u/ReasonableUnit2170

Stumble and fall,
Over and over again. 

Expanding chest
Ribs aching 
Slick with sweat. 

Hate me. 

Berate me. 

Tell me how much of a fucking 
Failure I am. 

Kick me when I’m down.

Follow me around 
With glazed over eyes 
Always watching, 
Always seeing 
My 
Failures. 

Tell me how sick I make you. 

And I’ll tell you right back,

Fuck 

You. 

Shadows snake 
Up and down 
My body 
like knives. 

Have you seen them?
They won’t let me go…

They won’t 
Release 
Me. 

Hold me in your grasp. 
Tighten your fingers around
My neck. I don’t 
Need to breathe
Anyway. 

It’s been too long since
I’ve come to the surface. 
Poked my head
Above the water. 

I’m just the same as you. 
Can’t you see it?

You’re just one step ahead,
One mistake behind. 
I’m only you with a bit more
Rage. 

Everyone’s got a fuse. 
Everyone’s got something 
That makes them tick. 

So go ahead, 
Aim the barrel at me. 
I am but a product 
Of shit genes and 
Environment. 

Stick the muzzle to my forehead. 
Hold it steady, 
You don’t want to miss. 

I promise I won’t even struggle 
As you 

Pull 

The 

Trigger. 

Stumble and fall,
Over and over again. 

Expanding chest
Ribs aching 
Slick with sweat. 

Hate me. 

Berate me. 

Tell me how much of a fucking 
Failure I am. 

Kick me when I’m down.

Follow me around 
With glazed over eyes 
Always watching, 
Always seeing 
My 
Failures. 

Tell me how sick I make you. 

And I’ll tell you right back,

Fuck 

You. 

Shadows snake 
Up and down 
My body 
like knives. 

Have you seen them?
They won’t let me go…

They won’t 
Release 
Me. 

Hold me in your grasp. 
Tighten your fingers around
My neck. I don’t 
Need to breathe
Anyway. 

It’s been too long since
I’ve come to the surface. 
Poked my head
Above the water. 

I’m just the same as you. 
Can’t you see it?

You’re just one step ahead,
One mistake behind. 
I’m only you with a bit more
Rage. 

Everyone’s got a fuse. 
Everyone’s got something 
That makes them tick. 

So go ahead, 
Aim the barrel at me. 
I am but a product 
Of shit genes and 
Environment. 

Stick the muzzle to my forehead. 
Hold it steady, 
You don’t want to miss. 

I promise I won’t even struggle 
As you 

Pull 

The 

Trigger. 

part 3

I heard a ding just as the car door slammed shut. It was a sound I was all too familiar with. Youtube had sent me a notification, the WeatherBoys posted a new video. The title alone made me drop my hand from the key that was just placed in the ignition. ‘We Barely Escaped a Forest Fire - We Saw Something Strange Within the Flames’ filled the bubble on my lock screen. Clicking the phone with my pointer finger, the video started playing instantly. Shock and curiosity grew within me. 

A cheerful interview with Mr. Roy was cut abruptly, replaced by roaring flames outside a car window. Every so often a gasp would escape my mouth as I watched in horror. The whole scene looked like something straight out of a nightmare. Then, near the end, something appeared from within the flames. Danny and Trevor had clipped the end and edited the various copies into the video multiple times. With each new clip the speed got slower and more zoomed in, a green circle added around what they were trying to make us aware of. 

“Do you see that guys? I saw it with my own two eyes. The creature was some kind of amalgamation of animals. I couldn’t get a full look at it since I was trying to…stay alive…but I’ll tell you what I saw. It looked like a deer, bear, and some kind of wild cat or wolf were all pieced together like some sort of sick jigsaw puzzle,” Danny’s voice came through the speakers on my phone. 

“I didn’t really get a chance to see it since I was focused on saving Danny, but looking back at the video I took gave me quite a scare. All I know is I’m glad we made it out of that mess,” Trevor was sitting on a hospital bed with various bandages covering his skin. 

“If anyone else has seen anything like this, you have to let us know. I can’t help but think there’s something incredibly wrong…” Danny’s voice sounded rough, like he’d swallowed a handful of nails. 

With that last line the video ended and I was thrown into a deep and uncomfortable silence. Instead of feeling afraid, I felt even more compelled to head south. The apartment was hopefully still in one piece, since I hadn’t been notified of anything related to fire damage. Plus, there was the convention that was happening near the college that I was planning to go to. A part of me hoped that maybe I would run into Danny and Trevor, but doubted that would be the case since they were actively in the hospital. 

What fascinated me even more was the prospect of this monster. Maybe it really wasn’t just some random force of nature that senselessly killed my friend. Maybe there was a bigger picture that I was missing. So many strange things were happening in my life, and even stranger things were happening in the world around me. For the first time in a long time I felt truly and utterly excited. Even if it turned out to be a hoax or some false hunt for Bigfoot, at least in this moment I could stave off the depression. 

“I hope Mr. Roy is okay,” I said aloud. The boys hadn’t mentioned anything about him after the interview was cut short. 

The car engine roared to life as I turned the key. The gear shift moved easily, and soon I was driving off towards the highway that cut through the middle of town. I rolled the windows down letting the cool breeze slip into the car. Thankfully I was smart enough to tie my hair back before driving. It surely would have ended up in my eyes or mouth if I hadn’t. After twenty minutes or so the cityscape traded itself for fields of yellow and green. Soon after, the highway brought me to the entrance ramp of a freeway, something I had minimal experience driving on. 

The death grip I had on the steering wheel relaxed as I got more comfortable at higher speeds. Every so often cars would pass around me and I would once again tighten my fingers. Instead of music I listened to podcasts that I had queued up before I left. Distracted driving was not an act I wanted to be doing, especially so far from home. Keeping my brain entertained with stories was helping to ease my anxiety. 

When I hit the border of Indiana and Kentucky, the scenery changed abruptly. The air was thick and smokey, rolling across the land like an immense fog. Everything that was vibrant was now tinted by shades of grey. When I made it near the Louisville area I had to stop for gas. The locals were quite nice, most of them sporting ‘country’ accents. They all seemed to ask me the same question once I’d spoken. 

“Are you a Yankee?” They’d ask with a southern drawl. 

“Nope. I’m not from New York. I’m from Indiana,” I’d reply. 

After filling up my car, I headed inside the gas station to use the bathroom and grab a coffee. When I came back out with the warm styrofoam cup in my hand, the phone rang. Pulling it out of my pocket, I held the phone between my shoulder and ear so I was still able to use one of my hands. It was my Mom, asking how things were going. I had to bite my tongue, almost telling her of the smoke that I was experiencing. If she knew of the fire that had happened, she’d have told me to turn the car around. 

“Everything is going good, Mom. I’m just stopping for gas. Actually, I’m about ready to get back on the road,” I said. 

“Okay, good. I’m glad. Well, I don’t want you talking on the phone while you’re driving so I’ll let you go. I love you, Laurel,” my Mom replied. 

It took me a little over seven hours to complete the drive. When I got into Knoxville, the city itself seemed fine. The smaller towns that surrounded it, and the rural areas were what seemed to take the brunt of the fire. The fire stations that I had passed by all looked like ghost towns. The firemen and women were still hard at work. I wondered if there was anything I could do to help, but also felt nervous being in an unfamiliar area. 

Moving into the apartment was easy. I had only brought a few suitcases and had already been chatting with my new roommate for at least a few weeks now. She was starting college in the fall like I should have been, and was surprised that I wanted to move in so soon. Right off the bat I told her that I wanted to experience life in Tennessee for a few months before attending the winter semester. Once I’d explained why, she seemed somber and understanding. 

“Thanks for helping me bring my stuff in, Bella,” I slumped back on the couch. 

“No problem, girly. Glad I could show you a taste of my southern hospitality so early on,” Bella chuckled. 

“Got any suggestions for my first official day here? I was planning on going out tomorrow, since the conference is on Saturday,” I said. 

“You could always go to Market Square. It’s got a lot of cute businesses and restaurants. You’ll probably love all the sculptures they have there. Oh! And sometimes they have live performances,” Bella’s voice was filled with enthusiasm. 

“Thanks, that sounds like a great suggestion. You have classes tomorrow right?” I asked. 

“Yeah, and I have track practice too. Since that’s how I got the scholarship, I need to make sure I’m keeping up appearances.” Bella sighed heartily. 

“You’re planning on going to med school eventually, right?” I asked.

“Yup, you’ve got it. Boy, am I setting myself up for a lot of sleepless nights and debt,” Bella laughed. 

“Oh goodness,” I replied. 

Soon after our conversation died out naturally, I excused myself for the night. I had already called my mom as soon as I arrived, and now I could just focus on myself. After a long and much needed shower, I slipped into my new bedroom. It was plain and littered with my suitcases in various states of unpacked. As soon as the bed was cleared off I slipped in, before falling into a deep and dreamless sleep. 

—

When the plane touched down on the tarmac my body was jolted awake. For a moment, I didn’t remember where I was or what I had seen just a few hours ago. Then, it all came flooding back like a burst dam. The fissure in the Earth, the screams that had accompanied it, the dread and anxiety. 

How many people had died? How many people were stuck in places where they could not be helped? How many were injured? Had Joey and I not been on the plane, could that have been us down there? Could we have been sucked into the pocket that had opened up within the ground?

I shook my head, my brain awakening fully. My stomach was gnawing at me from the inside, the emptiness of it excruciating. Looking over to my right I saw that Joey too, had passed out during the flight. Drool was leaking from the corner of his partially opened mouth. He looked like a giant sleeping child. 

“Joey,” I said softly. “Wake up, we made it.” 

“Nnngggghhh,” Joey groaned. 

“Seriously. Wake up, we need to de-board soon.” 

“Five more minutes, Mom…” Joey’s voice trailed off. 

I shook Joey’s shoulder until his eyes snapped open. He blinked a few times trying to clear the sleep from his vision. A few moments after that, we were walking through the airport headed for baggage claim. While we waited by the carousels, I pulled my phone from my carry-on bag and turned it back on. Dozens of notifications filled my screen, to the point where it was overwhelming. 

“So it wasn’t a dream…” I said aloud accidentally. 

“No, no it wasn’t,” Joey sighed. 

“I don’t even know what to do or how to feel at this moment. So many people must have died. All I can think is that I’m glad none of my immediate family lives in the area. The selfishness of that thought makes me feel sick.” 

Not waiting for Joey’s reply, I spotted my bag and went to grab it from the moving belt. Once both of our suitcases were collected, we exited the airport. The smoke that hung in the air deepened my sense of dread. San Francisco wasn’t the only place to be experiencing devastating forces of nature. I’d completely forgotten that I’d seen there was a forest fire in Tennessee within the last few days. It seemed coming to this convention was more important than I realized. 

Something truly awful was happening, and it wasn’t just a localized incident. I know nature does what it wants, but it usually ebbs and flows. Within the last couple of months she’s truly bared her fangs. Instead of nature, what’s happening felt like a punishment. It felt like anger and retribution. The land, the animals, the weather, nothing was right anymore. What was next, and why? I just couldn’t understand.

The hotel that Joey and I were staying in was within walking distance of where the convention was being held. Once we made it there and checked into our rooms, I showered and went to bed early. My brain was unable to process what had happened in my waking hours, and decided to attempt such a feat in my sleep.

I dreamt of giant holes opening up from within the Earth. Holes filled with angry, wriggling, masses of flesh crawling over each other. Spilling out from the pit like a conscious mudslide, a sentient spewing of magma. The gooey, moss bound collection of creatures all cried out in unison. Howls, wails, croaks, chirps, neighs, snorts, they all yelled for the same thing. Something…I couldn’t remember.

What was it that they said, what was it that they wanted? 

The next morning came all too fast. My phone going off awoke me with a start. The dream slipped away from me with each passing moment, like a word on the tip of my tongue. The more I tried to remember, the farther away the memory went. It took me a while to realize I was in the hotel, somewhere in Knoxville. 

Joey was in the room next door. I needed to make sure he was awake too. Slipping out of my room and into the hall, I knocked three times. The door opened just as I was reaching for the fourth. Joey’s hair was sticking out at odd angles and there were indents on the side of his face. He must have slept well. 

“Morning, Gabs.” Joey yawned and stretched simultaneously. 

“Can you be ready in an hour?” I asked.

“Sure thing,” Joey replied. 

Turning on my heel, I walked back to my door and re-entered the room. When the lock clicked closed behind me, I headed to the bathroom and started working on my appearance. Makeup was essential for covering the bags under my eyes, and I had to do something about my own bird's nest of hair. If I were going to be standing on a stage in front of countless people, I had to look my best. Even if I didn’t feel my best. 

The trip from the hotel to the convention center took only about ten minutes. Even though I was frowned at by everyone but Joey, I wore a mask as we walked. The smoke from the fire still hung in the sky like fog, and I wanted my lungs to inhale the least amount possible. When we made it through the revolving glass door, I took the mask off and slid it into my purse. 

“Still nervous?” Joey asked.

“Not really, not anymore. For some reason, I feel oddly calm.” I sighed, “Thanks for checking on me.” 

“Anything for my partner. We’ve been through it all, together.” Joey lifted his hand for a fist bump, and I obliged. 

“Gabby!” Someone shouted from within the sea of people. 

Joey and I looked at each other with confusion before my eyes started to wander around the large room. I scanned the area with curiosity, waiting for a familiar face to jump out at me. That was when I landed on the crewcut sporting a giant grin. I had seen that face just a few weeks prior. As he stepped from within the crowd, I noticed the bandages covering various places on his body. My eyes scanned the area around him, finally landing on the mop of red hair I was searching for. Even though they both looked like hell, I couldn’t help but smile. 

“Daniel, Trevor! What are you guys doing here?” I asked them with surprise in my voice. 

“We were filming another video with Mr.Roy, did you get a chance to watch our newest upload?” Daniel asked once he got closer. 

“Nah, sorry. I haven’t had a chance. With all the earthquakes we were having in Cali, I haven’t had much down time.” I sighed, a frown forming on my face. 

“You’re gonna want to watch it. Do you remember what we talked about, the last time we were together? The moss?” Daniel waggled his brows. He tried to wink but it looked more like he had gotten something in his eye. 

“Stop making that face, you’re gonna hurt yourself, kid.” Joey spoke this time. Chuckling loudly as Daniel made a sour face this time. 

“Cut me some slack man, I don’t know how to wink properly. I was trying to be sneaky,” Daniel laughed. 

“Why do you and Trevor look like hell?” I asked. 

“I’m telling you, seriously. You NEED to watch the upload,” Daniel emphasised. 

“Alright lets go somewhere we can sit down,” Joey said. 

The duo that made up the WeatherBoys walked in front, while Joey and I followed close behind. We weaved through the massive crowd that only seemed to grow bigger before we finally found a mildly secluded area. I felt bad making the boys walk so far, Trevor was limping. Just what had they gone through? What was so important that they made their way here to find me? When we had met a few weeks prior, I had mentioned coming to the convention only once. What a great memory, I thought to myself. 

Pulling up their youtube channel on my phone, I put one of my earbuds in and handed the other to Joey. Daniel and Trevor sat in the chairs across from us, watching our facial expressions intently. I saw the snippet of Roy’s interview, I saw the fire, and then… I saw the creature. A shiver passed through me as I thought of the whale/fish ratking and my odd dream from last night. There was something that I was missing, something truly important. 

“Did you get a good look at it?” Joey asked me in a hushed tone. 

“Yeah, I did. It was hard to see at first but when they slowed the videoclip down, it looked the same. It even had the weird glow when being caught on camera, just like what we saw on the beach.” I shook my head, leaning forwards onto the table. 

“Is this the moss you were talking about? The one that’s been appearing on the animals and growing across the ground in places where it shouldn’t be possible?” Daniel asked. 

“Danny and I watched this clip hundreds of times. Not to mention, he and Roy got a clear view of the monstrosity. Mr. Roy even got hurt trying to protect us from it…” Trevor’s voice trailed off. 

My phone buzzed, the reminder I had set going off. It was almost time for my presentation, one that I wasn’t sure I wanted to make anymore. Notifying the group of my need to leave, I promised them that we would finish this conversation later. I wanted to hear the full account of the incident from the horse's mouth, so to speak. I told Joey to stay with the boys since I needed to go get mic-ed up so that I could do a sound check. I didn’t need the posse to come with me and create a hassle for the staff. 

Before I could walk away, Joey grabbed me by the arm. His palm and fingertips felt rough against my skin, his grip tight. For a moment, we stayed like that. I stood above him, my eyebrows slightly raised. Then, without a word, Joey handed me his camera bag. Hesitantly I reached out to take it, the weight heavier than expected. I held the strap tightly, moving to drape it over my shoulder. Finally, Joey released me from his grip. 

I used to have a thing for Joey. When we were first paired up, early on in my career, just being around him made my heart race. I had to cool my cheeks with the backs of my hands, attempting to quell the blushing. Every time I got too carried away thinking about him, I would remember how my adams apple sticks out farther than most. How my breasts were doctor sculpted and the fact that I had to get laser hair removal on my face. Joey was straight as straight could be and my internalized transphobia kept me feeling like I was one step shy of a real woman. My butterflies would always come crashing back to earth, tattered and broken. 

I gave up on my feelings for so long it was like this never existed in the first place. Except for the rare moments like this, where I would feel like he sees me for who I want to be. He sees me as someone brave, and powerful. A person filled with conviction and grit. When he handed me the camera bag, I knew what he was really saying. I could read between the lines. He was saying ‘to hell with our careers, we have to show them what was trying to be hidden’. Did I have the resolve?

“I’ll be going completely off script, impromptu speeches in front of large crowds isn’t my thing. But I’ll try,” I took a step back from my partner. 

“Go get 'em, tiger,” Joey said. 

—

part 3

I heard a ding just as the car door slammed shut. It was a sound I was all too familiar with. Youtube had sent me a notification, the WeatherBoys posted a new video. The title alone made me drop my hand from the key that was just placed in the ignition. ‘We Barely Escaped a Forest Fire - We Saw Something Strange Within the Flames’ filled the bubble on my lock screen. Clicking the phone with my pointer finger, the video started playing instantly. Shock and curiosity grew within me. 

A cheerful interview with Mr. Roy was cut abruptly, replaced by roaring flames outside a car window. Every so often a gasp would escape my mouth as I watched in horror. The whole scene looked like something straight out of a nightmare. Then, near the end, something appeared from within the flames. Danny and Trevor had clipped the end and edited the various copies into the video multiple times. With each new clip the speed got slower and more zoomed in, a green circle added around what they were trying to make us aware of. 

“Do you see that guys? I saw it with my own two eyes. The creature was some kind of amalgamation of animals. I couldn’t get a full look at it since I was trying to…stay alive…but I’ll tell you what I saw. It looked like a deer, bear, and some kind of wild cat or wolf were all pieced together like some sort of sick jigsaw puzzle,” Danny’s voice came through the speakers on my phone. 

“I didn’t really get a chance to see it since I was focused on saving Danny, but looking back at the video I took gave me quite a scare. All I know is I’m glad we made it out of that mess,” Trevor was sitting on a hospital bed with various bandages covering his skin. 

“If anyone else has seen anything like this, you have to let us know. I can’t help but think there’s something incredibly wrong…” Danny’s voice sounded rough, like he’d swallowed a handful of nails. 

With that last line the video ended and I was thrown into a deep and uncomfortable silence. Instead of feeling afraid, I felt even more compelled to head south. The apartment was hopefully still in one piece, since I hadn’t been notified of anything related to fire damage. Plus, there was the convention that was happening near the college that I was planning to go to. A part of me hoped that maybe I would run into Danny and Trevor, but doubted that would be the case since they were actively in the hospital. 

What fascinated me even more was the prospect of this monster. Maybe it really wasn’t just some random force of nature that senselessly killed my friend. Maybe there was a bigger picture that I was missing. So many strange things were happening in my life, and even stranger things were happening in the world around me. For the first time in a long time I felt truly and utterly excited. Even if it turned out to be a hoax or some false hunt for Bigfoot, at least in this moment I could stave off the depression. 

“I hope Mr. Roy is okay,” I said aloud. The boys hadn’t mentioned anything about him after the interview was cut short. 

The car engine roared to life as I turned the key. The gear shift moved easily, and soon I was driving off towards the highway that cut through the middle of town. I rolled the windows down letting the cool breeze slip into the car. Thankfully I was smart enough to tie my hair back before driving. It surely would have ended up in my eyes or mouth if I hadn’t. After twenty minutes or so the cityscape traded itself for fields of yellow and green. Soon after, the highway brought me to the entrance ramp of a freeway, something I had minimal experience driving on. 

The death grip I had on the steering wheel relaxed as I got more comfortable at higher speeds. Every so often cars would pass around me and I would once again tighten my fingers. Instead of music I listened to podcasts that I had queued up before I left. Distracted driving was not an act I wanted to be doing, especially so far from home. Keeping my brain entertained with stories was helping to ease my anxiety. 

When I hit the border of Indiana and Kentucky, the scenery changed abruptly. The air was thick and smokey, rolling across the land like an immense fog. Everything that was vibrant was now tinted by shades of grey. When I made it near the Louisville area I had to stop for gas. The locals were quite nice, most of them sporting ‘country’ accents. They all seemed to ask me the same question once I’d spoken. 

“Are you a Yankee?” They’d ask with a southern drawl. 

“Nope. I’m not from New York. I’m from Indiana,” I’d reply. 

After filling up my car, I headed inside the gas station to use the bathroom and grab a coffee. When I came back out with the warm styrofoam cup in my hand, the phone rang. Pulling it out of my pocket, I held the phone between my shoulder and ear so I was still able to use one of my hands. It was my Mom, asking how things were going. I had to bite my tongue, almost telling her of the smoke that I was experiencing. If she knew of the fire that had happened, she’d have told me to turn the car around. 

“Everything is going good, Mom. I’m just stopping for gas. Actually, I’m about ready to get back on the road,” I said. 

“Okay, good. I’m glad. Well, I don’t want you talking on the phone while you’re driving so I’ll let you go. I love you, Laurel,” my Mom replied. 

It took me a little over seven hours to complete the drive. When I got into Knoxville, the city itself seemed fine. The smaller towns that surrounded it, and the rural areas were what seemed to take the brunt of the fire. The fire stations that I had passed by all looked like ghost towns. The firemen and women were still hard at work. I wondered if there was anything I could do to help, but also felt nervous being in an unfamiliar area. 

Moving into the apartment was easy. I had only brought a few suitcases and had already been chatting with my new roommate for at least a few weeks now. She was starting college in the fall like I should have been, and was surprised that I wanted to move in so soon. Right off the bat I told her that I wanted to experience life in Tennessee for a few months before attending the winter semester. Once I’d explained why, she seemed somber and understanding. 

“Thanks for helping me bring my stuff in, Bella,” I slumped back on the couch. 

“No problem, girly. Glad I could show you a taste of my southern hospitality so early on,” Bella chuckled. 

