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.
THIS STORY DOES NOT EXIST
I awoke at 2:00 am, unable to sleep.
So, I sat at my desk and decided to write a story about a field of sunflowers. The words flowed effortlessly.
While I was writing my story, I heard a noise.
I looked up and…
[…SYSTEM_ERROR…]
[…ABORT_FUNCTION…]
[…RESET_TO_START…]
I awoke at 2:00 am, unable to sleep.
So, I sat at my desk and decided to write a story. But I wasn’t sure what to write about.
While I was thinking, I glanced out my window and saw a mysterious figure dressed in black, dart across the street.
As I stood up to get a better view, I heard a noise.
I turned around and…
[…SYSTEM_ERROR…]
[…RESET_TO_START…]
I awoke at 2:00 am, unable to sleep.
So, I sat at my desk and decided to write a story. But I had trouble concentrating on it.
I kept hearing strange sounds. They were coming from the hallway outside my door.
So, I left my desk to investigate.
While walking along the hallway in the darkness, I saw a shadow, then I heard a whisper, then laughter.
While struggling in the dark, a mysterious, dark stranger approached me. He said he had something important to tell me…
I hesitated, not sure if I should trust him…
[…SYSTEM_ERROR…]
[…CORRUPT_DATA…]
[…RESET_TO_START…]
I awoke at 2:00 am, unable to sleep…
And I was suddenly overcome with a strange feeling of déjà vu…
A feeling that something really weird was about to happen…
Madness in Flower
There we were, out for a Sunday drive in the country. The air conditioning in the car had gone on the fritz. Still, we were trying to find common ground. Sweating and being polite. COVID had locked us together for months like two giant lips that hadn’t smooched in years.
Suddenly she pointed out the window and said, “Wow!”
It was a field of bright yellow…she thought flowers…I thought…invasive species.
“They look lovely,” she said
“They’re TRIFFIDS?” I declared.
“That’s crazy,” she countered, “They’re…no such thing…which, by the way, I have to ask, what the heck is a triffid?”
She wasn’t into sci-fi like I was, so I usually had to cut her some slack.
“Where have you been hiding?” I bellowed, a bad habit, I know. “Triffids are….like a million Audrey’s.”
“You mean my aunt, Audrey. You never did like her.”
“Of course I did. She’s the one who made those rhubarb muffins….right?”
“Right…and you hated them.”
“They were okay.”
But we’d gone off topic. We do that. She does that. Me, I can follow a chem trail with the best of them. “Audrey…” I clarified, “ is the cannibal plant in The Little Shop of Horrors.”
“Never saw it,” she insisted.
“We watched it together…the original…not the remake. You slept through it.”
“Like I said,” she said, “Never saw it. Is Audrey a Triffid?”
We were making progress. But the sunflowers drove her mad
Like they did Van Gogh.
I pulled over.
She exhausted me.
“Do you think you can move? It’ll be easier if you can stand. Although, I think I can help stabilise you if we take it slow.”
I opened my eyes, and I saw her. A vision framed by yellow sunflowers. She was smiling, holding out a helmet with a cracked faceplate. My back and shoulders were solid pain; even trying to breathe hurt. Standing up was the last thing on my mind.
“Mister Collins. You’ll need to help me. I can’t do this on my own.”
She was crouching beside me now, cradling my head against her chest. She smelled of sandalwood, patchouli, and vanilla essence. She was a dream but also real; a lock of her hair had escaped from the barrette she was wearing. I couldn’t have imagined that if I wasn’t awake.
“Need water,” I croaked, trying not to cough into her face. “I need to drink before I can move. Do you think you can get something for me?”
I closed my eyes again. I didn’t remember her putting her arms around me. Although, I could have lost consciousness. Even keeping my thoughts together was getting tough.
“Mister Collins.” She tried again. Now there was ice in her voice. “It states that you’re a Commander on your flight patch. You should know how to follow orders if you’re in the military.”
I opened my eyes and narrowly missed vomiting on her shoes. She was wearing a cute pair of red kitten heels.
“Yes, ma’am,” I said.
Sla’ka furled his yellow comm membranes back and excitedly pressed his brown face to ship’s viewer plate. Hurriedly he summoned his crew.
“For eons we have searched the galaxy for more of out kind and at last we have found them. Look!”
The crew murmured excitedly as the gazed at the sight before them… thousands, if not hundreds of thousands stood tall and stately as far as they could see.
Kel’ni, second in command exclaimed,” With this number behind us, we can easily conquer and claim this planet as our new home!”
A deafening cheer went up from the ship’s company as their great search was finally at an end. Sla’ka issued an order for an immediate landing.
After landing, the crew disembarked and immediately set up a small dais for Captain Sla’ka to address their fellow creatures… and address them he did. Sla’ka spoke passionately about his ship’s search and the thrill of uniting all Flun’uri. He spoke of their natural superiority, their beauty, and their chance to become the dominant creatures of this planet.
