‘Is it true it was aliens from Venus that designed this place?’ asked Sam, looking at the photograph of the strange building.
‘So the guy who built it said,’ answered Earl. ‘He also said it could time travel, so I wouldn’t trust him too much. Called them Integration structures.’
‘Well, it will do for us until the storm blows over. Remote, no questions asked and no police.’
They carried on driving through the dusty landscape. Just passed the small town of Landers Earl pulled up at the end of a half-mile queue of cars.
‘Wait here,’ he told Sam. He walked to the gate of the Integration Sanctuary Commune, where a harassed woman was turning people away. Earl pushed his way to the front.
‘What’s going on?’ he asked.
‘Sorry Earl,’ Mel said.’I know I said you could come and lie low here, but we’re full up. Seems people are looking for an alternative before the inauguration next week.’

Written for ‘What Pegman Saw’, a weekly prompt based on a view from Google Maps. The idea is to write a piece of fiction of around 150 words based on the prompt. Full details can be found HERE.
For more stories based on this week’s prompt, visit HERE.
Wikipedia information on the extraordinary Integration building HERE.
34 responses to “INTEGRATION”
Oh that’s great. I’m going to hide out there too!
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Don’t normally dabble in political stories but as soon as I saw the name of the building I thought it had to be a story around Trump and his policies…
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Ha! Good one. 😀
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Many thanks 🙂
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Nicely done Iain. I thought at first they were on the run from the law or something similar – now I see it’s something much worse … 🙂
Weird place, isn’t it? Looks amazing inside, though as to its ability to link to alien life forms – I’d say the jury’s out
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Thanks Lynn, very strange place, I wasn’t aware of it until this prompt. They could be on the run from the law too, but ultimately we all might want to hibernate for the next 4 years or so 🙂
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Any room left for the rest of us, do you think? 🙂
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Building more Integration structures as we speak 🙂
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Haha! Just make sure my name’s on the list 🙂
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I love the whole story of the Integratron. The guy was so convinced he was going to live forever (right up until he died.) I really want to see this place. It’s in a lot of music videos. Nice tie-in to today’s cyberpunk dystopia!
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Thanks, great prompt. Wasn’t aware of it until now, fascinating slice of weird history!
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LOL! Oh that ending was perfect 🙂
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Thanks, glad you enjoyed 🙂
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Hmm. I normally avoid these sorts of comments but I would want to hang out somewhere else for the inauguration too. Well said.
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Thanks Graham, I try to avoid too, but it’s hard to avoid or not say something at the moment.
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Indeed. Troubled times
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Dear Iain,
I think I’d like to just hide out indefinitely. Stop the earth, I want to get off. Nicely done.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Thanks Rochelle. It’s certainly interesting times. Whatever else, I haven’t seen anything like it before…
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Time travel? I WANT to believe…let me in!
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Me too, sounds awesome. Way better than the reality!
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Too funny. My post originally centered around a time travel before the election but they were thwarted by Russian operatives and morphed into an escape forward in time but neither made me laugh so I deleted them. We do you suppose we both thought of escaping from the coming four apocalyptic years?
Good stuff,
Tracey
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I’m still hoping it will be something less than apocalyptic. There are enough serious politicians around him to stop the worst of it. Right?… Certainly provides material to write about.
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I sure hope so Iain.
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Haha very funny. How many Americans can you fit in one of those buildings?
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Not enough it seems, maybe more need to be built! 🙂
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I think for sure!
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I loved the political twist at the end. Can I hide out there, too! Great story.
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Thanks Debra, glad you liked it.
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Noooo! It can’t be full. I want to join them. Great story Iain.
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Thank Alicia, a lot of people seem to want to join them…
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If the thing really is capable of time travel, maybe all these folks are wanting to change history. Given the history of the structure and its creator, I don’t seriously think that’s going to happen.
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Afraid so James, wishful thinking on their part.
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Hi Lain, I too write about the structure but that was more gory , to do with murders, that is. Yours was escapist and i really enjoyed it. Can i buy the franchisee rights to Integration for Asia. We desperately need some, at least in the Indian sub-continent, what say!
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Well, I think the rights are available. If you can get the time travel feature up and running it would be a gold mine! 🙂
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