Apparently a piece of micro fiction is 100 words or less, although some places on the internet say 200 or 300. This piece is 124 words, so I’m calling it micro because I figure it’s close enough. Let me know how you like it and maybe I’ll do more micro/flash fiction.

The pollution wasn’t bad the day they found the body.

Young Sue spotted it first, hunched over against a tree. Just another Unfortunate, except this one wasn’t coughing. They all cough.

Jack was the one to poke it with a stick, and the figure fell over. The siblings stepped back, revolted, even through their gas masks.

“Let’s go,” Sue said, because she didn’t remember a time when Unfortunates were human. Jack remembered, so he hesitated, but that time was long gone.

“Will animals eat it?” Sue asked as they left. She had been worried about animals eating them earlier.

Jack shook his head. “They don’t like the taste of Unfortunates.”

“I can’t blame them,” Sue said.

Jack took his little sister’s hand and said nothing.

Photo by Daniel Ramos on Unsplash