“Got any suggestions for my first official day here? I was planning on going out tomorrow, since the conference is on Saturday,” I said. 

“You could always go to Market Square. It’s got a lot of cute businesses and restaurants. You’ll probably love all the sculptures they have there. Oh! And sometimes they have live performances,” Bella’s voice was filled with enthusiasm. 

“Thanks, that sounds like a great suggestion. You have classes tomorrow right?” I asked. 

“Yeah, and I have track practice too. Since that’s how I got the scholarship, I need to make sure I’m keeping up appearances.” Bella sighed heartily. 

“You’re planning on going to med school eventually, right?” I asked.

“Yup, you’ve got it. Boy, am I setting myself up for a lot of sleepless nights and debt,” Bella laughed. 

“Oh goodness,” I replied. 

Soon after our conversation died out naturally, I excused myself for the night. I had already called my mom as soon as I arrived, and now I could just focus on myself. After a long and much needed shower, I slipped into my new bedroom. It was plain and littered with my suitcases in various states of unpacked. As soon as the bed was cleared off I slipped in, before falling into a deep and dreamless sleep. 

—

When the plane touched down on the tarmac my body was jolted awake. For a moment, I didn’t remember where I was or what I had seen just a few hours ago. Then, it all came flooding back like a burst dam. The fissure in the Earth, the screams that had accompanied it, the dread and anxiety. 

How many people had died? How many people were stuck in places where they could not be helped? How many were injured? Had Joey and I not been on the plane, could that have been us down there? Could we have been sucked into the pocket that had opened up within the ground?

I shook my head, my brain awakening fully. My stomach was gnawing at me from the inside, the emptiness of it excruciating. Looking over to my right I saw that Joey too, had passed out during the flight. Drool was leaking from the corner of his partially opened mouth. He looked like a giant sleeping child. 

“Joey,” I said softly. “Wake up, we made it.” 

“Nnngggghhh,” Joey groaned. 

“Seriously. Wake up, we need to de-board soon.” 

“Five more minutes, Mom…” Joey’s voice trailed off. 

I shook Joey’s shoulder until his eyes snapped open. He blinked a few times trying to clear the sleep from his vision. A few moments after that, we were walking through the airport headed for baggage claim. While we waited by the carousels, I pulled my phone from my carry-on bag and turned it back on. Dozens of notifications filled my screen, to the point where it was overwhelming. 

“So it wasn’t a dream…” I said aloud accidentally. 

“No, no it wasn’t,” Joey sighed. 

“I don’t even know what to do or how to feel at this moment. So many people must have died. All I can think is that I’m glad none of my immediate family lives in the area. The selfishness of that thought makes me feel sick.” 

Not waiting for Joey’s reply, I spotted my bag and went to grab it from the moving belt. Once both of our suitcases were collected, we exited the airport. The smoke that hung in the air deepened my sense of dread. San Francisco wasn’t the only place to be experiencing devastating forces of nature. I’d completely forgotten that I’d seen there was a forest fire in Tennessee within the last few days. It seemed coming to this convention was more important than I realized. 

Something truly awful was happening, and it wasn’t just a localized incident. I know nature does what it wants, but it usually ebbs and flows. Within the last couple of months she’s truly bared her fangs. Instead of nature, what’s happening felt like a punishment. It felt like anger and retribution. The land, the animals, the weather, nothing was right anymore. What was next, and why? I just couldn’t understand.

The hotel that Joey and I were staying in was within walking distance of where the convention was being held. Once we made it there and checked into our rooms, I showered and went to bed early. My brain was unable to process what had happened in my waking hours, and decided to attempt such a feat in my sleep.

I dreamt of giant holes opening up from within the Earth. Holes filled with angry, wriggling, masses of flesh crawling over each other. Spilling out from the pit like a conscious mudslide, a sentient spewing of magma. The gooey, moss bound collection of creatures all cried out in unison. Howls, wails, croaks, chirps, neighs, snorts, they all yelled for the same thing. Something…I couldn’t remember.

What was it that they said, what was it that they wanted? 

The next morning came all too fast. My phone going off awoke me with a start. The dream slipped away from me with each passing moment, like a word on the tip of my tongue. The more I tried to remember, the farther away the memory went. It took me a while to realize I was in the hotel, somewhere in Knoxville. 

Joey was in the room next door. I needed to make sure he was awake too. Slipping out of my room and into the hall, I knocked three times. The door opened just as I was reaching for the fourth. Joey’s hair was sticking out at odd angles and there were indents on the side of his face. He must have slept well. 

“Morning, Gabs.” Joey yawned and stretched simultaneously. 

“Can you be ready in an hour?” I asked.

“Sure thing,” Joey replied. 

Turning on my heel, I walked back to my door and re-entered the room. When the lock clicked closed behind me, I headed to the bathroom and started working on my appearance. Makeup was essential for covering the bags under my eyes, and I had to do something about my own bird's nest of hair. If I were going to be standing on a stage in front of countless people, I had to look my best. Even if I didn’t feel my best. 

The trip from the hotel to the convention center took only about ten minutes. Even though I was frowned at by everyone but Joey, I wore a mask as we walked. The smoke from the fire still hung in the sky like fog, and I wanted my lungs to inhale the least amount possible. When we made it through the revolving glass door, I took the mask off and slid it into my purse. 

“Still nervous?” Joey asked.

“Not really, not anymore. For some reason, I feel oddly calm.” I sighed, “Thanks for checking on me.” 

“Anything for my partner. We’ve been through it all, together.” Joey lifted his hand for a fist bump, and I obliged. 

“Gabby!” Someone shouted from within the sea of people. 

Joey and I looked at each other with confusion before my eyes started to wander around the large room. I scanned the area with curiosity, waiting for a familiar face to jump out at me. That was when I landed on the crewcut sporting a giant grin. I had seen that face just a few weeks prior. As he stepped from within the crowd, I noticed the bandages covering various places on his body. My eyes scanned the area around him, finally landing on the mop of red hair I was searching for. Even though they both looked like hell, I couldn’t help but smile. 

“Daniel, Trevor! What are you guys doing here?” I asked them with surprise in my voice. 

“We were filming another video with Mr.Roy, did you get a chance to watch our newest upload?” Daniel asked once he got closer. 

“Nah, sorry. I haven’t had a chance. With all the earthquakes we were having in Cali, I haven’t had much down time.” I sighed, a frown forming on my face. 

“You’re gonna want to watch it. Do you remember what we talked about, the last time we were together? The moss?” Daniel waggled his brows. He tried to wink but it looked more like he had gotten something in his eye. 

“Stop making that face, you’re gonna hurt yourself, kid.” Joey spoke this time. Chuckling loudly as Daniel made a sour face this time. 

“Cut me some slack man, I don’t know how to wink properly. I was trying to be sneaky,” Daniel laughed. 

“Why do you and Trevor look like hell?” I asked. 

“I’m telling you, seriously. You NEED to watch the upload,” Daniel emphasised. 

“Alright lets go somewhere we can sit down,” Joey said. 

The duo that made up the WeatherBoys walked in front, while Joey and I followed close behind. We weaved through the massive crowd that only seemed to grow bigger before we finally found a mildly secluded area. I felt bad making the boys walk so far, Trevor was limping. Just what had they gone through? What was so important that they made their way here to find me? When we had met a few weeks prior, I had mentioned coming to the convention only once. What a great memory, I thought to myself. 

Pulling up their youtube channel on my phone, I put one of my earbuds in and handed the other to Joey. Daniel and Trevor sat in the chairs across from us, watching our facial expressions intently. I saw the snippet of Roy’s interview, I saw the fire, and then… I saw the creature. A shiver passed through me as I thought of the whale/fish ratking and my odd dream from last night. There was something that I was missing, something truly important. 

“Did you get a good look at it?” Joey asked me in a hushed tone. 

“Yeah, I did. It was hard to see at first but when they slowed the videoclip down, it looked the same. It even had the weird glow when being caught on camera, just like what we saw on the beach.” I shook my head, leaning forwards onto the table. 

“Is this the moss you were talking about? The one that’s been appearing on the animals and growing across the ground in places where it shouldn’t be possible?” Daniel asked. 

“Danny and I watched this clip hundreds of times. Not to mention, he and Roy got a clear view of the monstrosity. Mr. Roy even got hurt trying to protect us from it…” Trevor’s voice trailed off. 

My phone buzzed, the reminder I had set going off. It was almost time for my presentation, one that I wasn’t sure I wanted to make anymore. Notifying the group of my need to leave, I promised them that we would finish this conversation later. I wanted to hear the full account of the incident from the horse's mouth, so to speak. I told Joey to stay with the boys since I needed to go get mic-ed up so that I could do a sound check. I didn’t need the posse to come with me and create a hassle for the staff. 

Before I could walk away, Joey grabbed me by the arm. His palm and fingertips felt rough against my skin, his grip tight. For a moment, we stayed like that. I stood above him, my eyebrows slightly raised. Then, without a word, Joey handed me his camera bag. Hesitantly I reached out to take it, the weight heavier than expected. I held the strap tightly, moving to drape it over my shoulder. Finally, Joey released me from his grip. 

I used to have a thing for Joey. When we were first paired up, early on in my career, just being around him made my heart race. I had to cool my cheeks with the backs of my hands, attempting to quell the blushing. Every time I got too carried away thinking about him, I would remember how my adams apple sticks out farther than most. How my breasts were doctor sculpted and the fact that I had to get laser hair removal on my face. Joey was straight as straight could be and my internalized transphobia kept me feeling like I was one step shy of a real woman. My butterflies would always come crashing back to earth, tattered and broken. 

I gave up on my feelings for so long it was like this never existed in the first place. Except for the rare moments like this, where I would feel like he sees me for who I want to be. He sees me as someone brave, and powerful. A person filled with conviction and grit. When he handed me the camera bag, I knew what he was really saying. I could read between the lines. He was saying ‘to hell with our careers, we have to show them what was trying to be hidden’. Did I have the resolve?

“I’ll be going completely off script, impromptu speeches in front of large crowds isn’t my thing. But I’ll try,” I took a step back from my partner. 

“Go get 'em, tiger,” Joey said. 

—

I tend to post a lot of my work on here (and will continue to do so) because this subreddit is much easier to post on than the creepypasta website. So thank you guys for that! I’m super grateful!

Recently I joined a new subreddit called r/Talesfrommidnight and wanted to share it with others in case you wanted to broaden your posting places

Horror stories / art / narrations / videos (just no AI plz)

Anyways, hopefully I’m not breaking any rules by posting this but it would be fun to bolster the communities where horror stories and art can be found.

If you have other subreddits that you enjoy in this genre, that are places to feast upon creepypastas and horror stories/art, what are they?

part 2

The plane trembled ever so slightly as the engines roared to life. I felt the seat below me vibrate with mild enthusiasm as its carrier got ready for take off. Joey sat in the seat beside me, carry-on bag in his lap. He took the window seat this time, a winner of two-out-of-three games of rock-paper-scissors. We always decided this way, letting the luck of the draw pick our orders of business. Part of me wished I’d taken the Xanax I’d been offered before arriving at the airport, it seemed the turbulence would be strong this evening. 

“You sure flying was the best choice? We can always get off now, cry uncle and I’ll get us off this plane in an instant.” Joey looked at me with a concerned expression. 

“I’m fine, once we’re in the air I’ll be okay. It’s just the take off and landing that make me nervous.” 

I looked down at my hands which were death gripping the arm rests. Joey was kind enough to loan me his while I was bracing for the worst. As my stomach churned, I couldn’t help but be grateful I hadn’t eaten in a while. It meant there was nothing to throw up, if the need arose. A few dry heaves would be more manageable than spewing out bbq chicken wings and fries, Joey’s request when we got through TSA. 

“You excited for the convention at least?” Joey pointed his eyes at me. 

“About as excited as one can be when they have to give a presentation in front of a live audience… I just hope I don’t stumble over my words or make a fool out of myself.” I sighed, releasing my death grip enough for blood to flow back into my hands. 

“You’ll do great. I believe in you, Gabs. Wanna practice your speech again? I don’t mind hearing it for the hundredth time,” Joey said, smiling. 

“Not now, I’m trying not to throw up. I appreciate it though,” I said. 

Leaning back in the seat, I closed my eyes and tried to calm down. I have to practice the grounding technique. I have to make the expensive therapy worth it, I thought to myself. Breathing in through my nose, I inhaled deeply. Coffee and cologne, mint gum, cleaning spray. Moving my hands back and forth across the armrest, cool metal and fabric. I focused my hearing, clenching my jaw to wiggle my ears. Laughter, the smack of chewing gum, someone clearing their throat.

“Ma’am I’m gonna need you to fasten your seat belt,” a soft voice hit my ears. 

“Oh, shoot. I’m sorry,” I mumbled. 

Opening my eyes, a small blond woman in a blue uniform leaned over me. She had one hand lightly rested on her hip, while the other dangled limply at her side. A broad smile extended across her face, white teeth glittering like pearls. I sat up abruptly and grabbed at either side for the seatbelt. It wasn’t until the two metal pieces clicked together audibly that she left. I looked over at Joey and made a strange face, as if to apologize silently for the awkwardness. I felt so lame at that moment. Joey just shrugged his shoulders as if he didn’t care. 

The plane was finally moving across the tarmac. The sun was starting to set, it beamed in through the tiny windows - warm and orange. I felt my heart pounding faster within my chest. Here comes the worst part, I thought. Going through the grounding techniques once again, I focused on what my five senses could pick up. The only thing I struggled with was the taste in my mouth, there was nothing identifiable to list. Eventually I switched to clenching and relaxing specific muscle groups, another coping skill that I’d pulled from the metaphoric bag. 

“Do you think anyone is going to have any information on the weird stuff we found growing on the fish? Or…marine animals, I guess?” Joey whispered. 

“I’m not sure,” I said through clenched teeth. 

“It was just so weird. I brought my camera, just in case. If there’s someone we can show it to, maybe they’ll know. I mean, come on, it was moving.” 

“Yes, Joey. I remember,” I hissed under my breath. “Shut up, we need to keep quiet about this until we know more. No need to cause mass panic.” 

A few days ago, Joey and I had been filming a piece for the evening news. We were out at Baker Beach, covering the various aquatic creatures that had been beaching themselves. Sand had made its way into my shoes almost immediately. The texture between the soles and socks was a nightmare but I did my best to ignore it. The mic was held firmly in my right hand, my cellphone in the other. Joey spotted it first. 

“Um, Gabby, do you see that? Please tell me I’m hallucinating,” Joey’s voice was wavering. 

As I turned my head to look in Joey’s direction, something behind him caught my attention. Something large and dark was starting to take shape as I focused my eyes. Recognition filled me as I realized it was a whale. The beast of a creature was moving, wriggling and flopping across the waterlogged sand. It looked to be in distress, I couldn’t help but pity it. Taking a step towards my friend and camera man, I reached out to pat his shoulder. 

“It’s just a whale,” I said. 

Just as my hand came in contact with Joey’s shoulder, he held out his arm. Stopping me from coming any closer. 

“What?” I asked. 

“Take another look, that’s not just a whale.” 

Returning my gaze back to the dying creature, I studied it once again. The dark blue flesh of the aquatic mammal looked slick and bumpy. One fin was jutting out at an odd angle from underneath it, blow hole spewing out weak sprays of water. All around the creature were piles of moving silver rocks that sparkled and glittered. That was when I noticed that the whale wasn’t alone. 

What I thought were rocks, were piles of various fish. They swam through the air, flopping around the sand. It looked like the fish were trying to gather around the whale in an attempt to move it. Piling atop each other in a poor attempt to help. Pushing aside Joey’s arm I took a few more steps towards the strange scene unfolding in front of us. The fish were not trying to help, not even in the slightest. 

What stood before Joey and I was some kind of rat-king. The fish were not in piles around the whale, they were part of it. Some cursed amalgamation of scales and warm flesh. Instead of backing away in fear, I drew even closer. Motioning my hand towards Joey as if to say ‘come here and turn the camera on’. I knew I had to get a record of this, it was already starting to crawl its way back into the water. Although, maybe a better description was that it tried to wriggle back into the water. Like a worm with legless ants poking out from all sides. 

“Tell me you’re getting this,” I breathed. 

“The camera is rolling,” Joey replied. 

“This is Gabby Rogers coming to you from Baker Beach. We arrived on scene to cover the strange uptick in aquatic creatures beaching themselves the last few months. Shortly after my partner and I stumbled upon this,” I waved my hand out to the side. 

Joey panned the camera over towards the wet, half-dead pile that lay a few paces away. Just as I was about to continue my speech, Joey lowered the camera and dropped his jaw. I turned on my heel quickly to view the scene behind me. The fin that I’d thought I’d seen poking out from under the whale was actually a collection of razor sharp teeth. A Great White Shark was pinned below the enormous main body of the rat-king. 

“I think we should just get out of here. This is too strange, too unnatural. Gabby, I’m scared.” Joey took a few paces back. 

“At least come get a shot of this weird substance that seems to be holding them together. Please,” I pleaded with my fearful companion. 

“Fine,” Joey relented. He held the camera back up and zoomed in on the mass. 

It wasn’t until I got to see the footage after the fact that I realized just how strange the situation was. When we had gotten back to the news station, we showed the video to the people above us and apologized profusely for not completing the job. Joey and I were told to keep it to ourselves or we would risk losing our jobs. The director's reaction struck me as strange but I was too nervous to speak up at the time. 

What was recorded on the camera showed more than the naked eye could see. When I was standing upon the beach, all I saw was a strange greenish plant that looked like moss. It encompassed the whale, shark, and fishes like some sort of net, or stitches. This wasn’t the work of God, this was something sinister and wrong. When I watched the video back, the moss glowed like phosphorus paint under a black light. Something we hadn’t noticed in person. 

Suddenly the wheels started to rumble as they carried the plane across the tarmac. The engines roared as they churned harder. Like a child, I wanted to reach up and cover my ears but opted for squeezing the arms rests once again. The pilot had announced that we were cleared for take off, and boy did I feel it. Every nerve in my body started going haywire as the plane lifted from the ground. Turbulence shook the plane and suddenly we were at a sharp incline. 

“We made it, we’re in the air.” Joey patted my arm. 

“Thanks,” I said. My eyes opened begrudgingly to find that the plane was still in one piece. My lungs screamed internally, begging for a full breath of air. I had been clenching all the muscles in my abdomen as a way to ground myself, but ended up forgetting the other part of the equation was to relax them. 

“Woah, what the fuck!” Someone screamed from the back of the plane. 

Just as we had reached the apex of our flight, a sound had made its way into the noisy cabin. The only thing I could compare it to is the gritty, hollow, clacking sound of a rock-fall or avalanche. It was much, much louder than anything I had ever experienced in my thirty years of life. My head whipped around wildly as I tried to make sense of what was happening, but couldn’t find what had made the sound. Until Joey swatted at me, his face pressed up against the window. 

“Gabs, grab the camera out of my bag. Hurry!” Joey shouted. 

“Oh my god, do you see that down there?” Someone else in the plane called out. 

“What is going on?” I felt panic fill me. Has something happened to the plane? Did one of the engines blow? I shook my head back and forth violently. The metal aircraft was still flying normally. 

“Gabs, the camera. NOW!” 

I dug into Joey’s bag that laid across his lap, finding the camera instantly. It was a small camcorder that looked ancient. Flipping open the side, so that the screen was exposed, I handed the plastic and metal contraption to Joey. As he moved his face away from the window, he pointed the lens in a downward angle. That was when I saw the giant fissure that had opened up within the ground below. It looked like somebody had unzipped the earth like it was a giant pocket. For miles and miles it stretched, so deep that from our vantage point all we could see was blackness within the center. 

Just as I had started to process what was happening below, another passenger had stated that the ocean was drawing back. Ah, a tsunami. 

—

My lungs burned and ached. Each breath felt like I was inhaling shards of fiberglass that poked and prodded at every surface. The stretchy band of the oxygen mask pulled at my hair painfully and dug into the tops of my ears. Beside me in the next bed was Trevor, his curly red hair had been singed in a few places. He looked like a troll doll that had been dunked in water and placed in a microwave. 

Cough cough 

“Tre-vor,” I called out in a weak voice. 

“Nggghhhh,” Trevor groaned, stirring under the white sheet. 

“Just checking to make sure you’re still alive man.” I choked out with extreme effort. 

“Didn’t I tell ya that I’d getchu out safely?” Roy asked loudly. 

Even with all the smoke inhalation and the burns we had received while escaping the car, Roy seemed to be doing fine. He sat in a wheel chair in the corner of the room, watching the news coverage of the fire on the tv. I looked down at the bandages that covered his legs and winced. If only I hadn’t tripped, I thought. 

When we had made it down off the mountain, the car had started to fail. Feeling like a couple of sitting ducks, we waited there. Just when we thought all hope was lost, sirens had appeared in the distance. Not wanting to waste another second, the three of us hopped out of the car. Not before dousing ourselves with the jugs of water Roy had painstakingly dragged from his home. We didn’t want to light up like match sticks the second we exited the vehicle. 

Trevor and Roy took off first, as we walked through the flames towards the sirens, a gap started to form. Sweat encapsulated every inch of my body, mixing seamlessly with the water I had dumped over my head. The smoke tugged at me with tangible tendrils, begging me to stay with it. Even though I wanted to give up and collapse on the frying-pan asphalt, I pushed on. Just as I was about to catch up with the two of them, my foot found its way into a crack in the pavement. 

I stumbled, trying desperately to save myself. Without thinking I reached out both of my hands to catch the brunt of the fall. What a bad mistake that was. Howling in pain I recoiled back, clutching my hands to my chest. The ground was much hotter than I had realized, it held on to a few layers of my skin which sizzled audibly. I felt tears well up in my ears, but before they could fall they started to evaporate. Just as I thought I was about to die, a large shadow moved from within the flames. 

Something between a scream and a howl tore out through the air. Even though it was hotter than the fire I experienced when I was six years old, this caused the hairs on my body to raise as goosebumps covered my skin. For just that one moment, I felt as if I was frozen. What small bit of hope I had that I’d made it out alive was suddenly snuffed out. From behind the fire peeked a monster. 

What I saw had the head of a deer and the body of a bear. It stumbled as it walked through the smoke and flame filled area, carried on legs that looked like they came from some kind of big cat or wolf. The haunting cry rang out again, reminding me of the deer call I’d heard just hours ago in Roy’s shack, mixed with something even more sinister. I wondered if the animal, or whatever it was, heard me scream when I fell. I hoped that if it was going to kill me, that it did it fast. The smoke inhalation and burns from the fire were painful and drawn out. 

“Danny!” Trevor yelled. I heard the sound of shoes slapping against the pavement. 

“Trevor,” I tried to call back but my voice came out all wrong. I could barely hear myself amidst the chaos. 

“Watch out!” Roy hollered.

