No one will remember you - Scifi short story

No one will remember you – Flash fiction 004 and Kickstarter launch day

A new writer debut

We had planned to miss the Flash fiction this week due to the Kickstarter launch but when one of our writers threw this little golden nugget on my desk I couldn’t resist putting it out.

“No one will remember you” is a work of flash fiction by our newest writer, Mr Scott Phipps and I hope you will agree is very immersive and what it lacks in length it makes up for in depth. We are looking forward to publishing more of his stories in the future.

So without further ado here we go…

“No one will remember you”

Her neck ached from staring through her sights.

She dare not look away.

It had been hours since she had taken up position on the tower rooftop.

This was her chance to finally score a big mark, show the guild master she wasn’t some little punk that doesn’t have the first idea of what bounty hunting entails.

I can handle a blaster she thought. In fact I can handle just about any weapon that’s on the open market and several that are on the dark market.

I even have experience with the shatter pistol, a weapon so called not because of its effect on the target, that just left a tiny needle sized hole, but because of the way the recoil, if not handled properly, would shatter the users wrist. Idly she wondered if she’d earn enough from this mark to afford her own shatter pistol.

A flicker in the corner of her sights brought her attention back to the task at hand.

Damn, she thought, concentrate.

The flicker wasn’t her target but it was one of his “supposed associates”.

She knew it was a bodyguard, a tall human built like a Forget Booth^TM, that’s one to stay out of arms reach of for sure. A second and third “associate” appeared.

Two females, one short and blonde the other medium height with red hair and a shock of blue running through her Mohawk, both carried concealed hand projectors judging by the way their jackets rode up at the back and their calves had the distinct outline of hidden blades.

There…Here he is. Her mark.

Her jaw tightened, her neck cricked as it moved for the first time in hours.

She took her bead on him. At this distance she needed to account for the wind.

She felt the sweat on her brow as she calculated the numbers. Aiming three feet in front of her mark she squeezed the trigger.

The charged rail bolt slid silently from the muzzle of her rifle, temporarily blinding her as the short energy flare rose and the white hot bolt flew toward its target.

She regained her sight just as the bolt entered the marks shoulder and exited his hip leaving a cauterised hole nearly cleaving him in two. She rolled onto her back and started disassembling her rifle. Sweat stinging her eyes as she did so, her heart beating with excitement.

She’d done it. This would wipe that self-righteous smirk off the guild masters face, now she would be taken seriously no longer a noob, no more petty criminals or local law enforcement jobs, now she was going to be asked for by name to hunt and eliminate. She would be able to charge what she wanted. The Chitz from this job should get her the shatter pistol if she wanted it but first she needed to upgrade her ride. And she knew just what she was going to get.

She blinked the sweat from her eyes and rolled back onto her belly to take a look over the roof edge at her handiwork.....that can’t be.

She grabbed the disassembled scope from her pocket.

No no no no that can’t be. Panic started setting in, I just shot him he’s dead how’s he walking around. She zoomed into the body of the man she’d just killed. No gang mark on his neck.

Damn you sneaky bastard. A decoy.

She started reassembling her rifle as fast as she could, her heart going impossibly fast now, sweat started gathering on her forehead again.

I can do this I still have time, he won’t expect another attempt right away.

She clicked the stock onto the rifle and lastly the scope. Took a deep breath and opened her eyes.

Ok there he is behind the man-mountain body guard, come on take a step to the side you bastard, you’re not taking my future away from me.

Her finger twitched in anticipation, caressing the trigger, feeling it and subconsciously adding the time it would take to pull it to her calculations.

She swept the scene and saw the Mohawk women still crouched over the dead decoy. Then back to the mark, the real mark and zoomed in further.

There, on his neck, his gang mark, this time it’s definitely you.

Come on you bastard move, I need a clean shot.

Sweat started running from her forehead down her nose, into her eyes, she blinked it away but she still felt it running, irritated she wiped her hand across her face to clear it away, and stopped.

Her breath stopped, her heart stopped.

Her hand was covered in blood.

She felt dizzy.

Darkness clawing at the edges of her vision, she touched her forehead with her index finger and felt the tiny needle hole that was the cause of the bleed.

Her eyes started to lose focus and as they did she saw through the scope the small blonde bodyguard resting her gun arm on a stone pillar with the other hand gripping the gun arms wrist.

The perfect stance for a shatter pistol!

She was looking right at her, was that a smile on the blondes face she thought as she slipped into darkness…

……

By Mr Scott Phipps

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So what did you think? Please do let us know in the comments or jump over to the Digital Taxidermists to chat with us and our interesting band about what possibilities you see ahead.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

This story or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Welcome one and all,

This has been a very busy month for Digital Taxidermy. We have broken through what feels like the first wall in our way and expanded our reach out into the wider world. Firstly this has happened with the release of our latest Kickstarter and secondly our story was picked up by a newspaper. Most importantly it’s happened with your support.

Newspaper article

We are still a fairly new company, and it was amazing that our small successes were picked up by the press. We got a call making enquiries about our business and found they wanted to do a story about lockdown successes. So in our efforts to promote good news we shared details of our efforts, growth and production with the newspaper to help inspire others to reach for their goals.

This article has been great for helping us get exposure and the links from the online media has also helped to improve our search engine rankings (boring, we know).

Kickstarter update

Our spool tower Kickstarter preview has generated a huge buzz around it and we are all very excited about where this is going to take us.

The Kickstarter begins this evening (Friday 12/06/2020) with an early bird tier open from 11.59pm BST Friday 12^th until 11.59pm Sunday 14^th BST.

We have made a new video to introduce the Kickstarter

Our hope is that plenty of people take the opportunity to take advantage of the early bird deals, our mega bundle especially will give all those that don’t have the “our dystopian future” Kickstarter the chance to get that Kickstarter and this one for the same RRP as the dystopian future package.

That deal will give you enough printing material to fill a huge table with modular terrain and whole packages of unique dystopian buildings, vehicles and scatter plus you will get the files to recycle your waste into the finishing touches of your gaming table.

We have set a lot of Stretch goals with the spool tower Kickstarter and we would like to bring you as many of them as possible in our quest to reduce the waste associated with 3D printing. As you printers are no doubt aware additive manufacture at home is one of the least wasteful methods of production but it does have its own level of consumable wastage, thus one of the stretch goals is a set of greeblies that will use small bits of filament, old bowden tube and nozzles to enhance your terrain.

We have done everything we can think of to get this eco saving Kickstarter out there and in the public domain but if you would like to reach those stretch goals we need YOUR help to spread the word far and wide. Please tell all your friends with printers as we are sure they have these waste items lying around all over, remember reducing more waste is more better.