New Beginnings
Well this my first try at starting a journal/blog dedicated entirely to my writing so we will see how that goes! I've been writing forever, still fondly remember the first time I had a story read out loud in the third grade 'Living on a Cloud', and am finally close to finishing my first ever book. As to whether I will ever walk into Barnes and Nobles and see it on the shelf as I fantasize about on a near daily basis, well we will see.
So in honor of this, my first post in my first dedicated to writing blog, here's an excerpt from my book; 'Perfect Imperfection'
Someone was screaming. In my line of work that wasn’t unusual. There were red lights flashing at the end of the corridor I was running down and two guards were pointing guns at me. I ducked and rolled, coming up between them before their fingers had even started to press down the triggers. My hands lashed out and they fell, two identical thuds as they hit the ground. I quickly disabled their weapons and swiped one of their key cards through the electronic lock. The door opened with a soft snick and I was through, running down another corridor lit with flashing red lights.
There weren’t any guards at the next door and the key card in my hand didn’t work. I frowned. I let out my breath and concentrated on my skin until I could feel it tingle, and then I walked through the door.
I shuddered when I reached the other side. I hated the feel of my molecules sliding through solid matter, it didn’t feel natural. It didn’t feel right.
One more corridor and I was out and sprinting across the black top towards the maze of warehouses on the other side of the tarmac. The disks I had stolen were digging into my skin under the tight leather vest I wore, as long as they didn’t break the skin I’d be fine. They hated it when I got blood on the Objective.
Someone was sprinting behind me and slightly to the left. It was Two, her copper curls gleaming in the yellow glow of a spotlight. I didn’t have to look to know she was grinning and a moment later the spotlight was gone in an explosion of sparks.
Another moment and we were in the dark alleys between the warehouses, winding a path we had memorized that morning. We ran three miles in just over six minutes. A blue car was waiting for us, Five’s curly brown head poking out of the window as he stared behind us, looking for pursuit.
No one had followed us. No one could have matched our speed. Our doors shut at the same time and the engine purred as he spun in the gravel and headed down the road. Mission over.
Eight hours later an agent collected our gear and the disks from us, four each, as Mr. Hartley debriefed us. “Any problems?” All three of us shook our heads and he nodded briefly, “Fatalities?” I shook my head and Two did as well; I wondered what had happened to the screamer. “Good, clean up and send the clothes to the furnace. All three of you have checkups in twenty minutes. Dismissed.”
We didn’t salute, we weren’t soldiers, but we did nod sharply before turning to leave. Five exchanged a glance with Two before smiling at me and jogging down the corridor towards the boys’ area of the compound.
I raised an eyebrow at Two; she refused to acknowledge me and headed for our own rooms. I shook my head but followed, ducking into my room for a change of clothes before we both headed for the showers. It may seem like a luxury that we had our own rooms but in reality it was to keep our ability to fraternize to a minimum, not that we were supposed to know that. We were supposed to be grateful.
We both stripped in the hall outside the shower room and dropped our mission clothes down the chute to the incinerator. No evidence could be left behind on the off chance someone followed us back to base or attached a bug to our clothes. It had never happened but the Project didn’t believe in taking chances and every item of clothing was carefully examined before it was burned.
We showered in silence and changed into matching black sweat pants and tank tops. The doctors would strip us again so we might as well have walked naked to the medical corridors but the Project leaders forbade nudity outside of our personal quarters and the medical rooms.
Something about not wanting us to get ideas.
No one ever claimed the Project leaders were smart.
.