Snippet: Dinosaurs and Rockets
I am less hopeful about today's tests than the technicians who struggle to strap attempt #36 onto the dinosaur standing on the launch platform. The heat must be getting to me. I swear the lizard doesn't look very helpful either. The government hoped the resurrection of the dinosaurs would provide them with an unstoppable army. To their disappointment, the raptors didn't behave like they do in the movies. They were far less intelligent and uninterested in the mindless slaughter of someone else's enemies. But they loved the jet packs. So here they are, test pilots for the experimental science labs. Someday human soldiers – the traditional and more affordable fallback – will strap these fuel tanks to their backs and rocket across some foreign battlefield. But for the illusion of concern for their safety, we used the lizards for testing. Not that it matters. One bullet breaks through that tank and it won't matter how aerodynamic the design is, or how fine-tuned the controls. The human bodies will crumple as they hit the ground, same as the raptors' do. If they don't burn up on their way down. The dinosaurs are eager to try it. As though every saurodon (as the techs have started calling these GMO lizards) wanted to be a pterodactyl. Even the long-necked beasts look up from their grazing as the raptor shuts its jaw on the control button harnessed around its head, and launches into the air. Author's note: These snippets are unedited free-writing exercises that I use as a way to shift my brain into a creative state. I use Lynda Barry's What It Is YouTube timed exercises (usually 9 minutes worth of writing) for these. They are handwritten in a composition notebook and then typed up here. As I transcribe them, I do tiny grammar and spelling checks, but the overall "clarity" (if you can call it that) of the exercise is left as-is.