Sla’ka had expected a boisterous response to his speech as he was considered himself a gifted and inspiring orator… but he was met with silence. Nevertheless, he persevered. Midway into his speech he became aware of a loud rumble that seemed to be approaching.
Turning, he was stunned to see a monstrous machine bearing down on him and his crew. Moments before the sunflower harvester overran them he thought,”We are so plucked.”
Surprise
“You left it where?” Maria yelled, stomping both feet. He had just told her what he tied to one of the Sunflower stalks.
“I thought it was going to give you a much-needed surprise,” Kevin tried to explain.
“If you had just put it on my finger, that would have worked just fine. Besides, I’ve had too many surprises in my life.
“I’ll find it. I wrote the code down, 380 straight out, 450 right, 37 north and then 23 back toward the road.”
“We’ve tried it five times, and I’m getting scared of the bees. Why can’t you locate it?”
“I guess my starting point might not have been on the edge. Maybe if we shine our flashlights at it, it might make the stone sparkle.”
*.*.*
“I really thought we would locate it on that last try.”
Maria sat down on a large boulder near her car. “Well Einstein, I’ve lost count. What do YOU want to do now?”
“I should have marked the ground where I had tied it. I’m going to consider it one more time.”
“Consider it my a**, that’s it, I’ll wait for you in the car.”
He studied the field and then his notes…’toward the road.’ It was at that moment, he realized he was given a very meaningful intervention. It was only five miles back to the small town.
She saw him hands on hips, and then she watched him walking away, snubbing the field. “Honey, HONEY, where are you going?”
The Field
A dismayed atmosphere interred us. No one admitted the truth, but we felt dismayed almost to the point of destruction in leaving the mega yacht. It had been our home. The only jubilance was from the coyote litter. They bounded with energy and joie de vivre in running free. Thoroughly they enjoyed being off the yacht as much as we despised it. They loped, chased each other, play fought and rolled happily in the grass.
We moved on wordlessly. Each one of us lost in his thoughts. Mine ran in a loop of questions, “What would happen if there was nothing on the other side of the mountain? What would happen if they refused to believe us? What would we do if those very people demanded that we leave immediately?”
Then I caught the coyotes in my peripheral vision and my heart flew with them as they chased each other wildly. After huffing and puffing up a mountain, I gained the pinnacle and my mouth fell open in wide disbelief. Below me were miles and miles of a stunning field. Each foot was packed with glorious sunflowers in full bloom.
Another survivor jumped up and down gleefully screaming, “Beautiful!”
The dramatic diva quaked in her boots, “Triffids! They want to devour us. Save me!”
Then the epicurean amongst us, “Food. Abundant sunflower seeds. Protein. Low fat. Essential amino acids. Dietary fibre. Oh, yummy!”
Strange, how we all perceive things differently. The dogs sang out because they had found another playground!
The field
“Don’t be combative Sandy,” as Simone belittled her friend. “Stop arguing with our teacher, Miss Sherry.”
“I’m telling each and everyone of you to look straight ahead,” demanded Miss Sherry.
“But, Miss Sherry, I’m having a hard time doing this. The wind is just too strong, it stings my face!” Sandy whines in unison with the others. “It’s too crowded here, please can’t we spread out?”
“These safety drills are required, in the event of an emergency!” “I am loosing my patience with all of you. We will not leave until you can adhere to my direction!”
Mumbling under her breath, “you’d think I was talking to a field of Sunflowers facing every which way!”
Sunflowers stretched as far as the eye could see, across the rolling steppe land of the Ukrainian Autonomous Guberniya. As Jerry evaluated their health, his perception was overwhelmed with a vision of this land swarming with tanks — modern ones, not World War II vintage.
His Institute training enabled him to force it down, but not fast enough. Beside him, Zaza was frowning. “There is problem?”
“I have transtemporal clairvoyance. I just looked into a world where this land is a battlefield.”
Zaza’s eyebrows quirked upward. “Germans making another stab at it?”
“No.” Jerry recalled what he’d grasped of that timeline. “In that world, when the Soviet Union fell, it shattered. The various republics went their own ways, resulting in a collection of small, weak countries instead of a single strong Empire. Now Russia and Ukraine are at war.”
Zaza crossed himself in horror. “Madness. Unreal.”
“For us, yes. But for the people of that world, reality.” I’m sure getting into deep water here. “I’m an agronomist, not a philosopher, so I can’t speak to the ontological aspect, but my brother the electrical engineer says the quantum effects in microcircuits are the result of neighboring timelines jostling ours. Empirical evidence that the worlds I see are not waking dreams, but realities.”
As the implications sank in, Zaza’s expression became sad. “And they must love their world as their own, and call it good.”