Saturday 27 June 2015

NFFD 2015

It's National Flash Fiction Day again!

Which means I should

a) promote The Flashnificents AKA the story collective co-founded by me. I write at least one jokey piece for it weekly. The group was inspired by our lecturer's attempt to write a story daily for a year.

Said lecturer incidentally founded National Flash Fiction Day. Which means today I should also

b) Write at least one story. So here it is.


WHAT'S NEXT?

Well, I’ve finished watching everything on Netflix. Time to go outside…

Oh God. What happened? The world is a wasteland. The landscape is flattened. The horizon is endless. Man, if only Netflix had streamed The Ten O’clock News

I shut my front door and the house collapses behind me. Shit. Looks like I’m going to need to a new place to sleep. And another laptop.

I walk for hours in seemingly unchanging terrain. I see and hear no one. Am I the only person left alive?

The sun reaches its peak so I begin to get thirsty. The dirt around me is bone dry. I can’t see an oasis. I try to produce some saliva to suck on. I fail.

I walk some more. Soon my legs go on automatically and my brain disengages. The journey becomes almost relaxing.

Night falls. I keep on walking. Dawn. I keep on walking. I lose track of how long it’s been since I left home. I keep on walking.

Finally I see something in the distance that breaks the monotony of my view. I run towards the mysterious mass in the sky. It comes into focus. No…

Giant letters hover in front of me.

Next episode playing in 10 seconds.

9

8

7

I fall to my knees.

6

5

4

I sob.

3

WHY?

2

I hate myself.

1.