Write with me?....

[TheFifthElement]

With so much talent around Lit-net I wondered if we could have a go at writing a story together. Each poster adds a paragraph to the previous post, try and keep it within theme, and let's see where it goes...will you join me?

The Human Zoo

Suspended, clinging to the edge. Beneath his feet a chasm a hundred, no two hundred feet deep. Jack cursed his luck, cursed the soft rock crumbling beneath his fingers loosening his grip, cursed his life, and this, his death. It would only be a matter of time, time enough to pray perhaps, but that was not Jack’s style. No, if he was going out, he would go out cursing with her name on his lips...

[Captain Pike]

So then, this was how it would end. Jack couldn't help thinking it was unbelievable that he would forfeit his life in this arbitrary way. He relaxed his shoulder some, allowing his body to hang limp. The dry crumbly earth began giving way where his left hand clawed into the cliff side, causing his body to swing to the right. "Why not you?", and answer seemed to taunt, even before he could formulate the classic complaint of the doomed. His right foot rubbed against something, something springy. Instinctively, he twisted his body and was able to jam his right toes down into, a sort of stirrup; there was a ripping sound, his foot wiggled down in, a little deeper, but it held! A grimacing and careful look down over his right shoulder showed his foot was, incredulously caught in a gnarled loop of some kind of dried, fibrous root. Testing this desperate foothold revealed the impossible: it bore his weight. Jack was able to shift his body ever so slightly rightward, his left hand, scratching for something permanent.

[TheFifthElement]

His fingers settled on a clump of vine, a tenuous link but enough to give him purchase to swing his body upwards towards firm land. He tugged on the vine, it was weak but enough to hold his weight if he moved quickly. With one tremendous effort he dragged himself up and over, rolling away from the edge, rolling, rolling, further than necessary but far enough away to assuage his fear. For a moment he lay there, the vine broken away in his hand astounded by this sudden stroke of unexpected luck, then the tears came. He cried loudly, screaming out with a voice he thought would never be heard again. Tears laced with sweat and dirt streaked down his face like an act of baptism. He was saved, though God knows he wasn’t deserving of it.

[Naya Cos]

He blinked several times rapidly, willing his eyes to shake loose the fine dirt that poured down. Without jeopardizing his already faltering grip on the crumbling ledge, he clenched and unclenched his eyelids to dislodge dirt. But a steady stream of dirt trickled slowly down on to his forehead, into his eyes, grain by grain, sliding down like in an hour-glass. His free hand, unaccostomed to such gestures, rose to wipe tears away, to clear the falling earth, restore his vision. When he opened his eyes after what felt like an eternity, the brown earth smeared across the palm of his free hand seemed to mock him. This fecund earth, that had brought her into his life, now stained the lines of his palm the same soft brown shade as her eyes. With supreme effort he willed his chest to stop heaving. Blinking again, he stared at the palm of his free hand. It was like he held a vision of her face in his hand. Exhaling very slowly, eyes closed, he slowly tightened the fist of the free hand as if he were....

[AuntShecky]

going to . . ."Cut!" yelled Raoul, the Director. Jack/Keanu slowly got to his feet. The Assistant Director, clueless as a pair of chartreuse plaid slacks, shrugged.
"Listen, People," Raoul continued, addressing the cast and crew. "We're all going to participate in a walk-out -- in solidarity with the Writers' guild strike."
"There's a writers' strike?" said the clueless A.D. "How would anybody KNOW?"

[TheFifthElement]

People streamed from the room as though a dam had been opened. They bobbed and weaved around the equipment, a steady flow, until the room was empty. Empty except for one person. Standing alone, unmoving, Keanu waited. This wasn't in the script. He wondered what to do - without a Director to guide him he was like a boat floating aimlessly downstream heading for the waterfall, powerless to stop the inevitable.

Moments passed, tick, tick, tick went the clock. No one came. The light faded as day slipped into dusk. No one switched on the lights. Slowly, uncertainly, Keanu began to move his fingers, unstiffen frozen limbs. He became bold. He turned his head, looked around at the stark, lifeless room. He took a step. A smile stretched across his face, this had never happened before but he was doing it...he was thinking for himself! The question was, what should he do next?...

[V.Jayalakshmi]

Keanu was thinking of her,whom he saw on the sets today doing a small role,assisting the crew.He was thinking ,like Jack in the film shoot,is he becoming obsessed with having some one to share?What if she rejected his advaces?will he be noticed,trying to chase a small time fry.Is there class in his conquest if it does happen?He was reminded of her enchanting smile as she was seen handing over the clue sheets to the assistant director.Keanu felt the room coming alive with possibilities.No slipping footholds here....for...

Quote....Youth a blunder,Manhood a struggle and Old age a regret.......

But that was a long way to go.Is it not?

[Captain Pike]

Keanu chuckled softly to himself, rolling his eyes and thought "I never should've taken this part, I never seem to know what I should be wanting...". Just about to exit the soundstage, the soundproofed metal door suddenly burst open, clocking him just above the right eye. He slumped to the floor, everything went black.

Opening his eyes was a big mistake as the noontime sun blazed out his retinas. Squinting, he sat himself up, every muscle seemed to screem. He was parched with thirst, surveying the landscape, it all started to come back to him. He sat in the hot, reddish sunbaked dust next to an unfathomably deep precipice; across the kilometer wide canyon, the arid deadpan continued, hazy hills floated on the desert mirage, scores of miles to the south. Still squinting, he stumbled to his feet, joints cracking and creaking, the saliva, long dried out had left behind a viscous paste with a roadkill taste. "Was that a... dream," his voice, a dried out Marlon Brando, creaked, "or was I... really bisexual?" his rhetoric amused him and a painful chuckle trailed off as he noticed far to the north, a rectangular monolith, not quite level, apparently projecting from the earth.

He began a painful, out of balance cantor, like Willie Nelson, trying to escape an angry spouse, in the direction of the object. His throat burned and threatening to close up as he gasped in and out the searing, hot dry air. He began to perceive some kind of pattern on the object... it seemed almost multicolored, it was hard to tell, his pupils still hadn't adjusted and his eyes were squinted and dry. There was a flat covering above the object, it's tilted angle now vaguely perceptible. Maybe Arabic writing on the box, or was it... it couldn't be! Was it a, it was, it was a Coke machine, yes, clearly, Coca-Cola, he couldn't believe it... and, powered by a meter square solar panel! If only, he could make it, that last 20 m to...

[kiz_paws]

what could possibly be the most refreshing moment of his life. As he ambled precariously along the deep precipice, Keanu mulled over the turn of events after the last scene shoot.

What was it about pink stockings ....

Flashes of memory popped in and then out of his fevered mind, as all that was in focus was the monolith that contained the liquid of life and the huge dangerous chasm that stood between he and the refreshment.

The door had clanged more than a large goose egg on his forehead -- Keanu was struggling to get a grip on just what exactly had happened in the last twelve to fifteen hours.

Those teeth, so perfect, so white. But the eyes, how they flashed -- it was almost scary, but can't take my eyes off of ...

Keanu had almost gripped the memory when his sluggish foot gave way amid little stones and dry sand. Down he stumbled, dangerously close to the edge that would surely be his last sight...