The leathery southern man came barreling back down the road. He was old, but ran faster than any track star I’d ever seen. I watched from the ground as his arms pumped at his side furiously. Just as the Frankenstein-like creature stood on its hind legs, ready to maul Trevor, Roy leapt into the air. With both feet, Roy drop kicked the amalgamation of animals with every ounce of strength his body could muster. He hit the thing square in the chest, screaming out as claws tore through his legs in an attempt to keep from falling backwards. Even though the monstrosity tried to stay upright, it failed. 

Trevor’s hand found its way under my armpits and then I was being hoisted up. Once I was back on my feet I saw that Trevor was still holding the camera in the other. Just as we started to move further through the flames, the monstrous screech of the animal hybrid tore through the air. Roy quickly got back up and started running towards us. As he did I saw that blood was dripping down both of his lower legs. Trevor started to tremble as he got his first look at the thing that chased after us. 

“Just go boys, keep lookin ahead. Don’t turn back, not even fo a second!” Roy shouted from behind us. 

“But…” 

I tried to say, ‘but what about you’. The words fell silent as I felt myself beginning to pass out. My vision started to grow hazy and darken around the edges. My body felt cold, and heavy. Even my hearing was fading fast. Just as the lights of the firetruck made themselves known in the distance, my body gave up. Soon after, I fell into a deep and dreamless sleep. 

Waking up in the hospital bed felt surreal. Trevor laid in another bed beside me, passed out cold. His hair and skin were burned in multiple places, black soot smeared across his face. All I could do was lay there watching his chest rise and fall. I thought of the secret I could never tell him and bit down on my bottom lip. 

“Awake are ya, boy?” Roy’s voice caused my head to snap up. I hadn’t even noticed him sitting there. 

“Ye-ah, I’m up…” I barely choked out. 

“The some-bitch got me good,” Roy pointed to his legs. 

“You ever seen anything like that before?” I asked.

“Not in all my life. I’ve been out in those woods a million times, I would’ve remembered seeing somethin like dat.” 

“I have a really, really bad feeling about this…” I laid back in the bed. 

“You an me both, kid.” Roy shook his head and rolled his chair closer to the tv. 

On the small flat screen tv that was mounted towards the ceiling of the room, the fire raged on. It had torn its way through Knoxville and Seymour, soon to be encroaching on the border of Sevierville. The firefighters took their final stand when the flames licked at the trees in Gatlinburg. With the help of neighboring towns and firefighters from out of state, after 5 hours of hell, it finally stopped. If only they knew that the forest fire wasn’t the worst part. Something more sinister hid within the ashes. 

Something that the Earth spat out.

part 2

The plane trembled ever so slightly as the engines roared to life. I felt the seat below me vibrate with mild enthusiasm as its carrier got ready for take off. Joey sat in the seat beside me, carry-on bag in his lap. He took the window seat this time, a winner of two-out-of-three games of rock-paper-scissors. We always decided this way, letting the luck of the draw pick our orders of business. Part of me wished I’d taken the Xanax I’d been offered before arriving at the airport, it seemed the turbulence would be strong this evening. 

“You sure flying was the best choice? We can always get off now, cry uncle and I’ll get us off this plane in an instant.” Joey looked at me with a concerned expression. 

“I’m fine, once we’re in the air I’ll be okay. It’s just the take off and landing that make me nervous.” 

I looked down at my hands which were death gripping the arm rests. Joey was kind enough to loan me his while I was bracing for the worst. As my stomach churned, I couldn’t help but be grateful I hadn’t eaten in a while. It meant there was nothing to throw up, if the need arose. A few dry heaves would be more manageable than spewing out bbq chicken wings and fries, Joey’s request when we got through TSA. 

“You excited for the convention at least?” Joey pointed his eyes at me. 

“About as excited as one can be when they have to give a presentation in front of a live audience… I just hope I don’t stumble over my words or make a fool out of myself.” I sighed, releasing my death grip enough for blood to flow back into my hands. 

“You’ll do great. I believe in you, Gabs. Wanna practice your speech again? I don’t mind hearing it for the hundredth time,” Joey said, smiling. 

“Not now, I’m trying not to throw up. I appreciate it though,” I said. 

Leaning back in the seat, I closed my eyes and tried to calm down. I have to practice the grounding technique. I have to make the expensive therapy worth it, I thought to myself. Breathing in through my nose, I inhaled deeply. Coffee and cologne, mint gum, cleaning spray. Moving my hands back and forth across the armrest, cool metal and fabric. I focused my hearing, clenching my jaw to wiggle my ears. Laughter, the smack of chewing gum, someone clearing their throat.

“Ma’am I’m gonna need you to fasten your seat belt,” a soft voice hit my ears. 

“Oh, shoot. I’m sorry,” I mumbled. 

Opening my eyes, a small blond woman in a blue uniform leaned over me. She had one hand lightly rested on her hip, while the other dangled limply at her side. A broad smile extended across her face, white teeth glittering like pearls. I sat up abruptly and grabbed at either side for the seatbelt. It wasn’t until the two metal pieces clicked together audibly that she left. I looked over at Joey and made a strange face, as if to apologize silently for the awkwardness. I felt so lame at that moment. Joey just shrugged his shoulders as if he didn’t care. 

The plane was finally moving across the tarmac. The sun was starting to set, it beamed in through the tiny windows - warm and orange. I felt my heart pounding faster within my chest. Here comes the worst part, I thought. Going through the grounding techniques once again, I focused on what my five senses could pick up. The only thing I struggled with was the taste in my mouth, there was nothing identifiable to list. Eventually I switched to clenching and relaxing specific muscle groups, another coping skill that I’d pulled from the metaphoric bag. 

“Do you think anyone is going to have any information on the weird stuff we found growing on the fish? Or…marine animals, I guess?” Joey whispered. 

“I’m not sure,” I said through clenched teeth. 

“It was just so weird. I brought my camera, just in case. If there’s someone we can show it to, maybe they’ll know. I mean, come on, it was moving.” 

“Yes, Joey. I remember,” I hissed under my breath. “Shut up, we need to keep quiet about this until we know more. No need to cause mass panic.” 

A few days ago, Joey and I had been filming a piece for the evening news. We were out at Baker Beach, covering the various aquatic creatures that had been beaching themselves. Sand had made its way into my shoes almost immediately. The texture between the soles and socks was a nightmare but I did my best to ignore it. The mic was held firmly in my right hand, my cellphone in the other. Joey spotted it first. 

“Um, Gabby, do you see that? Please tell me I’m hallucinating,” Joey’s voice was wavering. 

As I turned my head to look in Joey’s direction, something behind him caught my attention. Something large and dark was starting to take shape as I focused my eyes. Recognition filled me as I realized it was a whale. The beast of a creature was moving, wriggling and flopping across the waterlogged sand. It looked to be in distress, I couldn’t help but pity it. Taking a step towards my friend and camera man, I reached out to pat his shoulder. 

“It’s just a whale,” I said. 

Just as my hand came in contact with Joey’s shoulder, he held out his arm. Stopping me from coming any closer. 

“What?” I asked. 

“Take another look, that’s not just a whale.” 

Returning my gaze back to the dying creature, I studied it once again. The dark blue flesh of the aquatic mammal looked slick and bumpy. One fin was jutting out at an odd angle from underneath it, blow hole spewing out weak sprays of water. All around the creature were piles of moving silver rocks that sparkled and glittered. That was when I noticed that the whale wasn’t alone. 

What I thought were rocks, were piles of various fish. They swam through the air, flopping around the sand. It looked like the fish were trying to gather around the whale in an attempt to move it. Piling atop each other in a poor attempt to help. Pushing aside Joey’s arm I took a few more steps towards the strange scene unfolding in front of us. The fish were not trying to help, not even in the slightest. 

What stood before Joey and I was some kind of rat-king. The fish were not in piles around the whale, they were part of it. Some cursed amalgamation of scales and warm flesh. Instead of backing away in fear, I drew even closer. Motioning my hand towards Joey as if to say ‘come here and turn the camera on’. I knew I had to get a record of this, it was already starting to crawl its way back into the water. Although, maybe a better description was that it tried to wriggle back into the water. Like a worm with legless ants poking out from all sides. 

“Tell me you’re getting this,” I breathed. 

“The camera is rolling,” Joey replied. 

“This is Gabby Rogers coming to you from Baker Beach. We arrived on scene to cover the strange uptick in aquatic creatures beaching themselves the last few months. Shortly after my partner and I stumbled upon this,” I waved my hand out to the side. 

Joey panned the camera over towards the wet, half-dead pile that lay a few paces away. Just as I was about to continue my speech, Joey lowered the camera and dropped his jaw. I turned on my heel quickly to view the scene behind me. The fin that I’d thought I’d seen poking out from under the whale was actually a collection of razor sharp teeth. A Great White Shark was pinned below the enormous main body of the rat-king. 

“I think we should just get out of here. This is too strange, too unnatural. Gabby, I’m scared.” Joey took a few paces back. 

“At least come get a shot of this weird substance that seems to be holding them together. Please,” I pleaded with my fearful companion. 

“Fine,” Joey relented. He held the camera back up and zoomed in on the mass. 

It wasn’t until I got to see the footage after the fact that I realized just how strange the situation was. When we had gotten back to the news station, we showed the video to the people above us and apologized profusely for not completing the job. Joey and I were told to keep it to ourselves or we would risk losing our jobs. The director's reaction struck me as strange but I was too nervous to speak up at the time. 

What was recorded on the camera showed more than the naked eye could see. When I was standing upon the beach, all I saw was a strange greenish plant that looked like moss. It encompassed the whale, shark, and fishes like some sort of net, or stitches. This wasn’t the work of God, this was something sinister and wrong. When I watched the video back, the moss glowed like phosphorus paint under a black light. Something we hadn’t noticed in person. 

Suddenly the wheels started to rumble as they carried the plane across the tarmac. The engines roared as they churned harder. Like a child, I wanted to reach up and cover my ears but opted for squeezing the arms rests once again. The pilot had announced that we were cleared for take off, and boy did I feel it. Every nerve in my body started going haywire as the plane lifted from the ground. Turbulence shook the plane and suddenly we were at a sharp incline. 

“We made it, we’re in the air.” Joey patted my arm. 

“Thanks,” I said. My eyes opened begrudgingly to find that the plane was still in one piece. My lungs screamed internally, begging for a full breath of air. I had been clenching all the muscles in my abdomen as a way to ground myself, but ended up forgetting the other part of the equation was to relax them. 

“Woah, what the fuck!” Someone screamed from the back of the plane. 

Just as we had reached the apex of our flight, a sound had made its way into the noisy cabin. The only thing I could compare it to is the gritty, hollow, clacking sound of a rock-fall or avalanche. It was much, much louder than anything I had ever experienced in my thirty years of life. My head whipped around wildly as I tried to make sense of what was happening, but couldn’t find what had made the sound. Until Joey swatted at me, his face pressed up against the window. 

“Gabs, grab the camera out of my bag. Hurry!” Joey shouted. 

“Oh my god, do you see that down there?” Someone else in the plane called out. 

“What is going on?” I felt panic fill me. Has something happened to the plane? Did one of the engines blow? I shook my head back and forth violently. The metal aircraft was still flying normally. 

“Gabs, the camera. NOW!” 

I dug into Joey’s bag that laid across his lap, finding the camera instantly. It was a small camcorder that looked ancient. Flipping open the side, so that the screen was exposed, I handed the plastic and metal contraption to Joey. As he moved his face away from the window, he pointed the lens in a downward angle. That was when I saw the giant fissure that had opened up within the ground below. It looked like somebody had unzipped the earth like it was a giant pocket. For miles and miles it stretched, so deep that from our vantage point all we could see was blackness within the center. 

Just as I had started to process what was happening below, another passenger had stated that the ocean was drawing back. Ah, a tsunami. 

—

My lungs burned and ached. Each breath felt like I was inhaling shards of fiberglass that poked and prodded at every surface. The stretchy band of the oxygen mask pulled at my hair painfully and dug into the tops of my ears. Beside me in the next bed was Trevor, his curly red hair had been singed in a few places. He looked like a troll doll that had been dunked in water and placed in a microwave. 

Cough cough 

“Tre-vor,” I called out in a weak voice. 

“Nggghhhh,” Trevor groaned, stirring under the white sheet. 

“Just checking to make sure you’re still alive man.” I choked out with extreme effort. 

“Didn’t I tell ya that I’d getchu out safely?” Roy asked loudly. 

Even with all the smoke inhalation and the burns we had received while escaping the car, Roy seemed to be doing fine. He sat in a wheel chair in the corner of the room, watching the news coverage of the fire on the tv. I looked down at the bandages that covered his legs and winced. If only I hadn’t tripped, I thought. 

When we had made it down off the mountain, the car had started to fail. Feeling like a couple of sitting ducks, we waited there. Just when we thought all hope was lost, sirens had appeared in the distance. Not wanting to waste another second, the three of us hopped out of the car. Not before dousing ourselves with the jugs of water Roy had painstakingly dragged from his home. We didn’t want to light up like match sticks the second we exited the vehicle. 

Trevor and Roy took off first, as we walked through the flames towards the sirens, a gap started to form. Sweat encapsulated every inch of my body, mixing seamlessly with the water I had dumped over my head. The smoke tugged at me with tangible tendrils, begging me to stay with it. Even though I wanted to give up and collapse on the frying-pan asphalt, I pushed on. Just as I was about to catch up with the two of them, my foot found its way into a crack in the pavement. 

I stumbled, trying desperately to save myself. Without thinking I reached out both of my hands to catch the brunt of the fall. What a bad mistake that was. Howling in pain I recoiled back, clutching my hands to my chest. The ground was much hotter than I had realized, it held on to a few layers of my skin which sizzled audibly. I felt tears well up in my ears, but before they could fall they started to evaporate. Just as I thought I was about to die, a large shadow moved from within the flames. 

Something between a scream and a howl tore out through the air. Even though it was hotter than the fire I experienced when I was six years old, this caused the hairs on my body to raise as goosebumps covered my skin. For just that one moment, I felt as if I was frozen. What small bit of hope I had that I’d made it out alive was suddenly snuffed out. From behind the fire peeked a monster. 

What I saw had the head of a deer and the body of a bear. It stumbled as it walked through the smoke and flame filled area, carried on legs that looked like they came from some kind of big cat or wolf. The haunting cry rang out again, reminding me of the deer call I’d heard just hours ago in Roy’s shack, mixed with something even more sinister. I wondered if the animal, or whatever it was, heard me scream when I fell. I hoped that if it was going to kill me, that it did it fast. The smoke inhalation and burns from the fire were painful and drawn out. 

“Danny!” Trevor yelled. I heard the sound of shoes slapping against the pavement. 

“Trevor,” I tried to call back but my voice came out all wrong. I could barely hear myself amidst the chaos. 

“Watch out!” Roy hollered.

The leathery southern man came barreling back down the road. He was old, but ran faster than any track star I’d ever seen. I watched from the ground as his arms pumped at his side furiously. Just as the Frankenstein-like creature stood on its hind legs, ready to maul Trevor, Roy leapt into the air. With both feet, Roy drop kicked the amalgamation of animals with every ounce of strength his body could muster. He hit the thing square in the chest, screaming out as claws tore through his legs in an attempt to keep from falling backwards. Even though the monstrosity tried to stay upright, it failed. 

Trevor’s hand found its way under my armpits and then I was being hoisted up. Once I was back on my feet I saw that Trevor was still holding the camera in the other. Just as we started to move further through the flames, the monstrous screech of the animal hybrid tore through the air. Roy quickly got back up and started running towards us. As he did I saw that blood was dripping down both of his lower legs. Trevor started to tremble as he got his first look at the thing that chased after us. 

“Just go boys, keep lookin ahead. Don’t turn back, not even fo a second!” Roy shouted from behind us. 

“But…” 

I tried to say, ‘but what about you’. The words fell silent as I felt myself beginning to pass out. My vision started to grow hazy and darken around the edges. My body felt cold, and heavy. Even my hearing was fading fast. Just as the lights of the firetruck made themselves known in the distance, my body gave up. Soon after, I fell into a deep and dreamless sleep. 

Waking up in the hospital bed felt surreal. Trevor laid in another bed beside me, passed out cold. His hair and skin were burned in multiple places, black soot smeared across his face. All I could do was lay there watching his chest rise and fall. I thought of the secret I could never tell him and bit down on my bottom lip. 

“Awake are ya, boy?” Roy’s voice caused my head to snap up. I hadn’t even noticed him sitting there. 

“Ye-ah, I’m up…” I barely choked out. 

“The some-bitch got me good,” Roy pointed to his legs. 

“You ever seen anything like that before?” I asked.

“Not in all my life. I’ve been out in those woods a million times, I would’ve remembered seeing somethin like dat.” 

“I have a really, really bad feeling about this…” I laid back in the bed. 

“You an me both, kid.” Roy shook his head and rolled his chair closer to the tv. 

On the small flat screen tv that was mounted towards the ceiling of the room, the fire raged on. It had torn its way through Knoxville and Seymour, soon to be encroaching on the border of Sevierville. The firefighters took their final stand when the flames licked at the trees in Gatlinburg. With the help of neighboring towns and firefighters from out of state, after 5 hours of hell, it finally stopped. If only they knew that the forest fire wasn’t the worst part. Something more sinister hid within the ashes. 

Something that the Earth spat out.

part 2

The plane trembled ever so slightly as the engines roared to life. I felt the seat below me vibrate with mild enthusiasm as its carrier got ready for take off. Joey sat in the seat beside me, carry-on bag in his lap. He took the window seat this time, a winner of two-out-of-three games of rock-paper-scissors. We always decided this way, letting the luck of the draw pick our orders of business. Part of me wished I’d taken the Xanax I’d been offered before arriving at the airport, it seemed the turbulence would be strong this evening. 

“You sure flying was the best choice? We can always get off now, cry uncle and I’ll get us off this plane in an instant.” Joey looked at me with a concerned expression. 

“I’m fine, once we’re in the air I’ll be okay. It’s just the take off and landing that make me nervous.” 

I looked down at my hands which were death gripping the arm rests. Joey was kind enough to loan me his while I was bracing for the worst. As my stomach churned, I couldn’t help but be grateful I hadn’t eaten in a while. It meant there was nothing to throw up, if the need arose. A few dry heaves would be more manageable than spewing out bbq chicken wings and fries, Joey’s request when we got through TSA. 

“You excited for the convention at least?” Joey pointed his eyes at me. 

“About as excited as one can be when they have to give a presentation in front of a live audience… I just hope I don’t stumble over my words or make a fool out of myself.” I sighed, releasing my death grip enough for blood to flow back into my hands. 

“You’ll do great. I believe in you, Gabs. Wanna practice your speech again? I don’t mind hearing it for the hundredth time,” Joey said, smiling. 

“Not now, I’m trying not to throw up. I appreciate it though,” I said. 

Leaning back in the seat, I closed my eyes and tried to calm down. I have to practice the grounding technique. I have to make the expensive therapy worth it, I thought to myself. Breathing in through my nose, I inhaled deeply. Coffee and cologne, mint gum, cleaning spray. Moving my hands back and forth across the armrest, cool metal and fabric. I focused my hearing, clenching my jaw to wiggle my ears. Laughter, the smack of chewing gum, someone clearing their throat.

“Ma’am I’m gonna need you to fasten your seat belt,” a soft voice hit my ears. 

“Oh, shoot. I’m sorry,” I mumbled. 

Opening my eyes, a small blond woman in a blue uniform leaned over me. She had one hand lightly rested on her hip, while the other dangled limply at her side. A broad smile extended across her face, white teeth glittering like pearls. I sat up abruptly and grabbed at either side for the seatbelt. It wasn’t until the two metal pieces clicked together audibly that she left. I looked over at Joey and made a strange face, as if to apologize silently for the awkwardness. I felt so lame at that moment. Joey just shrugged his shoulders as if he didn’t care. 

The plane was finally moving across the tarmac. The sun was starting to set, it beamed in through the tiny windows - warm and orange. I felt my heart pounding faster within my chest. Here comes the worst part, I thought. Going through the grounding techniques once again, I focused on what my five senses could pick up. The only thing I struggled with was the taste in my mouth, there was nothing identifiable to list. Eventually I switched to clenching and relaxing specific muscle groups, another coping skill that I’d pulled from the metaphoric bag. 

“Do you think anyone is going to have any information on the weird stuff we found growing on the fish? Or…marine animals, I guess?” Joey whispered. 

“I’m not sure,” I said through clenched teeth. 

“It was just so weird. I brought my camera, just in case. If there’s someone we can show it to, maybe they’ll know. I mean, come on, it was moving.” 

“Yes, Joey. I remember,” I hissed under my breath. “Shut up, we need to keep quiet about this until we know more. No need to cause mass panic.” 

A few days ago, Joey and I had been filming a piece for the evening news. We were out at Baker Beach, covering the various aquatic creatures that had been beaching themselves. Sand had made its way into my shoes almost immediately. The texture between the soles and socks was a nightmare but I did my best to ignore it. The mic was held firmly in my right hand, my cellphone in the other. Joey spotted it first. 

“Um, Gabby, do you see that? Please tell me I’m hallucinating,” Joey’s voice was wavering. 

As I turned my head to look in Joey’s direction, something behind him caught my attention. Something large and dark was starting to take shape as I focused my eyes. Recognition filled me as I realized it was a whale. The beast of a creature was moving, wriggling and flopping across the waterlogged sand. It looked to be in distress, I couldn’t help but pity it. Taking a step towards my friend and camera man, I reached out to pat his shoulder. 

“It’s just a whale,” I said. 

Just as my hand came in contact with Joey’s shoulder, he held out his arm. Stopping me from coming any closer. 

“What?” I asked. 

“Take another look, that’s not just a whale.” 

Returning my gaze back to the dying creature, I studied it once again. The dark blue flesh of the aquatic mammal looked slick and bumpy. One fin was jutting out at an odd angle from underneath it, blow hole spewing out weak sprays of water. All around the creature were piles of moving silver rocks that sparkled and glittered. That was when I noticed that the whale wasn’t alone. 

What I thought were rocks, were piles of various fish. They swam through the air, flopping around the sand. It looked like the fish were trying to gather around the whale in an attempt to move it. Piling atop each other in a poor attempt to help. Pushing aside Joey’s arm I took a few more steps towards the strange scene unfolding in front of us. The fish were not trying to help, not even in the slightest. 

What stood before Joey and I was some kind of rat-king. The fish were not in piles around the whale, they were part of it. Some cursed amalgamation of scales and warm flesh. Instead of backing away in fear, I drew even closer. Motioning my hand towards Joey as if to say ‘come here and turn the camera on’. I knew I had to get a record of this, it was already starting to crawl its way back into the water. Although, maybe a better description was that it tried to wriggle back into the water. Like a worm with legless ants poking out from all sides. 

“Tell me you’re getting this,” I breathed. 

“The camera is rolling,” Joey replied. 

“This is Gabby Rogers coming to you from Baker Beach. We arrived on scene to cover the strange uptick in aquatic creatures beaching themselves the last few months. Shortly after my partner and I stumbled upon this,” I waved my hand out to the side. 

