
Photo by Sue Vincent
Jed took the shortcut through the trees. He had to reach the little village beyond or there would be hell to pay.
“Just my luck,” he muttered as he stumbled over a root.
Even without the leaves it was just too dark to keep up his pace. Cursing again he slowed down a bit.
A blinding white light shot through the trees throwing everything into a sharp relief. It grew brighter, so everything was a stark black of shadows or white of light.
And then it all began to burn.
The last thought that ran through Jed’s mind was, “I’m too late. Nuclear Armageddon.”
*
“What are you doing?” the professor asked.
“I’m sterilizing this petri dish,” Jova said.
“But this experiment is not complete.”
“My cultures were going bad and there was no saving them.”
The professor frowned at the pupil.
“Didn’t you say that before about this culture? That time you just rinsed the dish, killing most but not all of your culture and infecting the entire lab. It took days to disinfect….”
“But this is much worse. All of their leaders were mad and they were about to incinerate themselves anyway. I just saved them the trouble. Besides, they were finding ways to get out of the dish. I had to stop this violent strain before it infected the entire lab. It wouldn’t have been so easy to disinfect once they got out on their own. I did a great job sterilizing it, see? We don’t have to worry about these nasty things spreading this time.”
The professor shook his head.
“Well, the deed is done. Next time please consult me. OK, we’ll start a new batch.”
Jova smiled. She took the dish labeled “Earth” and added everything it would need. She put it in orbit around the incubator, “Sun”, and started the experiment again. It would take a long time for the culture to mature, so she went to the incubator labeled “Tau Ceti” and looked at one of its cultures. Everything going as planned. She hoped the professor wouldn’t mark her down too much for “Earth”. It wasn’t her fault. Honestly. Just bad seeds.
**
I first thought “dream” when I saw the photo, but doing a dream story would seem too juvenile. I also recently did light from a UFO through the trees. My next thought was “A nuclear explosion”. But I just did a Friday Fictioneer story about nuclear war. And then I decided to go back juvenile, but in a different direction ;)
***
Written for Sue Vincent‘s #write photo prompt. See this week’s prompt here.
Aah, aah, “Jova,” eh? A little wordplay, fellow swashbuckler?
And something about cultures going bad, I could direct you to the news, but I think you have a TV. Anyways, let me tell you about this gallon of milk. Man, were the cultures bad! (uh, erm, sorry about that one)
I’m a sucker for a twist at the end. Carry on, My Wayward Sun!
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lol, you dug up an old one and I had forgotten it. Yeah, the name of the student, “Jova”, was a bit of wordplay. I do have a TV, which I try to avoid, and when I watch it I agree with Jova that there is just a lot of bad seed in this culture here on Earth ;)
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haha, yep we’re bad seed alright…
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We sure are….
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Let’s hope there is a better mix this time!
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I know. She must have had the wrong mix – too much greed and too little compassion. Hopefully she figures it out.
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Pingback: Beyond What’s Beyond ~ Trent P. McDonald #writephoto | Sue Vincent's Daily Echo
Wow! Imagine! Sometimes you’d think this scenario would be most real, looking around the world. Great writing!
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Looking around the world it does seem that everything was set up with great care but the experiment has gone in a totally wrong direction ;) Thanks!
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Liliput strikes again!
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Yep. If you were running this experiment, wouldn’t you want to wipe it about now? ;)
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This is a very intriguing story 💜
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Thanks. A little dark humor…
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Yes but very good 💜
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That is a very inspirational image. Great post.
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Thanks. And Sue always has great images for this challenge.
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We are all are dust in a Petri dish. :)
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Yes, all we are is dust in the perti dish. Wasn’t that a song by Kansas?
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:D Or, the lab assistant to Aristotle.
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Well, personally I find the petri dish idea a lot more plausible than creation.. Nice write, Trent.
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It does make more sense. Of course, “Let there be light” could be the big bang ;)
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Great use of the prompt. I liked it!
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Thanks, Tessa.
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You are welcome!
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It would explain a lot, I have to say ;)
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It does. This experiment has really, really gone off track….
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‘If at first…’ :)
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Oh well, hopefully it’ll all go better on the next try ;)
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We can live in ope (unless the disinfectant gets us ;) )
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yep. is there a corner of the petri dish might miss? Of course being round corners are hard to find…
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A little careless housekeeping might help ;)
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Well, she’s a little more careful now. She tried to wash us away with her flood, and that didn’t work out so well… Now she does a pretty good job sterilizing everything.
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Pity… especially after that rainbow-coloured pomise…
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yeah. Well, she’s a student, doesn’t always keep her promises (of course Giglamesh, or whoever, might have misinterpreted that rainbow colored promise…
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