November 2016 75-word writing challenge -- VICTORY TO HEX!

[Hex]

RULES:

Write a story inspired by the chosen theme and genre in no more than 75 words, not including the title


ONE entry per person

NO links, commentary or extraneous material in the posts, please -- the stories must stand on their own


WHEN WRITING YOUR STORY, PLEASE REMEMBER THIS IS A FAMILY-FRIENDLY FORUM


All stories Copyright 2016 by their respective authors,

who grant the Chronicles Network the non-exclusive right to publish them here


The complete rules can be found at RULES FOR THE WRITING CHALLENGES

Contest ends at 11:59 pm GMT, November 23, 2016

Voting Ends at 11:59 pm GMT, November 28, 2016


You do not have to submit a story in order to vote --
in fact, we encourage all Chrons members to take part in choosing a winner


The Magnificent Prize:


The Dignified Congratulations/Grovelling Admiration of Your Peers

and the challenge of choosing next month's theme and genre


Theme:

Map

Genre:

Dystopian


This thread to be used for entries only.
Please keep all comments to the DISCUSSION THREAD


We invite (and indeed hope for) lively discussion and speculation about the stories as they are posted, as long as it doesn't involve the author explaining the plot.


** Please do not use the "Like" button in this thread! **​

 

[Mith]

Footsteps

Walk.

Trudge on, and on, and on.

Don’t let them notice you.

The State see’s all, knows all. Big Brother watches you know.

Walk.

Avoid the Thought Police, no seditious thinking. Avoid the soldiers and their mirrored gazes. Avoid your family, their loyalty is not with you.

Keep moving forward, step by bland step.

Don’t think about hope. Don’t think about freedom.

Follow the map. X marks the rebels spot. Deliver the prize.

Walk.

 

[Calliopenjo]

The Necessities

We found a community of people that looked more like moles that lived below the surface when we moved underground after the nuclear holocaust.

No map to speak of, but one needed to be made for those of us who came from above ground. Where to start and how to navigate only started the list of the questions. Maybe The Diggers could help us document the extensive tunnels and chambers they created.

 

[Judderman]

Hope is for the Hopeless

Directions followed. I stumbled ever on. Shattered, toxic home ever further behind. Cut feet. Parched throat. Tattered rags. The directions in my hand. Six days walk and salvation was near. So near. Spirits raised. Life fortune spent for access. Wisely spent I said each night. It had to be.
My beacon was flashing. Something ahead. The sign! An opening beyond. A gate. Open. Carcasses beyond the threshold!? Two maps discarded. What? Laughter behind. Lost. Darkness.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

THE PROMOTION

Willis stared at the map of the Community and instructions his controller had printed for him. LEVEL SIX, UNIT BLUE. That was a Citizen’s level! He ran to the nearest elevator. For the first time in his life, it allowed him to enter.

He found Unit Blue quickly. The door let him in. A woman in the colorful robes of a Citizen glanced at him. “Clean my unit.” Willis nearly wept with joy.

 

[Cathbad]

The World is What You Make It​

I found her as I searched the labyrinth of fallen Gotham.

Her little circle of land was clean, plants grew, and a Cinderella Playhouse served as her home. In the center, a large pot sat over a hot fire.

She, maybe eight, welcomed me with childish joy. I, amazed she’d survived alone, entered her circle as she spoke animatedly, as children will.

When I saw the body parts roiling in the boiling pot, I ran.

 

[Stable]

Satisfaction​

To this day I don’t understand what everyone complains about. The world was wonderful, and then suddenly awful, okay. But now things are better once again, we aren’t hungry any more, we have a purpose and drive. We are united by the King, and if he can be a harsh ruler at least he is a fair one.

I suppose some people always complain. I pick a fingernail from between my teeth and keep eating.

 

[Luiglin]

So welcome to the machine

To work, society has to be a machine in faultless synchronisation, every part working without question or feeling.

Our Society is that machine.

We are named by our coordinate; a unique sequence of digits that defines our existence and decides our purpose, our position upon the societal machine map.

For reality is coldly clinical. Nature teaches this. Our history teaches this. My history teaches this.

This is my Society. I'm 0.0,0.0.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Tit for Tat

The Trader observed one of two sheep the clanswoman was selling. Its shorn sides were covered with tattoos: a map, and iconography of weapons – rifles, flamethrowers, tanks, missiles.
Can it be – the Old Army’s lost depot? “Four brasslings, no more. Here – now begone.” He turned, and kneeled by the sheep.
“Wait! There’re no directions – where is this?”
She produced shears, then clipped bits of the second sheep’s wool, revealing tattooed words.
“Fifty goldlings, no less.”

 

[Shyrka]

A Dream of Clouds

Friend,

Your search is over. This will help you find what you need.

Darran stared at the hand-scrawled message one last time. He flipped over the ragged scrap – real paper – and checked the directions. This was the place.