Joey panned the camera over towards the wet, half-dead pile that lay a few paces away. Just as I was about to continue my speech, Joey lowered the camera and dropped his jaw. I turned on my heel quickly to view the scene behind me. The fin that I’d thought I’d seen poking out from under the whale was actually a collection of razor sharp teeth. A Great White Shark was pinned below the enormous main body of the rat-king. 

“I think we should just get out of here. This is too strange, too unnatural. Gabby, I’m scared.” Joey took a few paces back. 

“At least come get a shot of this weird substance that seems to be holding them together. Please,” I pleaded with my fearful companion. 

“Fine,” Joey relented. He held the camera back up and zoomed in on the mass. 

It wasn’t until I got to see the footage after the fact that I realized just how strange the situation was. When we had gotten back to the news station, we showed the video to the people above us and apologized profusely for not completing the job. Joey and I were told to keep it to ourselves or we would risk losing our jobs. The director's reaction struck me as strange but I was too nervous to speak up at the time. 

What was recorded on the camera showed more than the naked eye could see. When I was standing upon the beach, all I saw was a strange greenish plant that looked like moss. It encompassed the whale, shark, and fishes like some sort of net, or stitches. This wasn’t the work of God, this was something sinister and wrong. When I watched the video back, the moss glowed like phosphorus paint under a black light. Something we hadn’t noticed in person. 

Suddenly the wheels started to rumble as they carried the plane across the tarmac. The engines roared as they churned harder. Like a child, I wanted to reach up and cover my ears but opted for squeezing the arms rests once again. The pilot had announced that we were cleared for take off, and boy did I feel it. Every nerve in my body started going haywire as the plane lifted from the ground. Turbulence shook the plane and suddenly we were at a sharp incline. 

“We made it, we’re in the air.” Joey patted my arm. 

“Thanks,” I said. My eyes opened begrudgingly to find that the plane was still in one piece. My lungs screamed internally, begging for a full breath of air. I had been clenching all the muscles in my abdomen as a way to ground myself, but ended up forgetting the other part of the equation was to relax them. 

“Woah, what the fuck!” Someone screamed from the back of the plane. 

Just as we had reached the apex of our flight, a sound had made its way into the noisy cabin. The only thing I could compare it to is the gritty, hollow, clacking sound of a rock-fall or avalanche. It was much, much louder than anything I had ever experienced in my thirty years of life. My head whipped around wildly as I tried to make sense of what was happening, but couldn’t find what had made the sound. Until Joey swatted at me, his face pressed up against the window. 

“Gabs, grab the camera out of my bag. Hurry!” Joey shouted. 

“Oh my god, do you see that down there?” Someone else in the plane called out. 

“What is going on?” I felt panic fill me. Has something happened to the plane? Did one of the engines blow? I shook my head back and forth violently. The metal aircraft was still flying normally. 

“Gabs, the camera. NOW!” 

I dug into Joey’s bag that laid across his lap, finding the camera instantly. It was a small camcorder that looked ancient. Flipping open the side, so that the screen was exposed, I handed the plastic and metal contraption to Joey. As he moved his face away from the window, he pointed the lens in a downward angle. That was when I saw the giant fissure that had opened up within the ground below. It looked like somebody had unzipped the earth like it was a giant pocket. For miles and miles it stretched, so deep that from our vantage point all we could see was blackness within the center. 

Just as I had started to process what was happening below, another passenger had stated that the ocean was drawing back. Ah, a tsunami. 

—

My lungs burned and ached. Each breath felt like I was inhaling shards of fiberglass that poked and prodded at every surface. The stretchy band of the oxygen mask pulled at my hair painfully and dug into the tops of my ears. Beside me in the next bed was Trevor, his curly red hair had been singed in a few places. He looked like a troll doll that had been dunked in water and placed in a microwave. 

Cough cough 

“Tre-vor,” I called out in a weak voice. 

“Nggghhhh,” Trevor groaned, stirring under the white sheet. 

“Just checking to make sure you’re still alive man.” I choked out with extreme effort. 

“Didn’t I tell ya that I’d getchu out safely?” Roy asked loudly. 

Even with all the smoke inhalation and the burns we had received while escaping the car, Roy seemed to be doing fine. He sat in a wheel chair in the corner of the room, watching the news coverage of the fire on the tv. I looked down at the bandages that covered his legs and winced. If only I hadn’t tripped, I thought. 

When we had made it down off the mountain, the car had started to fail. Feeling like a couple of sitting ducks, we waited there. Just when we thought all hope was lost, sirens had appeared in the distance. Not wanting to waste another second, the three of us hopped out of the car. Not before dousing ourselves with the jugs of water Roy had painstakingly dragged from his home. We didn’t want to light up like match sticks the second we exited the vehicle. 

Trevor and Roy took off first, as we walked through the flames towards the sirens, a gap started to form. Sweat encapsulated every inch of my body, mixing seamlessly with the water I had dumped over my head. The smoke tugged at me with tangible tendrils, begging me to stay with it. Even though I wanted to give up and collapse on the frying-pan asphalt, I pushed on. Just as I was about to catch up with the two of them, my foot found its way into a crack in the pavement. 

I stumbled, trying desperately to save myself. Without thinking I reached out both of my hands to catch the brunt of the fall. What a bad mistake that was. Howling in pain I recoiled back, clutching my hands to my chest. The ground was much hotter than I had realized, it held on to a few layers of my skin which sizzled audibly. I felt tears well up in my ears, but before they could fall they started to evaporate. Just as I thought I was about to die, a large shadow moved from within the flames. 

Something between a scream and a howl tore out through the air. Even though it was hotter than the fire I experienced when I was six years old, this caused the hairs on my body to raise as goosebumps covered my skin. For just that one moment, I felt as if I was frozen. What small bit of hope I had that I’d made it out alive was suddenly snuffed out. From behind the fire peeked a monster. 

What I saw had the head of a deer and the body of a bear. It stumbled as it walked through the smoke and flame filled area, carried on legs that looked like they came from some kind of big cat or wolf. The haunting cry rang out again, reminding me of the deer call I’d heard just hours ago in Roy’s shack, mixed with something even more sinister. I wondered if the animal, or whatever it was, heard me scream when I fell. I hoped that if it was going to kill me, that it did it fast. The smoke inhalation and burns from the fire were painful and drawn out. 

“Danny!” Trevor yelled. I heard the sound of shoes slapping against the pavement. 

“Trevor,” I tried to call back but my voice came out all wrong. I could barely hear myself amidst the chaos. 

“Watch out!” Roy hollered.

The leathery southern man came barreling back down the road. He was old, but ran faster than any track star I’d ever seen. I watched from the ground as his arms pumped at his side furiously. Just as the Frankenstein-like creature stood on its hind legs, ready to maul Trevor, Roy leapt into the air. With both feet, Roy drop kicked the amalgamation of animals with every ounce of strength his body could muster. He hit the thing square in the chest, screaming out as claws tore through his legs in an attempt to keep from falling backwards. Even though the monstrosity tried to stay upright, it failed. 

Trevor’s hand found its way under my armpits and then I was being hoisted up. Once I was back on my feet I saw that Trevor was still holding the camera in the other. Just as we started to move further through the flames, the monstrous screech of the animal hybrid tore through the air. Roy quickly got back up and started running towards us. As he did I saw that blood was dripping down both of his lower legs. Trevor started to tremble as he got his first look at the thing that chased after us. 

“Just go boys, keep lookin ahead. Don’t turn back, not even fo a second!” Roy shouted from behind us. 

“But…” 

I tried to say, ‘but what about you’. The words fell silent as I felt myself beginning to pass out. My vision started to grow hazy and darken around the edges. My body felt cold, and heavy. Even my hearing was fading fast. Just as the lights of the firetruck made themselves known in the distance, my body gave up. Soon after, I fell into a deep and dreamless sleep. 

Waking up in the hospital bed felt surreal. Trevor laid in another bed beside me, passed out cold. His hair and skin were burned in multiple places, black soot smeared across his face. All I could do was lay there watching his chest rise and fall. I thought of the secret I could never tell him and bit down on my bottom lip. 

“Awake are ya, boy?” Roy’s voice caused my head to snap up. I hadn’t even noticed him sitting there. 

“Ye-ah, I’m up…” I barely choked out. 

“The some-bitch got me good,” Roy pointed to his legs. 

“You ever seen anything like that before?” I asked.

“Not in all my life. I’ve been out in those woods a million times, I would’ve remembered seeing somethin like dat.” 

“I have a really, really bad feeling about this…” I laid back in the bed. 

“You an me both, kid.” Roy shook his head and rolled his chair closer to the tv. 

On the small flat screen tv that was mounted towards the ceiling of the room, the fire raged on. It had torn its way through Knoxville and Seymour, soon to be encroaching on the border of Sevierville. The firefighters took their final stand when the flames licked at the trees in Gatlinburg. With the help of neighboring towns and firefighters from out of state, after 5 hours of hell, it finally stopped. If only they knew that the forest fire wasn’t the worst part. Something more sinister hid within the ashes. 

Something that the Earth spat out.

part 2

The plane trembled ever so slightly as the engines roared to life. I felt the seat below me vibrate with mild enthusiasm as its carrier got ready for take off. Joey sat in the seat beside me, carry-on bag in his lap. He took the window seat this time, a winner of two-out-of-three games of rock-paper-scissors. We always decided this way, letting the luck of the draw pick our orders of business. Part of me wished I’d taken the Xanax I’d been offered before arriving at the airport, it seemed the turbulence would be strong this evening. 

“You sure flying was the best choice? We can always get off now, cry uncle and I’ll get us off this plane in an instant.” Joey looked at me with a concerned expression. 

“I’m fine, once we’re in the air I’ll be okay. It’s just the take off and landing that make me nervous.” 

I looked down at my hands which were death gripping the arm rests. Joey was kind enough to loan me his while I was bracing for the worst. As my stomach churned, I couldn’t help but be grateful I hadn’t eaten in a while. It meant there was nothing to throw up, if the need arose. A few dry heaves would be more manageable than spewing out bbq chicken wings and fries, Joey’s request when we got through TSA. 

“You excited for the convention at least?” Joey pointed his eyes at me. 

“About as excited as one can be when they have to give a presentation in front of a live audience… I just hope I don’t stumble over my words or make a fool out of myself.” I sighed, releasing my death grip enough for blood to flow back into my hands. 

“You’ll do great. I believe in you, Gabs. Wanna practice your speech again? I don’t mind hearing it for the hundredth time,” Joey said, smiling. 

“Not now, I’m trying not to throw up. I appreciate it though,” I said. 

Leaning back in the seat, I closed my eyes and tried to calm down. I have to practice the grounding technique. I have to make the expensive therapy worth it, I thought to myself. Breathing in through my nose, I inhaled deeply. Coffee and cologne, mint gum, cleaning spray. Moving my hands back and forth across the armrest, cool metal and fabric. I focused my hearing, clenching my jaw to wiggle my ears. Laughter, the smack of chewing gum, someone clearing their throat.

“Ma’am I’m gonna need you to fasten your seat belt,” a soft voice hit my ears. 

“Oh, shoot. I’m sorry,” I mumbled. 

Opening my eyes, a small blond woman in a blue uniform leaned over me. She had one hand lightly rested on her hip, while the other dangled limply at her side. A broad smile extended across her face, white teeth glittering like pearls. I sat up abruptly and grabbed at either side for the seatbelt. It wasn’t until the two metal pieces clicked together audibly that she left. I looked over at Joey and made a strange face, as if to apologize silently for the awkwardness. I felt so lame at that moment. Joey just shrugged his shoulders as if he didn’t care. 

The plane was finally moving across the tarmac. The sun was starting to set, it beamed in through the tiny windows - warm and orange. I felt my heart pounding faster within my chest. Here comes the worst part, I thought. Going through the grounding techniques once again, I focused on what my five senses could pick up. The only thing I struggled with was the taste in my mouth, there was nothing identifiable to list. Eventually I switched to clenching and relaxing specific muscle groups, another coping skill that I’d pulled from the metaphoric bag. 

“Do you think anyone is going to have any information on the weird stuff we found growing on the fish? Or…marine animals, I guess?” Joey whispered. 

“I’m not sure,” I said through clenched teeth. 

“It was just so weird. I brought my camera, just in case. If there’s someone we can show it to, maybe they’ll know. I mean, come on, it was moving.” 

“Yes, Joey. I remember,” I hissed under my breath. “Shut up, we need to keep quiet about this until we know more. No need to cause mass panic.” 

A few days ago, Joey and I had been filming a piece for the evening news. We were out at Baker Beach, covering the various aquatic creatures that had been beaching themselves. Sand had made its way into my shoes almost immediately. The texture between the soles and socks was a nightmare but I did my best to ignore it. The mic was held firmly in my right hand, my cellphone in the other. Joey spotted it first. 

“Um, Gabby, do you see that? Please tell me I’m hallucinating,” Joey’s voice was wavering. 

As I turned my head to look in Joey’s direction, something behind him caught my attention. Something large and dark was starting to take shape as I focused my eyes. Recognition filled me as I realized it was a whale. The beast of a creature was moving, wriggling and flopping across the waterlogged sand. It looked to be in distress, I couldn’t help but pity it. Taking a step towards my friend and camera man, I reached out to pat his shoulder. 

“It’s just a whale,” I said. 

Just as my hand came in contact with Joey’s shoulder, he held out his arm. Stopping me from coming any closer. 

“What?” I asked. 

“Take another look, that’s not just a whale.” 

Returning my gaze back to the dying creature, I studied it once again. The dark blue flesh of the aquatic mammal looked slick and bumpy. One fin was jutting out at an odd angle from underneath it, blow hole spewing out weak sprays of water. All around the creature were piles of moving silver rocks that sparkled and glittered. That was when I noticed that the whale wasn’t alone. 

What I thought were rocks, were piles of various fish. They swam through the air, flopping around the sand. It looked like the fish were trying to gather around the whale in an attempt to move it. Piling atop each other in a poor attempt to help. Pushing aside Joey’s arm I took a few more steps towards the strange scene unfolding in front of us. The fish were not trying to help, not even in the slightest. 

What stood before Joey and I was some kind of rat-king. The fish were not in piles around the whale, they were part of it. Some cursed amalgamation of scales and warm flesh. Instead of backing away in fear, I drew even closer. Motioning my hand towards Joey as if to say ‘come here and turn the camera on’. I knew I had to get a record of this, it was already starting to crawl its way back into the water. Although, maybe a better description was that it tried to wriggle back into the water. Like a worm with legless ants poking out from all sides. 

“Tell me you’re getting this,” I breathed. 

“The camera is rolling,” Joey replied. 

“This is Gabby Rogers coming to you from Baker Beach. We arrived on scene to cover the strange uptick in aquatic creatures beaching themselves the last few months. Shortly after my partner and I stumbled upon this,” I waved my hand out to the side. 

Joey panned the camera over towards the wet, half-dead pile that lay a few paces away. Just as I was about to continue my speech, Joey lowered the camera and dropped his jaw. I turned on my heel quickly to view the scene behind me. The fin that I’d thought I’d seen poking out from under the whale was actually a collection of razor sharp teeth. A Great White Shark was pinned below the enormous main body of the rat-king. 

“I think we should just get out of here. This is too strange, too unnatural. Gabby, I’m scared.” Joey took a few paces back. 

“At least come get a shot of this weird substance that seems to be holding them together. Please,” I pleaded with my fearful companion. 

“Fine,” Joey relented. He held the camera back up and zoomed in on the mass. 

It wasn’t until I got to see the footage after the fact that I realized just how strange the situation was. When we had gotten back to the news station, we showed the video to the people above us and apologized profusely for not completing the job. Joey and I were told to keep it to ourselves or we would risk losing our jobs. The director's reaction struck me as strange but I was too nervous to speak up at the time. 

What was recorded on the camera showed more than the naked eye could see. When I was standing upon the beach, all I saw was a strange greenish plant that looked like moss. It encompassed the whale, shark, and fishes like some sort of net, or stitches. This wasn’t the work of God, this was something sinister and wrong. When I watched the video back, the moss glowed like phosphorus paint under a black light. Something we hadn’t noticed in person. 

Suddenly the wheels started to rumble as they carried the plane across the tarmac. The engines roared as they churned harder. Like a child, I wanted to reach up and cover my ears but opted for squeezing the arms rests once again. The pilot had announced that we were cleared for take off, and boy did I feel it. Every nerve in my body started going haywire as the plane lifted from the ground. Turbulence shook the plane and suddenly we were at a sharp incline. 

“We made it, we’re in the air.” Joey patted my arm. 

“Thanks,” I said. My eyes opened begrudgingly to find that the plane was still in one piece. My lungs screamed internally, begging for a full breath of air. I had been clenching all the muscles in my abdomen as a way to ground myself, but ended up forgetting the other part of the equation was to relax them. 

“Woah, what the fuck!” Someone screamed from the back of the plane. 

Just as we had reached the apex of our flight, a sound had made its way into the noisy cabin. The only thing I could compare it to is the gritty, hollow, clacking sound of a rock-fall or avalanche. It was much, much louder than anything I had ever experienced in my thirty years of life. My head whipped around wildly as I tried to make sense of what was happening, but couldn’t find what had made the sound. Until Joey swatted at me, his face pressed up against the window. 

“Gabs, grab the camera out of my bag. Hurry!” Joey shouted. 

“Oh my god, do you see that down there?” Someone else in the plane called out. 

“What is going on?” I felt panic fill me. Has something happened to the plane? Did one of the engines blow? I shook my head back and forth violently. The metal aircraft was still flying normally. 

“Gabs, the camera. NOW!” 

I dug into Joey’s bag that laid across his lap, finding the camera instantly. It was a small camcorder that looked ancient. Flipping open the side, so that the screen was exposed, I handed the plastic and metal contraption to Joey. As he moved his face away from the window, he pointed the lens in a downward angle. That was when I saw the giant fissure that had opened up within the ground below. It looked like somebody had unzipped the earth like it was a giant pocket. For miles and miles it stretched, so deep that from our vantage point all we could see was blackness within the center. 

Just as I had started to process what was happening below, another passenger had stated that the ocean was drawing back. Ah, a tsunami. 

—

My lungs burned and ached. Each breath felt like I was inhaling shards of fiberglass that poked and prodded at every surface. The stretchy band of the oxygen mask pulled at my hair painfully and dug into the tops of my ears. Beside me in the next bed was Trevor, his curly red hair had been singed in a few places. He looked like a troll doll that had been dunked in water and placed in a microwave. 

Cough cough 

“Tre-vor,” I called out in a weak voice. 

“Nggghhhh,” Trevor groaned, stirring under the white sheet. 

“Just checking to make sure you’re still alive man.” I choked out with extreme effort. 

“Didn’t I tell ya that I’d getchu out safely?” Roy asked loudly. 

Even with all the smoke inhalation and the burns we had received while escaping the car, Roy seemed to be doing fine. He sat in a wheel chair in the corner of the room, watching the news coverage of the fire on the tv. I looked down at the bandages that covered his legs and winced. If only I hadn’t tripped, I thought. 

When we had made it down off the mountain, the car had started to fail. Feeling like a couple of sitting ducks, we waited there. Just when we thought all hope was lost, sirens had appeared in the distance. Not wanting to waste another second, the three of us hopped out of the car. Not before dousing ourselves with the jugs of water Roy had painstakingly dragged from his home. We didn’t want to light up like match sticks the second we exited the vehicle. 

Trevor and Roy took off first, as we walked through the flames towards the sirens, a gap started to form. Sweat encapsulated every inch of my body, mixing seamlessly with the water I had dumped over my head. The smoke tugged at me with tangible tendrils, begging me to stay with it. Even though I wanted to give up and collapse on the frying-pan asphalt, I pushed on. Just as I was about to catch up with the two of them, my foot found its way into a crack in the pavement. 

I stumbled, trying desperately to save myself. Without thinking I reached out both of my hands to catch the brunt of the fall. What a bad mistake that was. Howling in pain I recoiled back, clutching my hands to my chest. The ground was much hotter than I had realized, it held on to a few layers of my skin which sizzled audibly. I felt tears well up in my ears, but before they could fall they started to evaporate. Just as I thought I was about to die, a large shadow moved from within the flames. 

Something between a scream and a howl tore out through the air. Even though it was hotter than the fire I experienced when I was six years old, this caused the hairs on my body to raise as goosebumps covered my skin. For just that one moment, I felt as if I was frozen. What small bit of hope I had that I’d made it out alive was suddenly snuffed out. From behind the fire peeked a monster. 

What I saw had the head of a deer and the body of a bear. It stumbled as it walked through the smoke and flame filled area, carried on legs that looked like they came from some kind of big cat or wolf. The haunting cry rang out again, reminding me of the deer call I’d heard just hours ago in Roy’s shack, mixed with something even more sinister. I wondered if the animal, or whatever it was, heard me scream when I fell. I hoped that if it was going to kill me, that it did it fast. The smoke inhalation and burns from the fire were painful and drawn out. 

“Danny!” Trevor yelled. I heard the sound of shoes slapping against the pavement. 

“Trevor,” I tried to call back but my voice came out all wrong. I could barely hear myself amidst the chaos. 

“Watch out!” Roy hollered.

The leathery southern man came barreling back down the road. He was old, but ran faster than any track star I’d ever seen. I watched from the ground as his arms pumped at his side furiously. Just as the Frankenstein-like creature stood on its hind legs, ready to maul Trevor, Roy leapt into the air. With both feet, Roy drop kicked the amalgamation of animals with every ounce of strength his body could muster. He hit the thing square in the chest, screaming out as claws tore through his legs in an attempt to keep from falling backwards. Even though the monstrosity tried to stay upright, it failed. 

Trevor’s hand found its way under my armpits and then I was being hoisted up. Once I was back on my feet I saw that Trevor was still holding the camera in the other. Just as we started to move further through the flames, the monstrous screech of the animal hybrid tore through the air. Roy quickly got back up and started running towards us. As he did I saw that blood was dripping down both of his lower legs. Trevor started to tremble as he got his first look at the thing that chased after us. 

“Just go boys, keep lookin ahead. Don’t turn back, not even fo a second!” Roy shouted from behind us. 

“But…” 

I tried to say, ‘but what about you’. The words fell silent as I felt myself beginning to pass out. My vision started to grow hazy and darken around the edges. My body felt cold, and heavy. Even my hearing was fading fast. Just as the lights of the firetruck made themselves known in the distance, my body gave up. Soon after, I fell into a deep and dreamless sleep. 

Waking up in the hospital bed felt surreal. Trevor laid in another bed beside me, passed out cold. His hair and skin were burned in multiple places, black soot smeared across his face. All I could do was lay there watching his chest rise and fall. I thought of the secret I could never tell him and bit down on my bottom lip. 

“Awake are ya, boy?” Roy’s voice caused my head to snap up. I hadn’t even noticed him sitting there. 

“Ye-ah, I’m up…” I barely choked out. 

“The some-bitch got me good,” Roy pointed to his legs. 

“You ever seen anything like that before?” I asked.

