DON’T BLINK
B. C. YOUNG
Don’t Blink is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2011 by B.C. Young
All rights reserved.
Published by Forever Young Publishing.
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Table of Contents
Running to Keep Her (Bonus Story)
ABUNDANCE
Begin transmission.
It was the cherries. Who would think that you could destroy your enemy with cherries? We had bioengineered many things, but we happened upon a way to attack our enemy and overtake them.
It was simple—bioengineer cherries that grow at such a rapid pace that you cannot stop them. We took those cherries and snuck into our enemy’s territory, planted the seed in the ground and bam! The country became overcome with cherries. There were so many of them that they multiplied to a depth of hundreds of feet. Suffocation by cherries!
But our plan was flawed. Why we didn’t see it, I’m not sure. Our border of land was directly connected to our enemy. And when at first we thought we had destroyed them, the cherry production began to spill over into our country. The devastation to us was just as bad.
My hope is that you get this message. That there are others like me who found shelter in a cave, basement, or home. And if you receive it, my hope is that you have found a way to destroy the cherries. Please find me. My coordinates are 47.640671,-121.902881.
End transmission.
ACUTE
“Look at it. It’s adorable.” Cathy said to Jim.
“What is it?” Jim asked. He didn’t like the idea of touching, let alone playing, with the creature they found in the forest.
“I don’t know. But I want to keep it as a pet. Look how it fits right into my hand. It’s so cute and small.” Cathy loved animals, and this thing was perfect. She planned on taking it home with her.
The brown furred creature, with white stripes, curled up into Cathy’s hand. It had other plans for Jim and Cathy. It traveled hundreds of light years for the people of its planet. The planet was ravaged, sick, and decaying. A great famine had overtaken it. But he had to make one sacrifice to make sure this new planet could sustain them. One thing that could risk his life.
The two aliens who held him had quite astonished looks on their faces when the opening to his mouth enlarged to a size bigger than them. With two giant chomps, he swallowed them. His mouth returned to its normal size, and he waited. It would only take ten minutes for him to know the answer.
After that time, nothing happened. He let out a very faint and subdued burp—a minor side effect to eating the aliens. Yes, this planet would be just fine. It may be smaller, but it had a great harvest.
BROKEN
Jace and Cameron stood at the street corner waiting for the little Walking Man light to give them the go ahead to cross.
Then, the phone in the booth behind them began to ring, loudly.
Ring, ring! — Ring, ring!
“Huh?” Jace said. “Haven’t heard a ring like that in years.”
“Go answer it.” Cameron said.
Jace approached the phone, and tried to figure out how it worked. The phone handle was nearly snapped in two. From all he could see, the thing looked like it hadn’t been used in years. He picked up the phone, holding the mouthpiece in one hand and the earpiece in the other.
“Hello.”
“There’s a.…” The voice on the other end was full of static, and broken speech. “Corner of Pine and Wilson.”
“Hello,” Jace said again. The person on the other line didn’t stop talking and wouldn’t acknowledge him on the phone.
“… pile-up of three cars … help immediately … hear me?”
“Hello,” Jace said again.
“…use your phone… this one’s broken!” the voice yelled, and then Jace heard the phone click and the line went dead.
Jace walked back over to Cameron.
“Who was that?” Cameron asked.
“Not sure. I kept saying ‘Hello’ but they wouldn’t answer back. Kind of hard to make out everything they said, too.”
“Ah, stupid phone’s broken. No one uses those things. That’s why we got cell phones.” Cameron held his phone up and wiggled it in front of Jace.
Jace felt around his pockets and realized he left his phone at home. Then he looked up as he continued to wait for the Walking Man. He noticed they were at the corner of Wilson Avenue and Pine Street. Wasn’t that what the person on the phone said?
The Walking Man lit up telling them it was safe to cross the street. Cameron stepped out, but Jace quickly pulled him back as a car ran the red light. The car swerved to avoid Cameron, spun out of control, and was hit head on by a car in the cross traffic. Then a car from the other direction slammed into its back-end. Smoke started rising from the wreckage, and fluids from the cars spilled onto the street.
“Oh my.…” Cameron said. “Quick call 9-1-1 for help. I’ll see if everyone is okay.”
Jace ran over to the phone, popped a quarter into the slot, and dialed 9-1-1.
COLORFUL
“All right,” Dr. Seesa said to Kim. “When I take the bandages off, it might take a minute or two for your eyes to adjust.”
“Okay,” Kim said nervously. All her life, she’d seen things one way, and now it was all going to change. The thought of change scared her, but everyone told her it was for the better.
The doctor slowly unwrapped the bandages from her head and off her eyes. She kept her eyes closed, anxious about what she would see.
“Go ahead. Open them.” Dr. Seesa’s assistant, Jerry, said.
Her eyelids lifted slower than the bandages that were removed. At first, everything was blurry. Then she became fearful, because everything was the same. A bouquet of flowers sat in front of her, and it was all black and white. But then, color started to pop into view. First the yellow flowers, then the purple, the red, and then her entire view filled with color.