When the Rains Came part 8


“What’s going on?” Annie held the door open as Drew and Stephen carried in boxes from the car.

“We need to fortify the apartment. There isn’t a storm shelter nearby and we still have a few more weeks to survive.” Stephen set his box in front of the large glass patio doors.

“There’s a lot of windows in here,” Drew said. “We need to board them up. Hail is one of my big concerns. It’s angry, I can feel it in the air. It didn’t get everyone at the building like it wanted. I’m expecting a tantrum soon. I wish we were downstairs, but we’ll deal with what we’ve got.”

“We really do appreciate you letting us stay here.”

The brothers went back to the car for another load of boxes before Annie could reply. She glanced around the full living room and fought off the feeling of being overwhelmed. A few days ago she hadn’t been able to get off the couch, but now there was so much going on in the apartment that she hadn’t had the chance to sit much at all. This was a positive change. Action was good.

The next few hours went by in silence as they went to work. They boarded up the windows and set up baskets full of bluebonnets in the corners of each room. Drew hung up his bulletin boards on the kitchen wall and Annie gaped at all the missing posters he’d collected.

“Did you know all of these people?” she said.

Drew scanned the faces and his eyes rested on his sister’s. “Most of them, yes. Some better than others.”

Stephen stepped forward and added a new poster. Annie felt the tears welling up in her eyes as she stared at Trey’s smiling face. The face she would never be able to see again. She didn’t want to cry, she’d done enough of that over the last few weeks. She reached out a hand to touch the picture and choked back the sob.

“We need to do something!” Annie said after the emotional silence.

“What do you mean?” Stephen collapsed into a chair, rubbing his eyes.

“We have to kill it. It can’t keep taking people!”

The brothers exchanged a look. They’d wanted to do that for years. Ever since it had taken Nora. They’d fantasized about taking it down, not just to save the town, but to avenge their sister.

“Any ideas?” Drew asked.

“I don’t know… Guns, fire….a bomb! Anything.”

“I like where your brain is at, but we have just one problem.”

“What?”

“We have to find it first.”

*

The sun was just beginning its descent when the sky turned green. The wind picked up, blowing dirt and litter around. Old Mrs. Sherman came to her window to see what was happening right as her neighbor’s trampoline blew over the fence and into the street.

“Not good, not good,” she muttered, grabbing her cat and heading for her storm shelter.

Rain drops scattered across the sidewalk, falling from the dark wall of clouds. Andy Wilson’s dog yipped and tugged against his leash to hurry home.

“Calm down, buddy, we’re almost there.”

No one was caught outside once the hail began to strike the pavement. The sky had given enough warning. But the ice came down, pinging off cars and roofs, growing larger every second. Within minutes, it looked as though it had snowed.

A roar echoed over the town as the funnel cloud bore down on them.

He’s so hungry. They feel his fury and scramble to do his bidding. To find the ones that escaped. They’ll take down the entire town if they need to.

Lightning struck and the ground split open. His wrath is released.

 

Tornado Alley Post

What did we do to Mother Nature?

“Last night’s storm took us by surprise,” said one survivor from the southside of town. Her neighborhood was leveled last night when the tornado struck. Her family, as well as many others, were able to make it to storm shelters. Others, however, were not so lucky. Search and rescue teams are still searching through the rubble.

Only one mile from the neighborhood, a sink hole was discovered. Right off the walking path of Shady Park. Two campers from that location have also been reported missing. Their campsite was only fifty feet away from this new sinkhole.

If you have any information of their whereabouts, please contact the authorities.