Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Getting a Turkey

Trifecta gave us a challenge this week.  Turkey - as in 3 successive strikes in bowling kind of turkey.  So, here's my attempt that came in at exactly 333 words.  Have fun and be sure to check out other takes on this prompt.  It should be fun!


“Guilty.”

The metallic ring of the judge’s gavel still haunts my dreams.  I still have a hard time wrapping my brain around it.  I’d gotten the turkey.  Not that bird that people used to eat a long time ago.  Three strikes kind of turkey.  You used to get a turkey in bowling.  That’s what my grandparents said.  We don’t get to play games like that anymore.  Now turkey is more like the baseball rule – three strikes and you’re out. 

It means you’re sent to live outside the walls.  There’s no shelter, no food provided, no medical care and, most importantly, no walls or weapons for safety.  Ya see, everything here has evolved way too fast.  Scientists say it took only one hundred years to get to this point when it should have been thousands, if not millions.

What point is that?  Just about everything on this planet has evolved to prey on us humans.  We used to be at the top of the food chain, but that ain't so no more.  We outrank very little life on this planet now.  That’s why the walls and weapons are so important.  Everything has poison, teeth, claws, thorns or something else that is designed to kill us and eat us.  Not always in that order.

People getting sent outside the walls have romantic notions that once enough of us are out there, we will create this big uprising and the system will change and life will go on happily ever after.  I hate to break it to ya, but that ain't happening either.  Most people who get the turkey, unlike a bowling turkey, don’t win.  They don’t survive long beyond the walls.  Those that do are too preoccupied with surviving to think about fighting back.

That judge’s gavel fell for me about four months ago.  It’s hard to keep track of the days out here.  They all blur together into one long hunt for food while trying to avoid becoming food.  It gets old real fast.


14 comments:

  1. Great story. I especially like the part in the last paragraph about hunting while avoiding becoming food. The true definition of survival.

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    1. Thanks! This is definitely one of those true definition of survival stories, not just one that feels like it - at least that's what's in my head on this one.

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  2. Interesting future you've imagined here and a nice twist on locking up the innocent and releasing the guilty.

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    1. You know, I hadn't looked at it that way but it really is reversing that expected reaction to crime.

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  3. Ooo, I like the world you've hinted at here. I'd love to know what he/she did to get that third strike!

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    1. Thanks! I think this is something to add to my list of pieces to explore more. It was fun to imagine.

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  4. A cautionary tale. Did this human anger a corporation? I like your play on words.. 3 strikes and your out...side the walls. Thoughtful piece. I like it.

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    1. Thanks! This certainly looks at that control piece when one entity has control of your very safety and what happens if you go against it.

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  5. This is an interesting direction to take the prompt. It's cool, and it reads well.

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    1. Thanks! I wanted to try to do something different with the prompt.

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  6. Nice twist on the word. It reminds me of that new Will Smith movie. Thanks for linking up!

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    1. Yeah. The inspiration was somewhat of a cross between the new Will Smith movie, Judge Dredd and another one I can't remember the name of right now.

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  7. This dystopia feel is a good creepy. A unsettling use of the prompt ... well done!

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