Out in the Open

It didn't dawn on me until you left the other day. Something had changed. You were different.

I noticed that something was off, but my intuition is usually not very attuned to these kinds of things. You definitely had a different vibe, even if the essence of your personality was the same.

In retrospect, the clues were all right there, completely out in the open.

The antennae protruding from your head probably should have tipped me off, but they evaded me somehow. If I had been more attentive, I probably would have noticed your second pair of legs as well.

Vapor Trails

As he watched the vapor trails of the incoming nuclear missiles form in the autumn sky, he realized that his life was about to come to a very abrupt end.

It was a very strange feeling to anticipate one's own death. Instead of fear or sadness, all he felt was a sort of detached curiosity. Not curiosity about death itself, but about the very fact that he didn't feel anything else.

He contemplated why he was in such a peculiar emotional state until his eyes were fried by an intense flash of light. The following shockwave ended the unbearable pain.

A Hero's Welcome

The journey to Alpha Centauri would take 40 years, but it would be worth it. He would never see another human again, but he would forever be remembered as the first person to set foot on a planet outside the solar system.

The sacrifice of leaving everything behind started to wear him down, but after landing on the fourth biggest planet in the system, he opened the door and proudly stepped onto the alien ground.

He was greeted by a small group of people. Apparently, worm holes that allowed instant interstellar travel had been discovered five years after his departure.

Ad Infinitum

"What the hell is that thing?" he asked.

"It's some kind of device," she answered without taking her eyes off the cube.

"Well, duh!" he exclaimed.

"Spare me your sarcasm," she said as she turned the cube over.

There was a button on the bottom. It looked strangely familiar, she thought. She pressed the button.

"What the hell is that thing?" he asked.

"It's some kind of device," she answered without taking her eyes off the cube.

"Well, duh!" he exclaimed.

"Spare me your sarcasm," she said as she turned the cube over.

There was a button on the bottom.

The Foreseeable Past

The gravitational maelstrom rapidly pulled his ship into the black hole.

As he reached the event horizon, something happened. The polarity of time appeared to be reversed instantly.

Suddenly, his last thought was his first and for the first time, everything made sense. His whole life was already mapped out, from death to birth. All decisions had been made and were waiting to come undone, one by one.

The total randomness up to this point was replaced by complete determinism. Though his personal uncertainty would increase for every second, the entropy in the world around him would do the opposite.

Late Night Snack

"We're closed!" he yelled to the raggedy looking woman outside the drive-thru window.

The woman kept pounding on the window.

He particularly hated this part of the job. The wackos always came out at night. He opened the tiny window and looked straight into her vacant eyes.

"There's a soup kitchen just down the street," he told her.

The woman snarled defiantly.

"Well, bite me!" he said.

And she did, quite literally.

In a matter of hours the virus he'd just acquired would cause an insatiable hunger for human flesh, but he'd be dead by then anyway, in a sense.

Low Point

Forty words into the drabble, he realized that it wasn't very entertaining. He decided to start over, but he didn't have any other ideas that were even remotely interesting.

Then, for some reason, the thought of writing a meta drabble didn't seem as lousy as it would have at any other time of the day. He knew he'd regret it in the morning, but he went on to write it anyway.

It turned out to be worse than he could have imagined. For example, the last sentence was only pointless filling that referenced itself instead of saying anything particularly interesting.

Close Encounter

"Shit! Not now!" she exclaimed.

The state trooper in the patrol car signed for her to pullover. She turned onto a less busy street and stopped by the curb.

The policeman slowly made his way over to her car. She knew the drill and she already had her driver's license and registration ready when he requested them.

The state trooper glanced at her license.

"Roswell, New Mexico, huh? Seen any aliens lately?" he said and winked at her.

"No, I can't say that I have, officer." she replied with a smile.

Under her wig, her third eye winked back.

In the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time

As he was lying there, half-digested with severed limbs, in the belly of the T-Rex, he decided that maybe time travel wasn't all that it was cracked up to be.

A fraction of a second later, he disappeared. By being eaten by a dinosaur, he had set off a chain of events that altered 65 million years of history.

The reptile was content for the moment and would consequently not eat the nearby Velociraptor.

This particular Velociraptor would then eat the creature carrying the mutated gene that would've been the starting point of an evolution eventually resulting in homo sapiens.

A Good Night's Sleep

When they told him they were moving, he had replied that he couldn't wait to get older so he could decide for himself where to live.

Like most twelve year olds, he ultimately had no say in the matter and off they went. It was a long journey, even at near lightspeed.

As he awoke from his cryogenic slumber, he heard his mother hysterically repeat something about a cryo-chamber malfunction. The mirror handed to him by the medical droid instantly revealed what the hysteria was about.

The irony was overwhelming.

Looking back at him was a sixty-seven year old man.

Unfortunate Turn of Events

The second she felt the barrel of the gun pressed against the small of her back she knew it was a setup.

She had planned the whole operation meticulously. Every corner of the building had been mapped out. The schedule and habits of the night crew had been observed for weeks.

Yet she knew too well that even the best laid plans can go awry. Especially when people are involved. It always comes down to trust.

Misplaced trust, as it turns out.

"Betrayal is a bitch," she thought to herself, before she closed her eyes and awaited the inevitable darkness.

Side Effects

"Congratulations on reaching the big five-oh-oh!" she exclaimed.

"Thanks," he replied, with a forced smile.

Weird. He didn't feel like he'd been alive for half a millennium. He knew this was most likely due to the mandatory bicentennial memory wipe, but he couldn't help but feel younger than his age.

Supposedly, a side effect of delayed aging is severe memory fragmentation, but he often wondered if the defragmentation wipe really was for his benefit or if it was just another tool for the government to keep people in check.

He shrugged and went on to blow out the burning candles.

Perpetual Confinement

She sometimes wondered what it would be like to set foot on actual ground. The virtual gravity of the ship was all she had ever known. And ever would know.

It would take another 27 generations to reach the closest habitable system. On arrival on their new homeworld, the people on the ship would not have any first hand knowledge of life on a planet. Their new home would be more alien than space.

The thought of never leaving the confines of the ship did not bother her. For every generation, the apathy for the mission seemed to grow stronger.

Death of a Relationship

We both knew it would never be the same again. How could it? But even considering all that happened, it was shocking how quickly we grew apart. We don't talk and I feel like I don't even know you anymore. We have nothing in common.

I tried to tell you that it wasn't you, it was me. But really, who am I kidding? It is you. It's all you!

Ever since you got that zombie infection you've been trying to eat my brains and that's just not cool with me! Also, your eye fell out of its socket yesterday. Disgusting!

Lose-Lose Situation

You stormed out of the room and slammed the door in my face. I had been warned you'd react this way, but I was still hoping you wouldn't.

I know you're upset because I didn't seem very excited when you told me about your revolutionary discovery. But at least I tried to act excited.

In my defense, you already told me all about it five years ago and you specifically told me I couldn't tell you that you had invented the time machine five years into the future. If I'd told you, you would have thought I was nuts.

Breaking Orbit

You said you'd come back for me, but you never did. That's ok. I get it. I would've done the same thing if I had been the one lucky enough to get a seat on the shuttle out of here.

Once you leave this hellhole, there is no going back. No reason could ever be compelling enough for anyone to return. I know I certainly wouldn't.

You only said what you said to numb your guilt. Maybe you even believed it for a while.

Once you broke orbit, the guilt, like gravity, probably faded with the square of the distance.