Writing Exercise 2.
Reminder:
Prompt 1
Rebecca sat in her hotel room looking out of the window. She’d just
turned the television off. She was bored with the constant chatter about
celebrities she didn’t know. Sean had told her to pick a surname as she
didn’t have one. On the island many people didn’t have last names, it
was common. Here, in London, she wouldn’t be able to function without a
second name. There would be forms to fill in, she’d need to register
with a doctor and dentist and look for work, no one was going to be able
to deal with her properly unless she had a second name.
---She
eventually set about the task of choosing a name for herself. Sean had
left numerous magazines for her to look through and an article about an
artist called Susan Towley had caught her eye. She read through the
piece about her move to Norfolk after a hectic life as a company
director. Apparently, Susan had wanted to be an artist from an early age
but different career opportunities cropped up or life’s usual obstacles
had always gotten in the way. Rebecca was feeling an affinity with
Susan Towley and decided she would take her name, well, her surname at
least.
Prompt 2
The fresh breeze and smell of the pine
trees were helping Rebecca to unwind. The past week had been
overwhelming for her. The move from the island to London was proving
difficult. Rebecca’s mother had been desperate to get her only daughter
off the island, and Rebecca had wanted to escape just as much, but now,
with reality hitting hard, she was glad to escape London, if only for a
while.
---She stood still, listening. She was missing this. Being
able to hear the sounds of the forest, sensing all around her, being at
one with nature. Her mother, Servaein, had taught her daughter all the
skills needed to survive in such an environment and this was going to
serve her well in her chosen career route. Whilst looking through some
magazines Sean had left with her, she saw a job opportunity in the
classifieds; the advertisement had been for a Forest Adventure Leader,
which involved teaching groups of children about forest shelter/survival
techniques. Sean’s organisation was going to provide all the references
and paperwork she would need to take up this opportunity and if the job
was offered to her, she would be starting the following month.
Prompt 3
Rebecca didn’t know what to do. It had been five hours since a group of children had wandered off on their own and it was now starting to get dark. She had only been in the job two months and thought that this was going to be a black mark against her before she’d even reached her six-month appraisal. She didn’t want to call her superiors, so decided on a very drastic action. She reached in her pocket and pulled out her mobile phone. His name popped up and she hesitated, should she do this or not? She decided to go for it; she pressed the screen and Sean answered. Once she’d explained the situation he calmed her down and said they’d be on their way as quickly as possible.
Prompt 4
Sean Tanner had called in a few favours and was now lead helicopter pilot of a small squadron of five. He had Brandy Taylor next to him who was flipping switches until she found the infra-red camera. The helicopter screen turned green and the way was visible. They arrived at Rebecca’s forest school in a formation and quickly adopted a planned search pattern.
Additional spy prompt.
Sean led Rebecca down some steps. She struggled to see as they wound downwards. The musty smell was causing her to shallow breathe.
---’We’re nearly there now,’ said Sean, realising that she was beginning to hold her breath.
---’I thought you said it was high tech?’ she said as they reached the bottom.
---’It is, but we have to use part of the old sewer to get there.’
---Rebecca looked down at her shoes but struggled to see if she’d stepped in anything. They were walking in the dried up sewer and there was more light available; every third wall light was illuminated and helped them pick their way along.
---’It’s just through this door,’ Sean said, pressing a small fingerprint reader. The door lock clunked and he pushed hard to open it. Inside the room was well lit and very modern looking compared to the Victorian sewer they’d just passed through.
---Rebecca was starting to have second thoughts about the training programme she was about to embark on. The forest school hadn’t worked out well once she realised she didn’t like working with children; although the ones that were sent to forest school acted more like delinquents than the regular well behaved children she was expecting. But now, she was thinking it was a case of out of the frying pan into the fire; literally, thinking about what she was about to do. She had agreed to attend operative training in the highlands of Scotland. Sean told her she’d be using all the latest tech including laser rifles, which sounded like something from a science fiction film. That was the attractive part, the less appealing part was she was about to board an experimental transportation chamber that would take her from London, where she was, to the highlands of Scotland in five minutes twenty-seven seconds. The pod could travel at approximately seven thousand miles per hour matching the speed of NASA's X-43A scramjet. Sean had assured her it was quite safe, although he was not sure how it worked.
---A
man met them once they’d entered the room. He was dressed like a
doctor and it came as no surprise to Rebecca that he was,
in
fact, a doctor.
---Sean Tanner sat next to Rebecca Towley on a hospital bed. The doctor filled a large syringe with an amber liquid from a small bottle and checked one last time if Rebecca was OK to go ahead with the journey north. Rebecca answered she wanted to go and the next things that happened seemed like a dream. She remembered Sean holding her hand and being pushed on a trolley. She could also remember seeing the pod they strapped her into; it was pure white, so white it blurred her vision. Then she remembered her stomach and the lurching feeling, a queasy sensation and then nothing.
---She opened her eyes and saw men coming towards her. They fussed around her and ticked off things on sheets of paper attached to clipboards. Once they were happy she was alright, they unstrapped her and held her up when her legs gave way. A wheelchair quickly appeared, and she was wheeled away with her head still swimming from the journey.
Continue the episode: Rebecca is now in the Scottish Highlands. She is about to start her operative training so that she can become a spy like her friends Sean Tanner, Alex Farrington and Brandy Taylor.
It took me a while to work out how to calculate the time of the journey from london to the Scottish Highlands as Mathamatics is not my strongest skill.
Hopefully I'm correct in my workings which use the speed of 7000 mph as a constant.
Speed calculation for spy prompt.
Question.
If travelling at 7000 mph how long would it take to get from London to the Scottish Highlands.
You can travel 7000 miles in 60 mins (1 Hour)
7000mph / 60mins = 116.6 miles per minute.
568.87 miles is the Distance from London to a particular destination in the Scottish Highlands
So 568.87 / 116.6 = 4.87mins
Which is 5 Minutes 27 Seconds to travel from London to the Scottish Highlands @ 7000mph.