An Extract from This Month's Release: Brannigan's Bounty
Brannigan’s Bounty
Written on November 3, 2015, for the March 13 entry of 366 Days of Flash Fiction, this piece was inspired by the idea of life on the run, and rebellion.
Living dangerously ain’t all it’s cut out to be. You never get to stop, never get to rest, and sleeping is both essential and hazardous to your health. Still, you gotta sleep sometime—and that was when Brannigan caught up with me.
“Ya wanna live forever?” he asked, and I decided there were better ways to wake up than to that question and a size-12 boot pinning you to the ground. Better sights than Brannigan’s grin, too—and only one way to answer the question.
“Yeah?”
“Too bad.”
Even Brannigan’s grin was better to look at than the muzzle of his gun.
Fortunately, it was a dart gun, and I woke up several hours and a few light years off-planet on Brannigan’s Bounty.
“Nice ship,” I said.
“Should be. The bounty on your head helped pay for it.”
“Bounty?”
“Yeah, well, you did turn the job down.”
I caught a glimpse of the nav charts on the wall of our cabin, and remembered the job.
“I felt like a holiday. Man didn’t like ‘no’ for an answer.”
“He never does.”
“So, we doing it?”
“We get to keep the ship if you do.” The excitement on his face was almost endearing, and I’d never been good at telling him no.
“Better get to it, then,” I said, and he gave a yip of delight and kissed me.
You know? There are worse things to wake up to than Brannigan’s face in the morning.
Cover art is by Jake at JCaleb Design, and links to 366 Days of Flash Fiction can be found on Books2 Read at: https://books2read.com/u/b6MrN0
Comments
Post a Comment