Today’s Picture Prompt
Today’s Word Prompt!
The following may be used as a sentence in your story OR provide a basis for it:-
“ultimate decimation”
Read on for the rules!
Rules!
- You may enter as soon as this post appears.
- Post entries in the comments – you may simultaneously display them on your personal blog etc but please show a link back to this competition post.
- Stories must be 150 words – margin of 5 words either side – AND based on the picture and written prompts.
- Entry titles do not count towards the word count.
- Only one entry per entrant.
- End each entry with word count and name/twitter handle – if you forget these REPLY TO YOUR OWN COMMENT with them before judging closes!
- Monday 11am GMT is the usual closing time for entries – BUT the competition will be open until I put a ‘competition closed’ comment so you may be able to slip something in (because I’m extra kind like that). Got that?
If you do not comply with these rules your story will be disqualified from judging. Good spelling and grammar will also help to make a better impression on judge/s – the odd typo, however, will be overlooked so please don’t worry about that.
For tips, read through the critiques from last week’s entries.
Winners!
There will be ONE OVERALL WINNER and THREE RUNNERS UP. After that there will be THREE CRITIQUES of three stories that didn’t make it.
– It would also be nice to those participating if you could promote your fellow competitors and those who win.
The Judge
This week’s judge is…
That’s right. This week it’s me. Sorry to disappoint, but if you are interested in being a judge then please send me an email on the address supplied on my contact page.
How You Can Help
Give a +1 or a tumblr reblog or click the ‘tweet this’ link up on the right hand side or share from the facebook fan page or retweet from my twitter page to spread the word.
Or, even better, go on the #SatSunTails twitter search results and retweet other entrants.
The more people that hear about #SatSunTails, the more entries there are and the better the competition becomes!
So What Are You Waiting For?
Go on. Have a go!
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Through the thick undergrowth he journeyed days on end, striving against lost intimacy and thoughts of self. How could he be one in himself after so long as one in heart and mind with the Gatts.
The decision didn’t come through writ or decree, but rather in shared feeling. They’d grown soft, unable to respond to new challenges. An unforeseen attack on the city’s weakest was troubling. Unheard of in these times of safety, with protectors named and unnamed.
Some would die. But Death? He could handle death, a nothingness spiraling into something new — another rotation in the circle of existence. It was separation that vexed him so.
Would he change his path if he could? No. With the team in need of a cull, he removed himself. The best, the strongest and the most worthy of staying, he left the nine behind. It was the ultimate decimation.
Oh yeah. @Leo_Godin – 149 words
Thick sheets of rain drummed down all around him, but he barely noticed as he trudged through the field. He had to be away from that house, away from memories of her and everything they'd had.
The ache of loss was still as raw as ever. Until a few days ago, they'd faced the rest of their lives together, never thinking they could be so abruptly torn from each other. Fate, however, had other ideas, bringing about the ultimate decimation. A red traffic light, a screech of brakes, had taken away the future they'd planned. He longed to hold her close again, to feel solid and warm flesh, but he knew he never could.
He couldn't even feel the rain as it passed right through him. The grass remained undisturbed by his movements. He drifted further from the place that had once been home, the place where she now lived alone, mourning him.
Pippa Jane – 153 words
I walk in the rain each year to remember what happened the day the world changed. The day the DuPont plant exploded in Indonesia and released a chemical solvent that reacted with water vapor into the atmosphere.
The solvent turned water vapor to HydroChloric Acid, and more of itself. It only worked on water vapor. Like the clouds.
The world named that day “Ultimate Decimation Day”, the day one in every ten people died. 700,000,000 people. They were the lucky ones.
Billions suffered chemical burns. Rain got in their eyes, burning them. It got in their lungs, scarring them. And thanks to the water cycle, our chemical solvent was slowly replacing all the water on Earth. It was slowly killing the plants and animals.
Bacteria, with their short life cycles, might evolve immunity to the rain. Might. We wouldn’t. Ultimate Decimation Day was the day we all died.
150 Words
@LurchMunster
Powerful
Competition is closed.