Ways to Die

Provrb1810meggy · Mar 11, 2007

In my new WIP, I have three people die in a car crash, but I had someone die in a car crash in my other book. The car crash thing is too unoriginal. I want a different death-causing scenario.

Anyway, all three people have to die together, somehow on their way to a convenience store for soda or at or around said convenience store. I wouldn't like for them to get shot, because then it brings in some different issues, seeing as they would've had a killer. Preferably, it would be an accident of some sorts or a natural disaster.

Any ideas?

Anya Smith · Mar 11, 2007

How about a tornado. They're unexpected, there's rarely sufficient warning, and you can find them in the inner states as well along the coastline.

MarkEsq · Mar 11, 2007

How about...?

Bridge collapse?
Car-jacking gone wrong?
Convenience store robbery gone wrong?

Good luck!

Vanatru · Mar 11, 2007

Sinkhole? Running into would suck.

Raining out, car hydro across roadway and into ditch, car flips, all occupants drown or are crushed. Seen that happen, it's kinda icky.

If it's a livestock/agricultural area; car is humming along at night and runs right into cow or horse/s crossing road. Depending on speed it'll kill the cow/horse, wreck the car, and may involve having the drives/occupants be transported for medical help or to the morgue. Seen that happen, it's amazing how much damage running into a cow/horse/moose will do.

Also running into a combine or tractor sucks.

During a storm, large trees can be knocked down and obstruct the roadway. At night, or coming around a corner can make for a deadly trip.

Or during storm, strong gust of wind can blow car off roadway into gultch, canyon, pit of rancors, or the comedy cabaret. All fatal if you do it right.

paprikapink · Mar 11, 2007

Lightning?
Construction crane falls over?
One of those long ladder firetrucks, with the driver in the back, loses control and hops the curb and crushes them? (that happened in San Francisco when I was a kid; the memory lingers)

rugcat · Mar 11, 2007

Natural gas explosion.

Believable, not common but not rare, can happen anywhere: gas station, convenience store, home, office building, etc.

Elodie-Caroline · Mar 11, 2007

Eating at Macdonald's could kill them all off; it gave me food poisoning once, it's the only time in my life I've had to call the Dr for a house call... I've never eaten it since. But where I was used to eating my mum's home cooking, all I got was feeling sick, guts-ache and wind from the McDs anyway LOL

Or how about a drunk driver runs into the three of them as they are walking through the car park to the store, that kind of thing happens with drunk drivers, and thye get away with a very small sentence.

Elodie

Vanatru · Mar 11, 2007

Terrorist attack?

Someone flys a plane into their car as they're waiting in line at McDonalds for a hamburger (made from a cow hit by a firetruck, driven by a drunk who carjacked it).

blacbird · Mar 11, 2007

You need to read Chuck Shepard's column "News of the Weird", which is carried by a lot of weekly newspapers nationwide. He runs a regular feature titled "Undignified Deaths". Today I saw a story there on a guy in Wisconsin or Michigan, I forget which, who's been complaining loudly for a long while about the need for the local authorities to remove a tree stump from a lake which he regarded as a menace to local snowmobilers. He died after running into that very tree stump on a snowmobile.

On second thought, in fiction, nobody would believe it.

Never mind.

caw

Excelsior · Mar 11, 2007

The dam breaks. Floods ensue.

Lady · Mar 11, 2007

A plain part like an engine or better yet a toliet seat could fall on them, sometimes that happens and smoosh the car. Or an asteriode form space crashes into and kills the driver, causing the car to flip and everyone to die. Or there was a train that had chemicals in it crash and they were next to it, and died of inhalition poisoning, could be creepy while driving you can have birds drop out of the sky and hit their car causing them to pull over in the hot zone. Or someone moved the construction signs and they fall off a cliff and exploid. That's all I got now.

