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This week's writing challenge from
Five Sentence Fiction
( Lillie McFerrin Writes ) is based upon the prompt:
Determination
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This is Part II of a Five Sentence Fiction story I wrote some time ago called Wardrobe Malfunction. It was based on a dieselpunk/steampunk story from another FSF writer, Rogue Tinker. And by continuing the story, I get to use the word dieselpunk again which, for some reason, always excites me.
When we last left our heroine, she was trapped on the side of an enormous analog computational engine that controlled the city's entire infrastructure, with part of her goggles jamming the works...
Yes, I know that's happened to all of us at one time or another, so I'll try to come up with something more original in the future.
Escape
(or Wardrobe Malfunction, Part II)
Her muscles were beginning to quiver, exhausted from clinging to the side of the enormous mechanical beast that governed the city's workings, but she was determined not to have her life end splattered on the ground below—or worse—pureed among the pinions. Unable to move the top of her body because of the goggle strap jamming the mechanism, Ysabelle slowly raised her foot closer to where her right hand had a tenuous grip on the oily metal. With her foot finally resting on the metal bar beside her fingers, she pulled a small knife from her boot before wedging her leg into the framework for support, and then delicately sliced the leather to free herself. Once again able to maneuver, she used the blade to extricate the strap end out of the cogs, and the myriad of gears resumed their rotation, as did, unfortunately, the entire section of clockwork on which she was perched. Although Ysabelle was hiding the fact that she was a young woman from those who thought her occupation to be the soul domain of men, few in the crowd that had gathered to observe the spectacle would have suspected even if they had been within earshot, for the next words she uttered were most assuredly unladylike.
Image courtesy of Lillie McFerrin's FSF website / Lillie McFerrin Writes
© 2012-2013 K. R. Smith All rights reserved
I'm totally clapping right now. I'm so sorry to have missed your posts in the last few weeks. This just made my very early morning. I shall go and write something, but I'm afraid it won't be half as brilliant. Loved that. Do you read steampunk as well? Or perhaps you watched the show Firefly when it aired? Sort of a cross between steampunk and space opera. I love all that stuff.
ReplyDeleteThanks, but I'm sure you're much better at writing the romantic parts that I could ever be. You'll notice that I don't have a lot of those in my stories! I do get into steampunk a bit, though I've never watch Firefly - don't have cable or other non-broadcast TV. I'm not even sure when the last time I turned my TV on... I'll be sending you an e-mail soon - I have a few things to talk about.
DeleteBrilliant! Loved it! Definitely keep going with this one!
ReplyDeleteThanks, and I will try to continue it at some point... but I'll need the right prompts! In the mean time, I'll just have to leave her hanging there!
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