Weekly Challenge #1009 – Advance

• Richard


• Lizzie


• Tom


• Lisa


• Serendipidy


• Norval Joe


• Planet Z

The next topic is PICK TWO

Dictionary

Game

Orchestra

Appreciated

Charge

RICHARD

Lawless

Remember the good old days when the advance of technology was fairly predictable, we had good old Moore’s Law telling us that computing power would double every two years, and that’s pretty much how things worked.

But, not any more.

Now, with AI, large language models and quantum computing, who knows where technology will take us in two weeks, let alone two years!

Let’s face it though, as technology gets smarter, people get correspondingly dumber, and it’s only a matter of time before most of humanity become gibbering imbeciles.

Not me though.

I know how to operate the off switch!

LIZZIE

They paid her a generous advance for her artwork. “It’s not finished yet,” she said meekly. But it had been decided. Well, in that case! She didn’t hesitate to receive the money. “Maldives, here I come,” she thought, feeling the sun on her face and the soft white sand. The painting? That remained unfinished. “Who cares!” Upon returning home, they asked her for the painting. She replied with a vague excuse that she needed some time off “for inspiration”. So, they grabbed her and chopped off one of her fingers. “Each day, a finger.” She held out for four fingers.

TOM

Advance

Timmy was always financially strapped. He really missed weekly paychecks. This monthly pay schedule sucked. The last week of the was filled with peanut butter and cool aid. Often, he would forgo the bus and walk in to work. The hardest was the last Friday of the month. Luckily his boss would cut a check to advance him 20 or 40 bucks. One month both the cats got sick and Mary’s cars needed tires. So, he had to get an advance of the advance. Finally in his late 40’s he poked his head above water started buying bitcoins and maple-leafs.

LISA

Bestseller

I’m the most promising novelist of my generation. Sunday Times words – not mine. I’m a bit short on words at the moment.

The first book, the one you’ve all read, was a breeze. Wrote itself. Rave reviews. Tik Tok went wild. It was the most seen book of the summer. And my advance for the sequel -AMAZING. So, the publishers NEED another for next summer; they’ve already got the merchandise planned.

I’m two chapters in and sat staring at a blank page. My witty protagonist that everyone loves is in bed refusing to catch my eye.

Reader, I hate her.

SERENDIPIDY

I watched them advance, shuffling gait, lifeless eyes, inexorable, unrelenting and terrifying.

The zombie hoard filled the streets, a growing crowd of the undead hunting out new victims to sate their feeding frenzy.

I watched you run and hide, desperately seeking shelter; somewhere safe from the clutches of those in pursuit, but it was hopeless.

You can run, but you can’t hide.

These are modern-day zombies, not your old-style shambling corpses.

They have drones equipped with infra-red, heat-seeking cameras, and whatever your hiding place, they will find you.

And, even modern zombies will eat your brains!

NORVAL JOE

Mandi thought she’d escaped Bobbi after the tardy bell rang but as she left her final class the redhead advanced toward her, pushing kids out of her way.

“Come on,” Bobbi said and waved her toward the school’s exit.

Obediently, Mandi followed. “Where are we going?”

“To my house,” Bobbi said. “If the Black Knights have Billbert and Sabrina, someone is going to get hurt and the Knights are going to use those two to do the hurting.”

Bobbi’s house needed paint and major repairs. Mandi followed her, avoiding trash and broken appliances in the overgrown grass of the yard.

PLANET Z

After my first book sold a million copies, my publisher offered me a deal for four more books.

Of course I signed.

How foolish I was.

The first book was easy.

The second, not so much.

And the third… a nightmare.

Turned in with a week to spare.

The fourth book, they were hounding me.

I’d already spent the advance. And then some.

But I finished it, just barely, at the stroke of midnight.

That fifth book, though.

Why did I sign a deal for four more books?

So, I made it a coloring book.

Outsold the other four combined.