Bmwhtly · Mar 12, 2007

Local gang decides to wage war on the foreign-run convenience store.
Your 3 aren't inside when the bomb goes off, but the explosion throws them into the street as well as disrupting the grid so the lights go out. Hence, it's dark when the fire crew arrives and runs over the three of them.
*Ker-splat*

Elodie-Caroline · Mar 12, 2007

LOL At least the claret won't ruin the paintwork on the fire engine!

Angelinity · Mar 12, 2007

how about adding a little suspense to your plot -- depending on the genre...

the car and its occupants disappear on the way to the convenience store... thus you can add a subplot to the entire story and leave it to resolve late into the main plot... what happened?? take your pick: they had been highjacked --the car finally turned up in a bank robbery gone bad, bodies found in the river months later (build any subsubplot you can muster around this -- the highjacker's gun discharged by mistake, killing one of them, another had a heart attack as this happenned and the third... well you can come up with something)...

...or no trace of them was ever found except for tire tracks on the road pointing to brakes being applied suddenly... then nothing... UFO abduction?...

...or the car, with three carbonised skelletons inside, is found 50 miles from where they were supposed to be ... no evidence of arsen... spontaneous combustion???

have some fun with it

Tsu Dho Nimh · Mar 12, 2007

Car crashes are VERY common. They could be walking and be hit by a car ... driver is drunk, has heart attack, fleeing the cops ... something like that. They could be driving and be broadsided by a speeding vehicle running a red light (same driversituations.)

Provrb1810meggy · Mar 12, 2007

Thanks for the ideas everyone. Now I just have to pick one!

Vanatru · Mar 12, 2007

I'll forgoe the royalities and such if you use my ideas.

Tigger · Mar 13, 2007

We recently had a hailstorm that was concrentatred over 4 subburbs and landed 2m of hail in 30mins, it was insanse, all the city flooded and cars got boged. It was a freak super strom cell apraently. Now that would be a mad scary way to die, Car crashed and beaten by hail.

Vincent · Mar 13, 2007

I think car crash can work and be non-cliche if you make it different, unexpected and shocking enough.

Tornadoboy · Mar 13, 2007

How about having all three getting bludgeoned to death by a crazed author wielding a hardcover book?

Vanatru · Mar 13, 2007

They say, late at night, along this deserted section of road; that many years ago this writing was coming home from an AW book signing.

Well, at the signing he was spurned by this queenly woman. Full of anger and turmoil he wasn't paying attention to the road like he should have.

It was late, at night. A bit of ground fog had risen. He was going about a corner, not noticing that he'd drifted a bit into the oncoming lane.

He didn't see the semi till it was to late. His little gremlin was thrown from the road and into the trees.

The rescue people who arrived on scene noted that the crashed semi had spilled it's load. Case after case of pirated Harry Potter, part 7, books lay scattered about.

In the ensuing scramble for copies, they forgot about the lonely writter, laying in his mangled gremlin. Slowly bleeding to death.

And years later, his ghost haunts that section of road.........waiting for unwary drivers..........with his hardback copy of Harry Potter, part 7. So he can bludengoned them to death.

Now, none of us really know if Queen Jeanie spurned that man.........nor if her evil henchmen, who shall remain nameless (Rllgthunder & DClare), were a factor in it.........whooooo knooooweeeeessss

Bmwhtly · Mar 14, 2007

Provrb1810meggy said:
Thanks for the ideas everyone. Now I just have to pick one!

Don't worry about payment, name your next six kids after me.

Ways to Die

Provrb1810meggy

Anya Smith

House Dragon

MarkEsq

Clever title pending.

Vanatru

practical experience, FTW

paprikapink

Bored fanatic

rugcat

Lost in the Fog

Elodie-Caroline

Vanatru

practical experience, FTW

blacbird

Excelsior

Don't panic.

Lady

Bmwhtly

Yes, I'm back.

Elodie-Caroline

Angelinity

absent

Tsu Dho Nimh

Provrb1810meggy

Vanatru

practical experience, FTW

Tigger

Vincent

Cheers

Tornadoboy

I bite

Vanatru

practical experience, FTW

Bmwhtly

Yes, I'm back.