Lockdown Dreams

By Gary J Byrnes

Ten flash fiction tales that surfaced in the feverish dream of Covid-19 on Planet Earth. Enjoy! Gary J Byrnes, January 2021.

The stories:

Signals
That day we brought Walt Disney's head back to life
Abe
Inspiration
The Meaning of Life
How the zombie apocalypse happened
Chatbots
Factory ship
The hero

Signals, excerpt

At first, the signal was faint and incoherent. It manifested as a different kind of static, picked up by certain empty comms channels. The normal static is the background noise of the Big Bang, echoing across time and space. This had a different shape, a different tone. Some noticed the difference, thought That’s odd. Most didn’t pick up on the ‘alien static’, as it came to be called, until it was pointed out to them.

With much of the planet’s inhabitants soon fixated on the alien static, it quickly became clear that there was a multitude of different signals. Then some scientist figured it out and the signals came into instant, sharp focus. The images were monochrome, clearly from a different world. They looked like us, which was the big revelation. They spoke a language that made no sense. The world they lived in seemed very undeveloped.

The alien tv receivers hit the market in no time and soon every home had one...

Grab Lockdown Dreams now and see what happens next!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gary J Byrnes
• Release date: Jan 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005523671

Gary J Byrnes

When you buy any of Gary's books, he will fund a hemp plant through his planet-saving, hemp offset and sustainable living platform at Hempoffset.com. Read a thriller, be the thriller, save the world.LOCKDOWN DREAMS is flash fiction by GARY J BYRNES, writer of number one bestselling thriller 9/11 TRILOGY and Crime Writers’ Association Dagger-nominated PURE MAD. Gary works in aviation and space tech marketing and founded sustainability platform Hempoffset.com, crowdfunding a solution to the climate crisis with hemp. Lives in Dublin, Ireland, loves travelling in Europe and America. Ambition is to write The Great Novel of the 21st Century.Favourite writers include George Orwell, Yuval Harari, David Mitchell, Hunter S Thompson, Norman Mailer and Philip K Dick. When not at his laptop, Gary enjoys cooking, encountering great art, exploring cities and trying to make the world a better place, one story at a time.

Book preview

LOCKDOWN DREAMS

By Gary J Byrnes

First published in 2021 by Gary J Byrnes.

Copyright 2021 © Gary J Byrnes.

Ten flash fiction tales that surfaced in the feverish dream of Covid-19 on Planet Earth.

The right of Gary J Byrnes to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright & Related Rights Act, 2000. All rights reserved.

In this work of fiction, the characters, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or they are used entirely fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

PET was first published as part of FUTURE SHOCKS by Gary J Byrnes, 2019.

Cover design by Finian Reilly.

Cover image credit: Tiko Giorgadze, https://unsplash.com/photos/WSH-upIXDNA.

Interior image credit: NASA Hubble, deep field.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is distributed for your personal enjoyment. This ebook may not be re-sold, but it may be given free to other people as long as it is not edited in any way. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Stories by Gary J Byrnes, in print-on-demand and digital formats, available from all good online retailers.

The clock is ticking… humanity is doomed to extinction because of the selfish greed of a tiny few… but then technology unites with sustainability… a hero is born. The hero is you. Be the thriller. Be the hero. The real story continues at www.Readathriller.com

Dedicated to all who fight for human liberty, equality and a sustainable future. We need to critically evaluate capitalism, with its often insane, self-defeating race to extract maximum value from nature. Until we find true balance and equality as a species, with respect for nature, then the viruses and pandemics will keep on coming. Until, eventually, a virus will appear and we won’t find a vaccine or treatment. Then we’re over. Right now, it’s the Covid-19 virus or us. In our future, it’s nature and us.

Gary J Byrnes, January 2021.

Table of contents

Signals

That day we brought Walt Disney's head back to life

Abe

Inspiration

The Meaning of Life

How the zombie apocalypse happened

Chatbots

Factory ship

The hero

Do one thing...

LOCKDOWN DREAMS

Gary J Byrnes

'It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.'

Alice, from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

'I try to create fantastical things, magical things, things like in a dream.'

Salvador Dalí.

Signals

At first, the signal was faint and incoherent. It manifested as a different kind of static, picked up by certain empty