out to the Dragon and it seemed to calm for him, large amber eyes regarded him as he opened the cage. Martha was beautiful, Antha ran too her sobbing and wrapped her arms around her neck, she was height of a pony but much longer, fine feathered adornments fringed her tail. The Groom laughed, ‘careful not to ruffle them she will not thank you.’ And there he was holding a leash for her, he crouched down next to her and gentle showed her how to scratch the dragon so she purred. She knew all this but the boys warmth was a needed counter point to the slither of the dragon in her mind. He smiled at her as they both stood tether clasped in both their hands.
‘There are two ways of bonding with a dragon,’ he breathed.
‘Two?’ she asked bewildered.
‘Yes once at it’s hatching and once at the onset of puberty,’ he smiled shyly and looked away from her. Melock was nuzzling the young dragon and licking her scales were she had rubbed against the cage so. Her father slide down the side of the great beast and looked the groom over from head to foot and nodded. Her mother hugged her lightly, then her father squeezed her in a bear hug.
‘Come daughter we must talk of weddings,’ her mother almost hissed.
Antha took a step back and the little dragon began to growl. ‘Yes Antha it is part of the ceramony – we will feast tonight and tomorrow you will be wedded and the celebrations will continue until you fly.’
Antha turned to her father, ‘but I don’t want to marry!’ her eyes hit upon the groom as he fought to settle the dragon, his calming thoughts seemed to melt into her and she remembered how they had played.
‘Do I… do I get to choose?’ she asked dangerously quiet.
‘The choice is already made,’ her father said simply, ‘but who would you choose?’ he asked her quietly.
‘Grinda,’ she said simply and flushed as the groom turned from his duties to stare at her.
‘So be it Grinda the Dragon Groom is to be your husband as decreed by the bonding of the dragon Martha!’ trumpets and drums seemed to burst out of nowhere and she wondered how the groom felt about a marriage he had no choice in.
He came to her side, ‘I thought they sent me away so we would not start a relationship,’ he said quietly. ‘When I saw you earlier I could not believe it was you and the thought that you could die hurt me so.’
Their hands entwined and she looked at him, ‘my mother held Melocks leash?’ He nodded and smiled tears rolled down her cheek, ‘what if… what if we don’t like the people we’ve become, climbing trees together is not like running a country.’
He shrugged, ‘only time will tell but dragons… they sort of resonate with people and I don’t think we would both be compatible with her if we were not with each other.’
She smiled sadly, ‘trapped together is still trapped.’
‘You were trapped from the day you were born, nobility always is, I got to choose, I could have said no to the training but I didn’t.’
‘Why?’
‘Because one day I hoped I would see you again and I knew your father planned you to be a Dragon Queen I wanted to make sure you had the best chance.’
She nodded shyly and they turned their attentions to the dragon, the echos of the feast were lost on them, there was only them and the dragon.
I sat with mug of stim that someone had gotten for me and the other two, I don’t think any of us were actually drinking the stuff verses just hugging the mugs for the minute amount of comfort it was giving us. I was awaiting the supplies from my mother, the council seemed to have planned for this eventuality were I had not and that worried me. I had known there were risks but had somehow sailed through that first week under the impression that I was somehow immune if I’d done enough risk assessments. I wondered briefly if this was why the Elders made us all do so much paper work – it was sort of a mental safety net.
My father arrived looking older than I had ever seen him, the fur on his ears looked scraggly and his eyes were somewhat dull, it frightened me, they had always been so bright. He put a large orange case in front of me, it seemed to be made out of some sort of solid foam, I recognised the bio-exp symbol and wondered exactly what I was being given and weather it had been tested or not.
‘Youngling?’ he said gently and we locked eyes, I waivered for a moment and then I burst into unashamed tears – big loud sobs that reverberated around the chamber. Too my surprise my lecturer reached over and took my hand, tears streaming silently down his own cheeks. My father sat next to me and hugged me as if I was fresh out of the nursery. I buried my face and got his fur wet and was strongly aware of the warm smell of home. My mother had always been distant but my father had always been there for me weather it was a grazed knee or my yit dying whilst we were away on a rest. I exhausted myself and then sat quietly composing myself, he patted me on the head and then looked around at the other two.
‘What has happened here is top secret, for the sake of all of us, we must keep morale high,’ they nodded mutely, I felt my father held my lecturers gaze for a moment longer than he should have, I wondered weather I had missed some sort of code between them but was too tired to even acknowledge the thought.