“Not in all my life. I’ve been out in those woods a million times, I would’ve remembered seeing somethin like dat.” 

“I have a really, really bad feeling about this…” I laid back in the bed. 

“You an me both, kid.” Roy shook his head and rolled his chair closer to the tv. 

On the small flat screen tv that was mounted towards the ceiling of the room, the fire raged on. It had torn its way through Knoxville and Seymour, soon to be encroaching on the border of Sevierville. The firefighters took their final stand when the flames licked at the trees in Gatlinburg. With the help of neighboring towns and firefighters from out of state, after 5 hours of hell, it finally stopped. If only they knew that the forest fire wasn’t the worst part. Something more sinister hid within the ashes. 

Something that the Earth spat out.

part 2

The plane trembled ever so slightly as the engines roared to life. I felt the seat below me vibrate with mild enthusiasm as its carrier got ready for take off. Joey sat in the seat beside me, carry-on bag in his lap. He took the window seat this time, a winner of two-out-of-three games of rock-paper-scissors. We always decided this way, letting the luck of the draw pick our orders of business. Part of me wished I’d taken the Xanax I’d been offered before arriving at the airport, it seemed the turbulence would be strong this evening. 

“You sure flying was the best choice? We can always get off now, cry uncle and I’ll get us off this plane in an instant.” Joey looked at me with a concerned expression. 

“I’m fine, once we’re in the air I’ll be okay. It’s just the take off and landing that make me nervous.” 

I looked down at my hands which were death gripping the arm rests. Joey was kind enough to loan me his while I was bracing for the worst. As my stomach churned, I couldn’t help but be grateful I hadn’t eaten in a while. It meant there was nothing to throw up, if the need arose. A few dry heaves would be more manageable than spewing out bbq chicken wings and fries, Joey’s request when we got through TSA. 

“You excited for the convention at least?” Joey pointed his eyes at me. 

“About as excited as one can be when they have to give a presentation in front of a live audience… I just hope I don’t stumble over my words or make a fool out of myself.” I sighed, releasing my death grip enough for blood to flow back into my hands. 

“You’ll do great. I believe in you, Gabs. Wanna practice your speech again? I don’t mind hearing it for the hundredth time,” Joey said, smiling. 

“Not now, I’m trying not to throw up. I appreciate it though,” I said. 

Leaning back in the seat, I closed my eyes and tried to calm down. I have to practice the grounding technique. I have to make the expensive therapy worth it, I thought to myself. Breathing in through my nose, I inhaled deeply. Coffee and cologne, mint gum, cleaning spray. Moving my hands back and forth across the armrest, cool metal and fabric. I focused my hearing, clenching my jaw to wiggle my ears. Laughter, the smack of chewing gum, someone clearing their throat.

“Ma’am I’m gonna need you to fasten your seat belt,” a soft voice hit my ears. 

“Oh, shoot. I’m sorry,” I mumbled. 

Opening my eyes, a small blond woman in a blue uniform leaned over me. She had one hand lightly rested on her hip, while the other dangled limply at her side. A broad smile extended across her face, white teeth glittering like pearls. I sat up abruptly and grabbed at either side for the seatbelt. It wasn’t until the two metal pieces clicked together audibly that she left. I looked over at Joey and made a strange face, as if to apologize silently for the awkwardness. I felt so lame at that moment. Joey just shrugged his shoulders as if he didn’t care. 

The plane was finally moving across the tarmac. The sun was starting to set, it beamed in through the tiny windows - warm and orange. I felt my heart pounding faster within my chest. Here comes the worst part, I thought. Going through the grounding techniques once again, I focused on what my five senses could pick up. The only thing I struggled with was the taste in my mouth, there was nothing identifiable to list. Eventually I switched to clenching and relaxing specific muscle groups, another coping skill that I’d pulled from the metaphoric bag. 

“Do you think anyone is going to have any information on the weird stuff we found growing on the fish? Or…marine animals, I guess?” Joey whispered. 

“I’m not sure,” I said through clenched teeth. 

“It was just so weird. I brought my camera, just in case. If there’s someone we can show it to, maybe they’ll know. I mean, come on, it was moving.” 

“Yes, Joey. I remember,” I hissed under my breath. “Shut up, we need to keep quiet about this until we know more. No need to cause mass panic.” 

A few days ago, Joey and I had been filming a piece for the evening news. We were out at Baker Beach, covering the various aquatic creatures that had been beaching themselves. Sand had made its way into my shoes almost immediately. The texture between the soles and socks was a nightmare but I did my best to ignore it. The mic was held firmly in my right hand, my cellphone in the other. Joey spotted it first. 

“Um, Gabby, do you see that? Please tell me I’m hallucinating,” Joey’s voice was wavering. 

As I turned my head to look in Joey’s direction, something behind him caught my attention. Something large and dark was starting to take shape as I focused my eyes. Recognition filled me as I realized it was a whale. The beast of a creature was moving, wriggling and flopping across the waterlogged sand. It looked to be in distress, I couldn’t help but pity it. Taking a step towards my friend and camera man, I reached out to pat his shoulder. 

“It’s just a whale,” I said. 

Just as my hand came in contact with Joey’s shoulder, he held out his arm. Stopping me from coming any closer. 

“What?” I asked. 

“Take another look, that’s not just a whale.” 

Returning my gaze back to the dying creature, I studied it once again. The dark blue flesh of the aquatic mammal looked slick and bumpy. One fin was jutting out at an odd angle from underneath it, blow hole spewing out weak sprays of water. All around the creature were piles of moving silver rocks that sparkled and glittered. That was when I noticed that the whale wasn’t alone. 

What I thought were rocks, were piles of various fish. They swam through the air, flopping around the sand. It looked like the fish were trying to gather around the whale in an attempt to move it. Piling atop each other in a poor attempt to help. Pushing aside Joey’s arm I took a few more steps towards the strange scene unfolding in front of us. The fish were not trying to help, not even in the slightest. 

What stood before Joey and I was some kind of rat-king. The fish were not in piles around the whale, they were part of it. Some cursed amalgamation of scales and warm flesh. Instead of backing away in fear, I drew even closer. Motioning my hand towards Joey as if to say ‘come here and turn the camera on’. I knew I had to get a record of this, it was already starting to crawl its way back into the water. Although, maybe a better description was that it tried to wriggle back into the water. Like a worm with legless ants poking out from all sides. 

“Tell me you’re getting this,” I breathed. 

“The camera is rolling,” Joey replied. 

“This is Gabby Rogers coming to you from Baker Beach. We arrived on scene to cover the strange uptick in aquatic creatures beaching themselves the last few months. Shortly after my partner and I stumbled upon this,” I waved my hand out to the side. 

Joey panned the camera over towards the wet, half-dead pile that lay a few paces away. Just as I was about to continue my speech, Joey lowered the camera and dropped his jaw. I turned on my heel quickly to view the scene behind me. The fin that I’d thought I’d seen poking out from under the whale was actually a collection of razor sharp teeth. A Great White Shark was pinned below the enormous main body of the rat-king. 

“I think we should just get out of here. This is too strange, too unnatural. Gabby, I’m scared.” Joey took a few paces back. 

“At least come get a shot of this weird substance that seems to be holding them together. Please,” I pleaded with my fearful companion. 

“Fine,” Joey relented. He held the camera back up and zoomed in on the mass. 

It wasn’t until I got to see the footage after the fact that I realized just how strange the situation was. When we had gotten back to the news station, we showed the video to the people above us and apologized profusely for not completing the job. Joey and I were told to keep it to ourselves or we would risk losing our jobs. The director's reaction struck me as strange but I was too nervous to speak up at the time. 

What was recorded on the camera showed more than the naked eye could see. When I was standing upon the beach, all I saw was a strange greenish plant that looked like moss. It encompassed the whale, shark, and fishes like some sort of net, or stitches. This wasn’t the work of God, this was something sinister and wrong. When I watched the video back, the moss glowed like phosphorus paint under a black light. Something we hadn’t noticed in person. 

Suddenly the wheels started to rumble as they carried the plane across the tarmac. The engines roared as they churned harder. Like a child, I wanted to reach up and cover my ears but opted for squeezing the arms rests once again. The pilot had announced that we were cleared for take off, and boy did I feel it. Every nerve in my body started going haywire as the plane lifted from the ground. Turbulence shook the plane and suddenly we were at a sharp incline. 

“We made it, we’re in the air.” Joey patted my arm. 

“Thanks,” I said. My eyes opened begrudgingly to find that the plane was still in one piece. My lungs screamed internally, begging for a full breath of air. I had been clenching all the muscles in my abdomen as a way to ground myself, but ended up forgetting the other part of the equation was to relax them. 

“Woah, what the fuck!” Someone screamed from the back of the plane. 

Just as we had reached the apex of our flight, a sound had made its way into the noisy cabin. The only thing I could compare it to is the gritty, hollow, clacking sound of a rock-fall or avalanche. It was much, much louder than anything I had ever experienced in my thirty years of life. My head whipped around wildly as I tried to make sense of what was happening, but couldn’t find what had made the sound. Until Joey swatted at me, his face pressed up against the window. 

“Gabs, grab the camera out of my bag. Hurry!” Joey shouted. 

“Oh my god, do you see that down there?” Someone else in the plane called out. 

“What is going on?” I felt panic fill me. Has something happened to the plane? Did one of the engines blow? I shook my head back and forth violently. The metal aircraft was still flying normally. 

“Gabs, the camera. NOW!” 

I dug into Joey’s bag that laid across his lap, finding the camera instantly. It was a small camcorder that looked ancient. Flipping open the side, so that the screen was exposed, I handed the plastic and metal contraption to Joey. As he moved his face away from the window, he pointed the lens in a downward angle. That was when I saw the giant fissure that had opened up within the ground below. It looked like somebody had unzipped the earth like it was a giant pocket. For miles and miles it stretched, so deep that from our vantage point all we could see was blackness within the center. 

Just as I had started to process what was happening below, another passenger had stated that the ocean was drawing back. Ah, a tsunami. 

—

My lungs burned and ached. Each breath felt like I was inhaling shards of fiberglass that poked and prodded at every surface. The stretchy band of the oxygen mask pulled at my hair painfully and dug into the tops of my ears. Beside me in the next bed was Trevor, his curly red hair had been singed in a few places. He looked like a troll doll that had been dunked in water and placed in a microwave. 

Cough cough 

“Tre-vor,” I called out in a weak voice. 

“Nggghhhh,” Trevor groaned, stirring under the white sheet. 

“Just checking to make sure you’re still alive man.” I choked out with extreme effort. 

“Didn’t I tell ya that I’d getchu out safely?” Roy asked loudly. 

Even with all the smoke inhalation and the burns we had received while escaping the car, Roy seemed to be doing fine. He sat in a wheel chair in the corner of the room, watching the news coverage of the fire on the tv. I looked down at the bandages that covered his legs and winced. If only I hadn’t tripped, I thought. 

When we had made it down off the mountain, the car had started to fail. Feeling like a couple of sitting ducks, we waited there. Just when we thought all hope was lost, sirens had appeared in the distance. Not wanting to waste another second, the three of us hopped out of the car. Not before dousing ourselves with the jugs of water Roy had painstakingly dragged from his home. We didn’t want to light up like match sticks the second we exited the vehicle. 

Trevor and Roy took off first, as we walked through the flames towards the sirens, a gap started to form. Sweat encapsulated every inch of my body, mixing seamlessly with the water I had dumped over my head. The smoke tugged at me with tangible tendrils, begging me to stay with it. Even though I wanted to give up and collapse on the frying-pan asphalt, I pushed on. Just as I was about to catch up with the two of them, my foot found its way into a crack in the pavement. 

I stumbled, trying desperately to save myself. Without thinking I reached out both of my hands to catch the brunt of the fall. What a bad mistake that was. Howling in pain I recoiled back, clutching my hands to my chest. The ground was much hotter than I had realized, it held on to a few layers of my skin which sizzled audibly. I felt tears well up in my ears, but before they could fall they started to evaporate. Just as I thought I was about to die, a large shadow moved from within the flames. 

Something between a scream and a howl tore out through the air. Even though it was hotter than the fire I experienced when I was six years old, this caused the hairs on my body to raise as goosebumps covered my skin. For just that one moment, I felt as if I was frozen. What small bit of hope I had that I’d made it out alive was suddenly snuffed out. From behind the fire peeked a monster. 

What I saw had the head of a deer and the body of a bear. It stumbled as it walked through the smoke and flame filled area, carried on legs that looked like they came from some kind of big cat or wolf. The haunting cry rang out again, reminding me of the deer call I’d heard just hours ago in Roy’s shack, mixed with something even more sinister. I wondered if the animal, or whatever it was, heard me scream when I fell. I hoped that if it was going to kill me, that it did it fast. The smoke inhalation and burns from the fire were painful and drawn out. 

“Danny!” Trevor yelled. I heard the sound of shoes slapping against the pavement. 

“Trevor,” I tried to call back but my voice came out all wrong. I could barely hear myself amidst the chaos. 

“Watch out!” Roy hollered.

The leathery southern man came barreling back down the road. He was old, but ran faster than any track star I’d ever seen. I watched from the ground as his arms pumped at his side furiously. Just as the Frankenstein-like creature stood on its hind legs, ready to maul Trevor, Roy leapt into the air. With both feet, Roy drop kicked the amalgamation of animals with every ounce of strength his body could muster. He hit the thing square in the chest, screaming out as claws tore through his legs in an attempt to keep from falling backwards. Even though the monstrosity tried to stay upright, it failed. 

Trevor’s hand found its way under my armpits and then I was being hoisted up. Once I was back on my feet I saw that Trevor was still holding the camera in the other. Just as we started to move further through the flames, the monstrous screech of the animal hybrid tore through the air. Roy quickly got back up and started running towards us. As he did I saw that blood was dripping down both of his lower legs. Trevor started to tremble as he got his first look at the thing that chased after us. 

“Just go boys, keep lookin ahead. Don’t turn back, not even fo a second!” Roy shouted from behind us. 

“But…” 

I tried to say, ‘but what about you’. The words fell silent as I felt myself beginning to pass out. My vision started to grow hazy and darken around the edges. My body felt cold, and heavy. Even my hearing was fading fast. Just as the lights of the firetruck made themselves known in the distance, my body gave up. Soon after, I fell into a deep and dreamless sleep. 

Waking up in the hospital bed felt surreal. Trevor laid in another bed beside me, passed out cold. His hair and skin were burned in multiple places, black soot smeared across his face. All I could do was lay there watching his chest rise and fall. I thought of the secret I could never tell him and bit down on my bottom lip. 

“Awake are ya, boy?” Roy’s voice caused my head to snap up. I hadn’t even noticed him sitting there. 

“Ye-ah, I’m up…” I barely choked out. 

“The some-bitch got me good,” Roy pointed to his legs. 

“You ever seen anything like that before?” I asked.

“Not in all my life. I’ve been out in those woods a million times, I would’ve remembered seeing somethin like dat.” 

“I have a really, really bad feeling about this…” I laid back in the bed. 

“You an me both, kid.” Roy shook his head and rolled his chair closer to the tv. 

On the small flat screen tv that was mounted towards the ceiling of the room, the fire raged on. It had torn its way through Knoxville and Seymour, soon to be encroaching on the border of Sevierville. The firefighters took their final stand when the flames licked at the trees in Gatlinburg. With the help of neighboring towns and firefighters from out of state, after 5 hours of hell, it finally stopped. If only they knew that the forest fire wasn’t the worst part. Something more sinister hid within the ashes. 

Something that the Earth spat out.

part 2

The plane trembled ever so slightly as the engines roared to life. I felt the seat below me vibrate with mild enthusiasm as its carrier got ready for take off. Joey sat in the seat beside me, carry-on bag in his lap. He took the window seat this time, a winner of two-out-of-three games of rock-paper-scissors. We always decided this way, letting the luck of the draw pick our orders of business. Part of me wished I’d taken the Xanax I’d been offered before arriving at the airport, it seemed the turbulence would be strong this evening. 

“You sure flying was the best choice? We can always get off now, cry uncle and I’ll get us off this plane in an instant.” Joey looked at me with a concerned expression. 

“I’m fine, once we’re in the air I’ll be okay. It’s just the take off and landing that make me nervous.” 

I looked down at my hands which were death gripping the arm rests. Joey was kind enough to loan me his while I was bracing for the worst. As my stomach churned, I couldn’t help but be grateful I hadn’t eaten in a while. It meant there was nothing to throw up, if the need arose. A few dry heaves would be more manageable than spewing out bbq chicken wings and fries, Joey’s request when we got through TSA. 

“You excited for the convention at least?” Joey pointed his eyes at me. 

“About as excited as one can be when they have to give a presentation in front of a live audience… I just hope I don’t stumble over my words or make a fool out of myself.” I sighed, releasing my death grip enough for blood to flow back into my hands. 

“You’ll do great. I believe in you, Gabs. Wanna practice your speech again? I don’t mind hearing it for the hundredth time,” Joey said, smiling. 

“Not now, I’m trying not to throw up. I appreciate it though,” I said. 

Leaning back in the seat, I closed my eyes and tried to calm down. I have to practice the grounding technique. I have to make the expensive therapy worth it, I thought to myself. Breathing in through my nose, I inhaled deeply. Coffee and cologne, mint gum, cleaning spray. Moving my hands back and forth across the armrest, cool metal and fabric. I focused my hearing, clenching my jaw to wiggle my ears. Laughter, the smack of chewing gum, someone clearing their throat.

“Ma’am I’m gonna need you to fasten your seat belt,” a soft voice hit my ears. 

“Oh, shoot. I’m sorry,” I mumbled. 

Opening my eyes, a small blond woman in a blue uniform leaned over me. She had one hand lightly rested on her hip, while the other dangled limply at her side. A broad smile extended across her face, white teeth glittering like pearls. I sat up abruptly and grabbed at either side for the seatbelt. It wasn’t until the two metal pieces clicked together audibly that she left. I looked over at Joey and made a strange face, as if to apologize silently for the awkwardness. I felt so lame at that moment. Joey just shrugged his shoulders as if he didn’t care. 

The plane was finally moving across the tarmac. The sun was starting to set, it beamed in through the tiny windows - warm and orange. I felt my heart pounding faster within my chest. Here comes the worst part, I thought. Going through the grounding techniques once again, I focused on what my five senses could pick up. The only thing I struggled with was the taste in my mouth, there was nothing identifiable to list. Eventually I switched to clenching and relaxing specific muscle groups, another coping skill that I’d pulled from the metaphoric bag. 

“Do you think anyone is going to have any information on the weird stuff we found growing on the fish? Or…marine animals, I guess?” Joey whispered. 

“I’m not sure,” I said through clenched teeth. 

“It was just so weird. I brought my camera, just in case. If there’s someone we can show it to, maybe they’ll know. I mean, come on, it was moving.” 

“Yes, Joey. I remember,” I hissed under my breath. “Shut up, we need to keep quiet about this until we know more. No need to cause mass panic.” 

A few days ago, Joey and I had been filming a piece for the evening news. We were out at Baker Beach, covering the various aquatic creatures that had been beaching themselves. Sand had made its way into my shoes almost immediately. The texture between the soles and socks was a nightmare but I did my best to ignore it. The mic was held firmly in my right hand, my cellphone in the other. Joey spotted it first. 

“Um, Gabby, do you see that? Please tell me I’m hallucinating,” Joey’s voice was wavering. 

As I turned my head to look in Joey’s direction, something behind him caught my attention. Something large and dark was starting to take shape as I focused my eyes. Recognition filled me as I realized it was a whale. The beast of a creature was moving, wriggling and flopping across the waterlogged sand. It looked to be in distress, I couldn’t help but pity it. Taking a step towards my friend and camera man, I reached out to pat his shoulder. 

“It’s just a whale,” I said. 

Just as my hand came in contact with Joey’s shoulder, he held out his arm. Stopping me from coming any closer. 

“What?” I asked. 

“Take another look, that’s not just a whale.” 

Returning my gaze back to the dying creature, I studied it once again. The dark blue flesh of the aquatic mammal looked slick and bumpy. One fin was jutting out at an odd angle from underneath it, blow hole spewing out weak sprays of water. All around the creature were piles of moving silver rocks that sparkled and glittered. That was when I noticed that the whale wasn’t alone. 

What I thought were rocks, were piles of various fish. They swam through the air, flopping around the sand. It looked like the fish were trying to gather around the whale in an attempt to move it. Piling atop each other in a poor attempt to help. Pushing aside Joey’s arm I took a few more steps towards the strange scene unfolding in front of us. The fish were not trying to help, not even in the slightest. 

What stood before Joey and I was some kind of rat-king. The fish were not in piles around the whale, they were part of it. Some cursed amalgamation of scales and warm flesh. Instead of backing away in fear, I drew even closer. Motioning my hand towards Joey as if to say ‘come here and turn the camera on’. I knew I had to get a record of this, it was already starting to crawl its way back into the water. Although, maybe a better description was that it tried to wriggle back into the water. Like a worm with legless ants poking out from all sides. 

“Tell me you’re getting this,” I breathed. 

“The camera is rolling,” Joey replied. 

“This is Gabby Rogers coming to you from Baker Beach. We arrived on scene to cover the strange uptick in aquatic creatures beaching themselves the last few months. Shortly after my partner and I stumbled upon this,” I waved my hand out to the side. 

Joey panned the camera over towards the wet, half-dead pile that lay a few paces away. Just as I was about to continue my speech, Joey lowered the camera and dropped his jaw. I turned on my heel quickly to view the scene behind me. The fin that I’d thought I’d seen poking out from under the whale was actually a collection of razor sharp teeth. A Great White Shark was pinned below the enormous main body of the rat-king. 

“I think we should just get out of here. This is too strange, too unnatural. Gabby, I’m scared.” Joey took a few paces back. 

“At least come get a shot of this weird substance that seems to be holding them together. Please,” I pleaded with my fearful companion. 

“Fine,” Joey relented. He held the camera back up and zoomed in on the mass. 

It wasn’t until I got to see the footage after the fact that I realized just how strange the situation was. When we had gotten back to the news station, we showed the video to the people above us and apologized profusely for not completing the job. Joey and I were told to keep it to ourselves or we would risk losing our jobs. The director's reaction struck me as strange but I was too nervous to speak up at the time. 

What was recorded on the camera showed more than the naked eye could see. When I was standing upon the beach, all I saw was a strange greenish plant that looked like moss. It encompassed the whale, shark, and fishes like some sort of net, or stitches. This wasn’t the work of God, this was something sinister and wrong. When I watched the video back, the moss glowed like phosphorus paint under a black light. Something we hadn’t noticed in person. 

Suddenly the wheels started to rumble as they carried the plane across the tarmac. The engines roared as they churned harder. Like a child, I wanted to reach up and cover my ears but opted for squeezing the arms rests once again. The pilot had announced that we were cleared for take off, and boy did I feel it. Every nerve in my body started going haywire as the plane lifted from the ground. Turbulence shook the plane and suddenly we were at a sharp incline. 

