Welcome to my blog, Trifectans. This is my first try at the Trifecta Writing Challenge. The word this week is Crack.
3a : a narrow break : fissure b : a narrow opening —used figuratively in phrases like fall through the cracks to describe one that has been improperly or inadvertently ignored or left out
The rules:
- Your response must be between 33 and 333 words.
- You must use the 3rd definition of the given word in your post.
- The word itself needs to be included in your response.
- You may not use a variation of the word; it needs to be exactly as stated above.
- Only one entry per writer.
- Trifecta is open to everyone. Please join us.
My contribution to the challenge is a Speculative fiction piece called The Eighty-Fourth Day. Thank you in advance for reading and stopping by. I hope you will enjoy it.
The Eighty Fourth Day
I watched Mark play with the makeshift device. He tapped on the metal parts, a short and long cadence he called Morse code, and listened for a response. He did this all day trying to see if there were others. But there was never a response. “If only I can make the signal stronger,” he told me, adjusting the crack between the metal parts. “We could find out what’s happening out there.”
Out there, beyond our island home, was the unknown.
Eight-four days ago
the earth quivered and the world felt it’s
tremors. The quake made a large crack across the Atlantic Ocean creating a seismic
wave. Before anyone could respond, the eastern coastland was engulfed in water
as far inland as Tennessee and Kentucky.
We watched stunned as huge title waves, as tall as skyscrapers bombarded
the coast, taking with it whole cities as it withdrew.
We didn’t have time
to mourn the loss of life, before another quake tore through the earth. This
one destroyed the western coast all the back to Oregon and Nevada. Whole islands of people were lost as well as
everyone from the Gulf of Mexico up through Texas.
The earth cracked for
weeks, destroying everything thing within miles of epicenter. Flooding,
volcanic eruptions, and sinkholes were daily occurrences. Families lost
communities in turmoil. Cities that had taken centuries to build were gone in
minutes. People were killing each other trying to find a safe haven away from
the quakes, but there was nowhere to go.
It was mass hysteria.
But as quickly as the quakes began, the earth finally
stopped moving and those of us that had survived the world -wide earthquakes
sought shelter in the few places that was still standing.
Eighteen of us live
in one of the remaining earthquake proof buildings in downtown Los Vegas
Nevada. We have food, shelter and peace
on our island, yet Mark needs to know if there are other islands and other
survivors.
“It needs to be stronger.”
333Words
Copyright © 2013 Glynis Rankin
