I signed up for the #10MIN10DAYS challenge hosted by a very talented writer and friend, Tammy. You can check our the original challenge and her writing blogs here.
Each day she will give us a prompt and we have to set the timer and create something with that prompt within 10 minutes. I decided to try my hand at free flow writing or flash fiction using the daily prompts, to practise my writing. As for my accountability, I will try and post each day’s output on my blog. I would love to hear feedback from you, if you choose to read it 🙂
Right now, I’m wondering where is everyone? I was told this place would be packed! Am I at the right place? I open my device and check the coordinates, the date and the time, just to be sure I am at the right place. Yep, all seems to be checked out. So why aren’t there any people around?
I start walking to investigate this strange situation. I had waited for an hour, before deciding to investigate. Sometimes people can be like that here, I was told. They’d set a time but turn up late. That was normal. So I had waited. But there were still no people. Hmm..
I have walked for about fifteen minutes already and have not come across a single person. I did come across some stray dogs, who had jerked up their heads when I neared them, and looked at me expectantly. What did they expect from me, I wondered. It was surely very hot here. But I was wearing weather appropriate clothes, so it didn’t bother me. I could ask the dogs where everyone was, but that might take longer to translate, so I decided to move on.
It was bizarrely quiet too. I had read it would be very noisy. I took off my specially designed earpieces just to be sure. Strange, very strange. It was really quiet. The wind blew the dust around my feet just then and the leaves on the trees rustled. But there were no birds. Nevertheless, I was thankful for the movement from the dust and the little sound that the whoosh of the trees made. It made me feel less alone.
It was almost like a scene from one of those zombie movies they had made me watch in preparation for this trip. But zombies didn’t exist here, yet. Not in this timeline at least. So where was everyone?
It had taken me a year to travel to this place though. What could’ve happened in such a short while? I decided to use the knowledge base to check the news. Ohhhhh….ohhhhh!! They were all here. Only hiding, I realised. Holed up, shut in under some sort of lockdown. And that too of their own volition! I had been right, it hadn’t been the time for the zombies yet. But this virus was familiar and unfamiliar at the same time and they weren’t ready for it. And then I sneezed. Dang, I muttered to myself, as I saw a message pop up on my device.
INCOMING MESSAGE: ORDERS TO QUARANTINE ON PLUTO BEFORE RETURNING TO PLANET CURIOSIX.
Starry Eyed Enigma 