Flash Fiction story of a lone soldier.

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Collective battle cries, massive as they fall from the sky armed and ready.
Nair drops at hundreds of miles per hour. He watches fellow troops explode into misty clouds and disperse. He swears theirs spirits are visibly rising. “It won’t happen to me… It won’t happen to me,” he says closing his eyes as he nears the ground. Opens his eyes to the realization he’s drifted too far right and lost sight of his squad.

One after the other, millions at a time, troops land. The closer to the bottom the more hopeful Nair is he’ll survive, he won’t be vaporized.

He crashes in the middle of the street and is surrounded by unfamiliar soldiers.

Even down here troops are exploding into ghost like clouds. Nair feels a panic rise in him.

“Save as many as you can! Save as many as you can!” Squad leaders yell through their lung’s capacity.

This snaps Nair back to reality and he sprints into action. If one life is saved before getting vaporized his life was meaningful.

He hops over the giant craters in the grounds leading down to nowhere. Dodges the quicksand-like dirt.

All the loners are dying, but squads don’t seem to be harmed. “The weak are being picked off. I need to make it to the woods before It’s me!” he tells himself.

The heat on his arms begins to build up, but the woods are right ahead. He can make it. Sprint on.

Alongside thousands of other soldiers Nair makes a final reach for the woods but evaporates shy of the grass.

Swerving to dodge the pillars of ice as they fall. Giant, like street lamps raining down on the city. Like ants we scramble for cover wherever it might show. Tall buildings have to be the safest. The higher floors might shield the lower ones long enough to think, but we all had the same idea. Buildings are full and barricaded to stop more people from squeezing into already packed places.

Looking at the street you’d believe everyone was outside hoping to get hit.

Heaven’s carpet bombing rattles the ground into an earthquake. Cracks form on the street and gradually tears it apart from the inside.
I’m barely dodging this ice nightmare from second to second. Five whole blocks of repeated close calls lead my old mustang crashing through the glass double doors of the local corporate soap company. It’s just empty enough to hit no one as I end what once was a beautiful lobby.

Safe and alive, I’m unhappily welcomed to the building. Behind me, a swarm of people begin to flood in through the gap left…

A Flash Fiction story using 80s Cliche Tropes:

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Cut to a car chase. Black glistening roads, rainclouds for twenty years. It hasn’t stopped once. Brightly lit sky blue neon street signs whiz by as Officer Alex “Rex” Thunder peruses the suspect from street to street dodging traffic.

Both street and sky sidewalks are densely packed with spectators in the latest Illumination Wear. Neon red and green clothing appear as light smudges when racing down the city streets at 450mph.

Screens on most buildings advertise products for sale. The new watch that’ll control your car. Self-warming jacket. But here and there you see the chase displayed on the side of news station buildings. They follow its development from hover cars above the tallest towers.

For five years Rex has followed the clues never expecting it to lead to this person, a close friend. Working alone on the case and fueled only by the hunger for revenge he finally found where this friend hid.

The suspect’s silhouette jumps from the car and darts into a nightclub, “Juicies” displayed in blinding red letters on the business’s face. He disappears behind the crowd of neatly lit people.

The dark cloud lingering over New Neo City forced fashion trends to lean towards bright clothing that lights up to compensate for the everlasting night. Designers frenzied over the possibility and dubbed the city The Dark Fashion Capital. Within ten years the city’s fashion had morphed into an entirely new beast in business and tourism and dragged in criminal...

An entire story packed into a single line of dialogue.

"Look, I know you've lost a lot to get this chalice. It's power will, in fact, return the planet to a healthy green living sphere, but if you don't cross the stream and return to your reality I'm afraid you'll be trapped on this end and never save your people. Farewell, friend!"