Save Yourself

dystopia, Office Life, post-apocalypse, random thoughts, science fiction, Tarot, writing 2 Minutes

I know I’ve been very dull and nearly incommunicado lately, but my precious free time is going more to my stories than my blog. Here are the two opening paragraphs from the one that I’m most obsessed with lately, tentatively titled “Save Yourself; I’ll Hold Them Back” (thanks to My Chemical Romance):

Pistol gripped in his right hand, his coat open for easy access to the rest of his weapons he had strapped to various parts of his body, Gareth sat on the ground in front of the house with his back against the wall while Bernie slept on inside. The limited field of view in the company issue night-vision goggles annoyed him and he never used them. He did better with his eyes shut, listening for noises that didn’t belong, feeling the vibrations of approaching footsteps. Like a cat, he rose and stretched every few minutes to keep his muscles loose. He hoped the others had gotten his message but for now he and Bernie were on their own.

She hadn’t wanted him with her on this run, and had made it very clear before they left Chicago. She was the best surviving courier in the west, so when the company had sent Gareth to make the run with her, she wasn’t what could be called pleased. She’d packed her small duffle bag with extra ammunition, a few hand grenades, and her favorite handguns. The rifle, however, was never out of reach. She drove with it on the seat next to her, slept with it inches from her face. As she zipped the duffle bag closed she stopped and looked Gareth in the eye. “I can get to San Francisco faster on my own. I don’t need help.”

It’s a post-apocalyptic piece that I’ve been toying with for some time and really want to get finished.

Be that as it may, let’s keep to our weekly Tarot card drawing for some inspiration to survive another week, shall we? I’m going with a different deck this week, let me know if you prefer the other and the quotes. This is from the Power Deck by Lynn V. Andrews, with paintings by Rob Schouten. I got it in a box of assorted books and decks I bought off Ebay for a song. I believe it’s long out of print (copyright 1991).

This isn’t the prettiest card in the deck, but it’s the one I drew, so I am going with it. Must be something I’ll need this week.

At a time when I’m trying REALLY REALLY hard to fit in and adapt mentally to my job, I’m not sure how asserting my individuality is going to help. I’ve never been good at hive mentality.

Seize your power! Have a good week everyone.

Published by D. D. Syrdal

Writer of vampire stories and science fiction. First novel, "Revenants Abroad", available now at Amazon. If you like a vampire you can go out drinking with and still respect yourself in the morning, I think you'd like Andrej.

Published

8 thoughts on “Save Yourself”

  1. Yeah but you’re such an individual whether you like it or not. It reminded me of the saying, ‘what you think of me is none of my business.’ That may not have been the prettiest card but I liked what it said. Maybe one day you’ll use that cat deck. Those illustrations are so beautiful.

    Liked what you wrote. Wish I had the gift that you have.

    Like

  2. Thanks, Susannah. I like that, we can’t worry about what other people think of us. People will think what they want to think.

    Ha, yeah, the Bohemian Cats are so charming. I’ll have to start rotating through some of my decks. Would take years at one card per week to get through them all 🙂

    Like

  3. Ok D.D…..you say “post-apoc” but I read night vision goggles, grenades, sleeping with handguns and rifles and “runs/courier” coupled with the word COMPANY and i smell Gibson. 😉 Which, let me be clear, screams “AWESOME” to me..so… That’s a fantastic beginning for a story I’d very much like to see the rest of.

    And as for the card…self confidence can make the difference in the brief nano-seconds between success and failure. Something that I should remember often, and lately occasionally forget. Thanks for the reminder.

    Have a great week too!!!

    Like

    1. Haha! Well, it’s a first draft still, many things will likely change. Maybe “PA” isn’t technically accurate for this story, but I’ll worry about trying to categorize it later 😉

      Like

    1. I like the idea, but I think the reality of life is that we have to have the approval of others in many cases to get where we want to be. I guess the trick is to find a happy medium between what we want and what others want from us.

      Like

  5. I love the surreal “Office Space” card, and I think it fits the mood of the story in a weird little way. A tinge of “My way or the Highway” as it were.

    Like

Comments are closed.