The assignment: Create a story which features the following objects: A pencil, a dunebuggy and a seismograph (instrument for detecting earthquakes).

The winner: Tomorrow Alora (tomorrowalora)

A Pencil, a Dune Buggy, and a Seismograph

This area of the high desert was unfamiliar to Peter, but he navigated the rural terrain with ease. His dune buggy was designed for just such a trek.

As Peter turned the wheel sharply around another tight curve the grit of the desert was swirling and pelting him.

He stopped the vehicle and got out to smoke. He stood amongst his fellow desert dwellers; cacti, Joshua trees, dried weeds, and lizards. At a glance he almost missed her. It took a second and then a third glance to confirm what he was sure he hadn't seen the first time.

Peter stared at a chair, more specifically, a woman withher head hung so low he could not see a face, sitting in a wooden chair about ten feet from the path Peter was on.

Whether she was alive or dead he was not certain. She wasn't moving. He walked about half the distance to her and removed his sunglasses.

On the chair sat a woman. Her feet were tied to the frontlegs of the chair with soiled pink ribbons. Her hands were behind the back of the chair with the same pink ribbon. Her head slowly rose to meet Peter's befuddled stare revealing a bizarre gag clasped in her mouth.

The gag was a pencil, horizontal between her crackedlips, with the same pink ribbon tied on both ends and wrapped around her head. She wore what was once a white cotton dress, the hem loose around her knees. Dirt covered her. Her feet were bare and her eyes were hard.

"Are you alright?" Peter asked.

She made no attempt to reply. Peter walked the rest ofthe distance towards her, knelt down in front of her. She had greeneyes. When they made eye contact she showed no emotion. She simply stared at him which made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. All of this was creepy, surreal.

Best to untie her; the ribbons were tied tight and setting this woman free proved to be more difficult than he hadthought. He hadn't carried a knife with him that day, damn it.

He hesitated before he slowly, gently reached for the gag. He explained what he was doing, as not to startle her, but she had no reaction. The pencil was tied tightly from behind her head so Peter reached behind her to untie it. That ribbon came undone withless effort than the bondage around her ankles.

As the pencil dropped from her mouth he asked again if she was all right.

She said softly, "Earthquake."The ground shook. Peter lost his balance. It didn't take a seismograph to tell him this earthquake had been big. The woman smiled.

Peter tried the ribbon around her legs again. "I don't know how to free you."

"Break the chair," she said, "but be prepared for what you release. Not all stories have an end."