“We made it, we’re in the air.” Joey patted my arm. 

“Thanks,” I said. My eyes opened begrudgingly to find that the plane was still in one piece. My lungs screamed internally, begging for a full breath of air. I had been clenching all the muscles in my abdomen as a way to ground myself, but ended up forgetting the other part of the equation was to relax them. 

“Woah, what the fuck!” Someone screamed from the back of the plane. 

Just as we had reached the apex of our flight, a sound had made its way into the noisy cabin. The only thing I could compare it to is the gritty, hollow, clacking sound of a rock-fall or avalanche. It was much, much louder than anything I had ever experienced in my thirty years of life. My head whipped around wildly as I tried to make sense of what was happening, but couldn’t find what had made the sound. Until Joey swatted at me, his face pressed up against the window. 

“Gabs, grab the camera out of my bag. Hurry!” Joey shouted. 

“Oh my god, do you see that down there?” Someone else in the plane called out. 

“What is going on?” I felt panic fill me. Has something happened to the plane? Did one of the engines blow? I shook my head back and forth violently. The metal aircraft was still flying normally. 

“Gabs, the camera. NOW!” 

I dug into Joey’s bag that laid across his lap, finding the camera instantly. It was a small camcorder that looked ancient. Flipping open the side, so that the screen was exposed, I handed the plastic and metal contraption to Joey. As he moved his face away from the window, he pointed the lens in a downward angle. That was when I saw the giant fissure that had opened up within the ground below. It looked like somebody had unzipped the earth like it was a giant pocket. For miles and miles it stretched, so deep that from our vantage point all we could see was blackness within the center. 

Just as I had started to process what was happening below, another passenger had stated that the ocean was drawing back. Ah, a tsunami. 

—

My lungs burned and ached. Each breath felt like I was inhaling shards of fiberglass that poked and prodded at every surface. The stretchy band of the oxygen mask pulled at my hair painfully and dug into the tops of my ears. Beside me in the next bed was Trevor, his curly red hair had been singed in a few places. He looked like a troll doll that had been dunked in water and placed in a microwave. 

Cough cough 

“Tre-vor,” I called out in a weak voice. 

“Nggghhhh,” Trevor groaned, stirring under the white sheet. 

“Just checking to make sure you’re still alive man.” I choked out with extreme effort. 

“Didn’t I tell ya that I’d getchu out safely?” Roy asked loudly. 

Even with all the smoke inhalation and the burns we had received while escaping the car, Roy seemed to be doing fine. He sat in a wheel chair in the corner of the room, watching the news coverage of the fire on the tv. I looked down at the bandages that covered his legs and winced. If only I hadn’t tripped, I thought. 

When we had made it down off the mountain, the car had started to fail. Feeling like a couple of sitting ducks, we waited there. Just when we thought all hope was lost, sirens had appeared in the distance. Not wanting to waste another second, the three of us hopped out of the car. Not before dousing ourselves with the jugs of water Roy had painstakingly dragged from his home. We didn’t want to light up like match sticks the second we exited the vehicle. 

Trevor and Roy took off first, as we walked through the flames towards the sirens, a gap started to form. Sweat encapsulated every inch of my body, mixing seamlessly with the water I had dumped over my head. The smoke tugged at me with tangible tendrils, begging me to stay with it. Even though I wanted to give up and collapse on the frying-pan asphalt, I pushed on. Just as I was about to catch up with the two of them, my foot found its way into a crack in the pavement. 

I stumbled, trying desperately to save myself. Without thinking I reached out both of my hands to catch the brunt of the fall. What a bad mistake that was. Howling in pain I recoiled back, clutching my hands to my chest. The ground was much hotter than I had realized, it held on to a few layers of my skin which sizzled audibly. I felt tears well up in my ears, but before they could fall they started to evaporate. Just as I thought I was about to die, a large shadow moved from within the flames. 

Something between a scream and a howl tore out through the air. Even though it was hotter than the fire I experienced when I was six years old, this caused the hairs on my body to raise as goosebumps covered my skin. For just that one moment, I felt as if I was frozen. What small bit of hope I had that I’d made it out alive was suddenly snuffed out. From behind the fire peeked a monster. 

What I saw had the head of a deer and the body of a bear. It stumbled as it walked through the smoke and flame filled area, carried on legs that looked like they came from some kind of big cat or wolf. The haunting cry rang out again, reminding me of the deer call I’d heard just hours ago in Roy’s shack, mixed with something even more sinister. I wondered if the animal, or whatever it was, heard me scream when I fell. I hoped that if it was going to kill me, that it did it fast. The smoke inhalation and burns from the fire were painful and drawn out. 

“Danny!” Trevor yelled. I heard the sound of shoes slapping against the pavement. 

“Trevor,” I tried to call back but my voice came out all wrong. I could barely hear myself amidst the chaos. 

“Watch out!” Roy hollered.

The leathery southern man came barreling back down the road. He was old, but ran faster than any track star I’d ever seen. I watched from the ground as his arms pumped at his side furiously. Just as the Frankenstein-like creature stood on its hind legs, ready to maul Trevor, Roy leapt into the air. With both feet, Roy drop kicked the amalgamation of animals with every ounce of strength his body could muster. He hit the thing square in the chest, screaming out as claws tore through his legs in an attempt to keep from falling backwards. Even though the monstrosity tried to stay upright, it failed. 

Trevor’s hand found its way under my armpits and then I was being hoisted up. Once I was back on my feet I saw that Trevor was still holding the camera in the other. Just as we started to move further through the flames, the monstrous screech of the animal hybrid tore through the air. Roy quickly got back up and started running towards us. As he did I saw that blood was dripping down both of his lower legs. Trevor started to tremble as he got his first look at the thing that chased after us. 

“Just go boys, keep lookin ahead. Don’t turn back, not even fo a second!” Roy shouted from behind us. 

“But…” 

I tried to say, ‘but what about you’. The words fell silent as I felt myself beginning to pass out. My vision started to grow hazy and darken around the edges. My body felt cold, and heavy. Even my hearing was fading fast. Just as the lights of the firetruck made themselves known in the distance, my body gave up. Soon after, I fell into a deep and dreamless sleep. 

Waking up in the hospital bed felt surreal. Trevor laid in another bed beside me, passed out cold. His hair and skin were burned in multiple places, black soot smeared across his face. All I could do was lay there watching his chest rise and fall. I thought of the secret I could never tell him and bit down on my bottom lip. 

“Awake are ya, boy?” Roy’s voice caused my head to snap up. I hadn’t even noticed him sitting there. 

“Ye-ah, I’m up…” I barely choked out. 

“The some-bitch got me good,” Roy pointed to his legs. 

“You ever seen anything like that before?” I asked.

“Not in all my life. I’ve been out in those woods a million times, I would’ve remembered seeing somethin like dat.” 

“I have a really, really bad feeling about this…” I laid back in the bed. 

“You an me both, kid.” Roy shook his head and rolled his chair closer to the tv. 

On the small flat screen tv that was mounted towards the ceiling of the room, the fire raged on. It had torn its way through Knoxville and Seymour, soon to be encroaching on the border of Sevierville. The firefighters took their final stand when the flames licked at the trees in Gatlinburg. With the help of neighboring towns and firefighters from out of state, after 5 hours of hell, it finally stopped. If only they knew that the forest fire wasn’t the worst part. Something more sinister hid within the ashes. 

Something that the Earth spat out.

part 1

The aftermath of the five EF4 tornadoes that happened my last week of senior year caused a lot of damage. After the dust finally settled the tornadoes had been updated to EF5’s, once their destruction had been taken into account. Graduation was canceled since it was usually held in the gymnasium, which was laid in pieces scattered throughout the area around the school. Even if they had managed to clean it up in time, walking across the stage wasn’t something I’d have been willing to partake in. Especially since Kari wouldn’t be there to walk with me. Almost half of the senior class had been either killed or injured in the storm. 

It felt like I was existing in a fever dream, a reality too harsh for my brain to process. 

After receiving my diploma in the mail, my mother hung it proudly in our home. Right next to the other three certificates my older siblings had managed to score at the end of their four years. Search parties had been formed to look for the missing people, ones that I joined even while in the throes of depression. Nothing mattered more than finding my friend, to the point where I spent most of my waking hours scouring the land. We never found her body. 

The funeral for Karissa Petro was odd, her gravestone laid upon dirt that claimed an empty box. Her friends and family had added small trinkets and mementos into the miniature coffin before lowering it into the ground. As I choked back snot and tears, I removed the orange scrunchie from my wrist and dropped it reluctantly. I wanted so badly to look around at the people there and scream out how wrong this was. How could she be laid to rest when she was still out there in the wilderness being picked apart by animals. 

After a few months in an inpatient psych ward and a list of medications, I was finally released back into the world as a half functioning human. The only thing that seemed to shake me from my funk was the videos the WeatherBoys religiously put out. Danny, who was the front man of the channel, was helped by his best friend and camera man Trevor. The way they interacted with each other always brought a smile to my face, regardless of what was going on in my life. Their newest upload featured a well known news reporter from California. 

“So what goes through your head as you and your team cover the earthquakes that have been happening on the coast of Cali? Do you guys ever fear for your safety?” Danny was sitting in a wicker lawn chair across from the woman he was interviewing. 

“We fear for our safety all the time. Being in this line of work always comes with its risks, whether they be environmental or human. Joey, my camera man, was almost beaten up by an unhoused drug addict when we were filming the aftermath of one of the forest fires a year or so ago. Gang violence is something we have to watch out for as well. Weather can be even more unpredictable than people though. At least human beings seem to follow particular behaviour patterns. Mother Nature isn’t always that forgiving or consistent.

The earthquakes themselves are inherently terrifying. For years, scholars and scientists alike have spoken of the impacts of the fault line that resides within the outer edge of our state. The way things are going now, we may lose a good chunk of land to the ocean. When that happens, the tsunami that is to follow would wipe out a ton of lives. Every time I think of that happening a shiver goes down my spine. ” 

“Gabby, if you were to give advice to someone starting out in this career, what would you tell them?” Danny asked. 

“Keep your head on a swivel. Life is unpredictable and you never know where your next story may come from. If you end up following weather phenomena like I do, make sure you always keep a satellite phone and some flares on you at all times. You never know when you may need help from someone else, and they can’t help you if they can’t find you.” Gabby’s tone was full of sincerity. Her serious facial expression tugged at the borders of her face as if it pained her. 

“Lastly, I wanted to ask if you noticed any strange patterns with the wildlife in the area? Do you think they, too, fear for the worst?” Danny’s face lost its regular beaming grin. 

“Many aquatic animals have been beaching themselves more often than usual. Wales, dolphins, and fish have all been pulling themselves onto the shore. As for the birds in the area, they have grounded themselves, no longer flying through the sky. So far, none of my colleagues can explain why this is happening… I hope we can find an answer soon. We are seeing events we have never encountered before, and it is harrowing.” 

Gabby was shown one final time as Danny thanked her for coming on the channel and recording the interview. Trevor even turned the camera around to show his face before Danny said the tag line for the youtube account and reminded us to like and subscribe. I felt the depression creeping back as my phone screen timed out before eventually fading to black. The information, along with the end of the video brought me back to my shattered reality. At the same time, something within me cut through the bullshit. 

I finally knew what I wanted to do with my life. College, although it was a gateway to a better life, felt like a deflated balloon to me. For most of high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. Now, after the experiences I had, I finally knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a reporter. I wanted to cover stories that other people might find boring or dangerous. I wanted to report on the weather, and what came with it. I wanted to be like Danny and Gabby. With a new sense of determination, I applied to as many colleges as I could. As far from Angola, Indiana as possible. 

Waiting for the acceptance letters was torture. Since I waited so long to apply, I wouldn’t be able to attend until the winter semester. The classes that started in the fall were all full, with cancellation lists that ran a mile long. After some careful consideration and the prospects of multiple scholarships the University of Tennessee was the school I decided on. Knoxville seemed like a pretty area. The mountains offered a protective barrier that seemed to eat up a lot of storms before they could come to fruition. Snow would no longer be a major issue in the winter time. It was rare that it ever became cold enough for the rain drops to turn into frozen flakes. 

Just as I was packing my car up to leave for UT, a new youtube video alerted me of its posting. 

—

“Guys, this is Danny, coming to you with a new video. We are back in Tennessee with Mr. Roy. You all loved him so much that we thought we would return and talk with him again. He was gracious enough to let us stay with him for a couple of days. The digs aren’t anything spectacular but there’s a roof over our heads and that’s what matters. Now, Trevor and I have been watching the radar and we have something unexpected waiting for us in the next twenty-four hours.” I waved my hand at Trevor, motioning for him to turn off the camera. 

“What’s up dude?” Trevor asked, aiming the lens at the ground. 

“Did you hear that?” I asked, looking around the shack. 

“Ya heard that didja?” Roy, who was standing in the kitchen, turned around to face us. 

“What the hell was that?” Trevor responded before I could. 

“That, my boys, was the call of a deer. Sounds like it got separated from its group.” Roy turned back to the stove and stirred the sizzling meat in the pan. 

“That was a DEER? Why did it sound so damn haunting?” I asked with eyebrows raised. I’d seen many of the four legged creatures in my life, but couldn’t remember ever hearing them make a sound. 

“It might be in despair, or lonely. Who da hell knows. I can’t tell ya why it responded dat way but I sure as shit can tell ya what the call came from. Out here in da woods, the only time I hear anythin’ aside from cracks of twigs, is when the animals call out to each otha.” Roy said before turning off the burner on the stove. “Alright boys, time ta eat.” 

“Roy, what in the hell is this?” Trevor asked while looking at his plate. 

“It’s stirfry, boy. Betta eat up.” Roy grinned before shoveling overcooked chunks of meat into his mouth. 

“Thank you for the food,” I said. 

The fork shook in my hand as I raised it to my lips. The mystery meat scared me, but not as much as Roy’s reaction if I didn’t partake. The ‘stir fry’ was tough and chewy, but it tasted fine and went down the gullet with minimal force. Every so often I would chase it with big gulps of water when a mouthful got stuck in my throat. After a few hesitant bites, Trevor started shoveling the food into his mouth like he couldn’t get enough. 

When we all finished eating, Trevor and I offered to clean up the kitchen. After some light arguing, Roy relented and grabbed a beer from the fridge. The can cracked loudly as he pulled the tab on the top. I watched as he sauntered over to the lone recliner and sat in front of the tv. A part of me was shocked that he even got a signal in the forsaken shack, miles from any city or town. 

“So what do you do in your free time?” Trevor asked Roy. 

“Is this going to be on yo YouTube channel or whateva it’s called?” Roy called out from the living room. 

“Nah, man. We aren’t recording right now, feel free to speak your mind.” I said before dunking my hands back into the scalding soapy water. 

“I wander the woods, tracking and hunting animals. One a da ones I hunted and killed is sittin in yo belly right now. Betcha neva had rabbit before, have ya?” Roy chuckled to himself as he took a swig from the beer. 

“Aw, come on. You fed us a bunny?” Trevor groaned. He was half finished with drying the dishes when I made my way out of the kitchen and into the room where Roy was sitting. 

“What? Ya didn’t like it?” Roy asked. 

“No, no. It was good Roy. Don’t mind him,” I laughed, squatting down to sit on the aged couch. 

“You ain’t one a dem animal activists are ya?” Roy cocked his eyebrow. 

“Not even in the slightest. Food is food,” I answered for Trevor. 

“I check on da bears that have found a home near da caves just south of the house. They got two babies, and mama can get real angry if ya get too close. Ya might not want to wander too far into da woods,” Roy leaned back in the chair and stuck a wad of chewing tobacco into his bottom lip. 

“I’ve never seen a bear up close before,” Trevor said. He stood in the entrance way, wiping his hands on his pants. They left water stains on his jeans. 

“I thought you said you were interested in da wedda, so what are ya doin interviewing me again?” Roy asked with his bottom lip protruding. 

“Well, we got the highest view count in our channels history the last time we spoke with you. A lot of our viewers loved your energy and ideas. Plus, Tennessee has some of the best visuals we’ve ever recorded so we figured why not. I heard through the grape vine that this area is gearing up for a hell of a storm, snow in the middle of August. Never heard of that before, especially not in the south.” I leaned forward on my knees to study Roy’s leathery face. 

I watched as the man’s eyebrows raised and lowered slowly, his expression turning serious. I wondered if I said something that struck a nerve, worried that I’d pissed him off. Roy moved the dip around with his tongue, shoving the glob into his right cheek. He took in a deep breath before speaking again. 

“Did-ja just say snow?” Was all he asked. 

“Yeah, crazy, right?” Trevor came to sit down beside me. 

“In August?” Roy looked flustered. 

“Yep.” I replied. 

“Good golly, I wonder if the rapture is coming…” 

Roy’s voice trailed off before we were thrown into an uncomfortable silence. Off in the distance, I could hear the deer cry out again. Even with knowing what it was, the haunting sound yet again sent a chill down my spine. Just as Trevor and I had gotten comfortable, Roy lifted his nose into the air. 

“Yall smell that?” Roy suddenly stood up from his chair. 

“Uh, no?” Trevor lifted his head, as did I. 

“Outside, now. Danny, go to the side of the house and grab the hose. Turn the spigot while you’re at it. We ain’t got much time.” Roy crushed the beer can in his hand and threw it into the table. 

It hadn’t rained in days, Tennessee was deep in the middle of its dry season. Part of me thought that maybe he just needed to water his plants, but as I stepped outside dread filled me. Grey-white flakes filtered down from above. The sky, which has previously been clear and blue, was now an ominous shade of dark grey. I smelled smoke, and felt a searing heat creep across my skin. 

“Come on man, we gotta grab the hose,” Trevor shouted, breaking me from my trance. 

“The forest is on fire…” I mumbled, my jaw slack from the sights around me. 

“Yeah, I figured that out. We gotta hurry and help Roy, and then we can get this shit on camera!” Trevor shook my shoulder. 

Roy was hefting a large duffle bag out from the shack. It was so heavy that all he could do was drag it across the ground behind him. Once Trevor and I got the hose and water turned on, we were instructed to cover the house in as much water as possible. It felt odd, hosing down the wooden house, but it made sense. We were taking precautions so that Roy still had somewhere to live once the fire died out. 

Trevor and I finished our job just as the fire crested over the horizon. The heat that I felt earlier was intensified exponentially. Roy had also instructed us to hose ourselves down before getting in the car. We were getting the hell out of here, as fast as the vehicle could safely carry us down the mountain. If we stayed and the shack somehow managed to stay standing, the smoke inhalation would kill us just as fast. 

“You boys betta buckle up and hold onto yo bootay cheeks. We are gonna be flyin down this mountain, ya hear? I don’t want no complainin about my drivin. It’s gonna keep us alive,” Roy had hopped into the driver's seat of my car. 

I gave him the keys without any amount of hesitation. The road we took to get to Roy’s home was so narrow it would only fit one and a half cars. Luckily we hadn’t encountered anyone coming down on our way up, I wouldn’t have known what to do. The road wasn’t just narrow either, it serpentined and had guard rails that were few and far in between.  

As we tore down the partially paved road, black clouds started to fill the path in front of us. Flames the color of magma licked at the trees, curling in around us. Trevor sat in the passenger seat, he always got to ride shotgun no matter the driver. The camera was held tightly in his hand as he panned it all around the car. Every so often he would turn back to look at me with an expression that read ‘what the fuck’. 

“We’re not gonna make it,” the words tumbled from my mouth. 

“Dontchu say that, boy. We are gonna be just fine. You trust ole Roy here to get ya to safety. This ain’t my first rodeo witha fire like dis.” Roy kept his eyes trained on the road in front of us. 

My arm, which was resting on the side of the door, started to sizzle. With a gasp, I yanked it back from the metal. The wind was blowing fiercely, sicking the fire on us like a pack of rabid dogs. I could no longer see the sky, all that surrounded us were painted in shades of red and black. All I could do was sit in the backseat and hope that we made it out alive. 

“What’s in the bag, Roy?” Trevor asked, pointing the camera in his face. 

“My most precious belongings, and a coupla jugs of wata. Brought em just in case the engine ova heats or we find ourselves lit up like a match stick.” Roy nodded his head as if he was agreeing with himself. 

“Seems logical enough,” I replied, not sure what else to do. 

“You doin alright back there, boy? You ain’t said much since we got outside.” 

“I’m alright, Roy. I just don’t like fire very much,” I said. 

I felt panic start to bubble and fester within me. My vision started to tunnel as the ringing in my ears grew louder. I felt like I was six years old again, crying out for my mom and dad as the house burned and crumbled around me. Being trapped in my upstairs bedroom for 45 minutes while the flames ate at everything they could, scorched 30 percent of my tiny body. The scars on my back ached as I took in the sights around me. 

I was lucky to make it out alive that day, and wondered if I had enough luck left to make it out of this situation too. I’d lived my life as well as I could, making sure to treat others as kindly as possible. I didn't do it for the good karma, but if it helped in any way I would have liked to cash in on it then. My throat ached from the smoke that’d made it past the seals on the car, and my skin dripped with sweat. 

“You think we will make it?” I asked, my voice quivering.

“We’ve dealt with scary stuff, remember that time we got caught up with the storm chasers? We were right in the middle of an EF5, the drill that held the car to the ground started to give out? Nothing can be worse than that,” Trevor answered. 

“I’m not so sure,” I replied back. 

“We are almost there, boys.” Roy grunted. 

The older man jerked the wheel and suddenly I felt asphalt under the tires. The steep slope of a mountain was replaced by a flat road. We had made it to the bottom, finally. The engine started to sputter and it felt like we were driving over one of those sticky traps they used for pests. I hoped that the car held on until we made it to safety, but with the way things were looking, I wasn’t so sure. 

That was when I heard the sirens. 

——

part 1

The aftermath of the five EF4 tornadoes that happened my last week of senior year caused a lot of damage. After the dust finally settled the tornadoes had been updated to EF5’s, once their destruction had been taken into account. Graduation was canceled since it was usually held in the gymnasium, which was laid in pieces scattered throughout the area around the school. Even if they had managed to clean it up in time, walking across the stage wasn’t something I’d have been willing to partake in. Especially since Kari wouldn’t be there to walk with me. Almost half of the senior class had been either killed or injured in the storm. 

It felt like I was existing in a fever dream, a reality too harsh for my brain to process. 

After receiving my diploma in the mail, my mother hung it proudly in our home. Right next to the other three certificates my older siblings had managed to score at the end of their four years. Search parties had been formed to look for the missing people, ones that I joined even while in the throes of depression. Nothing mattered more than finding my friend, to the point where I spent most of my waking hours scouring the land. We never found her body. 

The funeral for Karissa Petro was odd, her gravestone laid upon dirt that claimed an empty box. Her friends and family had added small trinkets and mementos into the miniature coffin before lowering it into the ground. As I choked back snot and tears, I removed the orange scrunchie from my wrist and dropped it reluctantly. I wanted so badly to look around at the people there and scream out how wrong this was. How could she be laid to rest when she was still out there in the wilderness being picked apart by animals. 

