Stein Snippet #5

         

Halloween is just around the corner and the crew here at Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday are prepping with a new round of snippets fresh for the reading.  What better place to get your dragon/zombie/alien/assassin/bump-in-the-night fixes?  Make sure you check out all the great pieces over at the main site – SciFiFanSat.blogspot.com.  My short this week is still following Annie, trapped in an alley as a hungry pack of zombies closes in.  Feel free to check out the prior snippets from this same story posted here.  Enjoy!

          Annie searched for a weapon, a club, a pipe, a rusty nail, anything lying at her feet.  She saw the small medical kit, its contents spewed across the alley’s floor, a few bandages, some salve, and antibiotics, nothing that would save her own life in these circumstances.  She never thought of herself as a hero, but sacrificing her life in an effort to save a ten year old boy that she’d only known for a matter of weeks, staring at the herd of monstrosities looking to tear her flesh from her bones, she’d have taken the same chances.

          She picked up a broken bottle and turned.  At least she hoped to take one or two of them down with her.  The glass shook in her hand.

          “Come on!  I haven’t got all night!”

          And there you have it.  I promise the story will move out of the alley eventually but I am having fun taking it ten sentences at a clip.  Leave me a comment and let me know what you think.  Enjoy the week leading up to Halloween and see you in seven.

Stein Snippet #4

        Hi all!  Welcome to another Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday.  What we have here…is not a failure to communicate.  It’s a band of authors and writers who enjoy sharing snippets of their various science fiction and fantasy works, which equates to good readin’ fun.  I’ve been sharing from a WIP story I’m writing just for the SFFSAT crowd, still untitled at this point.  To catch everyone up to speed – Annie is trapped in an alley and a zombie horde is hot on her heels.  Nowhere to run, and there’s something creepy in the dumpster.  Not her best night.  I hope you enjoy.  Please stop over at the main site – scififansat.blogspot.com to check out all the great snippets contributed by an even greater group of writers over there.

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          When Annie first learned the dead could talk, she cursed every zombie movie she’d ever watched.  It wasn’t creepy enough to have animated corpses hunting down every beating heart they could catch a whiff of, but the color commentary they spewed while doing it sent extra chills down her spine.  A limited vocabulary at best, Annie felt their words were more verbalizing some kind of primal urges than actually looking to carry on a conversation but it still freaked her out.

          A second zombie collided with its orange suited cohort, smashing its face into the wall.  One by one, more of the pack filtered into the alley until over a dozen hunting corpses sniffed wildly into the night air.  Mostly men, a few women, and one child no more than fourteen, scoured for the source of their anticipation.  More eyes focused on Annie as she stood braced against the alley wall.

          Illness and old age had become the new American dream and the prospect of making it through any given day proved a crap shoot.  Still, when death stared you in the eye, you were never ready.

          Hope you enjoyed.  If you could, leave a comment in passing.  They’re always appreciated and help fuel the writing process.  Have a great weekend! 

Stein Snippet #3

Bwahahahahaha!  Just needed to get that out of my system.  It is October, you know.  Halloween is just around the corner and even better than that, we’ve just stumbled into yet another Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday.  What is that you ask?  Well, only a group of some truly inspired sci-fi/fantasy writers that contribute weekly snippets of their work.  Don’t believe me?  Go check out the main site at SciFiFanSat.blogspot.com for a complete list.  And what better time to tell a zombie story than the scariest month of the year!!  Quick recap – in the last few snippets, Annie has been on the run from the meat patrol (ravenous zombies) and took a bad turn into a dead end.  With the running dead closing fast, her only hope is jumping into a trash filled dumpster.

          Annie pulled back the lid to the dumpster and threw her leg up onto the ledge to crawl inside.  A hand shot up from inside the darkened container, slamming the top back down.  Annie stumbled away, dropping the tin medical kit she carried under her arm.

          “Mine, go ‘way!”  The voice sounded like someone choking a dog after they just let it drink drain cleaner, low and coarse, more consonants then vowels.

          The first of the zombies crashed into the wall at the mouth of the alley, clinging to the bricked wall with rotted fingers.  One of the arms from his orange jump suit hung empty at its side.  Annie guessed it for a paramedic or E.M.T. that came across the wrong patient.  Their eyes locked on to each other’s in the little light the corridor provided as its eyes glazed over with the hunger.

          “Pretty food.”

          And there you have it.  I'm still working on a title.  Hope you enjoyed and come back next week to see what happens to Annie and the rat pack.  Please, leave a comment before you go.  They’re always appreciated.

Twelve Sunsets

What’s that I hear in the distance?  Is it thunder?  The ice-cream man?  No.  Then it must be another installment of Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday.  Due to universal forces out of my control, I missed posting last week but I did add some to the WIP I posted from the last few times.  I was all ready to post from there again but, to my own amazement, I caught the message that this was cue word week, like college week on Wheel Of Fortune but cooler.  Anyway, the word suns appeared nowhere in that snippet, considering it’s night in the scene, so instead I got all prose-like and came up with this.  I hope sunsets make the cut – it was as close as I could get.  Something a little different but staying in the zombie state of mind (Is that a Billy Joel song?).  Enjoy and check out all the other great suns related snippets over at SciFiFanSat.blogspot.com.

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Twelve sunsets lay rid

The ghost town of Manhattan

Where zombies dwell in the spas and

Walk through fountains

With weekend hats and plastic souls

Driving down brick laden paths

To farmer's market filled with

Spoiled fruits from forgotten realms

Burning out their retinas

Watching blurred horizons

I never claimed to be a poet.  Seeya next week where I’ll return to Annie trapped in an alley while being chased by a ravenous pack of zombies.  Maybe they’re vegans?