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| Image courtesy of Victor Habbick / FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
I've set up a Facebook group for writers and readers of short and flash fiction, so if you'd like to show off your work, or find a new story to read then come and join us here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/shortfictionreadersandwriters/
And now, drum roll please...
- First prize of a £50 Amazon gift card goes to Lisa Williamson for her story 'Out of my Window'.
- Second prize of a £20 Amazon gift card goes to C. L. Anderson for the story 'KONRAD4'.
- Third prize of a £10 Amazon gift card goes to Jon Jefferson for his story 'Watch Dog'.
Congratulations to the winners and now enjoy their stories:
Out of my Window by Lisa Williamson
I sit looking out my window at the blue lights of the city about me. How things have changed in my life. Once I looked out my window and it was filled with green and air, wood and animals. As I grew older first the animals disappeared, feeling from the advance of man. Then the tree disappeared, taken down to make homes for invading man. Slow this city grew, from a few buildings to acres of people stacked on top of each other.
I stayed; I was not sure why I did. Watching how the land became a town and then a city. As the years passed those who lived here changed too. They started out brave and brash, talking loudly as they hid their fear of the unknown but slowly their voices grew quieter as more and more came here.
Now the blue lights of the city block out the lights of the night sky. The city stopped growing out and started growing up. The higher in the city you were the better your position but I stayed here, in the place I was when man found my land. If I wait long enough do you think they might fly away into the sky?
I can only hope it will be so. For they have covered my land in so much steel and concrete. It is hard to breath in this bright new world. They have cut down all my trees, filled my streams and chased away my animals. Yet I still remain.
I will be here when mankind finally leaves my world. My fondest wish is that there would be something left for me to nurture; to have something to bring to blossom and return the world to green.
KONRAD4 by C. L. Anderson
She killed me. I lie here, dying, my energy subsiding, looking at the city we had met in, loved in and now died in…
I chose this blue. I designed that building. I created all those little details that make such a difference. And when everything was perfect I opened up my world and let everyone in, including you.
But you were special, my EMILY5.I thought this time it would be real. I brought you into my world, shared my vision with you, unlike the others.
At first we created together, night after night. We built more of our city, filled it with people and places: memories only we shared. I love you EMILY5. I let you in, but you let me out.
Then, the game really began. People took sides. They always do. You gained more and more points- points you would never have had if I had not created them. But still I was so proud of my EMILY5. I watched you grow, and then I watched you grow greedy.
You switch sides. You kill me, but not before I kill you too. So here we both lie now, swimming in a sea of blue light, viewing the world I created it before it all goes black.
Always. The same. Alone.
GAME OVER
Watch Dog by Jon Jefferson
It was never a good idea to go in through a public jack. In a perfect world Simon would have a place with untraceable lines set up so he wouldn't have to do it this way. This wasn't a perfect world and Shelly was paying him to get it done now.
He pulled back the cover on the underside of his arm. The line popped out and connected to the input on its own. He plugged his deck into the bottom connection and pulled up the home screen. The world around him digitized as he adjusted his ready programs for the hack.
Breaking through the security apps at the cafe were not an issue. They were low grade watchdogs, he didn't need any black ice for them. He sent them chasing their digital tails.
Once you left the confines of the jack-in, the getting around the world was much easier than the average user could know. This was the playground of the hackers.
He grabbed onto a data stream and whisked away to the data base he would need. At least the cafe was near the Brankot Building. They rode on the same data streams. He only needed to hit a repository within the first level of encryption.
He was deep inside the data streams, time worked differently for him than it did for the outside world. It felt like forever for him to find the location he needed. While in the outside world only seconds had passed.
He was digging into the low level stuff so at most he would need a few watch dog apps to take out the locks. No problem really, his kid sister could have done this in her sleep.
As he was working through the third lock, something felt off. If he hadn't been digitized he would have sworn the little hairs on the back of his neck would have gone goose pimply.
The lock melted away. It wasn't his app. The thing melted from the inside out. A black dog chomped through the last of the lock. The thing was still hungry.
You couldn't send these doggies out chasing their tails. This was going to take a bit more work. He pulled up a shielding and fast attack app. He was ready for hand to mutt attack action.
It leapt at him, biting through the bottom of his shield. He struck out as well, taking a chunk out of its shoulder. His shield wasn't going to be much more than extra for the doggie to chew on.
He stepped back, a plan forming. The cyber dog lunged again. This time he was ready. He slammed his shield into the gaping maw forcing it open. He released the shielding into the attack app, then struck underneath the maw and shield into the throat of the problem.
His attack burned it out. The attack app winked out as he went back to the data base to pull up the information he needed.
Congratulations Lisa, C.L., and Jon! You all wrote some great stories.
ReplyDeleteWonderful stories. Congratulations to the winners.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, I had fun reviewing them.
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