Wednesday 31 March 2010

EXTRACT FROM MY NEW SHORT STORY

UNTITLED
By Michael J. Dowswell

Ray wakes up...his cell is made of hard plastics...the toilet and sink next to his bed are chrome. Through a port hole we see space outside...stars passing quickly.

Ray is washing his face and overhears a conversation from two inmates in the cell opposite to his. These two are Godfrey and Goddard and they have to share a cell but Ray has one to himself. “But I mean what’s going to happen when we die...I mean think about...just stop and think about it for one moment...our brains will stop working, our bodies are done with...they’re gone, never to be used again...” said Godfrey...“Would you please stop talking...I’m trying to read this...if I have to read this sentence one more time!” said Goddard...“it's so into the unknown...it's actually frightening...I mean...” said Godfrey. “Anish Kapoor seemed to have a thing about shitting.” said Goddard. There was a short pause and then Godfrey started up again “Well...yes...he did, he did...but I think that he got some wondrous shapes there. Peoples shit, or animal shit is smooth surfaced, and when you create something giant...people DO seem to remember it...” said Godfrey "Goddard, all the pain in the world...all the misery and suffering....the people in physical pain, the people in mental pain...they will no longer be in pain anymore...it's lifted out...the brain is history man...and this is where you can see why people suicide...I’ve thought about it all my life...If I suicide it's game over....fade to black!...roll credits!...goodnight Irene!” said Godfrey
“What you mean by mental pain?” said Goddard....“Yeah man...you know how it goes...the loneliness that some people have to face...peoples hearts break out of loneliness....and people have to eventually face death in their lives...peoples mothers and fathers, husbands and wives...and then what next?...you have some widows that live on their own for a whole thirty years” said Godfrey...“I don’t know man...I don’t know, some people are just shits...and have created their own personal hell through being bitter and nasty all the time” said Goddard...“Well then...that’s going to lead to loneliness too....they'll get alienated...you can see how it piles up...the mind is a fucked up place...I always feel sorry for anybody because of this reason...the human condition seems so torturous.” said Godfrey

A prison warden pushes a tray of food through a flap in the door...“Dinner!...” There is a very loud crash and the entire place shakes. A explosion goes off right next to some prison wardens who are sitting at a table built into the wall...one prison wardens arm is on fire and they quickly extinguish it. A lot sparks and smoke quickly fill the place and the emergency lighting kicks in (which is a sort of a yellowish colour) Prison wardens run down the central isle to the small screen by the door.

Godfrey quickly leaps off his bed shouting “What the FUCK was that!?”....a prison warden can't get anything out of the screen and violently hits the wall shouting “FUCK!”...

Outside we see the three mile long ship has been damaged by a meteor impact...bodies are being sucked out into space and the ship is heading for a blue green planet.

On the bridge there is chaos... “we’ve lost deck seven to twelve sir!” shouted the first officer... “ I think the damage is too severe to save her, we’re going to have to scuttle the ship!...prepare to disengage!” shouts the captain.

The bridge is actually a smaller part of another ship that's connected to the main ship. Outside we see the detachment slowly happening...at about sixty five feet a meteor sudddenly comes in and destroys it.

Back where Godfrey, Goddard and Ray are the prison wardens are opening the door using the emergency manual release...the prisoners are still stuck in their cells. Prison wardens then get into escape pods and shoot out into space.

Godfrey and Goddard are trying to get out of their cell...their attempts are futile. “it’s useless man...there’s no way we’re going to open this fucking door!” shouts Godfrey...“for fuck sake!” shouts Goddard.

The ship hits the atmosphere, hurtling towards the clouds. She comes out the other side and is now heading straight into a mountain range...she hits a mountain and a large piece breaks off...she then skids for a while and falls into a giant lake. Sixty percent of the ship is now underwater and a lot of damage to the hull is causing water to get inside.

..."You've got to be fucking kidding me...I can hear water heading our way!" shouts Godfrey. "water?...oh shit i hear it too" said Goddard.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice to see some of your writing! I prefer your hypnotic and mesmerizing animations, but this is still great stuff!

Michael J. Dowswell said...

The problems for me with the animations are that I want human characters to talk in them...but because its such a huge technical problem (well it’s the whole solo project time consuming problem isn’t it?...) I tend to avoid it….but I do really love sequences of no talking...if I ever get into feature films I’ll be so extremely happy to have both talking sequences and no talking sequences. At the moment the only way round it was to turn to writing….but I sometimes think I should turn to the comic book format.