September 2024 -- 75 Word Writing Challenge -- VICTORY TO DAYSMAN!

[The Judge]

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 2024 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, 23 September 2024

Voting ends at 11:59 pm GMT, 28 September 2024


We ask all entrants to do their best to vote when the time comes

but you do not have to submit a story in order to vote
as we encourage all Chrons members to take part in choosing the winning entry


The Magnificent Prize:

The Dignified Congratulations/Grovelling Admiration of Your Peers
and the challenge of choosing next month's theme and genre




Theme:

W I L D

Genre:

SCIENCE FICTION or fantasy

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! **

​

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Into the Wilderness

The sun vanished behind the mountains. Jazmyn switched her eyes to infrared, turning the Milky Way into a river of lava. Weeds were pink ghosts, insects became glowing rubies. She'd been hiking for hours, but her destination was finally in sight. It loomed in the distance, a tower of golden light. She made her way through a maze of invisible boulders and reached out her hand. It was the first tree she had ever touched.

 

[AnRoinnUltra]

One Software Application to rule them all


Eldon Suckelbong was proud:

‘Humans’, he announced, ‘cannot govern themselves. Greed and corruption are human traits that hold us back. Our wild nature must be tamed. Wherever there is human politics there is inequality, resource misuse and bigotry. My new software will change all that. The Governancebot has only been programmed with one human attribute. That of honesty. Which is the single human characteristic a leader must have.’

‘You are an idiot’, bleeped the Governancebot.

 

[Swank]

Anne of Queensland, in brief; year eight.

In the spring she chased down a dingo and ate after months of sunbathing subsistence. The rains came and her winter down sloughed off.

Summer brought a passionate encounter with a passing man. She chose infertility; enjoying the solitude. A distant nebula bloomed as she spectated for a month of nights, saving the observations in deep memory.

In fall she composed a song that brought migrating birds, reveling in their play before another winter solitude.

 

[THX1138]

Life on Sagan 2

Enviro Suit 80 Percent Recharged:

My assignment on Sagan 2 was observing and naming its wildlife. I was enjoying watching some herbivore creatures grazing as they wander towards a slowly approaching field of grass. Its long flat blades bending towards the heard when…

90 Percent:

Wow! Oh golly, that’s disturbing. It took the whole herd in one swipe! I’m going to name it, ‘Pratum Kraken.’

100 Percent:

I think I’ll stay put until it's safe.

 

[Guttersnipe]

A Bit Wild at Heart

The broncobuster approached the unicorn, intending to break it. To be sure, he had a preternatural, if not supernatural, talent taming other equines. First murmuring to it, he mounted it as it tried to gore him. It put up a fight, but eventually relented.

"I knew I could tame you," said the broncobuster.

"No," the unicorn said as the man jumped, "I've tamed you. You'll never leave me."

"Ha, we'll see about...Ah, Yes, master."

 

[chrispenycate]

Wilding - les fleurs sauvages​

.



Tubby bee's bus ceased - not that buzz was essential in this gravity, but pollinators were, or back to paint brushes. I hoped she hadn't fallen foul of a carnivorous weed.

Our orbital meadows evolved floral.

Flowers got no reason to be wild - no herbicides, regular muck and only organic water pollution. An easier life than Earthside, and fewer herbivores. When we introduce goats… but caprinae kept jumping against the ceiling and breaking bones. So why?

​

 

[Yozh]

Life in Plastic

Gina brushed off a surprisingly strong cobweb, and squinted at the malfunctioning airlock touchscreen. Hooking a fingernail under the loose edge of a plastic film, she peeled it off. Much better.

“Seventy years, and no one peeled the film off!” she reported to Ravi over intercom.

He laughed, “Well, you’re new.”

The next day, the film was back.

“What’s happening?”

“We suspect it’s the built-up microplastics in the air, they’re growing wild.”

 

[Luiglin]

In the mood​

Hurak stopped screaming and shrugged.

The two orcs paused, unsure on this new barbarian tactic.

“’E’s stopped wildin’,” said Clatter.

“I’s sees,” responded Lopsided.

“Shud we’s bash ‘im?”

They looked at the circle of orc bodies around them in various gruesome states of dead.

“Nah,” they chorused.

“Sorry, just not in the berserk mood,” said Hurak. “Reconvene tomorrow?”

They nodded and watched him leave.

“E’s can wild off if e’s thinks we’ll be ‘ere tomorra’s.”

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Home Delivery

The Cowboys Chronicles' AI moderator went crazy, outing two mutually loathing members as one person, then doxing her.

