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If your story is listed in the top 5 below, congratulations, you are among the 125 writers moving on to the 2nd Round kicking off at 11:59PM EDT this Thursday, April 11th!   Congratulations to everyone that submitted a story, narrowing down a top 5 in each heat was incredibly difficult and everyone should be proud for rising to the challenge and creating a story outside your comfort zone from scratch in 8 days.  We hope the challenge was inspiring and hope to see you in our next challenge!

#1 'Sweet Water' by Avital Isaacs SYNOPSIS - Two brothers are lost in the desert and only one of them knows why.

#2 'Gods of the Earth' by Paige Morimoto SYNOPSIS - When the hubris of an excavation team raises the ire of the local population, a helicopter pilot must decide if she is one of the team.

#3 'Sea Glass' by Hannah Thurman SYNOPSIS - Helicopter pilot Marietta Black wonders if she should give up expeditions to spend more time with her son. But when a job in remote Alaska goes wrong, she begins struggling with a larger problem: how to get home alive.

#4 'N571VR' by Meaghan Dolan SYNOPSIS - Two business partners find that the canyon is a dangerous place at night, but if you know where to look - you can find a way out.

#5 'A Questionable Party' by Raj Rajaraman SYNOPSIS - A search and rescue team attempts to help excavators who bit off more than they can chew.

#Honorable Mention 'Practice Makes Perfect' by Rosalind Malin SYNOPSIS - A young couple, Kristen and Sal, play a game of derring-do and physicality versus magic. But the game becomes deadly as the magic starts to work, and Kristen and Sal are forced to combine action and magic to take out the witches.

#Honorable Mention 'The Crush' by Shirley Chan SYNOPSIS - A routine flight to town from an excavation site ends in a crash, trapping the helicopter pilot in a pitch black cave underground. He explores his surroundings and yearns for a woman while the team outside prepares to dig him out.

#Honorable Mention 'The Heraldings' by Janelle Kingsley SYNOPSIS - In a rush to acquire a vial of the original DNA of the first human on earth which, if they are successful, will be used to create a vaccine to save the world from the Cadre, sisters Blair Heralding, daring helicopter pilot, and Dr. Angela Heralding, renowned archaeologist, take an adventure that is guaranteed to make your heart pound.

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