Pocket Stories: The Other Side

Prompt: Humorous adventure 500 words. Your character is a chicken. Cross the road.

We meet again, the chicken thought as it stared at the asphalt that stretched endlessly in either direction.


This forbidden path had been the bane of the chicken’s existence, a promise of good things to come while at the same time being a harbinger of certain death. Many had come before and none had successfully passed to the elusive victory … the other side.


What lived over there, no one could say. All anyone knew was that life would be better, if only you could avoid the metal monster guards that randomly paced along the asphalt’s length. 


But today was a new day, and the chicken was fully prepared. It fluffed its feathers, gave its wings an experimental flap, and shook out each leg. It was now or never, the chicken could not face its flock if it gave up now.


Give me victory or give me death.


A metal guard chose that moment to speed past, the wind from their passing knocking the chicken head over tail feathers. It landed in an ungraceful heap and squawked and fluttered until it was standing stalwart once again.


The chicken looked to the left … nothing.


The chicken looked to the right … nothing but the red lights of the retreating guard.


It put one foot tentatively onto the asphalt and waited. No guards could be seen anywhere. The other foot caught up with the first. Still no guards. In a mad dash of insanity the chicken sprinted across the asphalt. A metal guard rushed towards it, the chicken ducking underneath its belly and waiting for it to pass by. It still lived. Checking that the coast was clear, the chicken ran for the other side.


Success! The chicken’s feet touched the gravel on the other side and it collapsed into a pile of feathers. I did it! I actually did it!


When it could finally catch its breath, it looked up. A fence blocked its path forward, a huge wooden sign catching its eye: Welcome to Plucksville, where chickens go from pen to dinner table in 20 minutes or less.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Knight-Time Adventures: The tale of Sir Gabriel and Sir Jerry episode 1

Image
Once upon a time there were two knights, Sir Gabriel and Sir Jerry. They were knights of honor, always willing to assist a town in distress. One day they were riding on their horses through the countryside, enjoying the scenery and the gentle breeze that cooled off their heavy sets of armor.  From over the next hill, they heard a ruckus. Several people were yelling and crying, their actual words unintelligible. They rode over to investigate. What they found broke their very hearts. A town was in splinters. Every house was shattered, the wooden boards scattered across the square. People were injured and children were crying. Two young lad saw the gallant knights and ran up to them. "Help us, Sir Knights! Help us!" The knights looked at each other before responding. "What is it we can do for you?" asked Sir Gabriel. The lads turned towards their broken town. "A dragon has come and destroyed our town. It's taken off with all our precious things, and left us wi
Read more

Beautiful Rhythms: Distraction Music to Increase Focus

Image
Getting my thoughts written down is not always as easy as it should be. That blank canvas is intimidating. What if I mess it up?  When I was a senior in high school, I was in a class where we had to write a one page report every Friday about our week's activities. The class was over an hour long and we had the whole time to write this report, on computers, just one page. Simple enough.  Except every single Friday I would struggle for most of the class period to get a single sentence written on the page. That annoying cursor just kept blinking at me as if it was saying "Aren't you going to write something?" One day I'd had enough. I had my iPod with me, and a set of headphones. I asked the teacher if I could listen to some music while I worked on my report. She had no problems with that, so I sat down, plugged in my tunes, and looked at the computer screen. Five minutes later I had my report finished, edited, printed, and handed in. Needless to say, my teacher was
Read more

Pocket Stories: Blood Source

Image
Prompt: Sure it hurt, it always did. But the louder you screamed the more blood they would take. My skin burned and itched. My heart beat harder and harder, trying to push precious life force through my failing body. I wanted, more than anything, to push the vile man from my neck, but any movement would rip my veins beyond healing capacity.  A quiet whimper escaped my traitorous mouth and the pull stopped. He let me go and I slid to the floor in a pathetic heap.  His voice rumbled around my head as I started to lose consciousness. "Oh pet, you should have let me know, I would have stopped much sooner." I knew he wouldn't have, he never did, no matter how much noise I made. His footsteps grew quieter and I heard the heavy door slam shut behind him.  I stumbled over to my head, hitting my shin on the bed frame. I groped for the nightstand, grabbing for the handkerchiefs I stashed there for just this purpose. Finally the soft fabric met my fingertips and I snatche
Read more