The parade of chained protestors trudged beneath the balcony, kicking up dust.
Idiots. Throwing away their youth. Should have joined the army if they were so desperate for money. The soldiers flanking them looked healthy enough.
Besides, things were not that bad. He’d just stuffed his kitchen with canned cranberries for five Renarres. Who could complain about that?
Keep your mouth shut, and life would be good. Young folk… always thought they knew better.
Something moved at the edge of the crowd.
The parade stopped. Red splattered across the leading officer’s chest.
Someone shouted. Pebbles filled the air.
No. Cranberries. Dirt-cheap cranberries.
Rained down from the roof, too. His roof.
A soldier took a can to the head, went down. Another glared up at Safi.
Shit.
Safi swallowed. There would be raids. No way to hide a stash like his.
Tobias Backman lives in the chronically cold and wet part of mainland Europe. When not writing or arguing with the two toddlers trying to take over the house, he works in medical production. He dreams of writing novels one day, but right now, his attention span limits him to short fiction.
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“You here because of the war?” The stranger tossed coins in my hat, glanced at my army jacket, the missing arm.
I nodded. It wasn’t technically a lie…
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…
Emperor Guillard tossed his cards. He hadn’t won once today. And Lord Whiskers couldn’t even hold the cards without assistance. That must be why no one ever uplifted cats…
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.
You can find all the previous winners of the Pete Wood Challenge at this link.
This time the challenge was to write a story of up to 150 words in length, keying off two of the following words: turkey, parade, football, fir tree, stocking, or cranberry. However, the story could not be about a holiday, a meal, or a gathering of relatives.
PETE WOOD CHALLENGE #37
IS NOW OPEN FOR SUBMISSIONS!
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO!
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