Sunday, October 12, 2014

Team Mutant Charm Entry 8: RUST, NA Science Fiction

Genre: NA Science Fiction

Title: RUST

Word Count: 80,000

Hero: My protagonist, Bird, identifies most with Cyborg. Bird has a below the knee prosthesis, and later in the story, an alien, Red, replaces it with techno-organic material. Bird struggles to live with
this new advanced technology—although a sonic cannon might help keep some of the neighbors in line.

Pitch: When Bird discovers that the techno-organic alien living in the shed has life-saving technology, she must keep it a secret from nosy, small town neighbors or she'll lose her grandfather to Alzheimer's.

First 250:

Only ten minutes. That's how long I'd been back in the Victoria, Virginia town limits before blue lights flashed in my rearview. And so close to Pop's house, too. Mom was going to kill me. I pulled my car into the driveway, and Andy, little Andy Chinnis, stepped from the police cruiser. Oh, this would be easy to get out of.

I opened my door and swung my feet onto the gravel, but Andy already approached, hand on his holster like I was some kind of bank robber. “Stay in the car, ma'am.”


I stood. “Oh, come on. I'm not a ma'am.”

Andy stopped and smiled. “Well, look who it is. Bird Dunn. It sure has been a while. Two years?”

“Three.”

He removed his wide-brimmed hat, set it on the hood of his cruiser, and rubbed a hand through his sweat-plastered hair. “I heard you were in college. In Richmond. Come back for your Pop?”

“Yeah, I'm helping him move today.” The warm March breeze ruffled my skirt, and I smoothed it down.

“I'm real sorry about that.” Andy hooked a thumb in his belt.

The blue lights kept flashing and a voice came over the radio in his car, and I prayed he might reminisce a little then go. But he did what I'd hoped to avoid from everyone in this town. He looked me over. And he stopped at my leg—my below the knee prosthesis, to be exact. “You
gone by to see Nash, yet?”

2 comments: