Last Tuesday I entered Finish That Thought. It’s a flash challenge to write a story of up to 500 words using the first sentence.“I’ll tell you what you need, and that’s a [rocket scientist].”and this is the special challengeSet your story in a war zone. I did and so tonight here is my story!
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After the Electricity died!
“I’ll tell you what you need, and that’s a [rocket scientist].” with that Simon turned on his heel and slammed the lab door.
Sitting in the ensueing silence Dan shrugged his shoulders and said to to no one inparticular ” Well good luck with that they are all dead and with them their knowledge” Seconds passed and the low buzz of hushed voices and the scratching of pens on paper once again began to fill the room.
Dan was tired and he was desparate for a cup of coffee, sadly he thought to himself there had been none left for at least 5yrs now. Just like everything else he had loved and held dear, electricity, flying , technology , gone all gone. Everything was harder now , keeping warm, keeping knowledge even keeping from being hungry.
The most asked question: where were you when electricity died? Everyone over five remembered exactly, though for the first few days they though it just a fluke. Sadly it was not people died in their millions, planes fell from the skies hospitals just stopped working, freezers thawed. There was no petrol unless you could crank it up by hand. Things just got harder and only those who were willing to pull together and work hard survived.
Nothing was the same and it was amazing how quickly things ran out , how knowledge was forgotten. There was no internet , no google, everyone and everything became insular. Dan had met Simon in a library where he was defending the books… people were actually taking the books and burning them for heat and cooking! They had both seen how short sighted that was and had decided to pool their knowledge. Simon had been in the army after growing up on an arable farm, Dan had been a Scientist working in genectics. They realized that their skills were of no use unless they could find more people with other knowledge to impart.
They set about this and anyone who wanted to join them was welcome. They all worked hard at keeping the old knowledge alive and made sure the children learned as wide a range of skills as possible. It had been so hard at first everyone had become so soft, life was too easy everything at peoples fingertips. It was snatched away over night … well in one afternoon actually.
Everything was so hard , keeping warm , growing food, keeping comunications open, travel even the simple things like getting through the day were hard, god forbid there would be a medical emergancy or even a birth! Even keeping peace with themselves and the neighbouring settlements was hard then there were the itinerant travellers who always caused trouble.
Simon returned to the lab, everyone stopped working and looked at him expectantly ! Dan got up and walked across to to meet him .” Is it as bad as you thought,” he asked? “Worse” replied Simon “they are coming and they mean war! ” That’s why I said we we need rocket scienists ! ” Dan hung his head this means war……….
willowdot21 