And then it was all business, we sat and were instructed on how to kill those beyond the cave in without killing ourselves or bringing the cave down further. I listened with awe at the solution and began to feel that the council had not been entirely honest with me about how long they had had to prepare for this eventuality.
My father squeezed my shoulder and then left, we stood a moment in a frozen tableau and then I grabbed the case and began to head for my locker to change back into my boiler suite. ‘We must eat first Gingnar,’ I paused and nodded, my lecturer was again correct, I couldn’t even feel animosity for them anymore. I chewed my rations, I could taste nothing, they were dust and cloying mud in my mouth and I had to force myself to consume it. We were all really too tired to be heading back into the cave system but the route was not an arduous one, there were no waterfalls or squeezes – we barely had to use the safety equipment at all, that was why I had thought it safe for a team made up of the general population. It was a bitter bite that I had been so very very wrong.
None of us wanted to string this out and the other two would be starting to run low on supplies, we had to move, I felt a dark shadow on my heart, it felt as if we were all running out of time.
We were companionable in our silence on the way back, the journey ended too soon, I didn’t want to get to the destination, the medic was standing there, eyes bright and glassy in a way I associated with stim overload, the spent cartridges at her feet told me she had been keeping her self perpetually alert with shots, not good and certainly not healthy. I felt a surge of anger at her team mate for not pulling his weight, then I saw him curled upon the floor, his purples were beyond lilac, they must have been almost white.
‘He’s got the sickness,’ she whispered. I knelt down to him and gazed at the hollow look of his cheeks.
‘But it’s not normally this progressive?’ I stuttered.
‘I know but I think… I think the stress of it all has weakened him and made him more susceptible, I… I think this will be an issue in the population at large, I need to get back to make a… to warn the hospital.’ Her ears dropped and I tried to smooth the fur out the prone mans eyes. He felt cold and clammy as if his fur were melting. It didn’t make sense as we were not made of ice and it had a greasy feel to it anyway.
No one was sure how it was spreading, no pathogen had yet been isolated, no bacteria, virus or fungus, it just was. ‘Don’t touch him Gingnar – just incase,’ came the trembling voice of my lecturer. I sighed and stood, ‘my grandmother died of this two years ago, I nursed her before I went to study geology,’ the medic nodded.
‘It doesn’t seem to spread that way but we just don’t know,’ she whispered.
I stood up looked around the hated stone walls with the jagged smiles of long dead crustaceans in the walls and oozing of pink fleshy rock growths, I wanted to scream. Instead I found myself in charge of a frightened little group – I just wish I hadn’t sounded like my mother when I opened my mouth, ‘Well we can’t stand around here all day staring, lets get a move on.’
To my surprise it worked.
(First published on Turquoise monster)
I saw the echo scamper ashore
It was wet and cold and so alone
I saw the echo sit and cry
Though no eyes it had the tears still poured
I smelt the echo as vibration
Thrumming and strumming a silent sound
I smelt the echo in pinks and mauves
Lost in sensation of colours blurred
I tasted the echo in sugared tones
Angelica, cinnamon, walnut swirl
I tasted the echo with bitter rind
Enclosed the centre of withered pith
I scensed the echo in the air
Stars glinting, and seething
I scensed the scho climb a board
A craft dark in ghostly lore
I felt the echo as it lay
Broken and fading another shade
I felt the echo as it fought
Life fragile death-sharp like a claw
I heared the echo call my name
Softly, sweetly, within a velvet bow
I heard the echo shout the word
Clashing contrasts cut to the bone
After a conversation with my friend about how he’d had to cycle into work in a smog, I thought I would go and research London smogs and found out about the Great Smog in London during the 1950’s – also known as The Pea Souper. The Guardian has a an article on it with some amazing pictures taken at the time which I just felt were worth linking too here as inspiration for writing.
There was no radioactive spider and there was no bite, what there was was a group of large men with sedative darts waiting in a ally that I used to use as a short cut home. I saw them looming and my heart jumped a beat and I turned on my rubber souled sparkly shoes and tried to run, I felt the sting on my neck beneath my glossed pink shock of hair. I fell to the ground groggy and thought that was it, I was going to be gang raped to a pulp.
