First Lines

If I can grab you with the first line, should I?

I'm hearing a resounding, "Yes!" Still, a while back I submitted a couple of first lines to a little online contest and was rejected because the lines were too vulgar. Neither contained a word of profanity or a sexually-suggestive term. I even stayed away from religion and politics. Still, I somehow managed to achieve vulgarity. Not bad, right?

Both of the stories from those two rejected first lines have gone to to print, which just proves to me that you can't please everyone. I already knew it, of course, but I still like a little confirmation.

Below are the first lines from a few of my stories. The two other-than-nonvulgar ones are included. See if you can guess which they are.

Like a dumbass I tried to swing the handheld digicam around to show my face, the face of the friendliest damned killer whale in the sea, and the camera picked that moment to slip from my grip and land with a crack on the tile floor.
"Childish Things" from Eye Witness: Zombie

A cold steel blade against his throat never felt good.
from an unpublished work-in-progress

Khalid flexed his new hand inside the gauntlet of his assault weapon.
"And Kill Them" from Battlespace

Why was she always dead?
from an unpublished work-in-progress

Everyone remembers where they were the day magic returned.
"Headhunter" from Flush Fiction

The stench roused him before the sound.
from an unpublished work-in-progress

Bellamy closed his eyes and counted to ten. The sound of his own breathing inside the bulky, fishbowl helmet was deafening and he was sure he was going to lose the contents of his stomach any second.
"Loss of Vector" from Zombie Zoology

"She said the little one spoke."
from an unpublished work-in-progress

The visions didn't care if his eyes were closed.
"Voidbreaker" from Encounters Magazine

Maddie squeezed the trigger and tufts of fur rained down on the hilltop.
from an unpublished work-in-progress

Oh, my God. They ate him.
"Meat Machine" from Wicked Bag of Horror

Mars smelled like a fart.
from an unpublished work-in-progress

Hailey peeked out her window at the leaves falling from the sky. The dirt and smoke in the air made her eyes itch and burn. 
"Teddy and the Last Girl on Brighton Street" from The Last Man Anthology

Nash guided the phone with both hands into its cradle.
from an unpublished work-in-progress 

Redemption was a joke.
"Head of the Pin" from Ultimate Angels