This is day 51 of @mydivathings' #365daysofwriting. Every day @mydivathings invites you to write a short story based on the image she chooses. Today's image (below) is a Photo by Şahin Yeşilyaprak on Unsplash
Find out more about the challenge (you can join anytime!) here @mydivathings/day-51-365-days-of-writing-challenge
The night was clear. Sam looked up at the stars. It looked so damn pretty. Briefly, she wondered how many of those stars had planets with somebody looking out into the night sky. Looking back at her. For a moment she had an urge to wave. She almost raised an arm. But stopped herself, resisting the urge. She didn’t want to look like a fucking idiot in front of the others.
As she watched something flew across the night sky. What did the Uglies call them?
Shooting stars.
That was it. She stamped her feet and blew on her hands. Damn. It was pretty. But so damn cold.
Still, it was a good night for hunting.
The others were here, the engines of their vehicles running. Sam could feel their excitement building. They were ready.
Well, almost.
“What are we waiting for?” Zapper said, walking over to her, his thin legs making long insect-like strides.
Sam smiled.
“We’re waiting for the signal, Zap,” she said. “Like we always do.”
He was always the impatient one. Always wanting to get on with the hunt. Bag as many of those horrible two legged Ugly bastards as he could. And then brag about it back at their nest. He was good, Sam didn’t deny that.
But she was better.
In the distance the horn sounded. It was a joyful noise. At least to Sam. It sounded like a wounded or dying animal, crying out for help.
She smiled.
“Let’s go!”
They piled into the cars, and trucks - stolen from the Uglies, of course, and adapted for their own needs - and did one last check of their weapons and ammunition supplies.
Sam and Zapper took the lead truck. Like they always did. Mordon, and Jip took the smaller car, and Piller and Gaz followed with the big truck with the cage (just in case they decided to bring back a live one to study).
Zapper was almost bursting with energy. It oozed out of his skin, like sweat. Sticky and sweet. Sam could smell it, taste it. It aroused her. Not sexually - although she would probably fuck him later - it infected her with the same wants, the same needs. The desire to destroy those fucking Ugly freaks.
Sam hollered as the tires bit into the earth and threw chunks of red earth out behind them. Her call was taken up by the others. They would hear them coming, of course.
It was no fun, if they weren’t expected.
They - the ones that had survived - had made their new nest up in the mountains. There were some caves up there, and they hid in those caves like the dirty fucking rodents they were. During the day, anyway. At night, some of the Ugly fuckers came out foraging for food and supplies.
And that was when the fun began.
The Uglies weren’t a threat. Not any more. There weren’t enough of them left alive, and their breeding process was slow and complicated.
No, they weren't a threat. But they were fun to hunt.
Sam took the truck down the worn track towards their former nest, a massive structure at the base of the mountains. At one time millions of the filthy Ugly pests had lived there, just in that one nest. And across this beautiful planet, there were thousands - if not millions - of these nests. Full of Ugly bastards. Breeding and polluting the planet with their waste, their excrement. Vile creatures.
There was only one way into the nest, now. And of course that meant only one way out. The bridge had been left intact - more or less - just for the purpose of sport. Sam, and her kind, had no use for what lay within the nest. They had already taken anything of value, removed anything that was obviously of use to the Uglies.
But these creatures were strange little scavengers. Sam almost admired their ability to make useful things out of seemingly useless garbage.
Once over the bridge they split up. Sam and Zapper sped down the central track into the heart of the nest. The others took routes either side. The aim was to drive the Uglies out into the open. Make them run. Make them panic.
Sam loved it when they panicked.
It was only when she rounded the corner, that she saw the road was blocked. With vehicles, trash. Fuck-knows-what-else. She breaked, tried to swerve, but knew it was too late. The truck smashed into the side of a rusted old car, and threw her and Zapper upside down. The truck was on its side, and moving still. The screeching sound of metal against the floor of the nest was like a spike being thrust into Sam’s brain.
The truck came to a stop, and Sam struggled to get upright. These fucking Ugly vehicles - however well adapted - were not made for her, and it took her a minute or so before she kicked the door open with one of her legs. Zapper lay crumpled and still, fluid pouring from a wound in his neck. He was dead.
Or almost dead, anyway.
Sam reached past his body and grabbed the gun and the ammunition.
She tried to reach Mordon or Piller but either they had met the same fate, or her communication chip was fucked. She looked around as she dropped to the ground. She needed to be more careful. The fucking Uglies had sprung a trap. And she had walking into it like she was a larvae, just out of her fucking cocoon.
She checked the weapon. Loaded, safety off. It was an old Ugly gun. But they made their weapons to kill each other, so it made sense to use them against them.
