Sunday Snippet: Quelling Hunger

Is the holiday season in full swing at your house? It's definitely rockin' at mine. LOL

Holiday shows were something of a theme this week. The Flash and Arrow had their Christmas shows and I thoroughly enjoyed.

Teen Wolf is creeping me out with the riders. I kind of love the blend of old and new but really need to see some Stiles on my screen. Agents of SHIELD threw a total twisty twist in at the end of their episode. Can't wait for the hiatus to be over to see what's going to happen next.

The Librarians continues to make me happy. Also love The Talking Dead, especially when I skip the episode of The Walking Dead. I'm just not at all interested in Neegan and his machinations.

Legends of Tomorrow introduced the Legion of Doom and that makes me happy. Having Merlyn and company pop up now and again should keep things very interesting.

MacGyver also makes me happy. I love the reboot of Jack's character more than I can say.

The Great Holiday Binge Watch continues. I've made it through the complete Whoverse and look forward to the new special on Christmas Day. Started on NCIS and have the first two holiday episodes watched.

Also caught up on Murdoch Mysteries. I'm loving this season so much!

And that's it for television this week. Tonight's post is from Quelling Hunger, a novella that got a start with the two-word prompt, "eat me", but has taken on a life of it's own.

Here's the mini-blurb:

When a storm destroys the food warehouses in the city, Rita Steed and Fletch Lancaster are tasked with keeping the peace while half-rations are necessary until the rooftop gardens can produce more crops. Heading up the sector patrol, neither is certain they can maintain the status quo when quelling hunger seems to be impossible.

And a preview snippet…

Fletch warmed up the single dinner and poured two glasses of wine. Rita's dark humor concerned him. The haunted and hunted look in Rita's gaze spoke of upheaval on epic levels. Nothing rattled her. Usually.

Then again, the shortage of food brought out the worst in their denizens. More and more citizens were acting out over the half-rations. Fletch shook his head. People could do with less, but they didn't want to. How many scuffles had he broken up today? How many had Rita? They couldn't even work as a team anymore because the callouts were increasing on a daily basis.

Rita emerged from the shower area, a towel wrapped around her torso. "Showers are the best thing on the planet right now." She grabbed a white tank top and black knit pants, her comfort clothes, and quickly dressed.

Fletch put the entrée on the small table then retrieved the goblets. "Hey, I thought I was the best thing on the planet." He settled onto the chair and quirked an eyebrow.

Rita dropped down across from him. "Maybe after we've shared our food and had a couple glasses of wine, you can prove that to be true." Her lips curved in a sexy smirk.

Fletch grabbed a fork and speared a mouthful of food. "Challenge accepted." He popped the bite into his mouth and nodded for Rita to dig in.

She twirled her utensil between her fingers. "You know, we should stay home tomorrow. Let the morons go after each other." Stabbing a forkful of food, she frowned. "If the hospitals start filling up with injured people, at least they'd be off the streets and not causing problems. We don't have much room left in the holding cells." She popped the combination of beef and noodles into her mouth.

Fletch winced. "They've converted a former warehouse into a second facility. New cells went in today." He hated delivering the news.

Rita closed her eyes and heaved a sigh. "So, what? The plan is to keep everyone locked up until the harvest is completed?" She snagged another bite of the dinner. "That's crazy."

Fletch didn't disagree. "Yep. And the new location is across town, so they'll be shipping meals from the distribution center to the jail and the temporary holding cells." Which meant security would be a nightmare.

Rita picked up her glass and drained it. "Forget one more glass of wine. We're finishing the bottle."

Fletch refilled her goblet then lifted his. "Here, here." He clinked his rim against hers. "I see a lot of firestorm and binding spells in our future."

I'm having fun with this one. The conflict is slowly revealing itself and the sages are happy with where things are going.

That's it for this week.

Cheers!

Skye Ritchey