June 23, 2019
hughjodonnell
Free Fiction, Uncategorized
Drabble, Everyday Drabbles, Flash Fiction, Free Fiction, Pokemon, Post-Apocalyptic
I limp into the bazaar late in the afternoon and eventually find what I’m looking for: A pre-war bike tire patch kit. The sharp-eyed woman behind the counter has actual wrinkles. She might’ve even seen the bombs fall. This is going to be tough.
I look in my pack and see what I have to trade.
When governments fell, money became worthless. Gold wasn’t portable. But there were other systems.
I pull out a near-mint holographic Pikachu card. Flashy, but more common than you’d think. She gives me an inscrutable look, and we get down to bargaining.
This story originally appeared in Everyday Drabbles, a daily free fiction project on Wattpad. Visit the link for more free stories. And if you enjoy my writing, support my work by buying me a coffee!

The first collection of Everyday Drabbles stories, Winter, is now available from Amazon!
June 16, 2019
hughjodonnell
Free Fiction, Uncategorized
Drabble, Everyday Drabbles, Fiction, Free Fiction
The villain burst into his head scientist’s office without knocking.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” He demanded.
She arched an eyebrow. She juggled a lot of projects, but freedom from consequences was one of the perks of the job. “Enlighten me.”
“I asked you to supply my army of minions with gravity knives.”
“I did!”
“I meant knives that opened by gravity, not made of gravity! They did considerable damage to my volcano base!”
“Don’t be such a baby,” she said. “Gravity is the weakest of the fundamental forces. Wait until you see my Quantum Flavordynamic Oven!”
This story originally appeared in Everyday Drabbles, a daily free fiction project on Wattpad. Visit the link for more free stories. And if you enjoy my writing, support my work by buying me a coffee!

June 9, 2019
hughjodonnell
Free Fiction, Uncategorized
Drabble, Everyday Drabbles, Fiction, Free Fiction, Mad Science, Sci-Fi
The mad scientist’s cloning machine was complete! He’d tested it (on himself, naturally) and the five replicas were perfect. They weren’t quite as brilliant as he was, but they were healthy, and loyal.
But he was out of funds to continue his research.
Some time later, a car pulled up to the drive-through at a local burger joint.
“Greetings! Recite your demands into the listening device!”
The driver pulled through and picked up their order. As she turned back into traffic, she turned to her passenger.
“You ever notice how the guys at this place all look the same?”
This story originally appeared in Everyday Drabbles, a daily free fiction project on Wattpad. Visit the link for more free stories. And if you enjoy my writing, support my work by buying me a coffee!

June 2, 2019
hughjodonnell
Free Fiction, Uncategorized
Drabble, Everyday Drabbles, Fiction, Free Fiction, Sci-Fi
The mech suit rumbled along the sandy track, making more noise than the pilot liked. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. The foundation of the colony was supposed to be glorious, even easy!
He had been assured that the locals would be either awed by their technological majesty or cowed by their firepower. So why was he the only unit left?
He spotted something laying in the road and paused. It was a broken toy, a mech suit action figure with the arms and legs ripped off. By the time the message registered, it was already too late.
This story originally appeared in Everyday Drabbles, a daily free fiction project on Wattpad. Visit the link for more free stories. And if you enjoy my writing, support my work by buying me a coffee!

May 12, 2019
hughjodonnell
Free Fiction, Uncategorized
Everyday Drabbles, Free Fiction
The Puppeteer stirred. She felt strange. There were too many… everything. She tried to sit up, but an endless array of arms and legs and necks and backs all attempted to obey her, and she found herself unable to parse which were hers. She was seized by panic, tangled in a web of red string. She felt a hand on a shoulder.
“The operation was a success,” The doctor said. “It will be confusing at first, but with time you will be able to control the puppets as though they were your own body.”
And who controls me? she wondered.
This story originally appeared in Everyday Drabbles, a daily free fiction project on Wattpad. Visit the link for more free stories. And if you enjoy my writing, support my work by buying me a coffee!

