Friday Fictioneers is hosted by the wonderful, if somewhat somnolent, Rochelle, the undisputed master of what I call Sound Bite Fiction.
She sets the weekly challenge, and the standard.
Today’s rather belated prompt (okay, that is my last one!), an intriguing shot courtesy of Peter Abbey, left me perplexed.
I was unsure what I was looking at.
Then I decided it was irrelevant, and wrote this story.
You can, if you are warped enough, read it as a sequel to last week’s story, The Bomb.
Or not.
The idea, as always, is to write a story of around 100 words based on the picture, below.
© Peter Abbey
Click here to hear me read my 1-minute story:
The Cage
I stare hopelessly through the wire mesh.
We are up to our knees in mud, the rainfall relentless.
Our accommodation consists of a few ragged tents.
They protect us from neither wet nor cold.
Enemy soldiers in waterproof huts laugh at us from behind machine guns.
It seems the war is lost, our country occupied.
Escape looks impossible.
Several courageous if rash souls have already died trying.
Even I am struggling to come up with a plan that is not suicidal.
Cheer up, says Phil, things could be worse.
How, exactly, I ask.
He grins.
That bomb could have exploded.
Sound Bite Fiction 
Interesting premise to match the image. I will love to participate in this prompt from now on… Cheers
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Thank you for your kind words. I look forward to reading your contributions.
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Wonderful pacing and tension here, CE. The sense of foreboding and heaviness is palpable. Hearing you read it is a distinct bonus! Love that!
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I like Phil.
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Sounds like a gruesome and difficult situation to be in. Enemy soldiers, what choice do you have honestly, but to defend your homeland. The bomb, well hopefully, it doesn’t go off, could be much worse for the world. Great write CE. Hugs
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Well done! Great visual and sad times. I am sure there was a time this story was very real to someone… 🙂
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Always look on the bright side of life as the song goes and glad the bomb didn’t go off
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I can hear the whistling from here
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Very realistic!
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Very kind!
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Wow…this is so poignant to read. Yes, things could always be worse…
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Thank you, Jade, things can always be worse, I believe.
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Very moving piece. I feel for these men. How it must have hurt that the enemy was laughing at them.
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Thank you, very kind.
And I assure you no dogs were hurt in the writing of this story.
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I am so glad no dogs were hurt. PETA and I are keeping an eye on you though, you may slip one day.
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Laughing.
I only kill deserving cases, sweet old grandmothers, innocent children, honest upright chaps.
By the bucket-load, most weeks!
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I love this and, maybe because it is yours, I remember last week’s quite well. So very glad the bomb did not go off… ‘course they are not out of the woods yet, are they?
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Out of the woods, into the fire, as the old saying doesn’t say.
Glad you enjoyed, Dale.
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I’m so glad that bomb didn’t go off. Phil is a great character, always the optimist. BTW, the writing is good, too. 😉
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Thank you, Gabriele, and thank you again!
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I like Phil’s optimism. Or, he could just be slightly insane.
I assume these prisoners are mimes inside an invisible cage. They deserve it, by God.
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I do hope you can interpret these hand signals, Russell.
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I needed to go back to read last week’s story and the last line still makes me grin. This is the perfect sequel. So glad “he” and Phil are still alive.
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I had hoped that would not be necessary, but I appreciate that you took the time.
Thank you.
PS In reality, Phil and I survived much worse!
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Have read the prior story but this one was great as is. Well done!
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Thank you, Yolanda, it was intended to stand alone, happy it worked.
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Optimism saves the day—might even save the war.
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Yeah, but no…
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I’ve had too hectic a schedule to have a chance to do FF the past several weeks, so I didn’t have the benefit of reading last week’s story, but I do like this one very much. Of course I come from years of enjoying hearing my dad tell his WWII stories over and over. You’ve managed to portray great authenticity in just 100 words.
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Thank you, Sandra, this started as a stand-alone story, but morphed into a sequel somewhere along the way.
I always intend that my stories can stand alone, so your comments are gratefully received.
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Good sequel, still not convinced they will make it out of the trench in the end though.
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This is fiction, they could be home for Christmas!
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Love that as a sequel to the bomb. The boys are out of a frying pan, into another frying pan 🙂 Glad they survived, if perhaps only to hear a few more of Phil’s jokes. Loving it, C
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This surprised me too, I thought their goose was cooked in the first frying pan.
But when the Muse leads, we can but follow.
Happy you enjoyed, Lynn.
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I’m sure there must many similar stories from every war. I’ve just read about a chap in the trenches of WWI who no one wanted to accompany on patrol as he seemed to survive everything thrown at him – while his companions didn’t. It must be easy to see patterns, to believe spiritual forces are at work – to believe in Fate – when you’re in such a position of life and death. And you just let that Muse take you where she wants you to go – she knows what she’s doing 🙂
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Two of the best books I have ever read are about what is stupidly referred to as The Great War. Birdsong, by Sebastian Faulks is a masterpiece by a superb author. Sunset Song, by Lewis Grassic Gibbon, has been voted the greatest Scottish novel ever. From the land of Scott, Stevenson and Conan Doyle, plus the more recent Gray, Banks, Rankin, Welsh and Spark, to name but a few, this is no small accolade.
As for the Muse, I have no control over her, or any other lady I have ever met!
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I’ve read Birdsong and the accounts of sappers is extraordinary – claustraphobic and very intense. I don’t know the other book I’m ashamed to say – is it trenches set too? Strange how such an horrific period fascinates us 100 years on, isn’t it? Well, your Muse is a clever girl just close your eyes and follow 🙂
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No, it is about the folk left behind, but it still breaks your heart just as much.
Not really strange, Lynn, we cannot allow such an atrocity to be forgotten.
And your advice is sound, it is what I have always done, with every lady I have ever met!
But seriously, for once, you might read some brief thoughts of my pink alter ego:
https://anelephantcant.me/2014/11/11/mans-inhumanity-to-man-makes-countless-thousands-mourn-2/
And, from a different, later insanity, you might consider:
https://anelephantcant.me/2012/11/21/the-yorkie-man/
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Great writing C, thanks for sharing it with me. And it strikes that it’s interestin to read it so close to Halloween, that celebration of invented terror, when there are so many genuine terrors in the world.
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A great sequel. And always good to hear you read.
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It was not my intention to write a sequel, but I have little control over the characters.
Thank you, it was a delight to hear you read again this week.
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Moving piece and even more so when read out by yourself.
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Very kind, Patrick
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I enjoyed the follow up, and felt their hopelessness
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Times is tough!
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Dear CE,
I had similar sequel thoughts. Yawn. Stretch. I found your descriptions vivid and disturbing. I almost felt the damp cold in my bones.
Of course you would’ve been well within your rights to post your 100 word “comment.” Two stories in a few short hours. I doff my chapeau to you.
Shalom,
Sleepy Rochelle
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Hush, dear lady, I hope it wasn’t the damp cold that eventually forced you from your slumbers.
And it is a long time since a charming lady doffed her night cap at me!
Bons reves.
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Phil sounds like the kind of guy you want to have around when the chips are down. Grimly good and a fitting sequel to last week’s story. Well done, CE.
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Thank you, Sandra.
Phil is actually based on Phil Burns, artist and illustrator extraordinaire, and my long time friend and colleague, whose work I have often featured under my various guises.
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CE it’s good to see Phil making an upbeat contribution to the story.
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He had a sometimes infuriating habit of believing that ‘all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds’.
But upbeat contributions were what he did best.
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