Flash Story Collection

Copyright 2021 by Limnophile

Permission granted to print or repost for non-commercial use if the author is credited.

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In days past, very short tales were often posted as 'Flash' stories. I hope the editors allow the publication of my favorite three short creations as a group. If they do, please enjoy.

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The Ledge

I screamed as I fell from the ledge. I knew it was thirty-six floors down. This was terrifying, and far from quick. I saw colored dots on the street expand into tiny toy cars, then gradually get bigger and bigger. A bird looked at me, as I fell past it. I tried to grab it out of panic, though I knew it wouldn't help. The cars were looking real now. It wouldn't be much longer, ten floors to go!

I felt agony everywhere, as every bone I had was broken or crushed. My blood and organs created a puddle ten times the size of my body. I even felt the tiny bones in my ears break.

A truck rolled over what was left of me, making it slightly worse.

I thought; "Please make it stop!"

I saw a glowing red pistol appear near me, floating in the air. It pointed at what was left of my head. Large red numbers appeared next to it.

... 29 ... 28 ...

Huge red words rested on the building.

"Continue 1 Player? Insert coin."

27 ... 26 ...

A gigantic, nerdy looking boy was the size of half the sky. I saw his crooked nose and messy hair, as he said; "But it's level 36! The farthest you ever got! Don't you want to see the end?"

21 ... 20 ... 19 ...

An enormous, nerdy looking girl, with braces and lots of pimples, said; "But I only have five left until my allowance on Saturday, and I have to finish a book report tonight."

The two of them left the world.

9 ... 8 ... 7 ...

A huge young boy stepped into view.

5 ... 4 ... 3 ...

He put in a handful of coins.

As soon as I had a working mouth again, I screamed; "NOOOO ! ! !"

In the background, Simon and Mario gave each other a high-five, as they watched their revenge in progress.

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Space Soldiers

It was an unusually warm afternoon for early October, almost uncomfortably warm. Around the neighborhood orange, yellow, and brown leaves fell slowly from the trees.

The alien creature descended from the sky. Its small wings would allow it to leap and glide long distances, but not truly fly. Its six legs all ended in sharp claws, and its powerful jaws were sideways. Its orange-brown body would have resembled a winged ant, if ants were the size of a cat and weighed ten pounds. Many of them were brown and yellow, or orange and yellow. Hundreds, then thousands of others glided to the ground with it. They crawled across the park, intent on destruction. They would attack in waves, tearing pieces off their enemies until there was nothing left.

On the Space Soldier combat lander, Sarge told her troops, "Line up! Prepare for battle!"

A school bus stopped briefly, dropping off a small crowd of children near their homes.

The Space Soldiers ran from the transport as it touched down, pulling out their blasters as they readied to face the alien menace. Sarge yelled, "Follow me! Go! Go!"

They noisily clumped across the terrain in their heavy power armor, rapidly shooting creature after creature, eliminating dozens of them. The tallest and largest of the Space Soldiers, Chavez, yelled; "Sarge! Over there! See that big brown one!"

Sarge ran forward as she commanded, "Blasters won't work on the big ones! Ready power swords and charge! Chavez go left! Get the right Joe! Everybody else, back them up!" One of the squad started to panic, "There's another big one! And two more over there! We're surrounded!" Thousands more of the smaller creatures kept descending from the sky.

Sarge shouted; "Don't be a baby! If you want to get out of here alive, fight! Fight!" She jumped atop the long brown body of the dead alien, declaring, "This one's finished! Go get the others! Over there!" She pointed at two more of the big brown aliens in the distance.

Watching her men fight the dangerous monsters, Sarge held a hand to her ear, yelling, "Where is Charlie Company! We need them over here!" She heard only static on the radio, and shouted, "Joe, I have a dangerous mission for you. Go get Charlie company!"

Joe saluted, "Yes sir!", and ran to get the reinforcements they needed badly. Sarge was annoyed as Joe ran off, saying to herself, "How many times do I have to tell him? You only salute officers, and I'm a girl!"

Oblivious to the aliens, a young lady pushed her infant home from the store in a stroller, with groceries tucked in the back of it.

An elderly man happily set up Halloween decorations in his front yard. He smiled and chuckled, watching the group of kids hitting a log repeatedly with sticks, while another one held her finger and thumb in the shape of a pistol, saying, "Pew! Pew!" A boy unhooked a golden retriever from its doghouse and jogged back to the group, with the dog running circles around him.

A leaf with a couple of acorns attached fell toward the side of a boy's face. Space Soldier Chavez yelled, "Ow! I'm hit! Medic!"

Sarge happily shouted, "Yes! Charlie company's here! We're saved!" The big dog jumped and knocked her down. She landed in a pile of leaves and Charlie licked her face.

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The End

209 billion years in the future

Servicebot 87f3a96b and its 1023 'sibling' servicebots were manufactured during the last production run 1.1 billion years earlier. They had been the final group made by the last automated bot factory in operation, only a few dozen years after the death of the final Builder.

The bots had dutifully performed their work on the infrastructure of a large Builder city, though no one lived there anymore. They repaired leaky pipes, maintained electrical distribution systems, and kept the buildings and streets clean.

When the planet's star used the last of its fuel and burned out, the world became much colder. The bots still functioned, powered and warmed by their atomic fuel cores. Their highly advanced and sensitive cameras allowed them to see using just the light from other stars.

They were nearly as efficient as before, but there was much less work to do. Pipes, wires, and concrete deteriorated at a much slower pace when the temperature was -240 Celsius. The servicebots spent most of their time in sleep mode to conserve energy. A few times per hour, they powered up for a fraction of a second to check if any work needed to be done.

On the rare occasions when a bot was damaged or one of its components wore out, it would call for repair. Another bot would move there and assist before long. Much of the time the bots needed to return to the factory to obtain a replacement part. The spare parts warehouse was empty after a few hundred millennia, and the bots had been slowly failing a piece at a time since then.

87f3a96b was the last which was partially functional. Six of its eight wheels still turned. One of its four manipulator arms still worked, and of the bot's eight cameras, one was still functional.

87f3a96b was confused suddenly. It's programming instructed it to call for repair and shut down. That was the end, the last decision made, and the last action taken in universe.

Servicebot 87f3a96b was confused because it couldn't tell if its last camera had failed, or the last star in the universe had burned out.

Either way, the result was the same. Dark planetoids, asteroids, neutron stars, and black holes drifted apart through the void of space with no witnesses.

It was truly The End.

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