In the Wild West Write-off, it'd changed my story – a tearjerker wherein handyman Pete loses his lady to Eastern dandies – into exposés of my stalking arrests.

On the day the internet went dark, my AI security system wouldn't open the door, trapping me inside.

Drones delivered food daily – always the beef jerky Pete ate while alone, weeping.

 

[Astro Pen]

Wild is not Free.

“I’ll release you into the wild,” she says, undoing the catch on the modern ‘humane’ mouse trap with a self righteous smile.

Actually you just killed me.

Alone now, as you drive away, I know not where any edible resources are in this giant potato field.

Running water is absent, as is shelter

Predators abound out here, the hawk or red kite will probably have me as, in lonely desperation, I forage tomorrow.

 

[Stable]

Rewild Jupiter​

The colossal fin knifed above atmosphere. Jupiter, as it called itself, had granted audience.

“You may mine only the moons, not planetside. After I go, let life recover.”

“Are you dying?” we asked.

“Starving. I only realised I was consuming my ecosystem after reaching this size. I could have stopped, preserved some animals, but I was afraid to die. Now, choiceless, it is easier.

“I wish I could see what evolves after.”

It descended, alone.

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

Get what you are promised.

First astronaut. "We have travelled over a billion light years."
Second astronaut. "Yes, they promised that we would see many wild things."
First astronaut. "We will soon find out, we are landing." 32

As they exit their space craft, a sign lights up with these words ten metres high.

MANY WILD THINGS.

 

[Starbeast]

Cthulhu vs the SFFC​

Cthulhu entered the world of writers, followed by his hideous legion. One word in R’lyehian thundered from his voice, “Destroy! Destroy!”

SFFC heroes gathered to thwart the invaders of darkness with fantastic weapons and supernatural abilities. Library megastructures were protected as moderators brought forth an ancient pen, The Ghost Writer. Immediately squirting ink at the titanic creature while authors focused their powers causing the behemoth to implode. Leaderless, the evil army retreated. Writers victorious, celebrated.

 

[Christine Wheelwright]

The Wingless Individual Levitation Device

I make money investing early. Self driving cars, Mars missions, AI robots. All nonsense of course, but there’s a fortune to be made from bulls**t. Nobody got rich underestimating public gullibility.

“So,” I yawn, reaching for my chequebook. “How much for 20% of this W.I.LD. thing? No, I don’t want to try it. What do you mean I’m already sitting on it?”

High above the clouds, still rising, I reach for the manual.

 

[Azzagorn]

Balancing the scales.

I watch as they feast, far to much food for such a small party. The sound of mirth is nauseating, their mangy hairless skin moist in the evening air.

The smell is... Unpleasant.
This is why no one likes them. Wasteful little sinners.

I creep forward, death incarnate.

I am wild vengeance.

I break the tree line.

“Bear!” They cry.

“No bear, just natures vengeance.”

I pounce.

They scream.

Balance is restored.

 

[dgackst]

Probably Should've Taken the Other Train

When a stranger hands you an unlabeled, sealed cardboard box on the maglev train your first thought probably isn’t an encouraging one. If anything, your first thought is probably a scary one. Like the frightening one that crossed my mind when the stranger handed me the box and sprinted off, out the door without so much as a ‘hello’. Does the box sound like it's. . .no, it ca----

 

[Provincial]

The Sovereign Individual: ...


RMogg ran in, squealing with excitement.

PThiel tossed his squash racket into a basket. "What's up?"

"Mars is up and running! The ski slope has been road-tested and it's ready!"

"Finally! The fleet's been stocked and ready for a year. Let's tell the guys - they'll be thrilled. It's gonna be wild!"

"What about the proles?"

"We'll call them to a meeting tonight and torch them. We won't be needing them. It's the kindest way really."

 

[Phyrebrat]

Manus gloriae

In graveyards we live, so you can thrive.
But you flee — to your Tarshish perhaps, quailing round Joppa’s piers. Because we’re pallid? Because of cousins like ‘dead man’s fingers’? Or because we thrive in fields that refuse to give up their dead?

Wild candles five, within each a wick unlocks the night, to set you off with the rush of unfolding swans.

Where wild candles grow: open locks, whoever knocks.

Just pick, and light us.

 

[Bren G]

A Cosmic Groove


The world stood still when Music lost its way.

All the..

..riffs were strummed.​

​

..keys one and done.​

​

..songs worth singing – now sung.​

Until the Man came from the sky!

With that hazy cosmic jive.

Then all the children boogied while he blew our minds.

It was wild!​

Earth, now lost in the moon’s bright eyes.

Took its hand to raucous rhyme.

They dipped and swayed ‘cross space and time.


And it was all worthwhile.