Friday Fictioneers – “To Build a Fire?” – Rated PG13 – Humorous Suspense/Horror

Once again, Rochelle seems unburdened and pleased to present us with the Friday Fictioneers‘ picture prompt below for this week.  Read mine following the pic, then click > HERE < for the rest.  Enjoy!!!

Source: PHOTO PROMPT -Copyright – Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

“To Build a Fire?”

By Scott L Vannatter – 100 Words

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Randy sat hunched over in the ice cave working to start the fire.

He had been stuck for nearly two days and at the temperatures outside, he did not have long.

The tinder caught, a spark igniting the dry grass he had spent his daylight finding. One blade smoldered and his breath kept it going.

At last, the wood itself gave forth heat and his body shook in triumph. He had read the book and knew that the ice could prove his downfall. What to guard the fire with?

He was found lying on the ashes the next day…smoke inhalation.

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Namaste,

Scott

Game of Drones

My nightly (well, almost) reading schedule is about 30-45 minutes after I take my night meds.  During this time, I get into bed and read until lights out (hopefully just long enough before that I actually get to turn the lights out and put my book away).  When I am out, I read my Kindle; when I am in bed, I read an actual printed-on-paper, have-to-bookmark-with-paper book.

A few weeks ago, I finished reading “Port Mortuary” a Kay Scarpetta novel by Patricia Cornwell, one of my favs.  I love the forensic items, which is probably why I like JmmcDowell’s stories and books so much (look at some —>  here  <—.  Which reminds me, I did a google search on Meghan Bode, interesting finds for a character!

But, back to business.  “Port Mortuary” mentioned drones in its story.  The type of drones it spoke of kinda interested me, enough to send myself an email to use it as a post someday.  However, what brought it to the top was that I found, through an entirely different method, a YouTube video on the drones.  This caused me to cry out mention say in my head “Eureka!” and decided to do the post.

I would like you to picture a scene:  a group of foreign scientists pouring over the details of a new type of atomic bomb.  One of the scientists smacks at the back of his head to kill a mosquito.  A few hours later, he dies (scientist, not the mosquito – keep up!).  Toxicology checks don’t come up with foul play.  As he was the head scientist, the project falls behind and takes months longer.  In the meantime, the United States comes up with a new type of defense against a “possible” future atomic threat.

Sound weird (cue strange music)?  Good for us?  Yep.  The way this could happen is through the use of drone robots the size of mosquitoes.  Yep, that’s right, small little buggers.  Here there would be two types:  the first would be ones with small digital cameras to either store or send pictures of the project to us.  The second would be a drone whose purpose was to “sting” that particular scientist and inject a nanobot which can replicate itself and deliver a very tiny amount of a substance – testosterone, for example – which when created by millions of nanobots could conceivably kill a person.

All fine and good for the up-and-coming-scyfy movie (Do you like the newest spelling of ScyFy?).  However, it can get darker.  There are some articles which talk about the President (doesn’t matter who.  I doubt it would stop due to an election) using these small drones to spy and or remove any specific United States citizen who was in the way.

Now, I am not saying this is happening.  What I am talking about are articles which talk about this as, perhaps, more than a possibility.  Just another thought tossed at us for consideration.

What I ask you to think about is the idea that either of these scenarios could be true.  If they are, we would need to consider that the other scenario could be, too.  It comes across as sounding like a near-impossible assassination to detect.  Or, simply enough, a way to take invasion of privacy to a whole new level.  Can you imagine what some people out there could do, average people, if the cost of a drone dropped into the hundreds of dollars for surveillance?  Your average private detective could have a couple of them to see things that might be better left unseen.  And, if the camera ones become useable whose to say what little smart thing a good enough hacker/private chemist might do with a few of them.

Okay, that’s one of my newest paranoias, scares, theories, ideas on what could be happening while we sleep “safely”.  Below are a few of the foundations for this idea.  Look them over.

Are you into big government coverup?

How about just big scary paranoid ideas?

Article on drones watching us

Snopes says there is some truth to it all

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Namaste,

Scott

A Long (but Enjoyable) Day

Today, I read and wrote a lot, at least, for me.  I began by trying to catch up on my blog posts (I had fallen almost 70 behind).  I am down now (it is 6:24PM) to 29.  I liked all of them and commented on a lot of them.  I also decided to start a book.  I like the idea and thank Robin Coyle for putting part of it into my head.  It wasn’t her idea, just reading her post made me start thinking.  Anyway, I did the short synopsis and wrote the first 1200 words.  We will see how it goes, but I like this one because I don’t know where it’s going.  It is writing itself.

Hmm, may have to change the name of my book – well, not mine, but check this one out. I don’t know anything about it, but, the picture is nice…

It’s not horror (gasp); instead, it is about a man with everything who has a stroke and it changes his life, including some type of vision/ESP thing that makes it more of a thriller with a lot of life teaching stuck in it.  A little life, but a lot of fiction is more my type of thing.  I love making stuff up.  Tentatively calling it “Heading Home”.  Anyway, it feels good and it will take about a year to get it to where I can think about publishing it, so, by then, we will see where I am in life.

My point here is that today has been a long day, enjoyable, but long.  It started early and I have been at it for nearly 8 full hours.  The double cup of caffeinated coffee really came in handy.  The worst part is that, while my head is spinning and thinking all kinds of things, the other end of me is tired and sore.  I need to get up for a bit and walk around, so I will, in a minute.

Before that, I need to say that all of the posts I read so close together today made me feel special to a lot of people – all of you whose posts I read.  There were a lot of people and a lot of different things said.  I laughed, listened, wrote, smiled, thought intently, considered a lot, felt moved, felt sad, happy, glad, tired, connected, upset, all of this a way of communicating with people I truly consider friends and loved ones.

I have decided that “when” I win the lottery or become a multi-millionaire (whichever comes first), I want to travel to visit a great lot of you – You know who you are.  That should take well over a year (and a bit of money – going to India, Australia, Canada, Europe, and all over the US).  After that, who knows?  But, it won’t matter because I will have met and talked with so many friends and will feel fulfilled.

I will also feel that I already know everyone I plan on visiting.  It’s wonderful to travel around the world every day or two and hear stories that are beginning to sound familiar.  That’s the thing that sets blogging apart from other writings:  you develop a relationship with people; you feel a “kindred spirit”.

Kindred Spirits

I love that!

Namaste,

Scott