Prepper Ranch, Opening Draft Scene
This is a very early draft of the first scene of a story I’m working on called “Prepper Ranch”. This story will mark the split in humanity between those that remained on Earth and those that went to space. It explains this split from the perspective of a young couple who are trying to survive in a world that is quickly rearranging geographically and politically. As I worked on the outline and major plot points, I realized that this can be written as a horror story. So, I’m working through the obligatory scenes and elements of a horror story as laid out by Savannah Gilbo, whose Fiction Writing Made Easy podcast has helped me in a variety of ways. Here is an excerpt. I’ve posted the full scene on my Patreon site for free, public consumption.
Henry was running his favorite parkour course at Battery Spencer at the north end of Golden Gate Dam. It was a beautiful April morning, already 80 degrees but with a nice breeze from the ocean. Henry checked his watch and smiled. His time on the course was better than his time last weekend. He was particularly pleased with a tic tac, vault, roll combo he had been working on. He still needed to work on his dash vault, going legs first over an obstacle and just skimming over it.
Henry climbed up to a spot for his cool-down routine where he could see down into the Bay, now nearly 200 feet lower than the Pacific, splashing against the Golden Gate Dam. It was one of many mega-projects around the world aimed at coping with, rather than dealing with, climate change. While much of the rest of the California coastline was forever changed, the Bay Area communities remained at their twenty-first century levels. The modern marvel of the Golden Gate Dam and associated projects in on the San Francisco peninsula were all the kept the San Francisco Bay from becoming the San Francisco Sea.
Sun glinting off the solar cells of his car’s exterior, Henry hopped in and started his drive home. Henry listened to the radio as he drove. “Good morning, listeners! Thank you for joining us. In politics today, the Big Eight governments have announced a rare unified position in setting up a meeting with representatives from the Hoppers. The breakaway fringe of humanity have caused great angst as they have developed their technology for surviving in space, even as they have suffered great losses in their endeavors to remain autonomous and independent of Earth. Separately, President Boscage of the North American Federation has accused her South American counterpart of failing to stem the flow of boat people heading to Central America, going so far as to use their navy to escort flotillas to NAF waters. President Boscage has directed Admiral Jeanloshoun to use Naval forces to being interdiction, in a major escalation, as the Coast Guard has become overwhelmed. The Chinese Dominion and the Unified Federation of the Subcontinent remain locked in their limited conventional war over the important Himalayan Highlands, while each side continues to threaten escalation to nuclear war if fair use is not negotiated equitably. In the weather, meteorologists are tracking three tropical storms in the eastern Pacific. If any one of them strengthen sufficiently, it will be the earliest hurricane season again for …” Henry slammed on the breaks as he realized that he was barreling into a traffic jam on the highway.
Parked in traffic, Henry checked his messages. Two got his attention. His wife, Chloe, was also stuck in traffic on the other side of the Bay but was on her way home after going for a run with her friends. The other message was from Dreyse Wright, the owner of Tranquility Acres in Colorado. Tranquility Acres was their timeshare near Pike’s Peak. Chloe called it Prepper Ranch. That was ultimately its purpose, but Henry had sold her on the timeshare as a mountain getaway. And indeed it was also that, where they spent one or two weeks each summer away from the hustle and bustle of metropolitan life. The message was one Henry dreaded but also gave him a thrill: the survivalist part of the contract was being activated. They needed to arrive at the Ranch by the end of June or forfeit their stake in the Ranch. This would be a harder sell. At least Chloe would be able to finish up the school year before they left and spent the summer at the Ranch.
Read the rest of the scene at my Patreon site for free!