But the thugs didn’t touch me, at least not in that way, instead they must have bundled me into a van and driven me to the lab. I awoke in a clean room, the air tasted of antiseptic and I was bald and naked with a fine white sheet over the top of me. I looked around dazzled by the harsh lights and found a stack of white clothing, sterile and neat in the corner. They were draped over the back of a smooth plastic chair – it too was white.
Frowning I put the cloths on and examined the room. Was I dreaming? No I hurt! I had a blooming headache from the tranquilizer and bruises from my mishandling and fall to the pavement, even the dart had left a contusion on me.
I was sure there were cameras and I couldn’t open the door, I began to rant and rave and threat. None of it did any good of course but it did make me feel slightly better. After a while – I do not know how long – a tray of food slide out of the wall just infront of the chair. I looked at it suspiciously and thought of going on a hunger strike, after all it could be poisoned but then I thought of those I had seen who had been on hunger strikes and how the brilliant brightness of their eyes always remained afterwards and seemed to hurt them so.
I sat and I ate, it was not like real food, it was salty and bland and just right temperature wise.
I had three of these meals and began to think I was perhaps in quarantine, was there a plague loose in the city? With the antibiotic resistance being so high and silver all being horded by the politicians for their private use, it was an obvious conclusion. I was wrong.
I was hungry but no meal appeared and my stomach rumbled and I thought of zombie apocolypses and wondered if I was now the only human alive, I wept and ranted and hit the walls. A gas oozed into the room with a strange greasy smell and I wavered into a stupor. I did not resist as the masked white clothed people took me from my cell. I was strapped onto an operating table and watched with narcotic calmness as they took blood and skin samples, the walls were all screens flashing up numbers and symbols I could not follow.
They hooked me up to a machine and I watched my blood circulate through it, mixing it with something else and then return to me via another pipe. They were doing stuff to some of the blood and then feeding it back to the machine. I felt the nausea rise. I heard a cry of, ‘low blood pressure,’ as I vomited over myself.
At some point I lost consciousness. I awoke still connected to the machine, most of the drugs had worn off and I needed a drink, just water, only water, it was all I craved as my lips stuck together, tongue so thick. Someone helped me sip and I knew a strange pleasure in the sweet silky touch of water.
I could not move, my legs were numb, not pins and needles just sort of not there or floating. I noticed a bag filling with urine and reasoned I was on a catheter. I thought my heart would explode with fear. Then a man with smooth beard appeared, it was blonde and his eyes were blue and bright in suntan.
‘You shall be the mother of a new race!’ he declared and smiled a white brightness. I stared at him and attempted to fight the restraints on my wrists, I’d pulled the tubes out once so now I was force fed.
He enjoyed explaining how he had spliced DNA and how I would change. Trembling, I sobbed and screamed and bit my cheek in the hope pain would wake me up from the nightmare. My salty blood slicked my tongue and I spat it out in fear of it’s corruptness. I awoke back in the sterile room and I had a fever. I felt the change coming, I was restrained on the bed and bucked against it. The pain was blooming bright and I twisted and raved and then I was… something else.
Monstrous monster. I vowed I would kill him and his team. But it is not my metamorphosis they were after but what my womb could produce, they would make me a mate. I clicked instead of screaming and lay petrified.
Spider Spider crawling there and it was me unaware and I was killing and I looked at the man who had turned me into this and I laughed and I pulled him into an embrace, black widow I took him to his grave. In a strange way I feel it is how he wanted it. But there was no egg sack, no plague to destroy the plague of man just me and my child and we hide. Sometimes we decorate the trees by the sea in cobwebs.
Spider Spider.
Everette was starting to feel old, he was 42 and the stress of work was starting to feel like a bind, the excitement seemed to have gone. He was finding his efforts on the squash court to be ineffective too and keeping up with the kids coming straight out of college was starting to give him nightmares.
His knee twinged were he’d pulled it on the court over six weeks ago now, his hair looked dusty with grey, he noticed as he passed a shop window on the way home. He sighed, maybe his brother had been right, he was 2 years younger than Everette and had three kids and a divorce. But that sort of thing had never appealed to Everette. He was glad he’d made the decision to get a PA, the girl seemed efficient – scarily so sometimes but it was only the first few weeks and already he was finding work much easier. Her glowing bounce was making him feel even older though especially when she grinned at him.
