“Canned Kraken” • by Tobias Backman

I stepped out of the gale, into the old factory. Alex had called for an island meeting, because of the giant lobster-squid-thingy blocking Calshot Harbor. First meeting since the blackout, since last contact with the outside.

He still ran at a mainlander tempo, though. Had not bothered waiting for stragglers.

“…Take pictures and sail east. Should get the tourists pouring back.” Alex grinned, spread his arms wide. “The Kraken of Tristan da Cunha.”

I shook my head, limped towards the makeshift dais. He was young but had an old-world way of thinking.

The last of the researchers shouted something about samples and universities. More old-world thinking.

I could not let two mainlanders throw something like this away, because they dreamed of a world that had probably been burned to ashes.

I got through the crowd, glanced at the abandoned canning equipment. It would drain our last diesel reserve, but only an idiot chose diesel over food.

“Cut it up and can it.”

The researchers turned green. I could not help smiling.

Kraken probably would taste like shit, though.

---

Tobias Backman is a Danish fantasy and science fiction author. He dreams of writing novels one day, but right now his attention span is limited to the shorter side of fiction. His stories have previously appeared in magazines such as Daily Science Fiction and Grievous Angel. He occasionally rambles about stories and writing in general over at www.tobybackman.com.

---

Have a Kindle? Find out what you’ve been missing!
Buy the four latest issues with just one click!

(Or buy just one, if that’s what you’d really prefer.)

 

 

The Pete Wood Challenge is an informal ad hoc story-writing competition. Once a month Pete Wood spots writers the idea for a story, usually in the form of a phrase or a few key words, along with some restrictions on what can be submitted, usually in terms of length. Pete then collects the resulting entries, determines who has best met the challenge, and sends the winners over to Bruce Bethke, who arranges for them to be published on the Stupefying Stories web site.

This time the challenge was to write a flash fiction story of no more than 175 words in length, set on the island of Tristan da Cunha, “the most remote place on Earth.” It’s a fascinating place. When you have spare time, you should read the Wikipedia article about it.

You can find all the previous winners of the Pete Wood Challenge at this link.

More stories to come!