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Travis had been looking forward to this trip since he was a teenager. It had taken quite a while to save the money, but in the meantime he had learned all he could about Kenya and its wildlife. He had devoted practically all of his free time and energy to becoming an expert on the subject and now he was here, about to take his first ever hot air balloon trip over the tantalizing landscape. His acute fear of heights were not going to be very helpful, but he steeled himself for the trip and was determined to enjoy the adventure. The pilot, Menzie directed him into the gondola and they were off. It was magnificent. They floated over high rock formations, trees, and grasslands of the savannah. He saw vast herds of wildebeest, antelope, zebra and other exotic animals. His adolescent fantasies had not even come close to the reality of the experience he was having and he felt a great sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. After they had been up for a few hours Travis heard Menzie swear and...

I sat on the beach watching the waves roll in. I was on a small tropical island somewhere in the Pacific. I had been there, marooned, for what I calculated to be somewhere close to two years. I had survived a plane crash and washed ashore later. I was accompanied by several pieces of luggage that I found while combing the beach over the next few days. I had never been in a survival situation before and had no training for it except watching several TV shows on the subject. I remembered some of what I’d learned on these shows and the information had helped to get established on the island. I had managed to build a shelter out of raw materials, build fire, and survive on crabs and cocoanuts. Later I had been able to cobble together some fishing gear and added fish, clams, squid, and other seafood to my diet. A few excursions to the inner island had led to the discovery of a freshwater source, some naturally growing tubers that were pretty good when fire roasted, and evidence of wild ...

Dina Ladner sat on the bed in her room, her packed suitcase beside her. She was leaving the Evergreen mental facility where she had lived for the past two years. Her time there had helped her to resolve issues around a great tragedy in her life, the massacre of her family. Three men had broken into the house one night. Dina heard them and hidden in her closet. She heard the men ordering her parents and her two brothers to the downstairs part of the house, then gunshots. The police had arrived and found her in her hiding spot in shock. As they walked her out of the house she was confronted by the bloody scene of her family’s murder and by their corpses lying in pools of blood, which had caused her total collapse. She had awakened two days later in a state mental ward surrounded by dirty gray walls echoing with the blabbering and screams of the mentally deranged. They had medicated her heavily and left her to sleep on a bed. Day after day passed and after she had been there a week, men c...

Lorcan sat in the room of the seedy motel, thinking about the upcoming gig. It was around eight o’clock and he would have to leave soon for the club. Start time was nine thirty. He got up and crossed the room and took a drink. Awful! Marla’s body was getting cold and the blood was not palatable when not warm. He hadn’t really hunted yet that evening. He had risen at dusk and gone out to pay the manager for the next week. As he returned to his room on the back side of the motel, the young woman had followed him. He was instantly aware of her, but let her follow just to see what would happen. As he approached his door she came up behind him and pointed a pistol into the small of his back. “Give me your fucking money and don’t make a sound or I swear to God I’ll kill you.” she said Lorcan found her threat to be positively hilarious. With his back still to her he began to shake with laughter. “Do you fucking think I’m kidding?” she asked “Oh no my dear” he said softly “I’m sure y...

Alice was tired. The baby had been born a couple of weeks earlier and Alice had not been sleeping well since the birth. Frank had not been much of a help so the burden had been on Alice, as usual. Alice loved Frank, but his time and energy were mostly spent trying to climb the ladder at work so Alice held down the fort pretty much. It was late afternoon and she had been dozing on the couch, little Mae strapped to her chest in a baby sling. The baby would be up soon and ready for feeding. Alice was not sure when Frank would be home from work. She needed to start thinking about preparing dinner, but she was not sure what he might want, nor what was in the house. It seemed like a long time since she had seen him. She would be glad when he got home. She went into the kitchen and started looking through the cabinets and refrigerator, trying to get a sense of what was available to cook for their evening meal. Soon, she could hear Mae beginning to cry for her dinner and sat down to try to bre...

Taz hung in the water surveying the deep water oyster beds all around him. This particular bed covered approximately two acres on the ocean floor and was bordered by a clam bed on one side and kelp forests on the other two. Taz worked worked at this facility and lived in a nearby hive. The hive was one of several in this territory and was inhabited by aqua-farmers, scientists, geologists, engineers, support staff, and theirs families. Some of these inhabitants were second generation and had been born here. The system of farms and hives existed throughout the world’s oceans and were officially territories owned and governed by above ground nations. By the mid-twenty first century nations struggling to deal with the ramifications of global warming and climate change, turned to the world’s oceans in search of answers to the problems plaguing mankind. Serious work began to try to explore the oceans, establish sea borne farms and habitats and to search for new sources of pollution free ener...

The plantation known as Belleview occupied five thousand acres of land. The main house and estate was located Northeast of where the city of Richmond is today, about ten miles from the Rappahannock river. The plantation was founded in 1741 by a British aristocrat named Benjamin Ffolkes when it was granted to him by charter from the Crown. Ffolkes was a successful businessman and trader who came from a long line of businessmen and traders. His father was a member of Parliament and held various positions in the government as had several of his other relatives. To say that he was well placed in British society would have been an understatement. Before leaving for the colonies Ffolkes took a young wife, Abigail Sunders, a young woman from Surrey whose father had achieved modest supplying the Royal Navy with lumber for ships. She was a beautiful young woman with a caring disposition. After making the crossing a small cabin was built to house the family while the new plantation manor was bei...