GreatHites Bonus 19

Some times even the Dark Lord Hite makes mistakes. This time I forgot to include a story in the weekly podcast. Justin Lowmaster wrote a story.

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You can check out the text for this story on the discussion forum, in the link below.

Fading Horror
By: Justin Lowmaster

GreatHites Bonus # 16 High Moon

This an an encore performance of High Moon. Zach Ricks submitted this story to L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of The Future, and got an honorable mention. Way to go Mr. Ricks. You can find out more about this at the Mad Poet Files

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GreatHites Bonus 15

My Princess bonus story.

This bonus story belonged to the last episode hosted by Arlene, but I was late in getting the recording done. However, since I knew that the next piece would not make as much sense without this one, I felt like I needed to release it. So here you go.

My Princess Part 3
By Jeffrey Hite
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Great Hites October Bonus #1

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This week's Bonus Episode comes to use from:
Norval Joe


The Price of Friendship, episode 7
By: Norval Joe

Chad and his mother stood between the first base dugout and the nature trail that followed the creek through the oak trees. He was holding the black box in front of him and looking from its screen to the trees ahead of him.
"It's right there in front of us. It's right there, Mom. Can't you see it?" Chad was trying to convince his mother, as Amy's dad ran up behind them.
"She can't see it Chad. She's not holding the key. You have to hold the box to be able to see the gateway." He told them, slightly out of breath.
"Here, Mom. Take it and look. I'm not crazy." He shoved the game player into her hands.
"Point it over there and look." Chad said, pointing into the trees.
"Oh, Chad. It is there. No wait. Sorry, It's back." She said.
She turned to Mr. Snider, and continued, "It disappeared for a moment, but now it's back."
"That's not good. If won't be here much longer. Chad, you need to go now." Mr. Snider took the box from the hands of his mother and gave it to Chad.
"No, wait. Don't go Chad. We can figure something else out." Chads mother was frantic and angry. She was crying. The sight of the tears on her face stabbed him in the heart. She would be completely alone now; his older brother in Iraq and Chad, who knows where.
Mrs. Snider spoke for the first time, since arriving at the ball field. "Please, let him go. We need him to go. It's not just for Amy, there is more going on, but we don't have the time to go into it right here."
Chad looked toward the oak trees. He loved his mother and wanted to stay with her, but he also felt the need to go help Amy. He felt that need stronger than the need to stay. He felt guilt in putting his, or Amy's, need over that of his mother. While he battled with these emotions the gateway disappeared. The arguments of his mother and the desperate pleading of Mrs. Snider faded from his hearing as he panicked. The gate was gone and he had lost the ability to choose.
The gateway flickered back into view, was gone, and then back again. He didn't wait another second, but ran head long at the gateway. He vaguely heard his mother shout his name and he was through, into darkness and mist. He looked behind him and for only an instant, he saw the scene as if at a movie theater, from the back row.
The view of Amy's parents and his mother worriedly searching the trees closed and Chad was left alone in the darkness.
It was pitch black and reminded him of when he had gone with his cub scout pack to a cavern in the Sierra Nevada foothills. The tour guide turned off the lights to show the kids what absolute darkness was.
Chad scuffed his fee and felt dirt and grass through the soles of his running shoes. He closed his eyes and listened. He laughed and said out loud to himself, "I guess I don't need to close my eyes, it's dark enough already."
His voice didn't echo like it would in a cavern or an empty room, and when he listened closely he could hear the soft gurgling of the creek. If it wasn't the creek along the school, there was another one to his side.
He slowly turned in a circle and listened for other sounds, but there were none. No birds chirping or insects buzzing past. No people sounds either. At the school he could always hear cars driving past on the main street close by.
As he turned the box in his hands suddenly warmed and cooled again. He looked toward the box in the utter blackness and was surprised to find a small red bar flashing back at him.