The truck was hissing. It reminded Sam of the sound her mother made when she was angry. It was a warning sign. A sign she was about to attack.
A bullet thumped into the side of the truck. And another. And another.
Fuck.
She looked around her. There were plenty of Ugly nest structures around her. One of them - the nearest - had a sign that swung from a single chain above the entrance. Probably one of the places where the Uglies chose to socialise, to choose a mate. She searched for the Ugly word.
Bar.
Sam scuttled towards the bar. One of her legs was damaged, so she had to compensate a little, but she still moved quick enough to avoid the bullets that thudded into the ground behind her.
Fuck. By Sam’s calculations - from the direction the bullets came from -there were at least three Ugly fuckers out there. She pushed open the door, and slipped inside. Keeping the door slightly ajar she scanned quickly for Ugly signs, but it seemed safe enough. She peered through the crack of the door.
And waited.
There! Movement up on the nest structure to the right. One of the Uglies was gesturing - presumably to another down on ground level. Sam aimed carefully, before firing off three shots. One down.
Two to go.
Judging by the rudimentary hand signal communication, there was one Ugly on its way to the entrance. Sam skittered over the rubble that littered the abandoned nest structure, and hid behind what she assumed was some kind of serving counter.
The door creaked and Sam could sense the breath of the Ugly as he entered, slowly, barrel of the gun first. He was young, this one. She could tell, by the pheromones he gave off. Not yet mature. Usually, on a hunt, Sam would let the young ones live. And females carrying young too. Let them mature. More fun that way. Hunting for sport had its own set of rules.
But the rules had changed.
And besides, she was no longer clear who was hunting who.
She shot the infant before he took another step. Body fluid and chunks of bone splattered against the door. What was left of the Ugly hit the floor.
Another one down.
She scuttled over to the Ugly. Difficult to judge with what was left of his head, but she thought he was young. By Ugly standards. If she had to guess, maybe ten? She picked up it’s weapon. It was pretty useless until the modifications were made. She couldn't fire it. But she had learned early on in the War to never leave Ugly weapons lying around. The Ugly bastards had a nasty habit of taking advantage of errors. And even small mistakes could have deadly consequences.
Sam needed to get out of here. She needed to link up with Mordon, Jip, Piller and Gaz.
If they were still alive.
If not - if the others had been ambushed too, and if the Uglies had prevailed, the survivors would make their way here to help take her out.
She stepped over the Ugly boy, and opened the door, poking the barrel of the gun out first, to see if the movement drew fire. It didn’t. Sam couldn’t detect anything out there. Nothing smelled of Ugly, nothing moved. The vehicle she came in was fucked, she could see smoke billowing out of the front of it.
She was going to have to go on foot. She took a deep breath.
Sam felt the barrel of a gun in the back of her head, before she heard the female Ugly speak.
“Goodbye, you ugly motherfucking roach.”
...
Very short stories (stories told in exactly 50 words)
“Believe in Yourself”
A man in a homemade spacecraft in search of a mythical bridge
@felt.buzz/believe-in-yourself-an-original-science-fiction-story-told-in-fiftywords-for-365daysofwriting-and-fiftywords-challenge
“Love Will Defeat Hate”
Forbidden love.
@felt.buzz/love-will-defeat-hate-an-original-fictional-love-story-in-fiftywords-for-the-365daysofwriting-challenge
“Stranded”
Stuck on an island. Can Bill escape, alive?
@felt.buzz/stranded-an-original-fictional-story-told-in-exactly-fiftywords
"Van Diemen's Land"
Crime does pay… if you wanted a one way ticket down under
@felt.buzz/van-diemen-s-land-an-original-fictions-story-told-in-fiftywords
Some more of my short stories
“The Secret”
He has a secret. It runs in the family
@felt.buzz/the-secret-an-original-work-of-fiction-for-the-weekendfreewrite-challenge
“Trouble”
He loves his wife. But he might have forgotten something…
@felt.buzz/trouble-an-original-work-of-fiction-for-the-365daysofwriting
“The Restless Wandering Shade”
A ghostly tale
@felt.buzz/the-restless-wandering-shade-an-original-fictional-horror-story-based-on-fireawaymarmot-s-song-of-the-same-name
Some big news for me! One of my steemit stories (Reunion - told in 8 parts last month) has been selected to appear in the Isle of Write Anthology (see this post @isleofwrite/isle-of-write-fiction-publication-week-1-roundup). I am so excited to be a part of this. Please pay them a visit and check out the other stories that have been selected too. You too can be curated: so read the post and find out how!
