Flickering Light [Part Tree]

Cody missed the ground. Instead of exploding into a thousand pieces, he found himself flying through the air horizontally through a different forest over a used path. He landed 30 feet away, bounced once or twice and skidded to a halt, kicking up dirt all around. His shirt got more torn and his back had got cut up on rocks that were laying on the path. Cody stayed down for long moments, trying to grasp what had just happened. His heart was racing and he couldn’t stop his hands from shaking. His ankle still pained him and desperately needed attention. He forced himself to sit upright. Ripping off what little was left of his shirt, he brought his foot closer to him. Blood was still flowing out. Cody gritted his teeth as he tied his shirt around to cover his wound. The tightening cloth made him cry out from the stinging pain.

Once the aching became bearable, he looked around the unfamiliar territory, unsure how he landed there. The cliff he fell off of was nowhere to be found. The sun had no dark, murky clouds to pass through before shining through the sky. Nearby trees gave shade to the pathway he landed on, but they didn’t help the overpowering humidity. Every breath was a challenge.

Did I die? No, I don’t think I did. I don’t think I’d still be in pain if I did. But what happened...where am I...?

Cody couldn’t stand, at least not without help. He glanced around and saw a few fallen limbs in the trees. He pulled himself across the dirt with his left hand and arm, pushing with his right foot. He imagined what he must’ve looked like, then tried to put that out of his mind. After minutes of this he managed to find a sturdy looking stick. It would be at least able to support his full weight while standing.

Not like I weigh much anymore Cody thought with an exhausted smile. He hadn’t had any sort of meal in days, and barely had found any water to drink. Sleep only came for an hour or two at a time over the last week because the predators after him were always close by. Cody wasn’t even sure he was safe here. He would probably leave a trail of blood behind him, since his ankle had already bled through his thin shirt.

He heard a laugh from far away, a high-pitched cackle. Not willing to be found, Cody ventured farther into the trees before finding a hidden spot under a small ridge to lie down in. He pinched his nose shut, covered his mouth, and closed his eyes, feeling little bugs starting to crawl over him. His heart picked up after having slowed down on the path. As he laid still, voices carried over to his ears. It was two girls, older than him, talking to each other about how some other people were never ready or how fun some party was going to be. Cody thought they’d just pass by when one of them cried out.

“Oh, gross! Is that blood?”

“Oh my god, something must have died.”

Yeah, just about, thought Cody.

“I bet it's those redneck hunters around here again. I bet they were shooting squirrels or something.”

“Aw, I hope whatever it is is okay.”

Not at all.

“I doubt it, those rednecks probably caught it when it moved out into the forest.”

“Well let’s keep going, I don’t wanna keep looking at this.”

Their voices carried away and disappeared before Cody dared to move again. He forced himself to stand up again and wiped off all the ants that had crawled over him and in his hair. A few spots on his legs stung, probably from getting bitten. He got back onto the trail, looked both ways, and headed away from the direction those girls went. Cody would’ve asked them for help, but he learned not to trust anybody outside his family. One of his best friends turned on him, nearly getting Cody killed several times and put the colonel on his tracks. Since then he had been surviving on his own, always watching his back.
He limped onward through the thick heat, walking stick at his side. Cody’s mouth was already dry from thirst and he started to feel dizzy. Now without distraction, his entire body protested against him. The lack of sleep was catching up to him, making every foot forward a struggle. He was able to get half a mile before stopping to rest. He didn’t dare sit down, afraid he might never stand up again. With his right hand, Cody grasped the pendant that hung to his bare chest. Its light was still glowing a dim blue. He glanced downward to see that the bleeding had slowed, but there were red spots along the trail. His entire left leg was shaking slightly. He felt like all his energy had been drained out of him. Cody shifted his weight to take his next step, and fell face forward onto the ground. The humid air was still as he slowly closed his eyes.

==================

[Part 2] [Part 4]

Oh no! Not after having survived that fall! Poor kid. Maybe someone will come along and help him out? I hope so!

