Submitted for Sunday Photo Fiction

spf

The Assignment: The idea of Photo Fiction is write a story of around 100-200 words (which is also called Flash Fiction) based on a photo as a prompt. In this particular photo fiction, the story must be based on the photo below.

Photo © Sascha Darlington

Photo © Sascha Darlington

Why Won’t They Assimilate

Michael’s mother stood in the doorway with her shoulders slumped. She saw that he was watching the outside monitor again.

“Michael you know we don’t like you spending all your time watching that screen.”

“I find it interesting. I don’t get it mom. Why won’t they assimilate?”

“They just haven’t learned that they can trust their government. Moving inside the PODS is the best decision your father and I made for our family. We always know exactly what we’ll be doing every day and we never have to employ our imagination again. It’s a structured life.”

“I see families being admitted each day when I am going to school. Just yesterday a really cute new girl was hooked up to the education probes next to me. We didn’t talk because after all who needs to when there never needs to be anything to say anymore.”

“I am glad you found a new friend. Turn off the monitor and come get hooked up to the dinner probes. Your father will be home soon.”

After his mom left the room, Michael saw what he’d been waiting for. His new friend winked at the camera as she walked by on the outside.

Posted by on February 12, 2017 in Daily Prompts, Writing, Writing Prompts and tagged , .

26 Comments

26 responses

  1. Iain Kelly says:
    February 12, 2017 at 7:55 am

    I’m so glad that last line gave a little hope for humanity! Hopefully not a gimpse of the future world we can expect. Nice writing.

    Like

  2. S Francis says:
    February 12, 2017 at 8:09 am

    Good dystopian stuff, an interesting start? I hope so.

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  3. angietrafford says:
    February 12, 2017 at 8:51 am

    Nothing will happen without resistance in some form or another. I like this 🙂

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  4. athling2001 says:
    February 12, 2017 at 8:51 am

    Nice slice of future – though a bit scary. Well done!

    Like

  5. Keith's Ramblings says:
    February 12, 2017 at 10:28 am

    Reminds me of the movie Divergent! A brilliant take. I often visit the place in the photo – I’ll never see it in the same light again!

    Click to read my story!

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  6. Sydney Hartle says:
    February 12, 2017 at 11:59 am

    I love how creepy this family’s willingness to accept “a structured life” is rendered. I hope Michael’s new friend leads him down a more adventurous path! If you ever made this into a longer story, I would definitely want to read it!

    Like

  7. Steve Lakey says:
    February 12, 2017 at 12:01 pm

    Just the smallest of gestures changes the whole feel of the story!

    Like

  8. Singledust says:
    February 12, 2017 at 11:46 pm

    a very interesting read what the future might be like – I do like the idea of dinner probes – hate cooking -but it did seems like a nice place to be.

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  9. James says:
    February 13, 2017 at 9:34 am

    Sounds like life aboard the “Axiom” in the film “Wall-E.”

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  10. mandibelle16 says:
    February 13, 2017 at 5:06 pm

    Fascinating take, almost dystopian. It reminds me of a movie Sylvester Stallon and A young Sandra Bullock was in it, and they hooked up to these machines for certain activity. It’s a very sad day when imagination and the wonde of what’s next is taken away from people — I’d say you’re taking away who they are as a person. It seems like this boy and his new friend are going to be doing things differently, maybe cause some people to think even. Nice write!

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  11. J.A. Prentice says:
    February 13, 2017 at 9:43 pm

    Great story! I’m not sure if it’s dystopian or utopian, but “assimilate” doesn’t seem too encouraging!

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  12. Sunday Fiction says:
    February 14, 2017 at 8:27 am

    There’s a spark of hope yet for the humans.

    Liked by 1 person