This was an end-of-semester, in-class writing assignment. At the beginning of class, the instructor gave us the following writing prompt:
- Earth, year 2525, science fiction
- Bot Roe lives on a flying boat near what used to be Dallas, Texas.
- The family pet is missing.
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Bot
Roe stood upon the main deck of his airship, vacantly peering over the railing.
Below the ship lay the gray, gloomy, and mostly abandoned streets of Texas, but
Bot barely noticed, for his mind was on other matters. Nothing had ever been
the same since the Great Cataclysm of 2507, 18 years ago. But Bot had managed
just fine, all thanks to the companionship of his family’s pet, Larry.
Yesterday, while Bot and his family were asleep, Larry
had disappeared, leaving no trace behind except for a letter. As he stared off
into the distance, Bot pulled the letter from his coat pocket and read it once
again.
“If you want Larry back, head to the abandoned hotel in
Dallas. You know, the one with the eerie noises and eldritch tentacles coming
out of the windows. Anyway, meet me there, ALONE, and you can have Larry back. SF”
“Who on earth would steal a pet and then offer to hand
him back for simply meeting him somewhere, and who on earth is SF?” Larry
wondered aloud. “I may not trust this guy, but if I don’t go alone, something
bad might happen to Larry, and I cannot let that happen.”
With that thought, Bot Roe determinedly climbed the
stairs up to the ship’s control deck. “Go to the abandoned hotel,” he firmly
told the ship’s AI control system.
“En route,” the computer replied as the ship’s engines
started up.
A short time later, Bot disembarked from the ship and
strode up to the door of the spooky, old hotel. As he put his hand on the knob,
he was more than a little wary of the ancient structure with its crumbling,
moss-covered walls, strange unending music, and inky, black tentacles coming
out of a few broken windows.
The door slid open with a loud creak as the survivor
stepped inside. Before him stood an old man. The figure had a long grey beard,
dark robes, and a metal staff with glowing symbols on it and an old army
blaster barrel welded to the end. The man said nothing, but motioned down the
hall with one hand.
Bot wearily traversed the old hall, with the strange man
following behind him. When he got to the end of the hall, a door swung open to
reveal a man who looked very much like the one that had met Bot at the hotel’s
entrance. Bot stepped through the door, and a moment later, the two old men
pointed their jury-rigged blaster staffs at him. But Bot had come prepared.
The survivor pressed a small button on the inside of his
long coat sleeve and a comically small blaster popped out from a compartment in
the side of his shoe. In a flash, Bot Roe threw himself to the ground, avoiding
the the two laser blasts that flew over his head. In a single motion, Bot
rolled to his feet, grabbed the blaster from his shoe, and put a laser right
between the first old man’s eyes. The second old man began chanting some bizarre
arcane words, but soon found out that stopping to chant for several seconds
during a gun fight is a bad idea, as as laser struck him in the chest and sent
his corpse to the floor.
“Very well done,” came a strange voice from behind Bot.
Bot turned around to see a tall, slender man with a squid-like,
tentacle face, looking at him.
“I should have known that SF stood for Squid Face,” Bot
muttered under his breath, right before the monstrous creature knocked him to
the ground with a punch to the gut. Squid Face stood laughing at Bot who lay
sprawled on the ground. Suddenly, there was a metallic whirring noise behind
the squid man, followed by numerous flashes of light and screams of pain.
A moment later, the lifeless form of Squid Face fell to
the floor beside Bot. Bot Roe looked up at the smiling face of his pet killer
robot, Larry. “Let’s go home,” he declared as he got to his feet.
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