So I hope you're enjoying the story so far - I really have no idea how good of a writer I am, where on the scale of terrible this is, or what. I was considering figuring out how to put things onto the Amazon Kindle store (for free, because I'm a nice guy). Given that all of three people ever read this, I don't really know if my stuff would even get downloaded, but I want to try, at least.

Basically, if you think this doesn't suck, share it. DO IT. Or not. I don't mind either way.

Flickering Light [Part 2]

[Contains some cursing because college students do that.]

“Go to your left. No, your other left. Where are you going?”

“Lay off, I know what I’m doing.”

“You don’t look like you do at all.”

“Shut up, will ya?”

“You’re never gonna save Zelda at this rate.”

“Whatever man.”

Jeremy and Thomas had pulled out Tom’s old N64 and were trying to run through a few of their old favorite games. They spent the entire night completing Mario 64, and had Goldeneye next on their list. Jeremy was just about done with the dungeon, and was planning to hand off the controller once he was finished.

“Alright, see, there’s the door that leads to Morpha. Now let’s rock this...”

The school semester had just started. Jeremy was in his second year, and decided to move into an apartment with Tom. They had five classes together over their first year at school, and got to know each other well. Both of them were marketing majors, enjoyed plenty of the same TV shows, movies, and games as the other and easily became friends.

“Move now! You’re gonna get caught!”

“I got this, I got this, I got th-...shit.”

Their school and apartment were within biking distance of town, but they were still surrounded by open fields and deer that lived in the neighboring woods. A large lake just outside of campus was the highlight of student activity, and there was always something going on. Students would sign up for a summer semester just so they could enjoy the swimming.

“Oh c’mon now, my granny could’ve avoided that. Way to suck, man.”

They two were lucky to get a first floor apartment, with a door close to a backdoor path through the forest on the way to the lake. It’s not a popular route, but it’s faster for the students who live nearby. Otherwise they’d have to take a long detour next to the road, and there were few slow drivers on campus. The administration officially tells the students that the backdoor path is dangerous and shouldn’t be used, but the fence keeping people out was forcefully torn down several times. The school turned a blind eye after that and let the hole in the fence stay.

“Give me the controller already, you’re terrible.”

“Just one more hit and I win, man! C’mon.”

A knock came at their door just as Jeremy delivered the final blow. He threw his hands into the air in victory, letting out a yelp of success. Tom laughed at his friend’s excitement and got out of his chair to answer the knocking.

“How d’you like THAT, Morpha?!”

“Calm down, man, you probably got us a noise violation or something.”

“Doesn’t matter, I just beasted that.”

Tom shook his head as he got opened the door. “Yeah, who is it? We’re pretty busy and-”

He looked down to see who was in front of him. His eyes opened wide and his heart nearly stopped.

“Oh, shit.”

====================

[Part 1][Part 3]

Yes, this really is part two. Trust me I've got somewhere I'm going with this. I just need to figure out where, that's all.

Also, I meant to address this in the previous post: Layout change! I'm using Google Docs to type this up (among other things) and from there I would copy and paste the story when I felt like it was good to go. I was having a problem with text color, though, and the text would come out completely black even though the then-layout should have forced text color to be white. Black on a black background does not work for me. I wouldn't mind changing my whole entire post color to be white except if I made a spelling or grammatical error, it would be more annoying to find in the edit screen (which has a white background). I don't think this layout is bad on the eyes, myself. If you hate it then I can't do anything for you. Deal with it.

Don't remember the old layout? First time here? Oh. Hi there! Hope you come back.

