Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Floor Zero

When the air heats up and gets heavy with humidity, my brain turns to mush. I slowly put away the biographies and histories and heavyweight fiction that I normally relish. And then out comes the thrillers and the horrors and other pulpy stuff that makes it onto the NYT Best Selling Paperback list. I used to be ashamed of this phenomenon, but have come to embrace it as I have grown older. Even my late Father enjoyed a literary "amuse bouche" from time to time. Nothing wrong with a little brain candy!

And with that, I offer you the opening paragraph of Floor Zero...



"I was telling my boyfriend the same thing! God, what is it with men?" Sue barked into the phone. She looked around guiltily because she knew g.d. well that the office phone is not meant for personal business. But there was nobody around to bother her, so she continued yakking with Patty for another 15 minutes. And then an odd sound filled the air. Not quite as annoying as a fire alarm, but loud enough to prevent any further conversation. "I'll call you back," Sue said as she hung up. "What the hell is that..." She looked around and noticed that something was blinking in the lower right corner of her monitor. She leaned in closer and saw a small pop up window with the words ALERT ALERT ALERT in red blinking text. She clicked the window with her mouse and everything on her screen vanished. Another window appeared seconds later, displaying what looked like a video feed from a surveillance camera. The picture was slowly sweeping back and forth across a large room filled with lab equipment. Sue blinked and then began to scream. She was still screaming when she bolted from her chair and ran out the front door of the Portland Health Sciences building. The only thing that stopped her screaming was the baton that tapped her on the back of the head as she rounded the corner toward the parking garage.

3 comments:

Carly said...

Hi Tommyspoon... or is it Tommy? Maybe Tom? Or possibly T.S.? :)

My name is Carly. Welcome to the Weekend Assignment! I enjoyed your Extra Credit submission very much! Well done! I hope you will be able to join us for future Weekend Assignments. :) Oh, and feel free to display either of the meme logos on the WA blog! :)

Once again, welcome!

All my best, Carly

Karen Funk Blocher said...

Hi, Tommy! I like your excerpt a lot, and it's interesting to know that your reading matter changes with the seasons. Welcome to the Weekend Assignment! I hope you'll join us again:

http://weekendassignment.blogspot.com

Mongo, At The Moment said...

Hi, Tommy!

I'm only using that form of address (which seems a little personal for someone I don't know) because the other commenters did, too. But, then, those comments were left by Russian Bots, sent to destroy our way of life by enmeshing us in the Universal ClickBank Banner Rotator Tool. Don't fall for that old trick! Next, they'll be asking you to invest in caviar futures and vote Republican.

Anyway, I'd clicked in from BLCKDGRD.com, who lists Mock, Paper, Scissors, which has your blog in its lineup. I thought the title, "Exit, Pursued By A Bear," resonated with my experience of life, so I dropped in. Having seen only botspam in the Comments section, I'm signing the guest book, as it were.