After a few months in an inpatient psych ward and a list of medications, I was finally released back into the world as a half functioning human. The only thing that seemed to shake me from my funk was the videos the WeatherBoys religiously put out. Danny, who was the front man of the channel, was helped by his best friend and camera man Trevor. The way they interacted with each other always brought a smile to my face, regardless of what was going on in my life. Their newest upload featured a well known news reporter from California. 

“So what goes through your head as you and your team cover the earthquakes that have been happening on the coast of Cali? Do you guys ever fear for your safety?” Danny was sitting in a wicker lawn chair across from the woman he was interviewing. 

“We fear for our safety all the time. Being in this line of work always comes with its risks, whether they be environmental or human. Joey, my camera man, was almost beaten up by an unhoused drug addict when we were filming the aftermath of one of the forest fires a year or so ago. Gang violence is something we have to watch out for as well. Weather can be even more unpredictable than people though. At least human beings seem to follow particular behaviour patterns. Mother Nature isn’t always that forgiving or consistent.

The earthquakes themselves are inherently terrifying. For years, scholars and scientists alike have spoken of the impacts of the fault line that resides within the outer edge of our state. The way things are going now, we may lose a good chunk of land to the ocean. When that happens, the tsunami that is to follow would wipe out a ton of lives. Every time I think of that happening a shiver goes down my spine. ” 

“Gabby, if you were to give advice to someone starting out in this career, what would you tell them?” Danny asked. 

“Keep your head on a swivel. Life is unpredictable and you never know where your next story may come from. If you end up following weather phenomena like I do, make sure you always keep a satellite phone and some flares on you at all times. You never know when you may need help from someone else, and they can’t help you if they can’t find you.” Gabby’s tone was full of sincerity. Her serious facial expression tugged at the borders of her face as if it pained her. 

“Lastly, I wanted to ask if you noticed any strange patterns with the wildlife in the area? Do you think they, too, fear for the worst?” Danny’s face lost its regular beaming grin. 

“Many aquatic animals have been beaching themselves more often than usual. Wales, dolphins, and fish have all been pulling themselves onto the shore. As for the birds in the area, they have grounded themselves, no longer flying through the sky. So far, none of my colleagues can explain why this is happening… I hope we can find an answer soon. We are seeing events we have never encountered before, and it is harrowing.” 

Gabby was shown one final time as Danny thanked her for coming on the channel and recording the interview. Trevor even turned the camera around to show his face before Danny said the tag line for the youtube account and reminded us to like and subscribe. I felt the depression creeping back as my phone screen timed out before eventually fading to black. The information, along with the end of the video brought me back to my shattered reality. At the same time, something within me cut through the bullshit. 

I finally knew what I wanted to do with my life. College, although it was a gateway to a better life, felt like a deflated balloon to me. For most of high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. Now, after the experiences I had, I finally knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a reporter. I wanted to cover stories that other people might find boring or dangerous. I wanted to report on the weather, and what came with it. I wanted to be like Danny and Gabby. With a new sense of determination, I applied to as many colleges as I could. As far from Angola, Indiana as possible. 

Waiting for the acceptance letters was torture. Since I waited so long to apply, I wouldn’t be able to attend until the winter semester. The classes that started in the fall were all full, with cancellation lists that ran a mile long. After some careful consideration and the prospects of multiple scholarships the University of Tennessee was the school I decided on. Knoxville seemed like a pretty area. The mountains offered a protective barrier that seemed to eat up a lot of storms before they could come to fruition. Snow would no longer be a major issue in the winter time. It was rare that it ever became cold enough for the rain drops to turn into frozen flakes. 

Just as I was packing my car up to leave for UT, a new youtube video alerted me of its posting. 

—

“Guys, this is Danny, coming to you with a new video. We are back in Tennessee with Mr. Roy. You all loved him so much that we thought we would return and talk with him again. He was gracious enough to let us stay with him for a couple of days. The digs aren’t anything spectacular but there’s a roof over our heads and that’s what matters. Now, Trevor and I have been watching the radar and we have something unexpected waiting for us in the next twenty-four hours.” I waved my hand at Trevor, motioning for him to turn off the camera. 

“What’s up dude?” Trevor asked, aiming the lens at the ground. 

“Did you hear that?” I asked, looking around the shack. 

“Ya heard that didja?” Roy, who was standing in the kitchen, turned around to face us. 

“What the hell was that?” Trevor responded before I could. 

“That, my boys, was the call of a deer. Sounds like it got separated from its group.” Roy turned back to the stove and stirred the sizzling meat in the pan. 

“That was a DEER? Why did it sound so damn haunting?” I asked with eyebrows raised. I’d seen many of the four legged creatures in my life, but couldn’t remember ever hearing them make a sound. 

“It might be in despair, or lonely. Who da hell knows. I can’t tell ya why it responded dat way but I sure as shit can tell ya what the call came from. Out here in da woods, the only time I hear anythin’ aside from cracks of twigs, is when the animals call out to each otha.” Roy said before turning off the burner on the stove. “Alright boys, time ta eat.” 

“Roy, what in the hell is this?” Trevor asked while looking at his plate. 

“It’s stirfry, boy. Betta eat up.” Roy grinned before shoveling overcooked chunks of meat into his mouth. 

“Thank you for the food,” I said. 

The fork shook in my hand as I raised it to my lips. The mystery meat scared me, but not as much as Roy’s reaction if I didn’t partake. The ‘stir fry’ was tough and chewy, but it tasted fine and went down the gullet with minimal force. Every so often I would chase it with big gulps of water when a mouthful got stuck in my throat. After a few hesitant bites, Trevor started shoveling the food into his mouth like he couldn’t get enough. 

When we all finished eating, Trevor and I offered to clean up the kitchen. After some light arguing, Roy relented and grabbed a beer from the fridge. The can cracked loudly as he pulled the tab on the top. I watched as he sauntered over to the lone recliner and sat in front of the tv. A part of me was shocked that he even got a signal in the forsaken shack, miles from any city or town. 

“So what do you do in your free time?” Trevor asked Roy. 

“Is this going to be on yo YouTube channel or whateva it’s called?” Roy called out from the living room. 

“Nah, man. We aren’t recording right now, feel free to speak your mind.” I said before dunking my hands back into the scalding soapy water. 

“I wander the woods, tracking and hunting animals. One a da ones I hunted and killed is sittin in yo belly right now. Betcha neva had rabbit before, have ya?” Roy chuckled to himself as he took a swig from the beer. 

“Aw, come on. You fed us a bunny?” Trevor groaned. He was half finished with drying the dishes when I made my way out of the kitchen and into the room where Roy was sitting. 

“What? Ya didn’t like it?” Roy asked. 

“No, no. It was good Roy. Don’t mind him,” I laughed, squatting down to sit on the aged couch. 

“You ain’t one a dem animal activists are ya?” Roy cocked his eyebrow. 

“Not even in the slightest. Food is food,” I answered for Trevor. 

“I check on da bears that have found a home near da caves just south of the house. They got two babies, and mama can get real angry if ya get too close. Ya might not want to wander too far into da woods,” Roy leaned back in the chair and stuck a wad of chewing tobacco into his bottom lip. 

“I’ve never seen a bear up close before,” Trevor said. He stood in the entrance way, wiping his hands on his pants. They left water stains on his jeans. 

“I thought you said you were interested in da wedda, so what are ya doin interviewing me again?” Roy asked with his bottom lip protruding. 

“Well, we got the highest view count in our channels history the last time we spoke with you. A lot of our viewers loved your energy and ideas. Plus, Tennessee has some of the best visuals we’ve ever recorded so we figured why not. I heard through the grape vine that this area is gearing up for a hell of a storm, snow in the middle of August. Never heard of that before, especially not in the south.” I leaned forward on my knees to study Roy’s leathery face. 

I watched as the man’s eyebrows raised and lowered slowly, his expression turning serious. I wondered if I said something that struck a nerve, worried that I’d pissed him off. Roy moved the dip around with his tongue, shoving the glob into his right cheek. He took in a deep breath before speaking again. 

“Did-ja just say snow?” Was all he asked. 

“Yeah, crazy, right?” Trevor came to sit down beside me. 

“In August?” Roy looked flustered. 

“Yep.” I replied. 

“Good golly, I wonder if the rapture is coming…” 

Roy’s voice trailed off before we were thrown into an uncomfortable silence. Off in the distance, I could hear the deer cry out again. Even with knowing what it was, the haunting sound yet again sent a chill down my spine. Just as Trevor and I had gotten comfortable, Roy lifted his nose into the air. 

“Yall smell that?” Roy suddenly stood up from his chair. 

“Uh, no?” Trevor lifted his head, as did I. 

“Outside, now. Danny, go to the side of the house and grab the hose. Turn the spigot while you’re at it. We ain’t got much time.” Roy crushed the beer can in his hand and threw it into the table. 

It hadn’t rained in days, Tennessee was deep in the middle of its dry season. Part of me thought that maybe he just needed to water his plants, but as I stepped outside dread filled me. Grey-white flakes filtered down from above. The sky, which has previously been clear and blue, was now an ominous shade of dark grey. I smelled smoke, and felt a searing heat creep across my skin. 

“Come on man, we gotta grab the hose,” Trevor shouted, breaking me from my trance. 

“The forest is on fire…” I mumbled, my jaw slack from the sights around me. 

“Yeah, I figured that out. We gotta hurry and help Roy, and then we can get this shit on camera!” Trevor shook my shoulder. 

Roy was hefting a large duffle bag out from the shack. It was so heavy that all he could do was drag it across the ground behind him. Once Trevor and I got the hose and water turned on, we were instructed to cover the house in as much water as possible. It felt odd, hosing down the wooden house, but it made sense. We were taking precautions so that Roy still had somewhere to live once the fire died out. 

Trevor and I finished our job just as the fire crested over the horizon. The heat that I felt earlier was intensified exponentially. Roy had also instructed us to hose ourselves down before getting in the car. We were getting the hell out of here, as fast as the vehicle could safely carry us down the mountain. If we stayed and the shack somehow managed to stay standing, the smoke inhalation would kill us just as fast. 

“You boys betta buckle up and hold onto yo bootay cheeks. We are gonna be flyin down this mountain, ya hear? I don’t want no complainin about my drivin. It’s gonna keep us alive,” Roy had hopped into the driver's seat of my car. 

I gave him the keys without any amount of hesitation. The road we took to get to Roy’s home was so narrow it would only fit one and a half cars. Luckily we hadn’t encountered anyone coming down on our way up, I wouldn’t have known what to do. The road wasn’t just narrow either, it serpentined and had guard rails that were few and far in between.  

As we tore down the partially paved road, black clouds started to fill the path in front of us. Flames the color of magma licked at the trees, curling in around us. Trevor sat in the passenger seat, he always got to ride shotgun no matter the driver. The camera was held tightly in his hand as he panned it all around the car. Every so often he would turn back to look at me with an expression that read ‘what the fuck’. 

“We’re not gonna make it,” the words tumbled from my mouth. 

“Dontchu say that, boy. We are gonna be just fine. You trust ole Roy here to get ya to safety. This ain’t my first rodeo witha fire like dis.” Roy kept his eyes trained on the road in front of us. 

My arm, which was resting on the side of the door, started to sizzle. With a gasp, I yanked it back from the metal. The wind was blowing fiercely, sicking the fire on us like a pack of rabid dogs. I could no longer see the sky, all that surrounded us were painted in shades of red and black. All I could do was sit in the backseat and hope that we made it out alive. 

“What’s in the bag, Roy?” Trevor asked, pointing the camera in his face. 

“My most precious belongings, and a coupla jugs of wata. Brought em just in case the engine ova heats or we find ourselves lit up like a match stick.” Roy nodded his head as if he was agreeing with himself. 

“Seems logical enough,” I replied, not sure what else to do. 

“You doin alright back there, boy? You ain’t said much since we got outside.” 

“I’m alright, Roy. I just don’t like fire very much,” I said. 

I felt panic start to bubble and fester within me. My vision started to tunnel as the ringing in my ears grew louder. I felt like I was six years old again, crying out for my mom and dad as the house burned and crumbled around me. Being trapped in my upstairs bedroom for 45 minutes while the flames ate at everything they could, scorched 30 percent of my tiny body. The scars on my back ached as I took in the sights around me. 

I was lucky to make it out alive that day, and wondered if I had enough luck left to make it out of this situation too. I’d lived my life as well as I could, making sure to treat others as kindly as possible. I didn't do it for the good karma, but if it helped in any way I would have liked to cash in on it then. My throat ached from the smoke that’d made it past the seals on the car, and my skin dripped with sweat. 

“You think we will make it?” I asked, my voice quivering.

“We’ve dealt with scary stuff, remember that time we got caught up with the storm chasers? We were right in the middle of an EF5, the drill that held the car to the ground started to give out? Nothing can be worse than that,” Trevor answered. 

“I’m not so sure,” I replied back. 

“We are almost there, boys.” Roy grunted. 

The older man jerked the wheel and suddenly I felt asphalt under the tires. The steep slope of a mountain was replaced by a flat road. We had made it to the bottom, finally. The engine started to sputter and it felt like we were driving over one of those sticky traps they used for pests. I hoped that the car held on until we made it to safety, but with the way things were looking, I wasn’t so sure. 

That was when I heard the sirens. 

——

part 1

The aftermath of the five EF4 tornadoes that happened my last week of senior year caused a lot of damage. After the dust finally settled the tornadoes had been updated to EF5’s, once their destruction had been taken into account. Graduation was canceled since it was usually held in the gymnasium, which was laid in pieces scattered throughout the area around the school. Even if they had managed to clean it up in time, walking across the stage wasn’t something I’d have been willing to partake in. Especially since Kari wouldn’t be there to walk with me. Almost half of the senior class had been either killed or injured in the storm. 

It felt like I was existing in a fever dream, a reality too harsh for my brain to process. 

After receiving my diploma in the mail, my mother hung it proudly in our home. Right next to the other three certificates my older siblings had managed to score at the end of their four years. Search parties had been formed to look for the missing people, ones that I joined even while in the throes of depression. Nothing mattered more than finding my friend, to the point where I spent most of my waking hours scouring the land. We never found her body. 

The funeral for Karissa Petro was odd, her gravestone laid upon dirt that claimed an empty box. Her friends and family had added small trinkets and mementos into the miniature coffin before lowering it into the ground. As I choked back snot and tears, I removed the orange scrunchie from my wrist and dropped it reluctantly. I wanted so badly to look around at the people there and scream out how wrong this was. How could she be laid to rest when she was still out there in the wilderness being picked apart by animals. 

After a few months in an inpatient psych ward and a list of medications, I was finally released back into the world as a half functioning human. The only thing that seemed to shake me from my funk was the videos the WeatherBoys religiously put out. Danny, who was the front man of the channel, was helped by his best friend and camera man Trevor. The way they interacted with each other always brought a smile to my face, regardless of what was going on in my life. Their newest upload featured a well known news reporter from California. 

“So what goes through your head as you and your team cover the earthquakes that have been happening on the coast of Cali? Do you guys ever fear for your safety?” Danny was sitting in a wicker lawn chair across from the woman he was interviewing. 

“We fear for our safety all the time. Being in this line of work always comes with its risks, whether they be environmental or human. Joey, my camera man, was almost beaten up by an unhoused drug addict when we were filming the aftermath of one of the forest fires a year or so ago. Gang violence is something we have to watch out for as well. Weather can be even more unpredictable than people though. At least human beings seem to follow particular behaviour patterns. Mother Nature isn’t always that forgiving or consistent.

The earthquakes themselves are inherently terrifying. For years, scholars and scientists alike have spoken of the impacts of the fault line that resides within the outer edge of our state. The way things are going now, we may lose a good chunk of land to the ocean. When that happens, the tsunami that is to follow would wipe out a ton of lives. Every time I think of that happening a shiver goes down my spine. ” 

“Gabby, if you were to give advice to someone starting out in this career, what would you tell them?” Danny asked. 

“Keep your head on a swivel. Life is unpredictable and you never know where your next story may come from. If you end up following weather phenomena like I do, make sure you always keep a satellite phone and some flares on you at all times. You never know when you may need help from someone else, and they can’t help you if they can’t find you.” Gabby’s tone was full of sincerity. Her serious facial expression tugged at the borders of her face as if it pained her. 

“Lastly, I wanted to ask if you noticed any strange patterns with the wildlife in the area? Do you think they, too, fear for the worst?” Danny’s face lost its regular beaming grin. 

“Many aquatic animals have been beaching themselves more often than usual. Wales, dolphins, and fish have all been pulling themselves onto the shore. As for the birds in the area, they have grounded themselves, no longer flying through the sky. So far, none of my colleagues can explain why this is happening… I hope we can find an answer soon. We are seeing events we have never encountered before, and it is harrowing.” 

Gabby was shown one final time as Danny thanked her for coming on the channel and recording the interview. Trevor even turned the camera around to show his face before Danny said the tag line for the youtube account and reminded us to like and subscribe. I felt the depression creeping back as my phone screen timed out before eventually fading to black. The information, along with the end of the video brought me back to my shattered reality. At the same time, something within me cut through the bullshit. 

I finally knew what I wanted to do with my life. College, although it was a gateway to a better life, felt like a deflated balloon to me. For most of high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. Now, after the experiences I had, I finally knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a reporter. I wanted to cover stories that other people might find boring or dangerous. I wanted to report on the weather, and what came with it. I wanted to be like Danny and Gabby. With a new sense of determination, I applied to as many colleges as I could. As far from Angola, Indiana as possible. 

Waiting for the acceptance letters was torture. Since I waited so long to apply, I wouldn’t be able to attend until the winter semester. The classes that started in the fall were all full, with cancellation lists that ran a mile long. After some careful consideration and the prospects of multiple scholarships the University of Tennessee was the school I decided on. Knoxville seemed like a pretty area. The mountains offered a protective barrier that seemed to eat up a lot of storms before they could come to fruition. Snow would no longer be a major issue in the winter time. It was rare that it ever became cold enough for the rain drops to turn into frozen flakes. 

Just as I was packing my car up to leave for UT, a new youtube video alerted me of its posting. 

—

“Guys, this is Danny, coming to you with a new video. We are back in Tennessee with Mr. Roy. You all loved him so much that we thought we would return and talk with him again. He was gracious enough to let us stay with him for a couple of days. The digs aren’t anything spectacular but there’s a roof over our heads and that’s what matters. Now, Trevor and I have been watching the radar and we have something unexpected waiting for us in the next twenty-four hours.” I waved my hand at Trevor, motioning for him to turn off the camera. 

“What’s up dude?” Trevor asked, aiming the lens at the ground. 

“Did you hear that?” I asked, looking around the shack. 

“Ya heard that didja?” Roy, who was standing in the kitchen, turned around to face us. 

“What the hell was that?” Trevor responded before I could. 

“That, my boys, was the call of a deer. Sounds like it got separated from its group.” Roy turned back to the stove and stirred the sizzling meat in the pan. 

“That was a DEER? Why did it sound so damn haunting?” I asked with eyebrows raised. I’d seen many of the four legged creatures in my life, but couldn’t remember ever hearing them make a sound. 

“It might be in despair, or lonely. Who da hell knows. I can’t tell ya why it responded dat way but I sure as shit can tell ya what the call came from. Out here in da woods, the only time I hear anythin’ aside from cracks of twigs, is when the animals call out to each otha.” Roy said before turning off the burner on the stove. “Alright boys, time ta eat.” 

“Roy, what in the hell is this?” Trevor asked while looking at his plate. 

“It’s stirfry, boy. Betta eat up.” Roy grinned before shoveling overcooked chunks of meat into his mouth. 

“Thank you for the food,” I said. 

The fork shook in my hand as I raised it to my lips. The mystery meat scared me, but not as much as Roy’s reaction if I didn’t partake. The ‘stir fry’ was tough and chewy, but it tasted fine and went down the gullet with minimal force. Every so often I would chase it with big gulps of water when a mouthful got stuck in my throat. After a few hesitant bites, Trevor started shoveling the food into his mouth like he couldn’t get enough. 

When we all finished eating, Trevor and I offered to clean up the kitchen. After some light arguing, Roy relented and grabbed a beer from the fridge. The can cracked loudly as he pulled the tab on the top. I watched as he sauntered over to the lone recliner and sat in front of the tv. A part of me was shocked that he even got a signal in the forsaken shack, miles from any city or town. 

“So what do you do in your free time?” Trevor asked Roy. 

“Is this going to be on yo YouTube channel or whateva it’s called?” Roy called out from the living room. 

“Nah, man. We aren’t recording right now, feel free to speak your mind.” I said before dunking my hands back into the scalding soapy water. 

“I wander the woods, tracking and hunting animals. One a da ones I hunted and killed is sittin in yo belly right now. Betcha neva had rabbit before, have ya?” Roy chuckled to himself as he took a swig from the beer. 

“Aw, come on. You fed us a bunny?” Trevor groaned. He was half finished with drying the dishes when I made my way out of the kitchen and into the room where Roy was sitting. 

“What? Ya didn’t like it?” Roy asked. 

“No, no. It was good Roy. Don’t mind him,” I laughed, squatting down to sit on the aged couch. 

“You ain’t one a dem animal activists are ya?” Roy cocked his eyebrow. 

“Not even in the slightest. Food is food,” I answered for Trevor. 

“I check on da bears that have found a home near da caves just south of the house. They got two babies, and mama can get real angry if ya get too close. Ya might not want to wander too far into da woods,” Roy leaned back in the chair and stuck a wad of chewing tobacco into his bottom lip. 

“I’ve never seen a bear up close before,” Trevor said. He stood in the entrance way, wiping his hands on his pants. They left water stains on his jeans. 

“I thought you said you were interested in da wedda, so what are ya doin interviewing me again?” Roy asked with his bottom lip protruding. 

“Well, we got the highest view count in our channels history the last time we spoke with you. A lot of our viewers loved your energy and ideas. Plus, Tennessee has some of the best visuals we’ve ever recorded so we figured why not. I heard through the grape vine that this area is gearing up for a hell of a storm, snow in the middle of August. Never heard of that before, especially not in the south.” I leaned forward on my knees to study Roy’s leathery face. 

I watched as the man’s eyebrows raised and lowered slowly, his expression turning serious. I wondered if I said something that struck a nerve, worried that I’d pissed him off. Roy moved the dip around with his tongue, shoving the glob into his right cheek. He took in a deep breath before speaking again. 

“Did-ja just say snow?” Was all he asked. 

“Yeah, crazy, right?” Trevor came to sit down beside me. 

“In August?” Roy looked flustered. 

“Yep.” I replied. 

“Good golly, I wonder if the rapture is coming…” 

Roy’s voice trailed off before we were thrown into an uncomfortable silence. Off in the distance, I could hear the deer cry out again. Even with knowing what it was, the haunting sound yet again sent a chill down my spine. Just as Trevor and I had gotten comfortable, Roy lifted his nose into the air. 