(you're not coming back, are you)

~Wes

Also, I promise, the moment I come up with a title then these post names/tags will reflect it. I've just been incredibly unimaginative in that sense. D-:

Flickering Light [Part 1]

Run. Don’t stop. They can’t have it. Never trip. Run. Ignore the gunfire. Forget the pain. Keep going. Don’t stop. It doesn’t hurt. IT DOESN’T HURT. Run harder. I can hear them. Don’t let them have it. They’re almost-

A bullet found its way into his left ankle, breaking it. Cody faltered and slammed into the undergrowth. He was almost out of the surrounding forest, but fell short. There weren’t any other places he could run to, but he couldn’t let them have it. Bombs fell somewhere in the background of the woods, causing the ground to tremble. Cody painfully forced himself up with his one good arm, and stumbled forward. His left hand reached up to see if his other gunshot wound had reopened, and it had not. His shirt was lined with red streaks, from the makeshift cloth bandage on his shoulder down to his waist. The rest of him was covered with dirt and dried mud. The trees thinned out for the next 20 feet as Cody limped ahead. The adrenaline coursing through his body kept him on his feet and walking. He figured the shooter must have gone to fetch the colonel who had been on his tail for months. Cody wasn’t going anywhere very fast, that much was certain.

Slowly, Cody reached to the end of the forest. There was only a hundred feet of cliffside below, leading into a valley. His hopes fell to the ground as he surveyed the scene. The sky was a dull gray from the smoke of the airplanes above. From where he stood he could see a decimated town and several holes in the ground circling the place, all the way to the cliff’s base. Some of the pits looked like they were caused by bombing, but others looked peculiar, as if they were only made by...

A minefield. If Cody was lucky, there would be some just below where he stood. His necklace might survive the fall if he didn’t land front first into the ground, but a mine exploding, especially if it was one of the government’s, would definitely destroy it. He shuddered at the thought, but there wasn’t any other way. It was better to destroy it than to let anyone else have it.

The click of a cocked gun sounded behind him. The colonel and his posse had caught up.

“Come on, kid, hand it over. We don’t want to have to search your squashed body for it.”

Cody staggered around to face the pudgy, pig of a man. Medals lined his uniform, and fancy stripes lined his sleeve. Six or seven more battle-hardened soldiers stood around him grinning, all guns pointed straight ahead. Cody felt under his dirty, torn shirt collar and pulled it out for them to see. The chain connected to one of the tips of a clear octahedron. Eight equal triangles, four meeting together at opposite tips. On the inside, a small blue light was shining. The colonel’s eyes opened wide in the sight of a clear promotion and commendations from his superiors.

“You’re just going to kill me afterward, aren’t you?” he asked.

“Of course not. You’d make a great bargaining tool with your father. But if you resisted, then it wouldn’t be much trouble for us to throw your body into a river somewhere either. It makes no difference to us. Now give that to me before I have to take it from you.”

Cody wrapped his hand around the necklace. He almost couldn’t stand anymore. All his weight rested on his right foot yet pain still seared through his left. He silently wished for a shower, a meal, or anything to take him away from this. The colonel’s hand stretched out a few feet away. Cody showed a sad smile, knowing what he had to do. He shifted his weight backwards and let gravity take over. His feet soon had air beneath them. Wind whipped through his messy hair as he watched the colonel get smaller and smaller. Cody vaguely wondered about what happens after death. Goosebumps ran up his body as he looked above him to watch the ground rise up at him. The smell of spent bombshells and exploded mines surrounded him. He couldn’t tell if it was the wind tearing past his face that made his eyes water. The tiny shape on his necklace hovered at eye level. The blue light inside it began to fade...


==========================

[Part 2]

Part one of yet another story idea I had the other night. I've actually had this mostly ready since last week but I'm trying to stick with pseudo-weekly updates so that I don't post too much at once then go for long periods of inactivity. I will not let this thing die, dang it! As a warning, the second part might seem like it has nothing to do with this first part. Don't ask questions.

Expect part two next week sometime. It's partially done, in that I've got the jist of it in my head. I noticed that I prefer to open a G-doc and start writing (that's a Google-Document in my own terms).

I'll be honest, though, I'm still coming up with half of the story myself, so don't expect perfection. If you do expect perfection then I don't know why you've cared to read this blog at all.

~Wes

Preview of upcoming story

A preview of a story that I'm going to be posting here!

