e-mail - [email protected] - constructive criticism and happy thoughts greatly appreciated. Flames laughed at.
Rating - PG
Summary - challenge ficlet - the dialogue, and anything not in italics, was supplied by Ili and Anti, WAASers extraordinaire.
Disclaimer - it all belongs to George. As usual, I make no money from this.
Written in ten minutes in April 2003. Spell-checks are for wusses.
"Now?"
"No, not now."
Feet shuffling, a stifled cough; they watched the dark figures continue their slow patrol, their silhouettes stark against the pale durasteel wall. A nightbird whooped in the distance and one of the guards stopped and glanced towards them, his blaster at the ready in the comfortable grip of a professional soldier. They held their collective breaths, as if doing so would help them merge even more into the foliage that provided their hiding place. Perhaps it worked - the guard turned back to his fellow and they continued their steady pace along the wall. Fifty meters, a hundred...
"Now??"
"No. Not. Now."
The guards turned a corner and the sound of their rhythmic footfalls receded into the distance. Another nocturnal avian ‘whoop’ was followed by an echo and a flurry of wings. The watchers continued their vigil...
"Now????" Plaintively.
"No. Not. Now!"
A door slamming briefly broke the quiet of the night. They counted in their heads; a window was suddenly illuminated from the inside, right on schedule.
"Now?" Whiny.
*sigh* "Okay, now."
"Woohoo!"
The entire warehouse erupted in an enormous ball of flaming orange and yellow, hurling them all to the leaf-strewn ground. Chunks of superheated metal flew over their heads, decapitating several nearby trees and sending the remaining wildlife running frantically for their lives. Flames leaped skyward with a roar, as if some unworldly demon had been awoken from its millenium-long sleep.
The glare of the blast almost blinded them, and the wall of noise it created left them temporarily deaf.
Kell Tainer gave a satisfied smile.
~FIN~