September 1, 2013

Phaeton Day

This is a story for Alastair’s Photo Fiction challenge. It takes place in a virtual reality world, similar to the one in my story, The Horse Bridge.

Phaeton Day

I woke up in my virtual world of Lex to find a .80 caliber Helios “Sunkiller” rifle propped next to my bed. That meant only one thing: Phaeton Day.

Outside, neighbors were clustered together, looking up at the sun, each holding their rifle. The sun was already quivering around, dancing to and fro. Suddenly, it streaked across the whole arc of the sky from east to west. Shadows skewed crazily.

A few people took shots at it, but most waited. The world moderators had outlawed flying for the day and everyone moved slowly, suddenly ungainly at having to stay on the ground.

The day wore on and as the sun sunk closer to the earth, it began to get hotter. More people were firing now, trying to puncture the sun and unlock their Sunkiller achievement.

By mid-afternoon, everything was broiling. The sun was on high difficulty: it kept dancing everywhere, impossible to hit.

I had one bullet left when the sun zoomed overhead. I felt the intense blast of heat and fired upwards. There was a splash of flames and the disk of the sun fell onto my house.

“Congratulations!” a voice said out of nowhere. “Umm, sorry.”

About David Stewart

I am a writer of anything quirky and weird. I love most genres of fiction and in each there are stories that I would consider "my kind of story". View all posts by David Stewart

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 1st, 2013 at 8:40 pm and tagged with achievement, Alastair's Photo Fiction, fiction, flash fiction, mythology, Phaeton, photograph, rifle, science fiction, virtual reality and posted in Light. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

14 responses to “Phaeton Day”

nightlake
September 1st, 2013 at 8:45 pm

Imagine each person trying to shoot down the sun. very creative. a nice read:)

Reply
- David Stewart
  September 1st, 2013 at 8:55 pm
  
  It would be a fun sport for the whole family 🙂
  
  Reply
Alastair
September 1st, 2013 at 8:54 pm

Love the creativity of this.

Reply
- David Stewart
  September 1st, 2013 at 8:56 pm
  
  Thanks. 🙂 Great photo.
  
  Reply
  - Alastair
    September 1st, 2013 at 8:58 pm
    
    Thanks David
    
    Reply
bridawn
September 2nd, 2013 at 12:20 am

Love Greek myths, so this was fantastic! Makes me want to try my hand at incorporating some of the Greek myths into my own stuff… It’s always seemed so intimidating, but this helped me see the other side of the spectrum!

Reply
- David Stewart
  September 2nd, 2013 at 7:40 am
  
  Thanks! Glad you liked it. I included the link for those who might not get the reference but I love to allude to myths and legends when I can.
  
  Reply
freyathewriter
September 2nd, 2013 at 2:03 am

Shooting down the sun – what a fantastic tale!

Reply
misskzebra
September 2nd, 2013 at 5:54 am

This is a brilliant story.

Reply
- David Stewart
  September 2nd, 2013 at 8:59 pm
  
  🙂 Thanks.
  
  Reply
Joe Owens
September 3rd, 2013 at 11:08 pm

I suppose this is not a doomsday scenario, shooting the sun out of the sky?

Reply
- David Stewart
  September 4th, 2013 at 7:35 am
  
  Well, not in a world where they can regenerate it at will. 🙂
  
  Reply
Sharmishtha
September 19th, 2013 at 3:16 pm

just loved it! what a game to play!

Reply
- David Stewart
  September 21st, 2013 at 10:22 pm
  
  That would be fun. I could see it in some future virtual reality world.
  
  Reply