Monday, September 19, 2005

Yarr, there be insects here.

Let’s give the interactive random plot generator a whirl.

“a city across the sea”
“an explorer”
“your character can’t escape”

Ira pulled his collar up against the bitter wind gusting through the empty streets of the city. The air carried the scent of a faint salt tang with it, prompting Ira to recall the long journey across the ocean to the unfamiliar land. His small ship had wrecked on a reef in the unfamiliar waters, spilling its contents and his companions of many years into the roiling depths.

He pushed the pain of loss to the back of his mind and focused instead on his surroundings, the mysteriously vacant city. Apparently once a bustling and prosperous burg, a cursory inspection had revealed long vacated homes and storefronts, occupants and belongings packed and shuffled away as if in anticipation of some incoming crisis.

All he had was the clothes on his back and a will to survive. The sun was rapidly sinking in the sky, and his main thought was to find food and shelter for the night until he could locate other members of his crew—if they were still alive.

Stopping at the street corner Ira gazed up at a crumbling skyscraper, odd perforations decorating its face. The holes were ragged and gaping, as if a giant fist had punched at random, tearing the innards out of the building. He shivered and took a couple steps sparing another glance over his shoulder at the desiccated building.

His toe caught on something and he pitched forward, barely regaining his balance. In the middle of the street was a gaping hole, the ground erupted and round. Marveling at the size and destruction, he gingerly stepped over slabs of concrete and asphalt, circumventing the chasm and wondering what could cause such destruction. His pulse quickened and he began to hurry, casting about for signs of possible refuge as the darkness grew greater and greater.

The ground began to vibrate, so subtle that Ira barely even noticed it at first. The tremors grew in strength until the ground was shaking and he had trouble keeping his footing. Barely able to see his hand in front of his face, he gave up on shelter or even escaping and plunged into the closest domicile. Tripping over something lying in the doorway in his haste, he recoiled in horror as the faint white glow of bone came into view in the dying light. It was a skeleton, picked clean and rattling slightly from the shaking ground, the shadowy lump of a pack nearby. Ira edges around the body and picks up the bag, recognizing it as part of the camping gear of one of his expedition. Someone had escaped the wreck! There’s a flashlight, and he turns on the beam, panning it around the room and finally out the window. It reflects off a pulsating white albino mass, a huge wormlike creature edging slowly down the street, each rhythmic pulsation causing the ground to shake.

Suddenly there’s a low thrumming buzz. Ira strains his ears and wildly flicks the light around, panicked now. There’s a bird in the room, then another. Almost instantly there are hundreds of the creatures, revealed in the light as huge grotesque insects, which violently swarm away from the light whenever the beam touches them. He can feel them around him now, beating their iridescent wings. Panicked, he starts to crawl for the exit in an attempt to get away from the huge bugs. Suddenly one slams into his chest, knocking him back and the flashlight away, drawing blood. Desperately he pulls himself towards the light, his only defense against the bugs, one arm attempting to fend off the swarming, stabbing insects. His last sight is the shadow cast on the wall of the largest of the monstrous, mutated insects before it plunges its mandibles into his eyes. The thrashing and flailing of his body quickly subsides as the sightless insects finish devouring his flesh and wing back out into the night, searching for more prey.

==============================================

Yeah, I sort of ran out of ideas where to go, so I killed him. This is my little brainstorm of what he couldn’t get away from. I think it would’ve been more fun to have Godzilla stomping through the city and shrieking, though.

WHAT CAN'T HE ESCAPE:
Zombies
Natives
Ghosts
GODZILLA
Giant hungry bugs!

Tune in tomorrow for: Apple Core Man--Revenge of the Cider!

2 comments:

@tryte said...

Who knows..he may return! Dun dun dunnnnnnn

@tryte said...

Woa..I switched tense towards the end there. I think that's where I got up to get a cookie. Or something. I should probably go back and fix that. Riiiight..