Use the photograph above as the inspiration for your flash fiction story. Write whatever comes to mind (no sexual, political, or religious stories, jokes, or commentary, please) and after you PROOFREAD it, submit it as your entry in the comments section below.
Welcome to the Indies Unlimited Flash Fiction Challenge. In 250 words or less, write a story incorporating the elements in the picture at left. The 250 word limit will be strictly enforced.
Please keep language and subject matter to a PG-13 level.
Use the comment section below to submit your entry. Entries will be accepted until Tuesday at 5:00 PM Pacific Time. No political or religious entries, please. Need help getting started? Read this article on how to write flash fiction.
On Wednesday, we will open voting to the public with an online poll so they may choose the winner. Voting will be open until 5:00 PM Thursday. On Saturday morning, the winner will be recognized as we post the winning entry along with the picture as a feature.
Once a month, the admins will announce the Editors’ Choice winners. Those stories will be featured in an anthology like this one. Best of luck to you all in your writing!
Entries only in the comment section. Other comments will be deleted. See HERE for additional information and terms. Please note the rule changes for 2018.
“Okay, you don’t have to take my word. Look at this!”
“What’s that?”
“It’s the latest photograph released by the U.S. Defense Department of unidentified aerial phenomena.”
“You mean, what they used to call unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, right?”
“Whatever! As far as I’m concerned, it’s proof positive these things exist. If it’s good enough for the defense Department, its good enough for me.”
“So, let me get this straight. People have been claiming to have seen these UFOs—or whatever you call them, including so-called flying saucers—since the 1940s. And the latest photographs of these extraterrestrial, super high-speed aircraft taken by military pilots show them executing maneuvers unlike anything our aircraft are capable of performing. Is that right?”
“Right!”
“So, as far as you’re concerned, these things exist. No question about it. Case closed.”
“Absolutely.”
“Hmmm. Let me ask you a question. How many cell phones do you think there are on Earth?
“I don’t know; maybe a couple billion or so.”
“How ’bout 5 billion active cell phones for 6.8 billion people?”
“Really?”
“Really. And if that’s the case, and if these UFOs or whatever you want to call them exist, don’t you think with all these cell phones about, we’d see at least a few pictures of them almost every day in the news?”
[Silence]
The Screaming Mees
“I’ll get you!” Gaff shouted. Undaunted from his previous encounter with BIG THINK, the little alien knew he would have to destroy the supercomputer before he could take over the world.
BIG THINK had become his nemesis.
In order to stop the supercomputer, Gaff decided to use his secret weapon: the Screaming Mees. Native to his planet of Taiinax 10, the Screaming Mees were small flying creatures, similar to bats, which emitted loud screeching sounds that could incapacitate their opponents.
Coming near the home that contained BIG THINK, Gaff released the Screaming Mees.
♫ Music playing ♫ (to the tune of “The Flight of the Valkyries”)
“Dum de la dum dum, dum de le DUM dum…dum de la DUUU dum, dum de le dummmmmmm…”
The Screaming Mees flew towards BIG THINK and unleashed their hideous cries: “Meeeeee… Meeeeee…” The shrill sounds filled the air with an audible dread and foreboding.
BIG THINK heard the creatures approach and automatically initiated countermeasures. The electrical beam it directed at the Screaming Mees caused the wiring in their tiny brains to short circuit. Instead of attacking the supercomputer, they directed their fury towards Gaff.
In no time, the Screaming Mees swooped in, grabbed Gaff, and then flew skyward, driven by a mad instinct to return to their home planet.
“Ack… ack…”
About the time Gaff was speeding skyward, Bert and Harriet were driving home on a country road.
Bert looked up. “Look Harriet, a UFO.”
“Oh, for heavens sake, Bert. Grow up.”
Retread
It was one of those nights. More than my fair share had descended upon me of late. I was twitchy, couldn’t get any shuteye even if my life depended on it.
And maybe it did.
We all need a good stretch of zees.
They are one of the rudiments for a longer life.
As usual, I was all in favor of living as long as I possibly could.
