“Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please”.
The young guide leads us through the hall of artifacts from human atrocities.
There are instruments of torture to the left: an iron maiden, whips and racks.
I pull Amelia closer, needing her warmth.
To the right are weapons of war, mortars and mines.
Dioramas show humans in pain, being burned, being skinned.
At the far end we stop in front of an innocent device.
The guide lowers her voice.
“This is a smartphone”.
We shiver as the guide moves a tentacle through her auburn hair.
“Finally we had to save them from themselves”.
© Roger Bultot
This picture took me to a future remodeled version of the Met. Maybe we will be saved in the end.
Friday Fictioneers have redefined Friday to Wednesday, a great day to write Flash Fiction, great job with that Rochelle. We all need inspirations to write and this community is the best for flash fiction.
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June 6, 2018
Björn Rudbergs writings 
Yikes!
Double yiekes… but they seem to benign despite the tentacles.
Never trust an alien with tentacles. Too much like snakes.
I like to think we will be saved. But by our own efforts
I hope so…
Future shock I see? Do people all have tentacles there?
Or we get overrun but those tentacled aliens.
Yikes indeed
Indeed we’ve done terrible things…
Maybe there’s still hope that we can save ourselves via our own devices. Ha ha
Ha… or without devices
YIKES! I hope that isn’t what happens to us!! I do worry about everyone walking around with those things attached to our ears!
The danger we hold so close!
Oh, that was a great story! So unexpected – thanks for surprising me.
Susan A Eames at
Travel, Fiction and Photos
Aliens or Smartphones, which is the greater evil? Tough call…
Ha ha, what a great twist ending! And yes, many days I think we could use a little saving by the aliens!
Nice!
🙂
Ummm… tentacles? Keep away from me…
They walk among us already today…
I have to ask: do you really believe this?
🙂
Oh good. Was worried there for a second!
great idea to go into the future like this – and I also wonder what the smart phone will look like in movies when we look back (you know – if we have a chip in our hand for our phone and bank info)
also – not sure if this is right –
lead us through the hall of artefacts
should it be
led
artifacts
?
I did some other changes to make it consistent… all is now written in present tense.
well I was not sure if it was a voice thing – so I was just checking in – thanks for the reply my friend
A world without smartphones – bring it on! Great take Bjorn
Click to read my FriFic tale
Ha… growing less smart by using a smart device
It was the smartphone that did it. That I can understand. Wry one, Bjorn.
All humanity enslaved by our own device.
Nice twist! The smartphone was the final straw 🙂
Ouch! I applaud your vision, Bjorn.
I’ve been resisting buying a smartphone and now I know why.
Your usual cheery offering, Bjorn, expertly delivered as always
Made me smile 🙂
So true… so true. Smart Phones are unseen UFO invaders!
Oh, boy! I love this story. From terror to TERROR! Wonderfully done.
Let’s hope they started with Trump.
The smartphone could only show his tweets in the end.
Wonderful twist.
they’re here. i might even be one without knowing it. read this post i wrote a while back: https://wp.me/p6FwZ-IY
Imaginative take. Enjoyed this.
You’ve written an ingenious take on the prompt, Bjorn. I really hope we don’t have to wait for aliens to save us.
Our prominent music producer, Simon Cowell, announced this week he has dumped his smart phone. Mind you, I am sure he has an army of assistants with smart phones.
Dear Björn,
This left me with a cold chill between my shoulder blades. Cell phones….a blessing and a curse. Well done, sir.
Shalom,
Rochelle
I can see that we are enslaved by computers… just click accept.
I’d laugh but…click
EEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKK!
You give me the shivers!
Shivers!
I went to a museum in Germany that showed a lot of instruments of torture. No cell phones, though. They hadn’t been invented yet 🙂
Delightfully unsettling. The mood in this gave me the shivers, so the tentacles were light relief 🙂
I love this, especially the tentacles in combination with auburn hair. I bet they look quite stunning, these benevolent Aliens. Great twist.
Yep. That’s it. And so mankind is saved.
That tentacle was a master touch!
I was so sure the phones themselves would do us in.
Lobe it! A fun but dusturbing story
Ha! I love that the smartphone is next to weapons of war. And aliens have saved us! Great story Björn
Ha! That the smartphone is the most evil object of all – very good, Bjorn
Ha Ha …. we can’t live with them and we certainly can’t live without them. I wonder what our future selves will be talking into. Shoes … like that show I can’t remember right now. Nice twist from the other stories I’ve read, Bjorn. Excuse me, ” I think I hear my Smartphone calling”. hahaha
Isadora 😎
Excellent and chilling story and commentary. And I agree.
Thank you for sharing! I have a blog tea party on the 3rd and I’m encouraging my blog readers to drop their link off on my posts. Would you care to share your world with us?