The following flash fiction stories were created by several members of the Iron Horse. They were given random objects and asked to create a story of these objects. They did this in approximately 25 minutes. Here is the generator if you would also like to try it out!: https://perchance.org/object
Sandpaper, Canteen, Bottle of Pills - Mr. Franks
The man’s mouth was a barren wasteland, his tongue like sandpaper.
It had been only five hours since he had made an emergency landing in what he assumed was the Gobi Desert. He was proud of his landing, but enraged with himself for his choice of destination. He had escaped North Korea, but had landed himself in just another area, shut off from the rest of the world.
At first, he had hunkered down in his plane, avoiding the harsh sun in the shade of the cockpit. However, eventually, the plane began smoking, and he quickly grabbed his satchel before it all went up in flames.
This was the beginning of the end.
He immediately told himself to just walk straight. To follow the blazing sun as it seemed to mock him and not think twice. The plan had failed.
He licked his lips, which felt like a wrinkled old man’s hand. He felt like a fish out of water, or rather, a fish without any water.
He searched through his satchel, looking for his canteen. He knew he had already sucked it dry, but it soothed his anxiety. He tipped it back, hoping for one more tiny droplet. His eyes were blinded by the sun, another reminder from his orange enemy above about how eternally screwed he was. Nothing. Not a single form of condensation.
He thrust the canteen back into his satchel, and heard a clink.
He shifted his hands around and pulled out a bottle of pills.
The word Cyanide screamed back at him.
He didn’t think it would come to this. The pills were reserved for the chance he was caught by the government officials. He never thought he would need them.
He shook his head, threw the bottle back into his satchel, and continued walking.
As he walked, all he could hear was the rattling of pills that reminded him of an escape, and the silent despair of sloshing from his canteen.
Necklace, Handcuffs, Toothpick - Sophie Los
Ahhhh a shill scream penetrated the noisy new york air “Get her! She took my necklace!” A woman in the crowd screamed out.
One Hour Later
Click, the handcuffs snapped shut, and the dirty girl was shoved into the car. She didn’t seem to mind, almost as though she had expected it. “Cassandra I swear how many times are you here a week!” one of the police officers said as they reached the station
“I don’t know,” She answered back seemingly not caring.
“How many times have you been caught stealing
this week.” the other said in a more authoritative voice.
“Twice,” she answered.
“And how many have you gotten away with.” the officer asked again. She stayed silent.
“Ok get out,” the officer sighed. She nodded and exited, but as soon as she was out she ran. The officers just shook their heads when they saw she was already out of the handcuffs, and they knew they couldn’t catch her.
“We’ll check her for toothpicks next time!” one of them swore.
“Yeah,” the other answered, lost in his thoughts.
Bottle of Oil, Nail Filer, Kitchen Knife - Zainab Ahmed
This'll be interesting
On a cool and breezy early spring afternoon, I was chopping some garlic to make garlic bread. I added the oregano, garlic, butter, and herbs to a bowl and hastily mixed them together, then sprinkled some oil from a bottle I had nearby. I was getting super hungry and I hadn’t even put the dish in the oven yet. I was in such a hurry, that when I bent down to put the pan in the oven, I didn’t put mittens on so I burned the tips of my fingers.
I looked inside of my drawers for a first aid kit to treat my fingers with, but right at that moment a little kid smashed my kitchen window open and jumped in.
“HELP ME LADY!” he shouted, and I was VERY offended because obviously I don’t look as old as a “lady”. He could’ve at least called me a strong, confident, and talented young woman, but no, he just had to call me a lady as if that would fit my description at all.
Anyway, I was being nice so I asked, “What is it?”
And he replied, “My nails grew too big so I need something for them, or else I can’t play tag because I’ll hurt all the other kids.”
Infuriated, I threw a nail filer at him and shouted “GET OUT!”
He obviously messed with me at the wrong time, because first, I was starving(I hadn’t even eaten breakfast), plus I just burnt my finger, and that little jerk just broke my window so I would have to get that repaired too, as if I didn’t already have enough to worry about.
The kid didn’t take a hint though, because he grabbed the kitchen knife and looked like he was ready to fight me. Well, challenge accepted, I thought as I grabbed a cast iron pan and an even bigger butcher knife.
After the kid saw me grab my weapons, he chickened out and ran away, but took the kitchen knife with him. Obviously, he was trying to steal it, so I chased him to his house, and when I finally caught up with him, I snatched the knife from him then walked over to the front door and rang the doorbell. His parents opened the door, and I told them everything that happened, and at the end of my story, they asked, “So who did this?”
“YOUR SON!” I shouted at them.
“We don’t have any children,” they replied calmly. I quickly turned around and saw that the boy had vanished.
Spring, egg timer, whistle, tennis ball, lamp shade, empty bottle, checkbook - Madison Marshall
It was a warm spring afternoon, mom had just bought a new fancy egg timer that sings bird songs and whistles, so she obviously decided to make eggs this morning to show it off. On the way downstairs I trip on a loose tennis ball hitting into the lamp shade. After recovering from that catastrophe I strolled into the kitchen. I thought my mom was cooking but instead there were empty bottles and paper littering the floor and nothing but my mom sitting at the table staring at a checkbook and pen with a scared face. I think something is wrong.
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