One Hour Fiction: Rain Patrol

I set myself a task last week: write 750 words every day. I have not succeeded. However I’m getting married in 8 days so I have an excuse I think.

The story “Rain Patrol” was my first effort under this short-lived regime, a piece of flash fiction written in an hour. It was inspired by this painting:

It’s called In The Rain and it’s by Vitaliy Smyk, a Ukrainian artist. It turns out that the painting itself was a two hour speedpaint, so it seems pretty fitting!

One Hour Fiction: Rain Patrol

For days, it had rained. He had forgotten when it had started and forgotten what being dry was like, becoming accustomed to the mud, the constant companion of damp and the sheer brown of his existence. And then, as suddenly as it always started, the rain had stopped. The clouds parted just long to let the twin suns of this barren, forgotten rock peek through to remind him they did in fact exist.

Three stinking months. That’s how long he had been here, this time round. He still wondered quite why he had signed up to return, knowing that the promises of forging new worlds and bringing hope to oppressed peoples were nothing but empty marketing drivel. Instead, all that awaited him was foot rot, tepid meals consisting mostly of rainwater and a near statistical certainty that he would return in one or more body bags.

His company of men lived in close proximity in what seemed to be a plughole for the whole planet. How did all the water drain here, from both the ground and the sky? Last week a mobile command post had been washed away. Three guys now missing – dead, really – after the building had been torn from its moorings and swept down the valley. He had heard them yelling for help on the radio, but what could be done?

Click me to read the full story, and a few others too.