She was too perfect and he knew he was definitely old to her, even two years ago he would have probably tried it on but he was – well middle aged he supposed – he shuddered. At his plush apartment he removed the stopper from the wine he had been diligently supping the last few nights, it was a good vintage and he feigned interest in such things He’d been on wine tasting events and everything, he knew about them but he never really felt it within. At his core he was still a snake bite and black man, his hair had been a sensible length for most of his adult life and he was beginning to regret that now.
His cream carpet was spotless, as was the white foe leather sofa, it was all so very…. what was expected. He gulped the wine, no longer caring for finesse. Slouching his hand tailored suit off he kicked the expensive pile across the room and climbed into the shower. The warm jet of water made him feel somewhat better and his thoughts turned once more to his PA, he felt a strange compulsion to impress her, this was a rare feeling for him, he had always known girls admired him, now he was worried she would see some old pervert.
That night he drank more wine, finished the bottle and another for good measure and dreamed of efficient smiles.
He awoke, slowly, some strange trill was cutting through a headache and he felt blurry, he opened his eyes to a too bright world and stars exploded in his eyes as he tried to turn over to escape the glare. Then in horror he sat up, and grabbed his phone the realisation that he had slept in, crashed down upon Everette as he pressed the answer button, ‘Hello?’
Her voice washed over him like some sort of salve, ‘I’ve canceled your morning appointments, you seemed a little under the weather yesterday and when you didn’t turn up for the Networking breakfast I though you must be ill. I waited until ten to phone… I hope that was ok?’
‘Yes… erm… thankyou,’ he said not sure quite what had happened to him, he never over slept, ever. maybe she was right and he was ill.
‘Is there anything you need? I can pop over this afternoon if you’d like?’ there was a mustiness to the voice, something seductive and he said, ‘yes please,’ without really thinking. It was only after he’d hung up with her promise to come and see him that he realised he hadn’t mentioned anything that he actually needed. He fell back asleep.
It was the door buzzer that awoke him this time, he clicked her in and then tried to hurry out of bed to make himself semi-descent but she was upon him before he barely had his dressing gown around himself.
As always she was immaculate, hair gleaming and a brightness in her eyes, she grinned at him, somehow that always made him nervous. ‘Here drink this and grab a shower!’ she said brightly passing him a litre carton of orange juice, it was slightly chilled but not tooth hurting cold. He approved and wondered if he could find it in the budget to give her a raise. She was apparently going to prepare coffee – Everette thought it best if he prepared himself, his headache had gone – just like that, as if their fingers touching had been a trigger.
He sluiced off the weariness and exited to the smell of toast and coffee. Sighing appreciatively he flopped into a chair suddenly very aware of the fact he really was not dressed but rather slinking around in a bath robe and nothing else.
She placed the food in front of him and gently ran her hand down the side of his no longer stubble worn cheek, he felt the heat of her growing within and looked up into hungry eyes. Was she really offering? Or was he dreaming this whole thing?
‘Eat,’ she coaxed gently.
He ate ravenously, the fatigue of the last few weeks still there leaden in his limbs, but her smile alone seemed to reinvigorate him.
‘Better?’ his PA purred in his ear as he put his empty coffee cup down. He nodded and smiled at her. She lent forward and started to nibble his ear, down to his throat, a sharp pain, made him sit up ridged but he was unable to move, now in that instant of paralyzing agony, the clarity of it all came to him. This was how she had come to be employed by him in the first place.
His blood sang with the pressure of her as she drank, but she was bleeding him dry. He would not forget this time, he would not… no… he slumped forward. She whispered, ‘sleep well my love,’ and licked the blood from her chin.
‘We need to get this hydraulics in place to hold the ceiling up,’ snapped my old lecturer. I nodded dumbly and got out of the way whilst they began to prepare the area, the medic took me aside.
‘I may have to euthanaes, you realise – are any of them going to object?’ she gestured to others behind us. There was loads of space, the public expeditions I only ever sent through apparently large tunnels, each group had one or two geologists with them, I looked at the boulders and scree and wondered what had caused the rock cascade.
‘They should be,’ I said quietly, ‘I don’t recall seeing any Life Lighters in the records.’ I swallowed and looked away.
‘They are probably dead already,’ I said, the weight of it pressed me down, the world seemed to recede away from me, they had had families, children, mothers, fathers and siblings, I would have to tell them the news. Guiltily I wondered what the impact would be on the moral of my people, it drove home how sickeningly trapped we actually were.
The medic had lost interest in me and was checking supplies, I heard the hissing of the hydraulics going into place and wondered fleetingly just how many of them we had in the cavern with us, if there was a structural issue in the main chamber we were screwed. If we had enough of the things maybe I should order the shoring up of all the major branches of the cave system but then I worried that I might need them for the digging out tunnel. I wanted to cry at the situation. Instead I tugged nervously on my ears which were drooped pretty low to begin with.
‘Is it possible to safely excavate?’ I asked.
A worried glance from on of the cavers told me they didn’t know. ‘Are we getting any responses, any calling from in there?’ I asked hesitating as I didn’t really want to know. I had hoped to find them lost or maybe dead from gas build up but this not knowing was bad news.
A sob of frustration caught me off guard, my old lecturer was thumping the wall of rubble, ‘we can’t do the rite!’ he sobbed. I moved over to him.
‘We will attempt to dig them out,’ I murmured to him softly.
‘You fool!’ he hissed, snapping his head around to me, ‘we can’t afford too.’ I nodded hated myself and looking away. He was right, the chances of there being a way out down there was remote and digging resources had to be kept for the Main Dig, the one that could save thousands and thousands of lives.
Sighing I looked at the supplies we had and shrugged, ‘you and you stay here and guard,’ I said dying a little inside, ‘we shall return and get… something to seal the area.’ I shuddered and walked away, the other two followed, the Medic had nodded knowing that if someone did claw their way out she would be the one best qualified as to weather they needed euthenasia or not.
My lecturer was in a state as we walked back, shaking and trembling, whispering, ‘no rite! We did not help them pass,’ and other such things which in the dark confines in the tunnels began to press in on me crushing my heart flat.
I found my feet had become heavy in their boots, it seemed to take all my energy just to keep moving forward, what in the hell hole that our existence had become, was I going to do? I had to seal that area and perhaps I could flood it or something? The thoughts sickened me, but I couldn’t leave them there to slowly starve to death or… Images from my child hood nightmares reared in my thoughts once more, that preternatural fear of the undead, I wanted to laugh at myself but at that point I didn’t think that I would ever laugh again. My stomach was cold, and every meal I’d eaten in the last week seemed to be swishing around within me, my purples were closed and pale – if we had been in the sunlight they would have been an unhealthy lilic.
Back at my base I just wanted to slump but I dare not, I had lost a team and their families would be starting to notice their absence and worse than that I had two of my crew guarding the entrance to their possibly living grave, we had no idea where the tunnel lead – their putrefying corpses could poison the air or the water supply (if we ever found one – we were currently running on condensation traps erected in the cavern roof.). I needed to consult the council, I picked up a hand unit to message them and thought angrily about the resources we could have had, enough units like this and we could have had a roaming network whilst we explored and then maybe we could have saved the team. I screeched with anger and almost threw the unit, I gripped it too hard and my joints ached in my long fingers.
But the buzz of my message being viewed caught my attention and I swayed as my mothers voice emerged from the unit.
‘Report?’
‘I’ve lost a team,’ I said, no emotion seemed to be filtering through my system now, there was just a blank nothing-ness, I shuddered. The silence from the other end seemed to spiral in on me. ‘They may still be alive but I can’t afford the resources to dig them out… and I can’t leave them to starve….’
‘Do their families know yet?’ came her quiet, infuriating voice, did the woman never react to anything like a real person?
‘No not yet, I shall go and see them personally..’ I began only to be cut off sharply by her.
‘You will not! You will send a message saying they have found an exciting potential and are off for several weeks on an explore.’
‘But..’
‘Just do it Gingnar, we can not afford for this to get out. And I will send some… sealing supplies to you, we had planned for this eventuality, now go in peace.’
Then the woman broke the connection and I slumped into a chair and sobbed, my lecturer looking pale and worn beside me, he put an awkward hand on my shoulder.
It took two days to put the hybridised equipment together and at every moment of it we worried we would blow the thing up, it took four units – one of my prototype and three of the echo locators – this was not what we had hoped for but much better than we had expected. My lecturer continued to be bitter towards me and I sent him out the second day with the volunteers from the general population to map an area of cave.
We now had a week and a half before they would seal us into this cavern forever, fights had already broken out due to petty thefts and three suicides had been reported. And with their news a new horror struck me – how were we to dispose of our dead?
It was so important, of course I chided myself it was all mumbo jumbo, all old superstitions but I felt uneasy about the thought of not incinerating the dead with all due respects. Were those bodies already laying around somewhere?
