I did the Caffeine Challenge this afternoon! The Caffeine Challenge is a one-hour writing warm-up hosted by caffeinewitchcraft on Tumblr. Basically we’re given a prompt and then we all have to write for an hour.

I was inspired by one of the prompts that I was sure I could fit into my NaNoWriMo WIP that I am almost finished with. Please note that this is unedited, written in 60 minutes and when I’m writing the first draft I sometimes just put notes directly into the story, if you notice it, don’t worry it won’t be there once it’s edited. So, yes, it’s cringy but whatever: enjoy the story sneak peek.

Notes and Prompt

Prompt:  They say you never forget your roots, but I did. @mr-muppetface

Since it comes up a lot in this drabble:

Jake and Deborah are wearing technology that blurs their faces so that cameras, drones, and people don’t recognize them because they’re now wanted criminals.

They have chips in their wrists for security purposes, everyone in this world does, and if the drones notice them these chips will alert the drones to shoot them on sight because they don’t have clearance to be where they are. (The reason Jake doesn’t get ‘shot’ technically is early and later on in the book.) They have made modifications to the chips so that they had to be within the drone’s direct sensor scanning thingies and they also function as trackers and comms.

Also Deborah has technology in one of her eyes that gives her the abilities of x-ray and heat infared vision however the technology that the government has can render all sight in the eye that has this device, useless.

That’s all I’m gonna explain for now. The rest will make sense when you get to read the book. It’ll be available on Wattpad and Tumblr in March, Lord willing.

Caffeine Challenge – We Fall Down

They crept a little ways behind the group, ducking into any nooks and crannies they could find whenever the secret service stiffened or the circling drones came back to clear the area and check for imposters. With the rising tensions ringing out in the protests and the men and women who were suiting up to dispel those protesters at any means possible, the President’s posy were on high alert; although by the eye rolls they spied, most of the agents seemed to think their security was high enough hat no one could get in, judging by the eye rolls and looks they caught as they moved in unison.

Deborah struggled to suppress a chuckle despite Jake’s stern elbow to her ribs. If only they knew, she thought as she rubbed at the area Jake attacked. His elbow movement had nearly sent her into the eye of an incoming drone, he was lucky he couldn’t see her facial expression because the glare she was sending him was enough to burn the flesh off of his skeleton.  He yanked her back into his chest. Their breaths mingled as they tried to suppress any and every sign of them being in the shadows, from the familiar drone, and she tried to suppress the worrisome amount of hatred that was welling up inside of her at the man in front of her and the man down the hall.

The drone passed and Jake nearly pushed her into the room across the hall, in his eagerness to get her off of his body.  As she slid out the closed door, the previous days aches and pains beginning to creep back, she eyed Jake carefully. He was tense again. His feet were fidgeting on against the marble as he urged for her to get up. The veins in his neck were bulging and his hands moved frantically as he rushed to get her up when she didn’t move fast enough. She batted his hands away and pulled herself to her feet, ignoring the crackles in her back. The rapid mood change in him was just as alarming as his actions before had been. You gave up your right a long time ago, Jake. There was no way her words could’ve affected him that much, he was mr no-feeling-robot, but then again, nothing had made sense since they had entered the mansion.

You gave up your ri- She smacked herself on the side of the head and tucked into Jake’s shadow as they moved forward. No distractions. Just the mission, Deborah.  The group they were trailing ducked down a new hallway, picking up their pace. Jake and Deborah glanced at each other briefly, neither of them needed to see each other’s facial expressions.

Jake POV

Jake’s heart beat faster than he was sure it was supposed to as they moved forward. He shook his head briefly, falling in step behind his opinionated ex-partner. His hand fell to the hilt of his knife as the pain in his head worsened, nearly crippling him and bringing him to his knees. The pain had started the moment he stepped through the dreaded window he had once escaped through, nightmares still clouded his judgement, and separating fact from fiction was growing harder with every step they took closer to the enemy.

