Today, my story characters crashed in a blinding snowstorm in the Cascades and were forced to participate in one of those “prioritize these twelve items to ensure your survival” group bonding simulations. As bad as the (fictitious) crash was, the (real) group dynamics were far worse. Not only did we take four times longer to complete the exercise than the other groups crashing in the same snowstorm, we also chose self-destruction — whiskey, a handgun, and an aeronautical sectional map were involved — as an alternative to survival and having to put up with each other for another few days.
I’m slightly over 5,000 words…