His body convulsed and jerked around, while workers attempted to stabilize him. He didn’t look much older than me and I wasn’t sure if he was even conscious.
The girl, on the other hand, didn’t have any of the same symptoms. She screamed at the top of her lungs, then reached back toward the other pod occupant. “Daddy, I want Mommy!” The young thing sank into a coughing fit, bringing her to silence.
My heart sank as I watched the mob race across to another clay building. The girl had been sent with her dying father, and her mother had been left inside the mountain. My temporary companion sighed and started back for his bar. “Shame for the kid the pods only carry two.”
If you liked this excerpt, be sure to keep an eye out for my upcoming triple-shot short story collection, which I'll be announcing on this blog as well as my main site. And of course, for those who can't wait, check out all sorts of free stories under the Shorts section of AstonWest.com.
Ooh, heck, this sounds intriguing! Great stuff!
ReplyDeleteYup, I enjoyed writing it...can't wait to share the whole thing with everyone (hopefully during this next week)...
ReplyDeleteOh man! You can't just leave it hanging there... sigh, guess that's another one I gotta read! Good stuff. I hear there's a cool cover art in the works too... ;)
ReplyDeleteAh! Poor kids! I'm emotionally involved already. Great job hooking the reader in such a short snippet.
ReplyDeleteYup, there's definitely some great cover art coming for this story (as a package deal with two others...one of which, I'll likely do a snippet of next week).
ReplyDeleteIt's quite tricky finding a 10-sentence snippet sometimes...at least one that also sets the scene enough on its own.
More excitement, more intrigue.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to vote for larger snippets. lol. Either that or we'll have to start doing Sci-Fi Fan Monday's and Tuesdays...
So far, I think I've been able to find one...just gets trickier each week. :-)
ReplyDelete