Patrick gave me this pic as a writing prompt. It’s a first draft I made on the fly. It takes place in this context. Here goes:
Kristi stood up for a moment, both hands soothing the small of her back as she looked over the water to the nearby Islets of Brentwood. She didn’t want to stop working just yet, but her lower back objected to long stints hunched over the computer.
She sighed and peered at the colour staining the sky near the horizon. Night was coming. Even though she tried all the usual tricks to boost the battery life on her solar powered laptop– working outside in daylight, placing a lighted candle nearby– she usually ran out of juice before she ran out of tasks. Her Proctor was particularly unforgiving when some of her work was unfinished. She dreaded the audit scheduled for next week.
Kristi wished she could forestall nightfall. Anything that would allow her device to absorb and store a bit more power for use in the darkness would be welcome. But that wasn’t the only reason she was dreading the coming darkness. Tonight was her night to patrol. The overnight patrol shift on Coquitlam Island was increasingly dangerous. Six months ago, citizens had started whispering about something in the woods. Whether it was man or beast, no one could say. Whatever it was, it was dangerous. Patrollers had disappeared entirely. One victim’s feet were still inside her boots when they were discovered, ragged strings of tendon and sinew dangling from them like obscene tongues. Kristi shivered and typed faster.
Chloe Cocking 