A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 22

This is the 15th year in a row I’ve run this series in April.

Today’s story idea: “Fortifying the American home has become big business, selling escape tunnels, secret arsenals — and even flammable moats.”

This last photo? That’s the flammable moat.

Film fans will likely recall the movie Panic Room.

By the way, the movie was based on a spec script which sold for a reported four millions dollars.

A lot of these expensive bunkers are located in remote rural areas. As I thought at this as a story conceit, my mind hit on another movie: Parasite.

Remember how the family “takes over” the house while the owners are away for a day or two?

What if our story is about a desperate family? Houseless. Mother, Father, adolescent daughter, ten-year-old son. Traveling from town to town looking for work, struggling to keep their van running. It’s their transportation. It’s their home.

Early in Act One, the parents agree to a deal: They will transport some sort of illegal drugs across state lines to a dealer a thousand miles away. Their pay? Two thousand dollars. As I say, they’re desperate.

They travel by night on back roads, like really remote roads. Until they tires all blow out. They get out of the van. They’ve driven across metal spikes which popped up from below the surface of the road when their van tripped an electronic light detector.

Why this trap out in the middle of nowhere?

Their eyes land on a huge building. It’s been built to blend into the environment like some sort of camouflage.

They walk across a bridge which crosses over a man-made creek which encircles the compound.

They check out the building. No one’s around. They wheel the injured van across the bridge and position it in the back so as not to be seen by anyone from the road.

They enter the house … and it’s incredible. [Here’s where the Parasite angle comes into play]. At first, they revel in their good fortune. Fresh food in massive refrigerators. Booze. Luxuriate in ultramodern showers.

They living the high life. That is until they discover … they can’t leave. The doors and windows all go into lockdown mode.

Now they’re stuck inside this building with hidden rooms … secret passageways … and increasingly terrifying events …

There’s my 22nd story idea this month.

Previous articles in this year’s series:

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13
Day 14
Day 15
Day 16
Day 17
Day 18
Day 19
Day 20
Day 21

Here are links to previous series:

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2017)

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2018)

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2019)

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2020)

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2021)

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2022)

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2023)

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2024)

Note: The articles from 2010–2016 have corrupted URLs. I am in the process of cleaning those up.

Each day in April, I invite you to join me in comments to do some brainstorming. Take each day’s story idea and see what it can become when we play around with it. These are valuable skills for a writer to develop.

See you in RESPONSES to hear YOUR take on this story idea. And come back tomorrow for another Story Idea Each Day For A Month.