Before he entered the portal the box displayed a small pulsing red dot. Its brightness had faded with each minute that Chad hesitated to enter the portal, warning of the its impending closure.
Now that he had gone through, there was a glowing red bar that gave off just enough light for Chad to see the sides of his thumbs as he held the box. The bar moved from right to left as Chad shifted his body from left to right. As the bar passed the center of the devices screen the box noticeably warmed in his hands, and then cooled as the bar moved onward to the edge of the screen.
With the bar centered and the box warm in his hands the burbling creek was to his right as it had been when he entered the gateway. Chad assumed that the box was telling to move forward in this direction. But to follow its direction would take him, where, further into the darkness?
Chad was at his first dilemma. He sat down where he was. He could feel the dry dirt of a trail underneath himself and the short grass off to the sides. He felt funny about sitting in the middle of what was obviously a path. Who knew, something could come rushing past and trip over him; or trample him, for that matter. Holding the device in one hand he felt around through the grass to the side of the path to insure that there was adequate sitting space, and moved well off the path, opposite the creek. As he felt around with his free hand he found the occasional dry leaf in the short moist grass, No obstruction prevented him from sitting cross legged in the grass to think.
He reviewed what he knew. The game device may or may not have been left intentionally, so he couldn't trust it. The box was a key to the gateway he had just passed through, and now it was telling him which direction it wanted him to go.
Mr. Snider had told him he would have to pass through a number of gateways, each one taking him to another dimension. Each gateway would need a key. Mrs. Walker had also told Chad to use the box sparingly.
Therefore, his choices were such: He could remain where he was and wait for something to happen, such as a key appearing or a helpful stranger to walk up with a flashlight; or he could follow the directions of the dubious box and walk blindly into the darkness. He wished he could ask someone for advice.
"Wait a minute. I can," he said and felt through his backpack for the cell phone. Logically, his mother and the Snider's were only feet away, though in another dimension. Perhaps they had left already, but it wasn't likely. Chad was sure that his mother was still standing in the spot where he had left her, arguing with the Snider's. She was a strong willed woman and Chad knew she wouldn't accept anything as just given.
He flipped open the cell phone and pressed the power button. The face of the phone lit up enough for Chad to see his hands. He turned it over and faced it toward the ground, but the light was far too weak to reach more than a few inches.
A small hourglass spun in a circle as the phone searched for a network signal. With in seconds all four signal bars lit up, showing a strong connection. Chad quickly punched in his mother's phone number and waited as it rang, once, twice, and "Chad," his mother asked, clearly astonished.
"Yeah Mom, it's me. I've crossed over, did you see me go," he asked?
"Yes. We saw you run into the trees and then...then you were gone." Her voice trailed off. She sounded desolate and Chad felt renewed guilt at leaving her all alone.
Then her voice was back, "Chad, you've got to come back. Now."
"Sorry, Mom. The gate closed behind me. I couldn't come back right now, if I wanted to. I was just testing the phone to see if it would work, from here to where you are. Oh. Tell Mr. Snider it's pitch dark here, I can't see a thing. But the box is telling me which way to go. Should I follow it?"
Chad heard his mother repeat his words to Amy's dad, not removing the phone from her mouth. She said, obviously speaking to Mr. Snider, "What do you mean he has no other choice? Be careful? All you can say is, 'be careful'?"
She was sounding hysterical, "Who wouldn't?" Chad thought. His mother had just seen him disappear from in front of her eyes, and now he was speaking to her on the phone, like he was just down the street.
"Mom. I'm sorry. I have to go. I don't want to burn up the battery. I'll text you when I know something. Text me if you want. I'll check a couple times a day to see if you sent anything. I love you Mom. Stick close to the Snider's, we all need to work together. I love you." His mother started to reply but Chad shut off the phone. He was afraid that if she started talking, she wouldn't stop and let him go.
"Follow the box and be careful. Not a lot to go on." He steeled his nerves and got back to his feet.

