Burnout
Here is my story for this week’s Friday Fictioneers, the 100 word photo prompt ably hosted by Rochelle. This week’s photo was contributed by Madison Woods.
To view this week’s other contributions, click the blue froggy.
Copyright Madison Woods
Jedro hesitated, took a deep breath, and turned the tap. Behind him, the crowd strained to see.
Nothing.
Word spread, hope changed to resignation. Loved ones hugged. Children, confused, were gathered up by parents. The last remnants of humankind dispersed, wandering away to make their own plans for the End.
The water was gone. All of it. Jedro kicked angrily at the salt covering what had once been the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.
Antimatter energy, they’d said. Unlimited power. Totally safe! An accident, the Earth moves a fraction of a degree closer to the Sun… and the world slowly boils away.
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Friday Fictioneers
draliman on life 
Alas, end times are nigh!
Good story, Draliman!
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I’m afraid so 😦
I’m glad you liked it!
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So, I’m back! I had not been writing for a few months there, and missed it.
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I was wondering where you were on the Fictioneers front! Good to see you back 🙂
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Sad, but it seems like this is where we humans are heading. Good take on the prompt.
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I’m wondering whether the end will be a big accident like this or if we’ll just destroy the planet over time…
Glad you liked it!
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I couldn’t imagine…
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Best not to, it’s too horrible 😦
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True. 😦
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Oh … the stupidity.. just for a little bit more of everything we waste it all.. Very plausible actually.
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Indeed. I can well see people pushing that little bit too far too fast without really understanding what they’re doing.
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A scary image indeed! Great story with a powerful message.
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Thanks, it is a scary thought that something like this could happen. Humans are adaptable, but when all the water’s gone, so are we.
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That is exactly how I feel about antimatter. They should be screwing around with it. When I worked at Grumman and the NASA guys, they were already trying to get out there and grab some. One of these days, they will succeed.
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Hopefully not until they know how to safely handle it.
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should NOT
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I guessed that’s what you meant 🙂
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So that’s how it ends.
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One of very many possibilities…
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i hope it was just a bad dream that wouldn’t come true.
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I’m hoping it’s just a flash fiction story that won’t come true!
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As Scottie used to say “Ye canna change the laws of physics”
Good piece.
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And he was right. Looks like the end is truly nigh.
Glad you liked it!
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This made me shudder. Glad it’s fiction (for now).
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Me too! The “for now” is quite ominous…
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I am firmly anti-antimatter!
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I wonder if “anti-antimatter” will self-annihilate? What have you done…? 🙂
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Nicely written; scary story. How soon will it be true?
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Thanks! Who knows what scientists are currently fiddling with in dark and secret labs somewhere at this very moment?
Now I’ve scared myself.
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Scary story even more so because it could so easily happen.
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It definitely could. Did they really know what they were doing during the first atomic bomb tests or did we get lucky?
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Wow, Ali, that’s scary.
A fraction of an inch huh. We better be very careful. Good story and well done. 🙂 — Suzanne
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I don’t think it would take much either way to make the Earth uninhabitable.
I’m glad you liked it!
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Dear Ali,
A deeply disturbing well written bit of dystopia.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Dear Rochelle,
Thanks. It’s a very disturbing thought. Who knows what scientists are currently fiddling with?
Ali
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Well done Ali!
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Thanks 🙂
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Amazing.. but something that can happen.. what with the Collider in Europe. Good one.
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Yes, that project crossed my mind as well!
I’m glad you liked my story.
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Ugh. what a way to go!
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Yep, very nasty.
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Talk about a bad way to go! Good story! Nan
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Not a nice way to die at all. Glad you liked it!
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This planet is so old I imagine it’s all been done before, just to repeat it all again. If we kill ourselves off, will it matter?
Great story.
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I’m sure a new human race will eventually evolve once the planet has sorted itself out. I wonder how long they’ll last?
I’m glad you liked my story!
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ps I read the Japan quake tilted the Earth on its axis.
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Crumbs. I just looked that up. That’s a scary thought.
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Awesome what you can put into a few words. Great story. 😀
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Thanks, I’m glad you liked it 🙂
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Good take on the prompt.
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Thanks!
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We won’t last long without water. A bleak and short future.
Very well written, Ali.
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Just two or three days without water I think, and a nasty way to go.
Thanks, Russell!
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I hope that if scientists cause the end, they cause it in one almighty explosion, so we can all die quickly. Unfortunately, your version of things seems far more likely. Excellently written.
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I hope so too. I’d rather not know anything about it beforehand. But, as you say, my scenario is more likely I reckon.
I’m glad you enjoyed it 🙂
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A scary scenario. I almost feel guilty that I happily help sorting the data from the LHC, but only almost. 🙂
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Wow, that sounds like an exciting place to work. Funnily enough, the LHC ran through my mind when I was thinking what to put in my story for a “world-ending” scenario 🙂
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Nonono, I’m not working at CERN. Everyone who is interested in science can help. There’s Zooniverse.org where you can help with many projects, from sorting LHC events to counting craters on the moon, counting wildlife in the Serengeti, or read historical letters. Scientists never can view all the data created today alone, and people have better pattern recognition than computers. You don’t get paid, but if you contribute to a discovery, you’ll be recognized.
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Oh, right, that’s a clever idea – sort of like crowd-sourcing for discovery. I might have a look, it sounds cool 🙂
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I like it Ali. Too bad no ones listening to Mother Earth at the moment.
Tracey
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I hope someone starts before it’s too late. I’m glad you liked it!
Ali
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Eerie piece and I love the title. Our life is fragile and we best not take it for granted. Well done. Ali.
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I’m glad you liked it! Anything could happen at any time.
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I need a drink!
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So do they 🙂
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Sorry, I laughed and was rude at the end of times. I will try to maintain manners at the next catastrophe. Enjoyed it!
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Oh, all those poor people and you laughed 🙂
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Very bleak! It would be a horrible way to go – dying of thirst. Interesting, that humanity was once destroyed by water, a great flood, and now will be destroyed by the lack of it.
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I’ve heard dying of thirst is an awful death. I think the people wandering off to prepare for the end know that and won’t let it come to that (which is a pretty dark thought in itself).
I hadn’t thought of the flood and now the ultimate drought, but yes.
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I don’t know which is worse – the fact that they probably chose to go another way or that they had no choice but to die of thirst.
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I can’t even imagine being in that situation. A pretty terrible choice to make.
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Terrifying! And thirsting to death is such a painful way to go. I hope there can be an “up” in the end even if it is enslavement by an advanced alien race.
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You never know. Maybe some aliens engineered the accident to make the Earth ripe for the picking, and they’ll need slave labour, I’m sure!
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Even that would be preferable. Unless the hope was to dehydrate us for space rations on their long trips! Yikes!
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Now there’s a scary thought…
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