I thought it might be fun to share the writing of a story. I’ll start with about 5 sentences or so and then the next member continues with another 5 or so, then the next, then the next ad infintum!

The only rule is that you can’t post twice in a row, please wait for another member to post before writing another part of the story.

OK here we go, let’s see what randomness comes out of my brain today!

It was a Tuesday. Just a Tuesday. The windscreen was steaming up as the heat of my body evaporated the moisture from my wet clothes. The wipers stiffly squeaked and squawked like a conductor with rheumatism attempting to keep his motions in time. There was no sudden crescendo. Just a slow, calm blurring of time and space.

My eyelids drooped and I shook my head abruptly. Shifting uncomfortably in my seat, I tried to concentrate. Think of your warm house. Think of radiators and a hot blackcurrant. I glanced at the clock again and bit my lip a little too hard.

A heavy metallic taste coated the tip of my dry tongue as a drop of blood swelled on my lower lip. I registered the sensations in my mouth for a micro-second. The clock. The scarlet digits were counting minutes as though they were seconds. 10 minutes past, 11, 12, 13. It was getting quicker and quicker. 26, 27, 28. And before I’d finished blinking to check my eyes were working, the best part of an hour had been counted away. Maybe I’d fallen asleep. Maybe I’d crashed the car and was dead. I gripped the wheel.

hoping my hands would reveal what my mind could not grasp. My fingers tighten around the wheel and I realized that I needed to focus and find out what had happened to me and where I was. I was able to turn my head and look to me left, water and floating branches and tree limbs. I was in the river, sitting in the driver’s seat of my car. My head and eyes were drawn back and down and I discovered the source of the cold that possessed my body, water was rushing in to the car through the dashboard and floor below my feet.

Panic ensued. Without thinking i started to tear at my seat belt. I tugged and pulled but nothing happened. I decided to take one last gasp of air before the car completely submerged. I closed my eyes and opened my mouth wide. I croaked as i inhaled water and air. Mostly water.

It rushed in through the open door and seemed to inspire an increased rush from the floor boards, water was everywhere, as I fought its hold on me I needed to reach back and grab the water soaked envelope that I had placed in the passenger seat in that lifetime ago right before I turned the key and started home.

My entire body heaved. My limbs deadened and my senses clouded as I struggled to locate the envelope, grabbing and slapping around the car interior. The water that had now almost entirely filled my car made the usually familiar environment into a blurry, foreign, freezing place. My fingers numbing and chest imploding I finally grasped the sinking envelope and then pushing off from the front passenger seat, I propelled myself out of the open car door.

My first gasp of air filled my lungs and propelled me towards the far bank of the river. In a rage for survival I made my way from limb to crashing limb across the river and onto the shore, my hand still clutching the now water soaked envelope.

I held up the envelope as I lay on my back among the rocks and mud, my chest rising and lowering violently as I tried to recover. The brown paper was saturated and it dripped onto my face but I could still read the writing on the front and it had remained sealed. As I sat up to look around, I began to shiver. It was getting dark.

Looking up from the river bank, I heard what sounded like an ambulance from far away. A couple of first responders came coursing down with their equipment and a blanket. Looking down, I realized my shirt was torn and a spot the size of a pomegranate bled down to my carmine fingers. I didn’t want a paramedic near me nor the envelope though, and without hesitation, I lifted myself up.

“Off the floor, once more” I cracked to myself, to feed the adrenalin I needed to keep moving and take back control of the situation. “Nice day don’t you think?” The lead paramedic looked into my eyes to decide if I had crossed the line and what the odds were I would come back into focus. I knew I was still in the hunt when he smiled and reached for my wrist to check my pulse. “Better for some than others.” he deadpanned and went back to counting my vitals.

My head was pounding in time to my pulse as the medic attached small sticky pads over my chest and clicked clips onto them. I didn’t know the time or even where I was but I did know that I couldn’t stay there and allow the medic to treat me. I looked down at my body. It didn’t feel like my own. It looked like I’d lost a significant amount of weight, but I had no idea how. Then the sudden, uncontrollable rush overcame me. I leapt in the air and high-tailed it down the bank, wires and tubes still attached and flying behind me. I heard the paramedic yell something several times. He may have been running after me but the next thing I remember, I’d realised it was daylight and I was on my knees at the foot of a tree, digging frantically with my hands.

I had to bury the envelope, the information in it could change the world as we knew it. “No,” I told myself “I can’t simply bury it!” Picking up the filthy but all-too precious envelope, I ran as fast as I could, pulling off the various tubes and wires. Brambles and fallen branches scraped at my legs but I couldn’t let those slow me down. In the distance I spotted one of those old, dying diners across the road. Slowing as came closer, I stuffed the envelop under my shirt and walked casually.

Sandwiched by bustling city and damp, green forest, the diner seemed a rundown relic of times now passed. It wasn’t particularly busy, which was just as well. I could do without the unnecessary attention of passersby. As inconspicuously as a soggy, bleeding man could possibly manage, I emerged from the trees, crossed the road and rounded the diner. It wouldn’t be long before they found my car in the lake back, behind me. I needed to get moving.

And I needed to KEEP moving, I realised, as I fought off an unbearable urge to lie down and close my eyes. Maybe there was a God after all, and this was His way of telling me to let it go, let the word out, let the truth be known. But I had a promise to keep, and all that mattered was getting this envelope into the hands of -