short story bit
Jul. 25th, 2020 11:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bjornwildeThis is just so I can link the text to the start of a short story I am working on as an exercise for ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
getyourwordsout :
Gina sat beneath the overhang of a large piece of scrap and stared at the body. It lay prone in the chill November rain, stomach down but face turned her way. She could see his eyes, glassy as they were, and they reminded her of the few times he’d given her ration bars or small plastic bottles of water. He’d been one of the workers of the scrapyard, the leftovers of the alien immigration nearly turned invasion, and she was just a scrap rat, left behind by parents that’d died.
She didn’t know his name and didn’t know if he had been truly kind or if he’d just been trying to buy her off. Some of the workers did that with the kids. Most often it was to buy an extra pair of small hands to look for useful tech or valuable metals, but sometimes it went beyond that to more personal and gross places.
Gina preferred to think of him as being kind than gross or creepy. He’d never asked her to do anything, so she decided to run with that.
As she sat and did her best not to move, she looked over his jumpsuit to look for anything that might be useful for her. There were the usual tools, which while they’d be good the other workers would likely take them from her as soon as they saw her with them. Tools were expensive and were always reused and passed on. He might have some ration bars or maybe a water flask.
She’d have to search him as soon as she could. Tonight would likely be her last chance as his body was starting to stink which always brought the other workers. The stink also brought the rats.
Quick as a flash, she pulled her arm back and fired her slingshot at the rat, nailing it in the dead. She quickly fired three more shots at the other rats but only killed one more before the pact scattered, screaming at her.
Smiling at herself, she unfolded her legs and stretched before standing slowly. She was young, yes, but she still was sitting still for most of an hour. She put the two rats in her bag after giving the necks a twist to make sure they weren’t stunned and then went to search the body.
She was right about the tools, which she left alone, but she also found a pocket knife, a flashlight, and something that was kind of like a curved flashlight, though it made no light she could see. It did make a little red dot though, which she hadn’t noticed at first, and there was a display that showed different numbers depending on what the thing was pointed at. Regardless, no of that was not the usual kit, so she took them.
She also took the two ration bars and the water flask, which was mostly empty but it’s always good to have something to carry water in. She turned to leave but stopped as an idea occurred to her. She set the flask on a flat bit of metal on the ground and opened the top to let the rain fill it.
Waste not, want not.
getyourwordsout :Gina sat beneath the overhang of a large piece of scrap and stared at the body. It lay prone in the chill November rain, stomach down but face turned her way. She could see his eyes, glassy as they were, and they reminded her of the few times he’d given her ration bars or small plastic bottles of water. He’d been one of the workers of the scrapyard, the leftovers of the alien immigration nearly turned invasion, and she was just a scrap rat, left behind by parents that’d died.
She didn’t know his name and didn’t know if he had been truly kind or if he’d just been trying to buy her off. Some of the workers did that with the kids. Most often it was to buy an extra pair of small hands to look for useful tech or valuable metals, but sometimes it went beyond that to more personal and gross places.
Gina preferred to think of him as being kind than gross or creepy. He’d never asked her to do anything, so she decided to run with that.
As she sat and did her best not to move, she looked over his jumpsuit to look for anything that might be useful for her. There were the usual tools, which while they’d be good the other workers would likely take them from her as soon as they saw her with them. Tools were expensive and were always reused and passed on. He might have some ration bars or maybe a water flask.
She’d have to search him as soon as she could. Tonight would likely be her last chance as his body was starting to stink which always brought the other workers. The stink also brought the rats.
Quick as a flash, she pulled her arm back and fired her slingshot at the rat, nailing it in the dead. She quickly fired three more shots at the other rats but only killed one more before the pact scattered, screaming at her.
Smiling at herself, she unfolded her legs and stretched before standing slowly. She was young, yes, but she still was sitting still for most of an hour. She put the two rats in her bag after giving the necks a twist to make sure they weren’t stunned and then went to search the body.
She was right about the tools, which she left alone, but she also found a pocket knife, a flashlight, and something that was kind of like a curved flashlight, though it made no light she could see. It did make a little red dot though, which she hadn’t noticed at first, and there was a display that showed different numbers depending on what the thing was pointed at. Regardless, no of that was not the usual kit, so she took them.
She also took the two ration bars and the water flask, which was mostly empty but it’s always good to have something to carry water in. She turned to leave but stopped as an idea occurred to her. She set the flask on a flat bit of metal on the ground and opened the top to let the rain fill it.
Waste not, want not.