Still, I spent an hour or so twisting and turning, hogging the blankets, wanting to wake her up and have her divvy up my restlessness, and share my grief.
I was inches from doing that but held off.
There was no point in disturbing her.
She worked hard and had had her allotment of fidgety nights.
Finally, I said, screw it and got up.
It was the first of April.
I couldn’t sleep,
A fool was I.
I wrapped up warmly and went outside to inhale some soothing smoke. She never would allow me to imbibe inside. Which was okay. I adapted easily.
Though the night air was cool, the heavens lit up. Stars were shooting everywhere like the sky was a grand carnival shooting gallery.
In my heightened sensory state, I detected an unfamiliar exhilaration. As the smoke swirled, the ember’s burned, the night seemed to covalence and then, suddenly, unravel. My eyesight suddenly seemed…impaired. A fiery starburst detonated. There was no shrapnel, at least none that I could see. The brilliance, the effect was lacerating.
I had become otherworldly.
Ring-pull studied his monitor. It showed one of the indigenous species’ military aircraft beneath their ship. He flexed a grey-fingered appendage toward his fire-control panel, readying an attack.
“Belay that, number two,” Quadbike, his commanding officer barked, assuming a dominant pose. “I’ve just received a tactical analysis of their threat. It poses only a minimal menace to us, so you can stand down. I repeat, stand down and maintain surveillance of them until you receive further orders.”
“But what about the other ones?” Ring-pull bobbed up and down, impatient to destroy something. “You let me vaporize the ruminant creature three cycles ago: it wasn’t even armed. This species has another three primitive flying devices beneath us – each one equipped with cannon shells and homing projectiles. I suggest we react proportionately – destroying a city at least. It’s the only thing these hominids understand; you can tell that by watching their news programmes.”
“I quite agree,” Captain Kettlechip replied, straightening the sash denoting his rank. “But our prime directive suggests non-interference is the way. We can watch and help things along on the quiet, but anything that could be pivotal is banned. Besides,” he added, “think of the paperwork we’d all have to fill in. There’d be enough to keep a cadre of twelve-armed Cistercian clerics busy for weeks. I prefer to fight the battles I can win.”
And so, the opportunity passed and eventually, humanity destroyed itself.
And not a single shot was wasted – apart for the cow.
UFO OMG
“I love the park,” she exclaimed, “But I rarely get to see it after dark. The city becomes dangerous after the sun sets.”
“I understand your fears,” her metrosexual companion replied. “Remember, I won’t allow anything to harm you when you’re with me.”
“You’re right. You put those punks in their place when they called you an androgynous non-binary. That drunken frat boy creep in the bar couldn’t believe I preferred you and resisted his macho sports mentality. They all walked away confused because you didn’t get angry and questioned their self-identity. Those were the neatest tricks ever.”
“Diffusing hostility is both an art and a science. I’m happy you joined me on this walk my last night here. You’re my only real friend. Your chariot awaits, milady.” He pointed to the approaching city bus.
“So you really have to go? Didn’t something develop between us? It can be more, but will it make you stay?” The coed took her friend’s hand as she stared into his intense gaze.
“What we have transcends the physical. This is a timeless love rooted in the oneness of the universe, and nothing greater than that exists.”
She looked away, expecting his denial. Romance wasn’t in his makeup. She gazed up into the starry sky and gasped. A glowing orb streaked to the ground just beyond the tree line.
“OMG, you saw that UFO?” she exclaimed as the bus pulled up.
“Your ride is here, and mine just arrived, too.”
To most people they are UFOs, but to us, the ‘unlucky’ people, they are IFO’s – Invasive Flying Objects.
I have since turned off everything that can hum, beep, buzz or click. I haven’t used the microwave oven, or turned on my ceiling fans, or even used my phone. In fact, I have pulled the phone cord out of the wall.
The ordeal lasted an entire weekend, from some time Friday night to around midnight Sunday. At first, I was happy to still be alive. However, now I’m not sure my life is still my own. I haven’t told authorities about my kidnapping, if that is what it was. Yes, I guess that’s the right thing to call it.