His head jerked, as if on it’s one accord, to watch Deborah carefully. All the little nuances and ticks that he had studied about her. She used to think it was cute – If only you knew, bear. His shook his head again, she wasn’t the enemy, they had a mission, he wasn’t going to destroy it anymore than he already had.

Still stuck inside the demons that were robbing his mind of it’s sanity, he didn’t notice Deborah’s halt or her motion with her wrist. He barreled into her, nearly crushing her tiny form beneath his own. She started wiggling and one of her feet came dangerously close to his upper thigh to kick him the jewels but he forced. His fingers drifted back to his side and they grasped the hilt of his knife again. With a harsh gasp, he yanked himself back and tumbled forward, right into the path of a quickly approaching drone. He tried to pull his foot back but it was too late. The red laser reach of the technology had already noticed him and sounded off a silent alarm that caused the Deborah to sigh from behind him as well as murmur a few choice words that he choose to ignore. He didn’t waste his time worrying over unflattering things, but messing up missions –what was wrong with him. He pressed a sweating palm to his forehead as he stood up. “Deb-”

“I know.”

He turned around to face her, ignoring the sound of quickly approaching feet. He tried to plead with his eyes, to convey that he didn’t mean to risk the mission but she was focused on the commotion behind him. “Go, save yourself. You know what to do.”

She glanced up at him, another couple words tumbling from her lips before she ducked back into the shadows, silent and sleek as always.

He lowered his head and turned around to face the music. Guns were raised towards his head and the president was nowhere to be seen.  A flash of pain radiated throughout his temples again, then his wrists and he crumpled to the ground. A familiar combat boot entered his vision, just as the blackness entered again and a scream rang through his ears. Maybe he did forget who he was. He was past saving now.

Deborah’s POV

Deborah suppressed the urge to let out a scream as whatever silent alarm Jake had set off, took out her vision in her right eye too. She dragged herself up from the ground he had knocked her too, wincing. Whatever he had drugged her with that morning was wearing off, she could feel every bruise, strain, and cut, pleasant wasn’t how she’d describe the pain she felt. A few words that her mom would be ashamed to hear, slipped past her lips as she noticed realization of what he’d done, wash over Jake’s body. His broad shoulder’s collapsed, almost caving in on themselves, and his feet turned inward, unsteady as he rose to his feet.

She tapped her foot against the marble impatiently waiting for him to get himself situated. He looked like a newborn calf again, unsteady, wide-eyed, and unsure. He stood there, just waiting for something terrible to befall him, “Deb-”

“I know.” Weariness slipped through her voice as the dots came together in her mind and she realized what he had done. To think he had been the one warning her not to get them caught before the mission. She avoided his eyes, focusing her senses on calculating how long it’d take for them to catch up and find them.  The drone was frozen in place now and she recognized the model, it didn’t have audio sensors. She was safe, she could escape, without him constantly risking the mission.

She took a step back,  her vision returning to normal.

“Go, save yourself. You know what to do.”

She rolled her eyes then lifted them to where his would-be, wishing the technology to sense people’s emotions had been invented. Hunter was gonna do that. She stepped back again, “I know what to do, Jake.” She mumbled, she knew he couldn’t hear her as he turned around. He didn’t try to run or fight, he just accepted the inevitable with hunched soldiers and a lowered head. She pressed her lips together, every little odd thing that he had done since they entered the building built up. You’ve changed, Jake. You’re no longer the man I thought I knew.

As she turned away, she could hear his body crumble to the ground, then a truly ear-piercing scream passed from his lips but she didn’t turn around. She had a mission to finish.

I didn’t use the prompt directly, it’s implied throughout the text, but it did inspire a little plot twist (I needed to separate Jake and Deborah but I wasn’t sure how until I saw the prompt.) and my novel officially enters it’s last stages. I’m also just 3oo words from my monthly word count target.

Elisa

PS: sorry about the run-on sentences.

total word count now: 59607