May 5, 2019
hughjodonnell
Free Fiction, Uncategorized
Drabble, Everyday Drabbles, Fiction, Free Fiction
“How’s it going?” She asked in my earpiece. I could barely make her out over the rushing air.
“The Flying Suit definitely works. I’m mostly comfortable and maintaining a relative altitude of twenty feet. We’ve attracted quite a crowd, too.”
“That’s wonderful!”
“But I do have some complaints.”
“Such as?”
“Two things. First, we need to work on the efficiency of this thing. I’m trailing black smoke.”
“And what’s the second?”
“We’ve got to do something about the location of the exhaust port. I know you said the seat of the pants would be most stable, but it’s terribly embarrassing.”
This story originally appeared in Everyday Drabbles, a daily free fiction project on Wattpad. Visit the link for more free stories. And if you enjoy my writing, support my work by buying me a coffee!

April 14, 2019
hughjodonnell
Free Fiction, Uncategorized
Drabble, Everyday Drabbles, Free Fiction
“My password is very secure,” she bragged. “I use two-factor authentication.”
“Ha,” He said. “That’s nothing. I use a personally encrypted password manager. I can’t be hacked.”
I smiled. “Amateurs. My password is inscribed in blood on a parchment hidden in a duck egg inside of a rabbit in a locked chest buried beneath a haunted oak at the center of a fog-shrouded labyrinth on a desolate island in the North Sea.” They all looked duly impressed.
My phone buzzed, and my face fell as I checked the alert.
We noticed a new login to your account, Koschei!
This story originally appeared in Everyday Drabbles, a daily free fiction project on Wattpad. Visit the link for more free stories. And if you enjoyed this story, why not support my work by buying me a coffee?

April 7, 2019
hughjodonnell
Free Fiction, Uncategorized
Drabble, Everyday Drabbles, Fiction, Free Fiction, Niagara Falls
After the plant closed, he found himself unceremoniously retired, and depressed. With nothing else to do, he spent his mornings by the Falls, watching the water flow ceaselessly past, constantly eating away at the rock and making electricity for towns he’d never be able to afford to visit.
He watched the tourists come from all across the world to visit the place he lived and would someday die. He watched them fumble with their cameras, from chunky Kodaks to pocket-sized digicams to cell phones.
He learned to ask ‘Would you like me to take your picture?’ in thirty languages.
This story originally appeared in Everyday Drabbles, a daily free fiction project on Wattpad. Visit the link for more free stories. And if you enjoyed this story, why not support my work by buying me a coffee?

March 31, 2019
hughjodonnell
Free Fiction, Uncategorized
Drabble, Everyday Drabbles, Fantasy, Free Fiction
One day a dog wandered into the seer’s sanctum and began to speak.
“Seer, I was once my queen’s greatest bodyguard. Everyday she asked me a question, and I had no answer. In the years since, I’ve searched far and wide for the answer. You are my last hope.”
“Look in my magic mirror, and find what you seek.”
The dog did as he was bid, but soon became angry. “There’s nothing here!”
“What was your mistress’s question?”
The dog stared in the mirror for a long time. “It was me,” he whispered. “I was the good boy all along.”
This story originally appeared in Everyday Drabbles, a daily free fiction project on Wattpad. Visit the link for more free stories. And if you enjoyed this story, why not support my work by buying me a coffee?

March 24, 2019
hughjodonnell
Free Fiction, Uncategorized
Drabble, Everyday Drabbles, Free Fiction
They built the tower to reach heaven. Year by year, the pillar grew, and the civilizations that grew around it prospered. Eventually, it was completed, and an assembly of kings, scholars and priests gathered to climb the tower and meet with God.
They met an angel outside of the gates to Heaven.
“Do you have an appointment?”
The crowd murmured to one another, unsure of how to respond. The murmurs became arguments, which became shouts, which finally turned to violence. They surged back down the tower and the gathered nations prepared for war. The angel turned back to their magazine.
This story originally appeared in Everyday Drabbles, my daily free fiction project on Wattpad. Visit the link for more free stories. And if you enjoyed this story, why not support my work by buying me a coffee?

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