Please Refrain from Screaming
Every Wednesday, I post a 1,000 (or less) word story written in a single sitting, guided only by three random prompts: a genre, a location, and an object. I keep the editing light- just enough to get under my word restriction, if needed- because this weekly ritual is all about creative momentum, not perfection.
This week’s prompts:
Words: 310
Genre: Sci-Fi
Location: Inside a malfunctioning food replicator on a space cruise
Required Word: Gravy
Did they even know we were alive? Not just alive, but sentient, feeling beings? The beings they dumped into their machines and turned into gravy covered meals were a society, with families, jobs and obligations.
They came by our planet regularly in a giant ship. Everyone would get out, look around. Another group would empty out the traps of poor Virellens who had gotten caught. The rest of us never knew where they went or what happened to them, only that we never saw them again.
Then one day I was caught. The trap was nearly empty and I hadn’t seen it. If a traps was full the Virellens inside would yell a warning, but when I dropped there were only a handful inside and their screaming could barely be heard.
We screamed as loud as we could, as long as we could as a warning to others. Our warnings grew louder as more of us were captured and the flow of Virellens slowed. We continued screaming when our trap was collected and emptied.
Whoever these beings were they did not appreciate our screams as first off one of them plucked us out, one at a time, and stapled our mouths closed. Once that was done we were tossed carelessly into a container that fed into a larger machine.
The hopper we were in was clear so we could see out into the room. It appeared to be some sort of dining area. The best would come to the machine and press a button. Inside the hopper we’d all tumble down a bit as one of us below was dropped into the belly of the device. After some horrific sounds the beast would walk away with a plate of food.
Two days ago something was stuck on the outside of the machine and nobody has pushed the button since.