I’ve checked the papers and the Internet, for any stories similar to what happened to me. NOTHING, not a single mention of anything out of the ordinary. I can’t even tell my friends, or the authorities. What proof do I have? NOTHING!
I don’t even turn on the TV, since part of my ordeal were visions of every sexual encounter I’ve ever had, and some I don’t even remember.
That was how they got my body to do things I didn’t want it to do. They took my body fluid in tubes and did something to the several naked women in the craft.
Maybe they are establishing an alternate earth colony?
Is something going to happen to our earth? Will they come back again for any of us?
Why me?
UFOS
No doubt about it, Seth was crazy, but I was crazier to give up every weekend.
My deep bond with Seth started on a stupid dare when we were teenagers. We were foolishly curious living beside Rudloe Manor in Wiltshire. Why was the former RAF base so heavily guarded? The innocent quaint British manor hid secrets. What exactly did Britain’s Area 51 hide? In our adolescence, thoughts of the secret survive, espionage, counterintelligence and ……mixed deliciously. As a poetical youth, Seth said that the patrolling dogs and guards suggested great secrets. This was his reasoning for breaking into the building and exploring the underground tunnels. Armed only with torches, hormones and an abundance of inquisitiveness, we investigated. Around what seemed the hundredth corner we discovered jars upon jars of peculiar inhuman faces floating in jellied fluids. Seth stopped, mouth open in ecstasy before a craft all silvery, shimmery and spacey. This convinced Seth that Rudloe Manor hid a covert UFO investigation.
Not sufficient for Seth to become a space scientist, he had to devote his spare time to discovering an actual UFO. It was his dream. We stopped the car, stepped outside to stare at the night sky. On the other side of the river was a mystical purple sky. Suddenly I felt a vibration through my feet, a fine sheet of ice covered the car and we hurriedly put eye protection on. A blast of wind knocked us off our feet as a Spaceship whirled over us.
BENEVOLENT LIGHTS
“Harriet, the lights are back! Grab your coat.”
Along the towpath, excited bustling occurred as everyone scrambled from their narrow boats and hurried along the canal in the dark. Some carried fiddles, melodeons and tambourines, anticipating playing and dancing in the light. At the top of the hill, they gasped in awe, propelled forward by the sight. The children, uninhibited, ran toward the red beam they knew would hoist them up and down if they stepped in the circle. After a few tentative goes, braver ones somersaulted, stretched out as if flying and made silly gyrations to make their friends laugh.
The adults gathered around the musicians ready for the nanty narking about to follow. Men clasped each other’s shoulders, women grabbed hands and couples embraced, feeling giddy in the golden shaft sent down by the unusual sky machines. During a break in the music, the hardworking boat families expressed a whimsical side, reciting jokes and monologues, reveling in the inexplicable light.
Hours later, a hum began, low like a foghorn. The red beam lowered the last child to the ground, and the witnesses watched in reverence as the light machines vanished. The people turned back to their waterborne homes dumbstruck, the mundane munching of the boat horses a gentle re-introduction to reality.
“D’ya think Queen Victoria made that happen?” Harriet asked.
“A Royal? Doin’ the likes of that for us? scoffed a man. “Beyond my ken, girl. I just hope it comes again.”
I still remember the dream: the announcement that First Contact had been made and negotiations were in progress. This was during the Cold War, back before the Soviet Union came crashing down in fire and lightning. So an alien visitation wasn’t just the realization of all my fannish longings of a wide-open universe to be explored. It would mean the end of the nuclear standoff that hung over our lives in those days.
Then I woke up and knew that it was just a dream. What a crashing disappointment to start the day, especially when I had a test in Algebra II first hour and needed to be on the top of my game.
But the longing for contact has never died, even after these years. It was probably a big reason why I went into the line of work I did. I might not be able to join the astronaut corps and go out there myself, but at least I could help build other people’s dreams with my mouse and keyboard. And I still love to go out and look up at the night sky, wondering whether someone is out there looking back, wondering if they’re alone in the universe.
Maybe someday we’ll make contact. Astronauts and cosmonauts are forging ever further outward in the solar system. But I don’t expect it to be anything like that wonderful dream that still haunts me to this day.