Richard
Lizzie
Tom
Lisa
Serendipidy
Norval Joe
Planet Z
The next topic is Advance
LISA
There was a fish in the sky, the sun glinted on its iridescent undersides. Whipped by the breeze it coasted a while on the thermals. We stood in the garden, necks craned, watching it swim through the clouds.
“It’s going down” Sue shouted as we ran to the front of the house.
It sank fast and caught in a neighbour’s oak tree. It was actually a metallic balloon which promptly burst on a conker spine then crinkled in the breeze. A tag dangled from its tail with an address in France: a competition to see whose balloon travelled the furthest.
RICHARD
--- Unwise ---
"Invest in the stock market he said."
"What do you have to lose? All you need is a good financial advisor, some spare cash and maybe just a little bit of luck, and by this time next year you could be a millionaire."
So I took a punt.
After all, I had a little spare cash to invest, and I don't consider myself particularly unlucky.
Unfortunately, what I didn't have was a good financial advisor.
He selected the worst stock ever to invest in, and every time I asked him how the market was doing…
He'd say, "It's going down."
LIZZIE
"It's going down..." whispered the radio. The coded message prompted them to grab their guns and take off. Then, they waited. An hour. Two hours. Nothing. Keep radio silence, but... what should they do? One of them decided to stand up and... A shot. Boom. Man down. The others were perplexed. They were the hunters, not the hunted. Another stood up to complain. Boom. Man down. "Wait a second, I didn't pay a fortune for this. It's over for me." Boom. Man down. What they didn't know was that other men had paid a lot more to hunt the hunters.
SERENDIPIDY
It's going down to the wire.
The razor wire.
It's my interpretation of the old fashioned death of a thousand cuts. Updated and improved.
It's a simple idea: A deep, dark pit, stuffed full of copious strands of razor wire -military grade, of course.
And I'm going to throw you in.
You'll be torn to shreds. And the more you struggle and writhe in pain, the worse it gets.
Until, slick from blood, screaming in pain, flesh flayed from your bones, you finally succumb to your wounds.
So, now you know your immediate future…
It's going down, to the wire.
TOM
Fly to close to the sun.
When I was a kid I had a subscription to Youth National Geographic. In one issue was a picture of Alexander Bell’s tetrahedron kites. Big enough to lift a man into the sky. As kid I did not have the materials to build the man lifting kites, but I did build tetrahedron out of drinking straws. Lightest material I could find. Fast forward 60 years 3d printer spitting out nano-tube. Got the cat at about 1000 feet. Looking good, stable, success OH forgot about the load on the string . Too bad. Fluffy, its good down fast. Rethink: need nano-tube string.
NORVAL JOE
Bobbi snatched the phone from Mandi and punched in a text.
Patrick. What are you doing with Sabrina’s phone.
After a long pause, a reply came. Bobbi?
She continued. I came by your house on the way to school. No one was home. Where are you and where is Billbert?
Mind your own business, he sent back.
Bobbie grimaced. “Mom says you are my business. You’re not into more Black Knight crap, are you?”
Just watch, little sister. My crap is going to be powerful, and it’s going down soon.
Bobbie handed Mandi her phone. “The Black Knights have Billbert.”
PLANET Z
Mindy's fever was finally coming down.
Icepacks and aspirin, and a week in bed.
Her vision was blurry, and she couldn't read her books, so we read to her.
Or we turned on the radio.
Hauling the television upstairs wasn't an option.
And she wanted to stay in her room.
We brought up soup and orange juice and ice water, took down the empty trays and bowls and cups.
Replacing her sheets and pillowcases twice a day,