A Science-fiction story challenge
This story was written to a challenge (shown) - just a bit of fun =]
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Can you do a story about a 20-year-old young man, clean-shaven with a full head of hair and fully dressed in jacket, shirt, jeans, socks, and shoes waking in a jungle with a ring stuck on his finger and having to dodge dinosaurs in to get it off?
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Josh eyed himself in the full length mirror - he liked what he saw - as usual. Looking back at him was a ruggedly handsome, clean-shaven, 20-year-old, with a full head of hair - not just a full head of hair, in fact - but a full, wavy Grant Gustin lock of hair the "ladies" certainly liked - he half smiled at the guy in the mirror. Yeah.
He was going places - he would MAKE it happen. He wasn't going to BE a loser like his old man. He would charm these guys today, get a full ride scholarship to Stanford then there'd be no looking back. Not for HIM.
Computer Science would be his ticket to New York and once there - maybe he'd look into acting - he certainly had the looks for it and if high schools girls were a target audience - well - he certainly knew how to charm THAT demographic. He gave himself the up and down one more time.
He looked conservative - he looked down right Ivy League in the blue blazer, off-white-slightly-yellow blue-pin-striped open collar shirt, casual but starch-pressed jeans with razor sharp creases down the front-center of the pant legs, blue socks and ZERØGRAND Wingtip Oxford shoes.
His left eyebrow raised as he eyed the shoes. They'd set him back $200 and that was OK - they were the look he had to have - but the left one pinched a bit.
It was time to DO it. He bounded down the stairs and into the kitchen - he had to get his grandfathers keys - his car was crap. The TV was on and his 16 year old sister was pouring herself her usual bowl of cinnamon life cereal - the breakfast of champions.
The keys would be in one of the bowls on one of the shelves of the white kitchen hutch. As he began his rummage his sister, turning to get the milk out of the fridge says, "going somewhere?"
"I have an appointment" he says
Oh, an appointment", she says with exaggerated formality. "You KNOW everything's CLOSED". She pours her milk. "VIRUS"
Lisa, his sister is smart and pretty enough - but she has no plan for her life - everyone should have a plan - in Josh's opinion.
"Not EVERYTHING" he says, as he rummages through bowl number 5.
"You mean there's an Urkel look-a-like contest that's still a go?", she says, as she eyes his outfit.
He finds the key in bowl number 7. Tilting the bowl slightly something catches his eye. He pulls the bowl off the shelf, moves some junk around and there's a ring.
"You're spending another productive day binging sponge-bob?" he says as he fishes out the ring.
"Boy meets world", she says, "and I'm sheltering in PLACE". She pulls up a chair to eat.
The ring, a pinky ring, is almost a perfect match for his new Apple Watch band - it's as if they were a pair. As he turns it to try it on he sees an inscription on the inside - he holds it up to his eye and reads - "go back to the beginning".
Josh remembers the shoe that needs stretching - takes it off, and tucks it under his arm as he slips on the ring.
Everything changes - he's not in the kitchen - there IS no kitchen - he's in a tropical jungle. Josh freezes - this, this is fricking.. something.
A noise to his right - a rustling, scraping sound and a loud chirp makes him look sharply around. A bird is there - no, it's WAY fracking bigger than a bird and the beak is wrong - he squints - it's a feathered dinosaur - A DINOSAUR.
Josh's mind is reeling but he's read comic books his whole LIFE - he's played just about every X-Box game ever made - he tries to pull off the ring. PULL OFF THE RING his brain screams but it's stuck.
A sound makes him look left and there’s ANOTHER dinosaur - and it's looking at HIM - like lunch. It starts in his direction in that left-right herky-jerky bird-like way and it's head swivels as it eyes him - in a bird like way.
There's noise to his right and that first one is moving in - it's head to the side and it's eye blinking right at him. Oh, frack!, Josh thinks as he madly twists at the ring and puts it in his mouth to make it slippery.
The bird on the left is moving toward him about 5 feet with every step and getting faster - now it's head is going up and down. The bird on the right pokes at him with it's rounded beak - it's head twisting in that appraising, bird-like predator way - Josh's stomach gurgles as fear really takes him.
Damn, it's quick and it'll fracking grab him in a second - he can TELL.
Josh feels a grove in the ring he hadn't noticed before. The right bird tucks its head in toward it's chest - IT'S GOING TO STRIKE!
Josh flings his shoe to the right, HARD - the one that was under his arm - to distract the thing - the bird lifts the leg closest to Josh, rotates it's body slightly and takes the shoe right out of the air with it's beak.
Josh's heart is racing - like it will explode.
The bird on the left is almost on him, the bird on the right, with a quick jerking motion, throws the shoe in the air like a piece of popcorn and gulps it down. Josh shakes with fear and adrenaline - his body is ridged with fear - he KNOWS he has about 2 seconds to live - maybe less - he’ll be torn apart.
The bird on the left is in striking distance - Josh's fingernail slides into the grove in the ring - the left bird STRIKES at Josh - but the right bird blocks it as Josh screams" FFRRR” The ring opens - as if it were hinged.
Josh is back in the kitchen. "AACK!!!" Josh finishes his scream as he collapses, gasping and shaking on the floor.
Lisa, as if nothing has happened at all, says, "are you OK?".
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