Friday Fictioneers – 5/9/14 – ‘Treasures from the Sea?’

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

 

 

Happy Day – I am getting an opportunity to play with my friends at Friday Fictioneers once again. If you’d like to take part and write a 100-word story based on the picture below, hop over and check out the details of taking part.

This week’s photo is courtesy of B. W. Beacham

My story is below the photo.

 

the-tide-is-out-copyright-bw-beachamTREASURES FROM THE SEA?

 

Ben looked at his crude calendar: June, 2020. His mind still reeled at the catastrophic results of a nuclear e-bomb war: Thousands dead from radiation. The world’s electronics and technology gone. All life-sustaining medical equipment paralyzed. Manufacture and transportation of food impossible. Law-enforcement non-existent. Communication limited to people killing each other for a bottle of water.

Surprised they were still alive after the strikes, he and Cassie had jumped into their sailboat and let the wind carry them. Weeks later, they’d beached on this uninhabited island. No contact with any kind of civilization for six years now – until today – when the shopping cart washed up onto the beach.

 

 

 

 

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26 thoughts on “Friday Fictioneers – 5/9/14 – ‘Treasures from the Sea?’”

    1. Thank you. Actually, when I wrote the line about the shopping cart being washed up onto the beach, I was instantly reminded of an old movie (from back when I was in high school — 1960’s) titled “On The Beach.” It was a frightening movie about total nuclear destruction of the world, and the last safe place was Australia. It ended with the main characters gathered on the beach in Australia waiting for the radiation to rain down and destroy them. Scientists didn’t know a lot about EMP bombs back then, but the nuclear thing was a big theme.

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  3. Dear Sandra,

    Aside from the fact that you need an apostrophe in “words” I can’t find a thing wrong with this and everything right. 😉 A shopping cart might be the last thing I’d want to see wash up on the shore. Good one.

    Shalom,

    Rochelle

    Reply

    1. And, actually, I’m not sure a shopping cart is a symbol of civilization, but I figured I could stretch it to work. Thanks for the heads up on the apostrophe. I think I read this thing about 15 times, but it was always in an effort to cut more words, and apostrophes were the farthest thing from my mind.

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  7. Sandra, Interesting but scary story. O_o Let’s hope that doesn’t happen. Wouldn’t you just know that a shopping cart would survive when other things didn’t. It’s a true symbol of the civilization that brought the world to that end. Well written. 🙂

    Susan

    Reply

    1. Most people in the U. S. — and I suspect most other countries — don’t have any idea how easily this really could happen. It only takes a couple of EMP’s detonated right above certain portions of a country as big as the U.S. to take down absolutely all the electronics & technology from coast to coast. It never hurts to remind people every once in a while.

      And, yes, the shopping cart can so easily represent man’s greed and self-serving nature, and, when it’s all said and done, that’s generally at the root of all inhumanity and destruction of lives.

      Thanks for taking the time to read and comment.

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  8. It would only take about 2 minutes for people to turn hostile if survival were on the line. These two were fortunate to get away. Nicely done, Sandra.

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  10. The list sentences were an effective and fascinating way of painting the world as it is in 2020 for your characters. The shopping trolley added a lighter and strange twist that I loved. Great story, Sandra..

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    1. Back to normal — yes. The cycle always starts again. Man never learns from his mistakes. Thanks so much for taking the time to read and comment, Bjorn.

      Reply

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