Bonus Episode - The fire Drill

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"The fire drill"
By Norval Joe

"How long do you think we'll have to stand out here," Jeff said to his co-worker.
"Enjoy the day, man," the older man said. "Look around. This morning there was a foot of snow on the ground. Now it's toasty warm. You can see the snow melting away."
Their manager ran from where he spoke with a fireman.
"Come on, we need to get out of here. Carbon monoxide set off the alarm. Not fire."
Asphalt from the parking lot stuck to their shoes as they ran to their cars.
Moments later the building collapsed into the newly forming volcano.


Fire Drill
By: Jeff Hite

"There is no way I am getting out of bed this time."
"Come on man what if it is a real fire"
"What like the last 12 of these, every week it is the same thing. A new group or trainees and the first thing they do is pull the fire alarm."
"Come on you know you have to get out of bed."
"not this time!"
They watched from the outside as the dorms burned and alarm system falsely proclaimed, " this is a drill this is only a drill."
"Don't you believe it." said the flaming corpses from their beds

Great Hites Bonus Episode - Abigail By :Guy David

Iridescent Angel, Part III: Abigail





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The morning light crept in through the half open window and awoke Abigail up. She stretched and yawned then started on her feet in alarm. The room looked oddly familiar, but for a moment she couldn’t remember where she was. It looked homely enough and she decided to wash her face and try to awake herself further that way. She was in a small bedroom with two adjacent doors. She tried one of them and found herself in a small bathroom. It had a mirror with a basin attached to it at the bottom. She approached the basin, intent on washing her face when she caught her own reflection in the mirror and cried out in surprise. While she had celebrated her 48th birthday not so long ago, her mirror reflection looked early 20’s. It all started coming back to her, passing the wall, being shot by her husband and awaking in this strange place with her daughter, shaped like an angel, watching over her. She remembered drifting in and out of sleep while her body was being mended at the Rejuv center. Was she still at the center? She washed her face and entered the bedroom again. This time she tried the other door.

As she went out of the room, she could hear a woman singing, her voice angelic. She climbed down some steps into a living room. Her daughter, Ebony was there, talking with another woman. Both where naked, glowing and had wings. “Don’t you ever wear cloths?” she asked Ebony in spite of herself. Ebony just chuckled and said “the wings make it a little difficult, anyway, there is no strict dress code here.” The other woman looked at her, curious. “This is Lindsay” said Ebony, “she saved me when one of the elders from the reservation tried to kill me 8 years ago. We’ve been friends ever since.” Abigail looked at her for a second, then she said “I just looked at myself in the bathroom mirror. Can you explain to me how come I look about 20 years younger?” It was Lindsay who spoke this time. “This is what we do in Rejuv. We keep people young and take care of their injuries. You wouldn’t believe what people do to themselves during gaming.” “Gaming?” asked Abigail, baffled. “This world is very different from the one we grew up in.” Said Ebony, “People who get themselves hurt can get themselves fixed in places like the Rejuv center. It’s amazing what we can do here.” “Eight years and you’re still amazed.” said Lindsay, smiling.

“I can hear the singing of angels” said Abigail, “Where is it coming from?” Ebony and Lindsay laughed out loud at this. “This is not an angel singing. It’s just a singer I happen to like. We can have any music play here. Here, would you like some classical music?” As she said that, the music suddenly changed. Abigail could hear the sound of throbbing violins and cheering trumpets. “How did you change the music?” she asked. “I just used my in-head-interface to tell the music playing device what I wanted.” Said Ebony. “In-head-interface?” asked Abigail. “You have allot to learn.” Said Ebony, “Our world is the world of technology. By kipping ourselves away from the world in our little reservation, we kept ourselves from all of the advantages of a modern world. Here we have longevity, we have ways to manipulate reality, to communicate better with each other. I can send my thoughts to someone on the other side of this planet, just by using my in-head-interface, a device that is installed in my head and acts as a communication and control center. This is only scratching the surface of what we can do here.”

“Are you hungry?” asked Ebony. A thin fog appeared in the middle of the room, quickly shaping itself into the shape of a table, laden with all sorts of goods. “You see” said Lindsay, “we can create anything we want, seemingly out of thin air.” Abigail stared at the table and the goods in amazement. “It’s the same technology the reservation walls are made off” said Ebony. Abigail looked at her, looked at Lindsay, then she nodded and started to speak slowly. “I understand now.” She said, “why we are being kept in the reservation by our leaders. You have been monitoring our people, but you haven't noticed what was really going on. The few have taken hold of the holy scriptures and are using them to control the many. Most of the people living in the reservation would leave it in the blink of an eye if they knew what was really going on here. I believe the reservation should be discontinued. The walls between our worlds should be no more. It is time our people joined the here and now.”

Great Hites Bonus Prompt

In an attempt to really confuse you, we are doing a Great Hites musical episode. Because this is something a little different, you have more time than normal and this will not replace any of the normal prompts.

Here is the deal. Get us a song, lyrics music and recording if you can, by August 31 on the subject of "Wiener Dogs." You know Dachshunds! Yeah those funny short little dogs.

The song must be an original and as always we will creative commons license it so you will retain all rights to republish it / preform it anywhere or way you like.

if you need some research material here are a couple of sites I found with a quick google search:





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http://www.thedachshundnetwork.com/doxtypes.htm
http://www.officialdachshundguide.com/Dachshund_Types/index.php
http://www.akc.org/breeds/dachshund/index.cfm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dachshunds





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Great Hites 52 Bonus Episode 3

Today you get a collection of short stories from the archive. Enjoy!

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Great Hites 52 Bonus Episode 2

I'm back with more bonus material. Life is good with bonus material don't you think.

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