Wednesday 14 November 2018

Mid-Week Flash Challenge - Week 81

This week's photo prompt is of a red phone box graveyard, in a northern village called Carlton Miniott, Yorkshire. This photo take by Nicolas Ritter for the Mercury Press newspaper. He visited the yard back when he was just starting out as a photographer's assistant in 2012 and now lives in Berlin. More fascinating pictures in an article The Daily Mail ran.

I hope my story manages to impart what I imagine doing with these phone boxes. I chose dialogue rather than narration to impart it this time. It would/could be so cool.

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Terminus

Alfie surveyed the yard. Yep, they were all here. He rubbed his hands together. This was going to be good.

He went into the mobile office where Gary was just finishing a call. He looked up. “We got them all?”

“Yep, all of them. There’s no more to be had anywhere.” Alfie perched on Gary’s desk.

“Excellent. Now the work can begin. When’s Ralph coming up?”

“Tomorrow, he’s bringing his tech crew with him. Two of his top guys, Matt and Leonard.”

“How long will it take?”

“What for all of them?”

“Well the first one’s going to be the most important as it’ll be the hub, so I should imagine it will take the longest.”

“Ralph estimated a minimum of two weeks to a maximum of four for the hub.”

“And we’re sure the government has shut down the entire system? We don’t want to risk any cock ups like arriving in one of their terminals.”

Alfie nodded. “They’re definitely all shut down. I’ve got two separate informants on the inside confirming it, and both worked directly with them. The entire system was abolished after the Faraday incident. Once that all unravelled so did the entire department.”

“Good.” Gary got up and went over to the small window that overlooked the lot. Alfie joined him.

The roofs of the decaying red telephone boxes looked like sentinels waiting for orders. Alfie could already imagine them all painted up.

He glanced at Gary who was smiling. “Penny for them?”

“It’s ingenious. We can hide them in plain sight. People’ll think they are just monuments or pieces of art. We can put them anywhere we want. We’re going to make a killing.”

Alfie grinned. “We are. We’ve already got 100 elites signed up waiting to go.”

“We’re going to have to pace ourselves. We don’t want to rush it. If we get found out at this stage the entire thing could collapse. But if this works and we get enough of the elite influentials on board, they won’t be able to close us down.”

“Got to let the dust settle. People are still worried about a repeat of what happened to Faraday.”

“And, what are the chances of a repeat?” Gary shot Alfie a sharp look.

Alfie pursed his lips. “Let’s just say I wouldn’t advise using them until Ralph and his crew have done their test runs.”

“Test runs?”

“Yeah, the 100 elites. Ralph says if they want it so badly let them take the risk. He wants to see more than 10 teleports on each terminal before he’s satisfied. They’ve all signed up to the exemption clause.”

“And you’re sure there’s no risk of come back on us?”

Alfie folded his arms and rocked on his heels. “Iron clad. Had the lawyers check it every which way.”

“Good.”

“Ralph says he thinks he knows what caused it anyway.”

“They’ve still got the guy in hospital, haven’t they?”

“Yep, high security psychiatric wing. They’re still trying to work out if his brain will ever function properly again.”

“It wasn’t just his mind though, was it? They were always worried teleportation would affect the brain, but it screwed up his body too, didn’t it?”

“Yep, that’s what Beggsey said when he called me from the scene. Limbs round the wrong way, hair in wrong places. Enough to make you shudder.”

Gary did shudder. “But Ralph thinks he knows the answer?”

“Yep. He said something about molecule recalibration. He’s got such a brain on him.”

“And we’re able to tap it!” Gary’s eyes sparkled as he turned back to his desk. “Which reminds me, we need to get him and his crew signed up when they arrive. Don’t want them doing this tech with anyone else.” He shuffled papers around on the desk, putting a particular one on top.

Alfie followed him back to the desk and picked up the contract. “Yep, got to get all our ducks in a row. An underground teleportation system disguised in antique telephone boxes. It’s brilliant. This is going to be so good.”



4 comments :

  1. Ha! This is awesome and just a wee bit terrifying. Reminds me of the transporter incident in (I think) the first Star Trek film. Love it, MK.

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  2. I'd forgotten about that one. I had more of The Jaunt by Stephen King in it. And also a Dean Koontz book The Bad Place. Influences from everywhere.

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  3. When I first looked at the picture, my mind said, "What?" And then, it wandered off somewhere for the week. Until Tuesday night, when it wandered back, and said, "Here." And dropped this idea on me.

    Our Town

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    1. And it was a good one. Love it. Thanks for writing.

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