Every week, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields (thank you, Rochelle!) hosts a flash fiction challenge, to write a complete story, based on a photoprompt, with a beginning, middle and end, in 100 words or less. Post it on your blog, and include the Photoprompt and Inlinkz on your page. Link your story URL. Then the fun starts as you read other peoples’ stories and comment on them!
PHOTO PROMPT © J Hardy Carroll
Not an option
Pain flickers, then flares.
The sound of my pulse is loud and swift.
I can smell blood; my own blood.
My eyes open on an unfocused world.
Forty feet below me lie the shards of my mobile phone. Ten feet above me is the canyon’s rim. Unless I climb those ten feet, I have no hope of rescue.
I nearly faint as I take the first step on my shattered left ankle.
I clutch a rock. Failure is not an option.
I struggle out as the sun is setting. There is a Jeep. I wave – and it turns towards me.
Autumn Leaves 
I think fate is offering a kindly hand here. Not only getting out of the hole, but a passing jeep too when the narrator is unable to walk. Lucky day, hey?
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Believe it or not, this is essentially a true story! (Not my personal story, you understand…)
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Perhaps those who survive (through whatever combination of improbable circumstances) get called the lucky ones. Those who slip and fall are classified, of course, as unlucky. Someone has to be lucky
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True enough. But you don’t survive without struggling either!
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Very visceral Penny, I could feel his pain and desperation, and his determination not to let this be the end.
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That’s very kind of you to say so, Iain. ‘Extreme sensation’ was my link with the prompt, so your comment is particularly welcome!
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lucky to survive. not everybody could say that.
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As you say, he was lucky as well as resourceful.
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Not a position anyone would like to be found in. Hoping she gets out alive.
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This is based on what I believe to be a true story about a young man. Despite broken bones and other injuries he climbed out of a canyon and attracted the attention of those who were out ;looking for him. He survived.
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Great story! I really like the writing.
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Thank you for the kind comment. I’m glad you enjoyed the writing.
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Loved the writing. Very graphic and a happy ending. 🙂
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Thank you for your kind comments, Jolly. I like a happy ending!
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Dear Penny,
Graphic and painful to read (I have a dreadful fear of heights). Glad it ended on a hopeful note.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Thank you for your kind comment, Rochelle. I’m glad you found it graphic (but sorry about stirring up your fear of heights).
Shalom,
Penny xx
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His determination won through. A great take Penny.
Here’s mine!
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He was lucky – but without the determination he would be dead! Thanks for your comment!
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Great survivor’s story. Enjoyed it.
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I’m glad you enjoyed my survivor’s story. The vivid photoprompt was such a visual stimulation that I wanted to try and match it with the other senses.
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🙂
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“I clutch a rock. Failure is not an option.” Raw determination is what it takes in desperate circumstances. It helps when you know there’s help just around the bend – would that be hope? Well told.
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I am always astonished at what determined people can endure to survive. You are right that our survivor was encouraged by the thought of a rescue party.
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Most people don’t know what they’re capable of until they’re forced to “rise to the top”. You captured that feeling very well.
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You’re very kind to say so. Determination is vital whether for survival or to achieve our goals, isn’t it?
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That inner strength some people find when they most need it.
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I wonder what gives some people that strength while others just give up? Thanks for reading and commenting.
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When failure is not an option – you captured this in spades. Well done.
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Thank you very much for your kind comment!
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I’m glad they got out, reminds of that dreadful story about Aron Ralston having to cut his own arm off to escape. Great take on the prompt.
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Thanks for the comment, and for the reference to Aron Ralston. I hadn’t heard of him before, but wow! What an amazing escape!
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I thought of him, too. Another gripping true story.
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Goodness! I don’t know whether to clap for joy or run for cover! I hope that’s a friendly Jeep 🙂
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Very fortuitous! 🙂
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We make our own luck. Very graphic descriptions, his determination comes through.
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