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+--- Thread: Nooo My Watch! (/showthread.php?tid=1836)
Nooo My Watch! - Caira Ayryn - 06-23-2015
The following was inspired by this picture
[spoiler]
![[Image: 11392807_673261872804065_389395570845974...JpIjoidCJ9]](https://scontent-sjc2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xft1/t31.0-8/11392807_673261872804065_389395570845974408_o.jpg?efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9)
[/spoiler]The Reckoning, Day 1
The rotting sense of doom hung in the air. A man with a white collared shirt moved his sleeve to check the time. It was Monday and 8:00 AM showed on the analog screen with a bright and captivating gleam. He took pride for a moment, relishing this little thing, his ability to check the time in so simple a way.
He had arrived on time, and was ready to get to work, his office cubical, a four-by-four makeshift office in a room of others just like it. Just like him.
The incessant humming of the copier machine, the never-ending pluck of clicking keys, and the silent trod of executive women stomping in their heels, all filled his ears as he defined the saying, "Just another day at the office."
He sipped his coffee, cream and sugar, every day, from his Starbucks mug with a green mermaid labeled on the cup's cream colored face. Every time he took a swishing sip, it almost resembled the mermaid's flipping tail, motivation and drive thrilled his bones as he began to fall into the toneless rhythm of work.
"Hey Stewart, you got those papers in?"
Stewart set down the cup and gulped down the last lavish sip from his mouth before fumbling with his hands as he crinkled papers and in a few swift motions made quick chaos of his desk that had already been in disarray. Stewart began to sweat, he took his work too seriously.
"Hey man, take it easy, I'll need them in like, fifteen. You think you'll have them by then?"
With a nod, Stewart worked hard as he approached the deadline....
Finally with his shift done, he was set loose. The trusty screen on his wrist read:
5:01
As the man hopped into his car and felt the silent thrum of life come to his car after he had stirred the ignition. First the store, then the cleaners... Unless I could get take out tonight? Eh.. Sam's is open till ten, so I can always decide later.
He went over his list and began to fulfill his after-work mission: Grocery shopping. Clarrissa, his fiancé, had scribbled a list together which he had stored in his pocket all day. It had melted with the warmth of his pants, yet he unraveled it without too much soggy tear at the edges. Her penmanship revealed the usual, milk, eggs, peanut butter... Stewart flicked his wrist.
5:27
There was just enough time to get to the cleaners, and then put the baby to sleep. He proceeded to grab his mundane items and entered the check-out.
In the corner of the room, hanging on the wall, the looming hands hung, grappling with Roman numerals and looming over their edges with sharp arrows.
Action hastened as Stewart heard the sirens perpetuating down the street, streaming through red stop lights. One person left without paying for a cart-full. Then another. Another.
Stewart scoffed. People really should pay for their groceries, and be law abiding citizens. His ordered thoughts, like the stacks of paper on his desk, waiting there for him tomorrow were interrupted by the shrill scream of a woman, holding a little girl.
"RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!!!"
Emergency! Yes, but no fire alarm had been pulled. Next thing he knew, he was rushing out the store and into his Tesla car. In the chaos, he checked the time a memorable 5:43 hung within the edges of the cube frame.
Lisa was on his mind, yet dread and fear weighed the same, if not more powerfully than love. The parking lot was jammed, and creatures straight from lore were haunting the horizon in the distance. People ran screaming, car doors closed and opened, children wailed at the police sirens that came from every direction. Someone banged on the window and offered him direction. Stewart saw that the creatures were breaking into cars and, valuing his life, bolted from his Tesla to the only thing around. The grocery store.
... (Time skip)
"Do you think it will work?"
"Listen man, I saw this in a movie once, everything is gonna be alright." One grocery clerk assured him.
"Who the fuck are you, Bob Marley? His arm's about to get sliced off!" Another voice shouted as they huddled around Stewart, a sleeve of his white shirt had been torn and bloodied. They were about to preform emergency surgery around the fresh teeth marks embedded in his skin.
Stewart's eyes remained on the silver, gleaming beacon of hope. It shattered with the splat of his newly amputated limb. Priorities superseded the immediacy of pain that had yet to translate into reality. His screen had cracked and he watched the disembodied piece of him fall to the ground from his position. The weight of his hand fell with a single swiped motion and Stewart helplessly reached out with his remaining hand as he shouted in despair.
"NOOO MY WATCH!!!"
[spoiler]
Quote:
The above is kind of just a satire "poking fun" to someone who would spend 600 dollars on a watch (sorry).
I framed this storyline around the single ending line of dialogue, that amused me that he cared more about the watch (which can be interpreted 1,000+ different ways) than his own arm. I thought it would be nice if the armless had a name, and the intro just escalated into a shorter segment. The point: It's implied that he likes the status symbol, but with the whole "zombie apocalypse" happening around him, survival is one's first goal and status doesn't really matter, yet - ever a human - the man loved his gadget, even in the end. It's kind of tragic, perhaps even a mis-placed hubris complex, but most of all it is just a little ironic.
"Nooo my watch!"[/spoiler]