“I can’t believe you lost the keys!”
“Ya know what Hill? There’s a lot of
things you don’t think about when you’re being shot at.”
The air was still as the two men walked
into the town.
“Awfully quiet round here…” Schafer said
as he flicked off the safety on his rifle.
“For an outer world capital, there sure
aren’t many of people. But I guess there aren’t many bandits either.” Hill shrugged.
“What the hell is that?” Schafer pointed
to a figure out in the distance.
“What the hell is what?”
“That!”
“Well, we should probably check it out.”
The two men began to make their way
towards the figure. As they got closer they began to be able to see the figure
more clearly.
“What the hell is that!” Hill said, with
a slight quiver in his voice.
“It looks like a person but…. Twisted….”
Schafer responded, almost as if he was saying it to himself to confirm his own
disbelief instead of answering his companion.
The creature walked listlessly, almost
stumbling as it made its way down the street. Where an arm once was a disfigured
protrusion now resided. A number of smaller deformities protruded out of the
figures back through rips in the remainder of a shirt. In its other hand was a handgun.
The two walked forward, weapons raised.
After a few steps, the creature stopped; the two men stopped with it. The
creature slowly rotated itself. It raised the arm holding the pistol and began
to fire. Both men took cover behind the same car. Once the creature ran out of
ammo it began to stumble to towards the men.
Noticing the lack of incoming fire, Schafer
peeked out from behind the car and fired a burst in the direction of the creature.
It doubled over and collapsed to the ground. Schafer motioned to his partner to
come help him get a closer look.
When they reached the creature’s body
Hill rolled it over onto its back. As he did so, the creature spoke, “Kill me.”
“What happened to you?” Schafer asked, horrified
that the man was still conscious in his twisted form.
“The foundation.. They said they would
help..” The man responded, gasping for air between words.
“Who’s the foundation?” Hill chimed in.
“Go east. The Foundation is east.”
“What else can you tell us?” Schafer pressed.
“Please kill me.”
Not wanting to press the dying man any
further, Schafer obliged to put him out of his misery.
“I guess we should head east then.”
“Whatever is happening on this planet,
it does seem like the Foundation is involved.”
The two men set off down the road
towards the east.
*Author’s
Notes*
I wanted to try a few things in this story.
Firstly, I wanted to try and set up a generic
Sci Fi/Western universe, somewhat similar to StarCraft, with minimal
backstory. Secondly, I wanted to see if I could write dialog without indicating
who was talking to see how confusing it is to follow. I’m pretty sure it’s
really confusing. Thirdly, I wanted to see how well I could write a story based
on a Sci Fi trope without it being too cliché. I think I probably failed in
that department, but it’s a good learning experience. Lastly, I wanted to just
write and see which parts I was getting hung up on.
Infested Terran from StarCraft
Source: StarCraft Wiki
References
Hey Chris. The picture you chose is very dark but I feel that it fits the story very well. I think you did a great job of using dialogue to get the point of the story crossed.I think that you did a great job describing the action scenes in your story. I wonder what will come for the two guys later on?
ReplyDeleteHey Chris,
ReplyDeleteThat was an interesting story! Like you said in your comment, the dialog was somewhat difficult to follow who was saying what. The plot of the story was clear, but I just wasn’t sure who was talking unless it was explicitly stated, which is what you intended. I never played any of the StarCraft games, so I’m interesting in where you take the plot.