Cody wrapped his hand around the necklace. He almost couldn’t stand anymore. All his weight rested on his right foot yet pain still seared through his left. He silently wished for a shower, a meal, or anything to take him away from this. The lieutenant’s hand stretched out a few feet away. Cody showed him a sad smile. He shifted his weight backwards. His feet were soon in the air. Wind whipped through his messy hair as he watched the lieutenant get smaller and smaller. He vaguely wondered about what happens after death. Goosebumps ran up his body as he looked above him to watch the ground rise up at him. The smell of spent bombshells and exploded mines surrounded him. The tiny necklace hovered at his eye level. The blue light inside began to fade...

This section here is pretty early on, as I've only got the first part done as of yet. I'll tag all the posts with the story title so that if you miss a part or two, or if I've got something to show you between parts*, then the entire story can be easily found and compiled together. What's happening here is that I've got an online document that I'll be writing in over the course of the next few weeks, or months, or however long I feel like writing this. Then after I finish one part, I'll post it. This section here is pretty early on, as I've only got the first part done as of yet. I'll tag all the posts with the story title so that if you miss a part or two, or if I've got something to show you between parts*, then the entire story can be easily found and compiled together. I've got the second part already mostly done in my mind, it just needs to be typed up. I also need a title, but that's unimportant. Right?

*meaning, those weeks where I will get writer's block

Frustration

Sometimes I'm really sick of my life. Just hear me out, okay?

My parents are some of the strictest people around, and I'm too much of a wuss to not do any of the things they tell me to do. I'm basically Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes because I've got no other choice. Heck, I barely see my parents as it is anyway, and they're always away on business trips or something.

The neighborhood kids are all some of the most irritating people I could ever know.

The two friends I've got can really tick me off. One of them is dumber than dirt, and the other cares so much about money that he has us do whatever he wants us to so that he can make a pretty penny. I still can't believe I've gone along with his schemes, and the other guy is just too dumb to care about what he's doing for the little money grubber.

The idiot has a sister of his own who's a little brat in every sense of the word. If she doesn't get her way then nobody's happy. She hangs out with this other kid who I swear is gay. He's as much of a pansy as I am, and I'm pretty sure the girl only hangs out with him because she can control the guy. A paper cut to him is like a gunshot wound to anybody else.

There's also the punk who never stops picking on my two friends and I. He taunts us all day long in that stupid cap of his. The girl of *my* dreams is always flirting with him, but the jerk is too obsessed with his own bike to notice her. Just about all of the guys in the neighborhood would love a kiss on the cheek from her but she doesn't care about us nearly as much as we do for her. I know I wouldn't have a chance even if she did stop going after that red-capped no-good biker-jerk, since I'm such a socially awkward loser.

We've also got the backwards country boy who's from some place weird place in Europe. You could hand him a calculator and he'd think you gave him something straight from hell. His parents have him so sheltered that the fields and the animals on their little farm (in the middle of a suburb!) are his only real friends. I don't think they even like him, either; he isn't exactly the nicest to his animals, and his methods for farming and caring for them are very...unusual.

Finally in the neighborhood there's another stupid kid who's practically the outcast of us all. He likes to dress up like some sort of superhero in his free time, and he really gets into it. Way too into it. The funniest part? He talks to wood like it talks back to him. I wish I was kidding with you, but I'm not.


Anyway, Ed, Eddy, and I are always running around the cul-de-sac, scamming the neighborhood kids for quarters and always trying to get some jawbreakers.


-DD

____________

I watched the Ed, Edd, n Eddy movie the other day and really starting missing the shows. I'm sure something like this exists out there somewhere (there's one for Pokemon's Ash Ketchum, but I can't find it right now), but I don't know if anybody's done one for Double D yet. So here it is.

I've got another Ed, Edd, n Eddy story idea, but it's not planned out and I obviously have to wait a little bit before throwing something like this at you again. If you don't know Ed, Edd, n Eddy, well, that stinks. Sorry.