Outside.

Even the word made him giddy. Escape. No more factorium. No more Computer!

He clambered through the hatch.

Floodlights hit him. Barren, white walls stared back.

The Computer’s voice was mild. Warm, even.

“Hello Friend.”

 

[AstroZon]

The Odon Cartograph

The Odon Cartograph, sacred in myth and profane in blood, lay before me in subdued magnificence. None but a privileged few even knew if it genuinely existed. Here, 10,000 years later, I was looking at the earth as it was before the wars, before the terrors, and especially, before the Corrections.

My finger shook as I traced the Americas, over to Kamchatka, Sakhalin, and onto Honshu. "Yes! it did exist! The mythical city of Tokyo!"

 

[Vaz]

The Path


I no longer dream.

Lil' implant size of a coin stops 'em, gives you darkness, peace.

Work 'til I drop. Digging. Muscle cords my arms.

Wires feed us, no more chewing.

Some whisper about freedom, injustice. How they gon' start an uprising.

A noose makes their feet rise.

Good riddance.

Life's better now we're all forced to walk the same path.

 

[David Evil Overlord]

Brontosaurus’ Quantum Thesaurus (And Atlas Of Alternate Worlds).

Brontosaurus,
Mapped a chorus,
Line of criss-cross worlds,
Now it’s Brontosaurus’,
Quantum Thesaurus,
And Atlas of Alternate Worlds.

Annotated,
And updated,
In manner quite unconventional,
Our heroic tourist,
Through timelines obscurest,
Drew us maps that were poly-dimensional.

Through wormholes she found,
(Some were underground),
Brontosaurus rode the New York subway,
Some New Yorks were mammalian,
Others even more alien,
Where the Shakespeare of the trilobites writes plays.

 

[Wruter]

We Have a Map of the Future

"The neural mapping process is quick and painless," the careers advisor said, motioning for Evelyn to sit. He attached several electrodes to her scalp then activated the device.

Evelyn waited anxiously as the advisor studied the monitor readouts. She wanted to be an artist when she finished school; it was all she ever dreamed of.

"Your results show you are eminently suited for a career in ... accounting," he said. "Congratulations. Your future is assured."

 

[Mr Orange]

Musa Mappa


The desolate wasteland spreads out on every side. And inside. There's nothing. My dusty companion looks from the strange, sculpted shape in front of us, to the blank map she holds.

"So, you going to plot this?"

I stay motionless and silent, saving my words.

"Well?"

I frown.

"I don't have time."

"What do you mean, we're okay aren't we?"

"Shut up."

She hoists her middle finger.

"And stop moving, or we'll run out of—"

 

[Peter V]

Babysitting​

I purchase the map unseen because I am desperate.

I get what I pay for but it's not what I expect because it is tattooed onto a de-fanged kramealian. A juvenile which has entered its scaling cycle.

Clever!

If I want to read it I have to look after the creature until the scales shed. Weighing up the cost of looking after the monstrosity against my freedom.

If only it did not smell so bad.

 

[Ajid]

Safe Behind These Walls​

Trawling through a box of my late fathers belongings, we came upon a strange picture.

"What is this picture covered with names?" I shouted to my uncle.
"We must burn it dear boy, do not speak of it to anyone. It is a forbidden item, a map. It shows of places beyond the walls erected by the Great Leader. Places of evil that no man should ever speak, from there foreign beasts once came."

 

[Steven Sorrels]

Cartography of the Damned


"This can't be real," I muttered.

"The Master Cog has spoken," said Gaz, his voice like broken glass.

"I can't do this," I said, obstinate.

"Comply or face exile. Choose now." Cold and detached.

With resignation, I stepped to the cartographer whirring to life before me.

"IDENTIFY."

"Sigma-9."

"CONFIRMED. REASSIGNMENT INITIATED."

I was restrained by the arms of the device. I was now out of options.

"PREPARE FOR PAIN."

 

[LittleStar]

The Mapmaker

Ten scribbled furiously, splitting valleys and holding back oceans until they were safely across.

"She shan't be hurt, old friend." The Watcher was here already.

Ten's quill fell. "I've changed it all. you'll not find her now, old friend."

"You may have built this world..." Warmth touched Ten's throat, dribbled into his collar. "But I own it."

He collapsed onto the map, and smeared the newly-inked words shrouding his child's refuge, 'Here Be Dragons'.

 

[Abernovo]

The Patience Game​

Paradise glitters -- as always, up here, far away from the Tunnels. Tonight, I’m a man, kind of. I can morph, but never quite pass. Ze (a pronoun we only ever use in private; publicly, it’s she) doesn’t mind.

Unlike the Senator. He wants my company, but hates the truth of me, what’s there. Maybe explains his speeches.

It’s okay. In my mind, I’ve drawn the way back to Communications. He doesn’t know about the video.