This story deals with somewhat disturbing material. Just a heads up. It’s a story for Al Forbes’ Sunday Photo Fiction. A bit over the word limit, but please forgive me this time.
All Wrung Out
I feel wrung out, with a soul like an old dishrag, flapping in the burning wind. But you gotta keep on, so I flip a smile, crack a joke and pretend. We all do.
“We got a drill hole on 10th Avenue,” Marc calls. “A real slip-n-slide.”
“And here I forgot my bathing suit,” I say, climbing into the truck.
There are no survivors, of course. The laser beam drilled a perfect hole down through the 20-story building, gutting it and disintegrating everything in its path. Nobody calls us when there are survivors, only when there is “organic material” to clean up. I don’t mind the “organic material”; it’s picking up the body parts I can recognize that gets to me. Nobody said war was pretty.
“Do you ever wish one of those lasers would get us?” Marc asks that evening. “Just erase the memories and nightmares forever.”
“What, and leave this dream job?” I say, laughing and taking a swig of beer.
He looks at me with pain in his eyes, pleading silently for me to be serious, just once. But I can’t do it, because I feel so thin inside that if I stop smiling, I’ll shatter.
I’m just all wrung out.
The Green-Walled Tower 
March 2nd, 2014 at 11:48 pm
War is never pretty, and you give a very dark view of a future war. Excellent, David. I like that last bit – I feel so thin inside that if I stop smiling, I’ll shatter.
March 2nd, 2014 at 11:51 pm
Well done. So much said in so few words. And capturing the horrors well.x
March 3rd, 2014 at 12:02 am
Wow, that was great 🙂
March 3rd, 2014 at 12:36 am
You juiced out a brilliant piece of story from that sugarcane/anything crusher…nice work!!
March 3rd, 2014 at 7:25 am
Sounds like a horrific, horrible job to have with lingering visions of the aftermath.
March 3rd, 2014 at 8:04 am
Yes, I hate to imagine. There are real jobs like that, although I gave this a bit if scifi to try to give it some distance.
March 4th, 2014 at 12:33 am
Yes. It was convincing too. 🙂
March 3rd, 2014 at 12:46 pm
seems he has been doing that job for quite long time! reminds me of sense of humor of morgue employees!
March 3rd, 2014 at 12:51 pm
that was the intention, how people use black humour as a defense mechanism. I wouldn’t want to do a job like that.
March 4th, 2014 at 2:47 pm
me too. what a horrible job that will be!
March 4th, 2014 at 9:45 pm
great tale – I could see the shell of the building with organic “globs” still in the corners – nice!
March 4th, 2014 at 10:10 pm
Thanks. Yes, I could see that image. I tried to hint at things without making them too graphic, but our minds can fill in the details.
March 6th, 2014 at 11:09 am
Just wanted to say that this is a really beautiful story. Well, maybe ‘beautiful’ is not quite right, but it perfectly captures a very particular type of sentiment.
March 6th, 2014 at 1:10 pm
Thank you. I know what mean.