Tag: Writing

Traces of the soul completed a story using this prompt from: Mindlovemiserysmenagerie Wordle 21

Write a poem or story using 10 of these words

1. Delicate 2. Dirty 3. Legacy 4. Shrapnel 5. Gehenna (any place of extreme torment or suffering) 6. Douse 7. Hate 8. Syringe 9. Precipice 10. Hedonistic 11. Rot 12. Disintegrate

So, I thought I would give it a try.

Laney sat against the wall of her cell. Her blue eyes stared forward as her mind worked furiously to find a way out of this. Her delicate fingers wrapped around the dirty bars of her cell and her grip tightened as she realized how long she may have been there. She had been captured at least three days ago as she tried to get the box containing the medical supplies to her people. There was an outbreak of smallpox and she had been able to scrape enough money together for the vaccination kits they needed. How many had died? How many more were sick? She had to get out of there. They had left the box sitting on a table across the room from her. A slap in her face, a taunt of her failure.

Their people had been at war off and on since the great Cataclysm and the group of survivors had split into two camps. One on each side of the mountain. Her people had built a city, a new civilization. A legacy worth leaving to their young. They loved art and music and the gentleness of life and instilling the hope for the betterment of mankind. While the Others had chosen a hedonistic, savage way of life. Always teetering on the precipice of their own destruction. The rot from within their own society would soon cause it to disintegrate, but not before they attacked her ailing people and destroyed them. She listened to the celebration below. The celebration for the impending attack and destruction of her people. Her hate grew until it tasted like bile in her mouth. She felt as if she was in hell in Gehenna. Her tears flowed, leaving tracks of white bright against the dirt that remained.

She was not bad looking, there were those that thought she was beautiful. In the end that is what most likely kept her from being killed. She was to be saved for later. She combed her fingers through her tangled hair and loosened her shirt and unbuttoned several buttons. She took a little of the water she had left and wiped her face with the edge of her shirt. She called to the guard. It didn’t take long for him to come in. She knew he was angry because he had to stay and guard her instead of going to the celebration below. He approached the cell warily, but she could see the lust in his eyes. She adjusted the shirt a little more to show more of her breast. “The sounds of the celebration have…excited me. Come here and I will give you something special, something no one has ever had.” He licked his lips and approached the bars.

“Your going to have to open that door if you want me.” Laney said as she slipped the shirt down her shoulders and onto the floor. The guard fumbled for his keys and told her to kneel on the ground with her hands in front of her. She obeyed and the guard entered the cell. As he moved toward her, his breath ragged and his voice husky as he asked her to stand and face the wall. She stood, but just as he came behind her she grabbed his groin and twisted, bringing him to his knees. She kneed him in the face and then kicked him again in the head for good measure. She was glad they hadn’t taken her steel toed boots from her. She disarmed him, grabbed her shirt and threw it on. She locked the cell door behind her and placed the strap for carrying the medical package on her shoulder.

The celebration was going on full force. Sounds of moaning, yelling, laughing echoed in the halls. She slid out of the door and headed toward the exit and the stables. There were few guards. No one expected a mere woman to escape and there would be no attack from her city tonight. She saw barrels of oil or gas by the entrance. She opened the taps and let the liquid douse the ground. She crept to the corral and opened the gate and jumped onto the back of a horse as it ran though. She had ridden bareback her whole life and she was glad of it this night. She threw down a torch from the corral onto the oil and the fire sprang to life, blocking the entrance.

She heard shouts and gunfire, but she praised the powers that be she did nor her horse were hit. She didn’t think she let her breath out until she reached her city gates. She yelled out in despair at the quiet walls. Then the doors opened and Thomas motioned for her to quickly come inside. She kicked the horse forward and was pleased to see that there were less funerary fires than before. She wasn’t too late. “Is it controlled Thomas?”

“Yes Laney, but there are still sick. Did you get the Vaccine from Charleston?” He asked as he helped from the horse. “Yes Thomas. Have everyone meet me in medical that can be inoculated. They gave me another round of medicine for those that are sick already. They said it should work for them too.”  Laney walked into the medical bay and set up to prepare the first syringe. Perhaps their legacy would survive.