Morning all. We are taking the size parts of the story and breaking them down. I am using older Fifteen Minute Writing Prompt as my story inspiration so I am going to put the prompt write out below and then the mini outline for the story under it. Todays came from April 30th, 2025…
Wednesday, April 30th: They were running out of time.
They were running out of time. Soon a decision would need to be made. One of them would have to go. Brian stared at the hourglass. ‘This is so messed up,’ he thought.
He watched the sands slip by. He heard the frantic arguing of the others. No one wanted to go next. They didn’t know what happened to the others, but everyone suspected the worst. They heard screams and yells and more disturbingly, gunfire.
They couldn’t see anything but Brian doubted they were rounded up and brought here to play a rousing game of canasta.
‘Not that I know how to play canasta,’ he thought. His grandmother played it. He remembered she had an entire group of friends who got together to play once a week.
‘Not helpful,’ he thought.
He looked to the others, tearing his gaze away from the hourglass with reluctance. He didn’t know the others well. Enough to say hello to, but not really well. Brian worked in a different division.
He did know the rest of them were friends. He was the odd man out. There were others of course, trapped here who weren’t in their group. At least there had been. They were gone now, sent in to the game because they weren’t part of the group. They wanted to stay together as long as possible. And sent everyone else in first by voting in a block.
He wondered if it was because they thought some sort of help was coming or they just wanted security.
‘Either way I’ll be next,’ he realized.
He was the only one left who was not part of their group. He would be next.
There was a cold clarity that settled over him as he realized it. When looking at the others, they wouldn’t meet his eyes. They had already decided.
Brian felt some of his fear fading. The uncertainty was gone. He would be sent into this game, whatever it was.
He would no longer have to wait and wonder. He may not have wanted to go, but at least the waiting would be done.
He took a deep breath and looked back to the hourglass. As he watched the sands slip through, he took stock.
No one searched them when they arrived. Even though there was no cell signal, they all had their cells on them, if they were carrying them in the first place.
Brian always carried the pocket knife his grandfather gave him. He hadn’t used it in years but kept the blade sharp and the hinges oiled. It was more a relaxing habit to check it over than it was because he might need it. He was certain he managed to cut some string or slit open an envelope with it, but nothing else recently.
He shifted and felt the familiar weight of it in his pocket. He was certain many places he went routinely would have been horrified he was carrying the knife, but he had never been able to leave it behind. He consoled himself with the fact that he never took it out of his pocket and always wore clothing loose enough that it didn’t really show.
The weight of it was comforting. A familial reminder even though his family was all gone.
Now it might actually prove helpful.
‘So pocket knife,’ he thought.
He continued his inventory. He doubted his wallet would be of any use, but if he found a place will cell service he might. ‘I also have my keys.’ He wasn’t certain what good they would do. He shifted his weight a little and remembered he also had a lighter.
He took it from Cal the night before. More because Cal was being drunk and obnoxious with it than anything else. He kept flipping it open and closed, open and closed, the sound was driving him crazy so when Cal put it down, Brian slipped it in his pocket.
He was truth be told, always slipping things into his pockets. It was an old habit. His mother hated clutter and anything left out on a counter or table that didn’t belong there was collected and more often thrown away. Even as an adult if he saw a spare battery or a loose screw lying around he would pick it up and put it in his pocket automatically. He usually didn’t realize he was doing it. He couldn’t remember what exactly he picked up, but looking at it now before being sent in did not seem like a good idea. He would take a complete inventory when he was certain he wasn’t being watched.
The others were in a herd mentality already, he didn’t know if they were at the point where they might start snatching things simply because it might give them an advantage.
‘Best to wait,’ he thought. He felt a little guilty about the lighter and looked over towards Cal.
The night before he told himself he was not only saving his sanity, but as Cal could conceivably leave it on the table he was keeping it safe. As he was drunk enough that other things could accidentally be set alight, he was saving them all. There was the fleeting thought of giving the lighter back to him, but Cal was part of the group and studiously not looking at him. Brian decided he would keep it.
The hourglass ran out and the voice clicked on to the intercom.
“Who will go next?”
They all knew that if they didn’t choose, someone would come in and grab one of them. They tried resisting the order earlier.
Brian was not surprised when the others pushed him forward before anyone could be sent to choose for them.
And the mini outline I came up with inspired by this prompt…
SETUP: People from several different branches of the same company are flown to a corporate retreat. Brian has already started thinking about leaving the company.
COMPLICATION: A militant group takes over the island where the retreat is being held and forces everyone to play a game. Those who ‘win’ get to leave.
RISING ACTION: People are gathered and sent into the game one by one, they have to choose the order. If they don’t choose someone is grabbed and shoved into the game. Each enter alone. Brian goes through and passes challenges using odd skills learned from family that have nothing to do with his job and are completely unexpected.
MEANWHILE: A group of the attackers is using their personnel information to steal confidential data from the company while they are occupied.
CLIMAX: Brian makes it past the trials and realizes they aren’t letting anyone win and thus escape, everyone is getting killed so he fakes death and escapes the course, sneaking back to the main building. He uploads a computer virus to take down the system so they get nothing, or at least very little and finds a safe place to hide as they destroy everything.
DENOUEMENT: Island burning and destroyed, he is picked up as the lone survivor, he decides it is more than time to leave the company.
Ten til Midnight 