I shuddered at the thoughts and childhood legends and tales of daring do arose in my mind. The undead storming the Castle of Umkip, and Soonka the Everlasting Queen. I would have to check with the council it really was giving me chills.
But I busies myself with the process at hand and we had a working unit, just one. Now I had to select who was to use it, my gut reaction was to keep it close to me, to make sure it was ok but I had data coming in from the search parties and things to organise. I called a meeting and the Engineer as I come to think of him was sitting there, I sort of wanted to give it to the Youngling as I thought of the youngest of us (though in truth I think he was actually older than I was), but he really didn’t have the manual dexterity for it, strange he should have made it in the field of geology but then I wasn’t the standard either. Nor was all the team geologists. It would be the engineer I gave the instrument too, he had been fundamental in the hybridization process.
The decision was not popular with my lecturer, who was irate and indignant and I was weary of him always objecting to everything on principle. Out of the rest of the core team I had another 5 lecturers two of which had made it known they were not happy with my command but would follow me as it was the councils wish, one seemed ambivalent, another obviously had an opinion but was tight mouthed so no one knew what it was, the last was the man who had interviewed me and whom to my immense surprised had be pleased with my appointment.
Benok inclined his head to me, his purples open in pleasure, ‘I knew the risk of taking you on was worth it,’ he said happily. And it had been risk taking me on, I was not your classic miner and many had thought I would not be able to take the physical strain. I suddenly wondered if the Youngling was another one of his ‘risks’ the glint of laughter in his eyes made me think it was so.
I was starting to want to get out there and explore the actual cave system but I was buried in the insane bureaucracy of the council and bizarrely the chief academics in the team. The teams from the public sector were increasing daily and I had to keep finding them side tunnels and jobs to do and that was becoming a whole new head ache though it was bringing some useful information back.
The days seemed so long and pressing and I wondered briefly how my parents were coping as what ever I was experiencing in my little bit of the Cavern they were trying to run the whole show. I began to feel that I was coping well but with less than a week to go before we were due to be sealed in forever one of the teams did not return.
‘They should be back by now!’ shouted my old lecturer.
‘I am well aware of that, they went down the East section to fork 3/60, they have probably just gotten carried away but..’
‘You should have already sent a rescue crew!’ he snapped.
‘I do not have enough people for a dedicated rescue team nor the equipment and you know it!’
But he was right and I knew it, but I had been hoping they were just late but now it was eight hours and everyone was tired and I needed to muster a rescue crew. ‘You will assist me!’ I hissed and stormed off to get a crew together, I should not have been putting myself in danger either but I had already been called a coward by this man and it was starting to get into my purples.
I took two experienced cavers with me, my old lecturer and a medic, including me that made five. We checked our ropes and ladders and chisels and food supplies. Wearing the thick waxed canvas boiler suits we heading along the settings I had handed out. My heart hurt with anxiety, I kept hoping that the glint off of the crystalline stone was their torch light, the acrid fumes filled my lungs but we needed water proof flame.
My ears began to twitch with tension, we went deeper and deeper and then we began to see signs that they had been this way – pins for rope jammed into the cracks and crevices of the rocks. I was bone weary and ready to call it a night when we came to the cave in. I swore and hit the freshly fractured sides of the rocks, I felt sick and began to scrabble at the rocks to try and uncover those within. The medic put a restraining hand on me.
‘How long have they been in there?’ she asked her eyes full of concern.
I shrugged, ‘maybe a up to 2 days.’ I conceded.
She sighed and looked at the rocks.
‘We need to be careful,’ she whispered and I felt the fear vibrating through her fingers.
I stared in horror at the rock face.
Rita Rainbow (first published on Red Monster)
Rita the Rainbow skipped across the hillside chasing the rain shadow; she wanted a shower but the rain always just ran away from her. Behind her the sun smiled shyly and pretended not to be watching every time Rita looked up at her.
After a while Rita began to get tired and the hills were running out. Instead a vast array of Blue Ocean lay before her. It looked so lovely and she was sure she could bathe in it. And so she jumped and she dived and she splashed into the glittering water and to her surprise Rita the Rainbow broke into hundreds of small darting rainbows and these swam around happily.
Later on they missed being a rainbow and swam together around a small island. Some of the fish stopped swimming but other swam around and around and they found they were a rainbow once more. And so the Coral Sea was born.