Day 37: Puzzle — The Shark Agenda

Write about putting together the pieces of puzzles.

Her hands were shaking as she arranged her last few pieces in front of her. This was the home stretch. Nothing else mattered but this.

She heard a noise to her left but didn't turn to look. She couldn't afford the distractions. She concentrated on the large, glowing puzzle ahead of her. It may look like your standard 150-piece puzzle but it wasn't.

For one, there was no print on it. It was completely blank, devoid of color. The only disruptions on the surface were the lines separating each piece. It also had timers on each piece that counted down from thirty seconds.

If she didn't place the pieces in their correct spots before the timer went off, she got an electric shock in various parts of her body. If she placed the piece in an incorrect spot before the timer goes off, she gets an electric shock all over her body. If she takes too long to select a piece, she gets an electric shock inside of her, courtesy of the nanotech she unknowingly swallowed. If she refuses to complete the puzzle at all....

She closed her eyes and tried to block out the scared whimpers.

If she refuses to complete puzzle at all, someone she loves will die. She learned that the hard way in the beginning when they shot her close neighbor of six years in front of her. They allowed her to scream and cry for about five minutes before they lined up her cousin in front of her. She didn't make the same mistake twice.

She took a deep breath, opened her eyes and picked up another piece. The red flash indicated that the timer was counting down. She only had 13 pieces left. She was in the home stretch. Nothing else mattered but this.

“Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.”