#ThursThreads - Week 56 - Winners

Week 56 of #ThursThreads had some terrific tales! Thanks to all who came to write in the second year of the challenge. I'm honored to see all of the returning and read your stories. Thank you for coming back again and again to write. And it was also great to see some new 'faces' joining us. Great thanks go to Theresa Breaux for reading the stories. :)

Entries:

• J.P. Sloan | @J_P_Sloan
• Jeffrey Hollar | @klingorengi
• Sheilagh Lee | @SweetSheil
• Antonio Angelo | @AntonioAngelo21
• Mary Papas | @MaryPapas2
• Robin Abess | @Angelique_Rider
• Rebekah Postupak | @postupak
• Kayla West | @bookwormattack
• Rebecca Brennan | @bexbrennan
• Siobhan Muir | @SiobhanMuir 
• Mark Ethridge | LurchMunster
• H.L. Pauff | @hlpauff 
• Kelly Heinen | @Aightball  
• Cara Michaels | @caramichaels

Winners Announcement:

Honorable Mentions

 

H.L. Pauff | @hlpauff

Theresa says: A powerful telling of a true hero's story. Jak knows all the right things to say to his officers yet he seeks out the truth. For all his implants and medical advances, he's still far too human and smart enough to hide it.

Rebekah Postupak | @postupak

Theresa says: Every kid wishes they got away with this one! Ben's well thought out defiance made me laugh out loud!

Week 56 Winner

J.P. Sloan | @J_P_Sloan

Theresa says: Gritty, hard, and awesome. The portrayal of the future in this story is bleak with the grip on hope that nothing can shake. Colby and Tony stand in the face of danger and prove that things will get better; they have to in order to survive not just physically but mentally. A perfect telling. I'd love to see this in a short story!

Tony rapped his knuckles on Colby's helmet. "You can get up now."

"Give me a minute," Colby rasped as she spit a black mix of dust and benzene into the trench. "Sumbitch stings."

Tony grunted as he peered over the trench. "Yep. Still burnin'."

Colby wiped her eyes and coughed before straightening up. Tony offered her his canteen. She swigged a mouthful of water, swished and spit. "Virginia Seventeenth?"

"Probably. Bastards love their firebombs, don't they?"

Colby cracked her neck and looked over the vinyl coping onto the wasteland. A wide swath of charred earth crackled with waves of superheated air. The skeletons of buildings warped in the distance, black girders bent and melting.

"Damn. I used to ski here."

Flak cannons pounded over the next mountain as the air rumbled with Eastern drop-jet engines. Tony snagged his canteen back and tucked it under his pack.

"Can't picture you in a snowsuit, Colby. Eerie as hell."

"Didn't used to be a war, you know."

The sky glowed with a red fireball as the Western flak rounds made contact with a drop-jet.

Tony shrugged. "Yeah." He shifted and asked, "Got any of that jerky left?"

Colby fished a slice of meat from her thigh pocket and handed it over, her hand trembling.

Tony gave Colby a long look before squeezing her hand and taking the jerky.

"There's gonna be snow again," he muttered.

"Someday."

They watched in silence as the jet wreckage fell over Denver.

Congratulations J.P., H.L., and Rebekah! Claim your badges and display them with pride. You certainly earned it! :)

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