literature

FFM Day 21- 116 Days

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The bunker holds 40 people. They wear soldiers’ true uniforms: blood and piss and grime. They huddle in the dark, screaming as shock-waves rage through rock and steel. The explosions subside; the siege ends.

The hatch is buried.

The war ends in a hole: no heroes, no options. The wild grows in their hearts, thick and lusting, sharp like thorns.

29 days after food, they eat leather. They dream of rescue.

60 days after, they eat shoes and cardboard and blankets. Soldiers swallow candle wax and dream of a flesh-lottery.

115 days after, they execute a man for mutiny.

116 days after food, they eat meat again. The body is only going to rot, after all.  
Challenge day!

Word count: 116

PARTY WITH HEMINGWAY!

In honor of the Late Great American Novelist, we propose a toast of a challenge:

Bullet; Blue Today would mark 116 years, so you have 116 words to work with. 
116 words to match 116 days. 

Bullet; Blue Hemingway's work played heavily on four major themes:  love, war, wilderness and loss.  Your piece must revolve around TWO out of those four.
I went for war, and the metaphorical wilderness they embraced when they resorted to survivalist cannibalism. If that's enough, they lost their freedom, their humanity, the comfort of their morals, and ultimately their lives. Not bleak at all.  

Bullet; Blue He was also a big fan of the polysyndetonic sentence. It's okay, read the link, we'll give you a minute.  Your piece must include at least one example of a polysyndeton, including at least three conjunctions.
This is actually something I have to edit my stories for when reducing word count. I usually find at least one, if not several. I tend to write a lot of exposition and world building and dialogue like this. 

The optional challenge was to write inebriated, but I had no alcohol. Instead I wrote sleep deprived, which is pretty damn clossh, I sthink. yesh. 

The title (and the duration of time after food in the story) refers to the crew of The Dolphin, whose crew resisted cannibalism for 116 days: ifiwerescience.tumblr.com/post… (Thanks to AGMeade for finding the article for me!)
Even after engaging in cannibalism of a crew member, the remaining crew members lived off of a pair of leather-lined pants for 20 days. 

The story connects to the previous FFM piece, a continuation of the, "Life sucks the big one when stuck in a bunker!" theme.

Not sure if mutiny is the right word, but insubordination sounds... not right either. 
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prettyflour's avatar
Oh damn!  Dark and creepy- just the way I like it!