“Yall smell that?” Roy suddenly stood up from his chair. 

“Uh, no?” Trevor lifted his head, as did I. 

“Outside, now. Danny, go to the side of the house and grab the hose. Turn the spigot while you’re at it. We ain’t got much time.” Roy crushed the beer can in his hand and threw it into the table. 

It hadn’t rained in days, Tennessee was deep in the middle of its dry season. Part of me thought that maybe he just needed to water his plants, but as I stepped outside dread filled me. Grey-white flakes filtered down from above. The sky, which has previously been clear and blue, was now an ominous shade of dark grey. I smelled smoke, and felt a searing heat creep across my skin. 

“Come on man, we gotta grab the hose,” Trevor shouted, breaking me from my trance. 

“The forest is on fire…” I mumbled, my jaw slack from the sights around me. 

“Yeah, I figured that out. We gotta hurry and help Roy, and then we can get this shit on camera!” Trevor shook my shoulder. 

Roy was hefting a large duffle bag out from the shack. It was so heavy that all he could do was drag it across the ground behind him. Once Trevor and I got the hose and water turned on, we were instructed to cover the house in as much water as possible. It felt odd, hosing down the wooden house, but it made sense. We were taking precautions so that Roy still had somewhere to live once the fire died out. 

Trevor and I finished our job just as the fire crested over the horizon. The heat that I felt earlier was intensified exponentially. Roy had also instructed us to hose ourselves down before getting in the car. We were getting the hell out of here, as fast as the vehicle could safely carry us down the mountain. If we stayed and the shack somehow managed to stay standing, the smoke inhalation would kill us just as fast. 

“You boys betta buckle up and hold onto yo bootay cheeks. We are gonna be flyin down this mountain, ya hear? I don’t want no complainin about my drivin. It’s gonna keep us alive,” Roy had hopped into the driver's seat of my car. 

I gave him the keys without any amount of hesitation. The road we took to get to Roy’s home was so narrow it would only fit one and a half cars. Luckily we hadn’t encountered anyone coming down on our way up, I wouldn’t have known what to do. The road wasn’t just narrow either, it serpentined and had guard rails that were few and far in between.  

As we tore down the partially paved road, black clouds started to fill the path in front of us. Flames the color of magma licked at the trees, curling in around us. Trevor sat in the passenger seat, he always got to ride shotgun no matter the driver. The camera was held tightly in his hand as he panned it all around the car. Every so often he would turn back to look at me with an expression that read ‘what the fuck’. 

“We’re not gonna make it,” the words tumbled from my mouth. 

“Dontchu say that, boy. We are gonna be just fine. You trust ole Roy here to get ya to safety. This ain’t my first rodeo witha fire like dis.” Roy kept his eyes trained on the road in front of us. 

My arm, which was resting on the side of the door, started to sizzle. With a gasp, I yanked it back from the metal. The wind was blowing fiercely, sicking the fire on us like a pack of rabid dogs. I could no longer see the sky, all that surrounded us were painted in shades of red and black. All I could do was sit in the backseat and hope that we made it out alive. 

“What’s in the bag, Roy?” Trevor asked, pointing the camera in his face. 

“My most precious belongings, and a coupla jugs of wata. Brought em just in case the engine ova heats or we find ourselves lit up like a match stick.” Roy nodded his head as if he was agreeing with himself. 

“Seems logical enough,” I replied, not sure what else to do. 

“You doin alright back there, boy? You ain’t said much since we got outside.” 

“I’m alright, Roy. I just don’t like fire very much,” I said. 

I felt panic start to bubble and fester within me. My vision started to tunnel as the ringing in my ears grew louder. I felt like I was six years old again, crying out for my mom and dad as the house burned and crumbled around me. Being trapped in my upstairs bedroom for 45 minutes while the flames ate at everything they could, scorched 30 percent of my tiny body. The scars on my back ached as I took in the sights around me. 

I was lucky to make it out alive that day, and wondered if I had enough luck left to make it out of this situation too. I’d lived my life as well as I could, making sure to treat others as kindly as possible. I didn't do it for the good karma, but if it helped in any way I would have liked to cash in on it then. My throat ached from the smoke that’d made it past the seals on the car, and my skin dripped with sweat. 

“You think we will make it?” I asked, my voice quivering.

“We’ve dealt with scary stuff, remember that time we got caught up with the storm chasers? We were right in the middle of an EF5, the drill that held the car to the ground started to give out? Nothing can be worse than that,” Trevor answered. 

“I’m not so sure,” I replied back. 

“We are almost there, boys.” Roy grunted. 

The older man jerked the wheel and suddenly I felt asphalt under the tires. The steep slope of a mountain was replaced by a flat road. We had made it to the bottom, finally. The engine started to sputter and it felt like we were driving over one of those sticky traps they used for pests. I hoped that the car held on until we made it to safety, but with the way things were looking, I wasn’t so sure. 

That was when I heard the sirens. 

——

part 3

part 1

The aftermath of the five EF4 tornadoes that happened my last week of senior year caused a lot of damage. After the dust finally settled the tornadoes had been updated to EF5’s, once their destruction had been taken into account. Graduation was canceled since it was usually held in the gymnasium, which was laid in pieces scattered throughout the area around the school. Even if they had managed to clean it up in time, walking across the stage wasn’t something I’d have been willing to partake in. Especially since Kari wouldn’t be there to walk with me. Almost half of the senior class had been either killed or injured in the storm. 

It felt like I was existing in a fever dream, a reality too harsh for my brain to process. 

After receiving my diploma in the mail, my mother hung it proudly in our home. Right next to the other three certificates my older siblings had managed to score at the end of their four years. Search parties had been formed to look for the missing people, ones that I joined even while in the throes of depression. Nothing mattered more than finding my friend, to the point where I spent most of my waking hours scouring the land. We never found her body. 

The funeral for Karissa Petro was odd, her gravestone laid upon dirt that claimed an empty box. Her friends and family had added small trinkets and mementos into the miniature coffin before lowering it into the ground. As I choked back snot and tears, I removed the orange scrunchie from my wrist and dropped it reluctantly. I wanted so badly to look around at the people there and scream out how wrong this was. How could she be laid to rest when she was still out there in the wilderness being picked apart by animals. 

After a few months in an inpatient psych ward and a list of medications, I was finally released back into the world as a half functioning human. The only thing that seemed to shake me from my funk was the videos the WeatherBoys religiously put out. Danny, who was the front man of the channel, was helped by his best friend and camera man Trevor. The way they interacted with each other always brought a smile to my face, regardless of what was going on in my life. Their newest upload featured a well known news reporter from California. 

“So what goes through your head as you and your team cover the earthquakes that have been happening on the coast of Cali? Do you guys ever fear for your safety?” Danny was sitting in a wicker lawn chair across from the woman he was interviewing. 

“We fear for our safety all the time. Being in this line of work always comes with its risks, whether they be environmental or human. Joey, my camera man, was almost beaten up by an unhoused drug addict when we were filming the aftermath of one of the forest fires a year or so ago. Gang violence is something we have to watch out for as well. Weather can be even more unpredictable than people though. At least human beings seem to follow particular behaviour patterns. Mother Nature isn’t always that forgiving or consistent.

The earthquakes themselves are inherently terrifying. For years, scholars and scientists alike have spoken of the impacts of the fault line that resides within the outer edge of our state. The way things are going now, we may lose a good chunk of land to the ocean. When that happens, the tsunami that is to follow would wipe out a ton of lives. Every time I think of that happening a shiver goes down my spine. ” 

“Gabby, if you were to give advice to someone starting out in this career, what would you tell them?” Danny asked. 

“Keep your head on a swivel. Life is unpredictable and you never know where your next story may come from. If you end up following weather phenomena like I do, make sure you always keep a satellite phone and some flares on you at all times. You never know when you may need help from someone else, and they can’t help you if they can’t find you.” Gabby’s tone was full of sincerity. Her serious facial expression tugged at the borders of her face as if it pained her. 

“Lastly, I wanted to ask if you noticed any strange patterns with the wildlife in the area? Do you think they, too, fear for the worst?” Danny’s face lost its regular beaming grin. 

“Many aquatic animals have been beaching themselves more often than usual. Wales, dolphins, and fish have all been pulling themselves onto the shore. As for the birds in the area, they have grounded themselves, no longer flying through the sky. So far, none of my colleagues can explain why this is happening… I hope we can find an answer soon. We are seeing events we have never encountered before, and it is harrowing.” 

Gabby was shown one final time as Danny thanked her for coming on the channel and recording the interview. Trevor even turned the camera around to show his face before Danny said the tag line for the youtube account and reminded us to like and subscribe. I felt the depression creeping back as my phone screen timed out before eventually fading to black. The information, along with the end of the video brought me back to my shattered reality. At the same time, something within me cut through the bullshit. 

I finally knew what I wanted to do with my life. College, although it was a gateway to a better life, felt like a deflated balloon to me. For most of high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. Now, after the experiences I had, I finally knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a reporter. I wanted to cover stories that other people might find boring or dangerous. I wanted to report on the weather, and what came with it. I wanted to be like Danny and Gabby. With a new sense of determination, I applied to as many colleges as I could. As far from Angola, Indiana as possible. 

Waiting for the acceptance letters was torture. Since I waited so long to apply, I wouldn’t be able to attend until the winter semester. The classes that started in the fall were all full, with cancellation lists that ran a mile long. After some careful consideration and the prospects of multiple scholarships the University of Tennessee was the school I decided on. Knoxville seemed like a pretty area. The mountains offered a protective barrier that seemed to eat up a lot of storms before they could come to fruition. Snow would no longer be a major issue in the winter time. It was rare that it ever became cold enough for the rain drops to turn into frozen flakes. 

Just as I was packing my car up to leave for UT, a new youtube video alerted me of its posting. 

—

“Guys, this is Danny, coming to you with a new video. We are back in Tennessee with Mr. Roy. You all loved him so much that we thought we would return and talk with him again. He was gracious enough to let us stay with him for a couple of days. The digs aren’t anything spectacular but there’s a roof over our heads and that’s what matters. Now, Trevor and I have been watching the radar and we have something unexpected waiting for us in the next twenty-four hours.” I waved my hand at Trevor, motioning for him to turn off the camera. 

“What’s up dude?” Trevor asked, aiming the lens at the ground. 

“Did you hear that?” I asked, looking around the shack. 

“Ya heard that didja?” Roy, who was standing in the kitchen, turned around to face us. 

“What the hell was that?” Trevor responded before I could. 

“That, my boys, was the call of a deer. Sounds like it got separated from its group.” Roy turned back to the stove and stirred the sizzling meat in the pan. 

“That was a DEER? Why did it sound so damn haunting?” I asked with eyebrows raised. I’d seen many of the four legged creatures in my life, but couldn’t remember ever hearing them make a sound. 

“It might be in despair, or lonely. Who da hell knows. I can’t tell ya why it responded dat way but I sure as shit can tell ya what the call came from. Out here in da woods, the only time I hear anythin’ aside from cracks of twigs, is when the animals call out to each otha.” Roy said before turning off the burner on the stove. “Alright boys, time ta eat.” 

“Roy, what in the hell is this?” Trevor asked while looking at his plate. 

“It’s stirfry, boy. Betta eat up.” Roy grinned before shoveling overcooked chunks of meat into his mouth. 

“Thank you for the food,” I said. 

The fork shook in my hand as I raised it to my lips. The mystery meat scared me, but not as much as Roy’s reaction if I didn’t partake. The ‘stir fry’ was tough and chewy, but it tasted fine and went down the gullet with minimal force. Every so often I would chase it with big gulps of water when a mouthful got stuck in my throat. After a few hesitant bites, Trevor started shoveling the food into his mouth like he couldn’t get enough. 

When we all finished eating, Trevor and I offered to clean up the kitchen. After some light arguing, Roy relented and grabbed a beer from the fridge. The can cracked loudly as he pulled the tab on the top. I watched as he sauntered over to the lone recliner and sat in front of the tv. A part of me was shocked that he even got a signal in the forsaken shack, miles from any city or town. 

“So what do you do in your free time?” Trevor asked Roy. 

“Is this going to be on yo YouTube channel or whateva it’s called?” Roy called out from the living room. 

“Nah, man. We aren’t recording right now, feel free to speak your mind.” I said before dunking my hands back into the scalding soapy water. 

“I wander the woods, tracking and hunting animals. One a da ones I hunted and killed is sittin in yo belly right now. Betcha neva had rabbit before, have ya?” Roy chuckled to himself as he took a swig from the beer. 

“Aw, come on. You fed us a bunny?” Trevor groaned. He was half finished with drying the dishes when I made my way out of the kitchen and into the room where Roy was sitting. 

“What? Ya didn’t like it?” Roy asked. 

“No, no. It was good Roy. Don’t mind him,” I laughed, squatting down to sit on the aged couch. 

“You ain’t one a dem animal activists are ya?” Roy cocked his eyebrow. 

“Not even in the slightest. Food is food,” I answered for Trevor. 

“I check on da bears that have found a home near da caves just south of the house. They got two babies, and mama can get real angry if ya get too close. Ya might not want to wander too far into da woods,” Roy leaned back in the chair and stuck a wad of chewing tobacco into his bottom lip. 

“I’ve never seen a bear up close before,” Trevor said. He stood in the entrance way, wiping his hands on his pants. They left water stains on his jeans. 

“I thought you said you were interested in da wedda, so what are ya doin interviewing me again?” Roy asked with his bottom lip protruding. 

“Well, we got the highest view count in our channels history the last time we spoke with you. A lot of our viewers loved your energy and ideas. Plus, Tennessee has some of the best visuals we’ve ever recorded so we figured why not. I heard through the grape vine that this area is gearing up for a hell of a storm, snow in the middle of August. Never heard of that before, especially not in the south.” I leaned forward on my knees to study Roy’s leathery face. 

I watched as the man’s eyebrows raised and lowered slowly, his expression turning serious. I wondered if I said something that struck a nerve, worried that I’d pissed him off. Roy moved the dip around with his tongue, shoving the glob into his right cheek. He took in a deep breath before speaking again. 

“Did-ja just say snow?” Was all he asked. 

“Yeah, crazy, right?” Trevor came to sit down beside me. 

“In August?” Roy looked flustered. 

“Yep.” I replied. 

“Good golly, I wonder if the rapture is coming…” 

Roy’s voice trailed off before we were thrown into an uncomfortable silence. Off in the distance, I could hear the deer cry out again. Even with knowing what it was, the haunting sound yet again sent a chill down my spine. Just as Trevor and I had gotten comfortable, Roy lifted his nose into the air. 

“Yall smell that?” Roy suddenly stood up from his chair. 

“Uh, no?” Trevor lifted his head, as did I. 

“Outside, now. Danny, go to the side of the house and grab the hose. Turn the spigot while you’re at it. We ain’t got much time.” Roy crushed the beer can in his hand and threw it into the table. 

It hadn’t rained in days, Tennessee was deep in the middle of its dry season. Part of me thought that maybe he just needed to water his plants, but as I stepped outside dread filled me. Grey-white flakes filtered down from above. The sky, which has previously been clear and blue, was now an ominous shade of dark grey. I smelled smoke, and felt a searing heat creep across my skin. 

“Come on man, we gotta grab the hose,” Trevor shouted, breaking me from my trance. 

“The forest is on fire…” I mumbled, my jaw slack from the sights around me. 

“Yeah, I figured that out. We gotta hurry and help Roy, and then we can get this shit on camera!” Trevor shook my shoulder. 

Roy was hefting a large duffle bag out from the shack. It was so heavy that all he could do was drag it across the ground behind him. Once Trevor and I got the hose and water turned on, we were instructed to cover the house in as much water as possible. It felt odd, hosing down the wooden house, but it made sense. We were taking precautions so that Roy still had somewhere to live once the fire died out. 

Trevor and I finished our job just as the fire crested over the horizon. The heat that I felt earlier was intensified exponentially. Roy had also instructed us to hose ourselves down before getting in the car. We were getting the hell out of here, as fast as the vehicle could safely carry us down the mountain. If we stayed and the shack somehow managed to stay standing, the smoke inhalation would kill us just as fast. 

“You boys betta buckle up and hold onto yo bootay cheeks. We are gonna be flyin down this mountain, ya hear? I don’t want no complainin about my drivin. It’s gonna keep us alive,” Roy had hopped into the driver's seat of my car. 

I gave him the keys without any amount of hesitation. The road we took to get to Roy’s home was so narrow it would only fit one and a half cars. Luckily we hadn’t encountered anyone coming down on our way up, I wouldn’t have known what to do. The road wasn’t just narrow either, it serpentined and had guard rails that were few and far in between.  

As we tore down the partially paved road, black clouds started to fill the path in front of us. Flames the color of magma licked at the trees, curling in around us. Trevor sat in the passenger seat, he always got to ride shotgun no matter the driver. The camera was held tightly in his hand as he panned it all around the car. Every so often he would turn back to look at me with an expression that read ‘what the fuck’. 

“We’re not gonna make it,” the words tumbled from my mouth. 

“Dontchu say that, boy. We are gonna be just fine. You trust ole Roy here to get ya to safety. This ain’t my first rodeo witha fire like dis.” Roy kept his eyes trained on the road in front of us. 

My arm, which was resting on the side of the door, started to sizzle. With a gasp, I yanked it back from the metal. The wind was blowing fiercely, sicking the fire on us like a pack of rabid dogs. I could no longer see the sky, all that surrounded us were painted in shades of red and black. All I could do was sit in the backseat and hope that we made it out alive. 

“What’s in the bag, Roy?” Trevor asked, pointing the camera in his face. 

“My most precious belongings, and a coupla jugs of wata. Brought em just in case the engine ova heats or we find ourselves lit up like a match stick.” Roy nodded his head as if he was agreeing with himself. 

“Seems logical enough,” I replied, not sure what else to do. 

“You doin alright back there, boy? You ain’t said much since we got outside.” 

“I’m alright, Roy. I just don’t like fire very much,” I said. 

I felt panic start to bubble and fester within me. My vision started to tunnel as the ringing in my ears grew louder. I felt like I was six years old again, crying out for my mom and dad as the house burned and crumbled around me. Being trapped in my upstairs bedroom for 45 minutes while the flames ate at everything they could, scorched 30 percent of my tiny body. The scars on my back ached as I took in the sights around me. 

I was lucky to make it out alive that day, and wondered if I had enough luck left to make it out of this situation too. I’d lived my life as well as I could, making sure to treat others as kindly as possible. I didn't do it for the good karma, but if it helped in any way I would have liked to cash in on it then. My throat ached from the smoke that’d made it past the seals on the car, and my skin dripped with sweat. 

“You think we will make it?” I asked, my voice quivering.

“We’ve dealt with scary stuff, remember that time we got caught up with the storm chasers? We were right in the middle of an EF5, the drill that held the car to the ground started to give out? Nothing can be worse than that,” Trevor answered. 

“I’m not so sure,” I replied back. 

“We are almost there, boys.” Roy grunted. 

The older man jerked the wheel and suddenly I felt asphalt under the tires. The steep slope of a mountain was replaced by a flat road. We had made it to the bottom, finally. The engine started to sputter and it felt like we were driving over one of those sticky traps they used for pests. I hoped that the car held on until we made it to safety, but with the way things were looking, I wasn’t so sure. 

That was when I heard the sirens. 

——

part 1

The aftermath of the five EF4 tornadoes that happened my last week of senior year caused a lot of damage. After the dust finally settled the tornadoes had been updated to EF5’s, once their destruction had been taken into account. Graduation was canceled since it was usually held in the gymnasium, which was laid in pieces scattered throughout the area around the school. Even if they had managed to clean it up in time, walking across the stage wasn’t something I’d have been willing to partake in. Especially since Kari wouldn’t be there to walk with me. Almost half of the senior class had been either killed or injured in the storm. 

It felt like I was existing in a fever dream, a reality too harsh for my brain to process. 

After receiving my diploma in the mail, my mother hung it proudly in our home. Right next to the other three certificates my older siblings had managed to score at the end of their four years. Search parties had been formed to look for the missing people, ones that I joined even while in the throes of depression. Nothing mattered more than finding my friend, to the point where I spent most of my waking hours scouring the land. We never found her body. 

The funeral for Karissa Petro was odd, her gravestone laid upon dirt that claimed an empty box. Her friends and family had added small trinkets and mementos into the miniature coffin before lowering it into the ground. As I choked back snot and tears, I removed the orange scrunchie from my wrist and dropped it reluctantly. I wanted so badly to look around at the people there and scream out how wrong this was. How could she be laid to rest when she was still out there in the wilderness being picked apart by animals. 

After a few months in an inpatient psych ward and a list of medications, I was finally released back into the world as a half functioning human. The only thing that seemed to shake me from my funk was the videos the WeatherBoys religiously put out. Danny, who was the front man of the channel, was helped by his best friend and camera man Trevor. The way they interacted with each other always brought a smile to my face, regardless of what was going on in my life. Their newest upload featured a well known news reporter from California. 

“So what goes through your head as you and your team cover the earthquakes that have been happening on the coast of Cali? Do you guys ever fear for your safety?” Danny was sitting in a wicker lawn chair across from the woman he was interviewing. 

“We fear for our safety all the time. Being in this line of work always comes with its risks, whether they be environmental or human. Joey, my camera man, was almost beaten up by an unhoused drug addict when we were filming the aftermath of one of the forest fires a year or so ago. Gang violence is something we have to watch out for as well. Weather can be even more unpredictable than people though. At least human beings seem to follow particular behaviour patterns. Mother Nature isn’t always that forgiving or consistent.

The earthquakes themselves are inherently terrifying. For years, scholars and scientists alike have spoken of the impacts of the fault line that resides within the outer edge of our state. The way things are going now, we may lose a good chunk of land to the ocean. When that happens, the tsunami that is to follow would wipe out a ton of lives. Every time I think of that happening a shiver goes down my spine. ” 

“Gabby, if you were to give advice to someone starting out in this career, what would you tell them?” Danny asked. 

“Keep your head on a swivel. Life is unpredictable and you never know where your next story may come from. If you end up following weather phenomena like I do, make sure you always keep a satellite phone and some flares on you at all times. You never know when you may need help from someone else, and they can’t help you if they can’t find you.” Gabby’s tone was full of sincerity. Her serious facial expression tugged at the borders of her face as if it pained her. 

“Lastly, I wanted to ask if you noticed any strange patterns with the wildlife in the area? Do you think they, too, fear for the worst?” Danny’s face lost its regular beaming grin. 

“Many aquatic animals have been beaching themselves more often than usual. Wales, dolphins, and fish have all been pulling themselves onto the shore. As for the birds in the area, they have grounded themselves, no longer flying through the sky. So far, none of my colleagues can explain why this is happening… I hope we can find an answer soon. We are seeing events we have never encountered before, and it is harrowing.” 

Gabby was shown one final time as Danny thanked her for coming on the channel and recording the interview. Trevor even turned the camera around to show his face before Danny said the tag line for the youtube account and reminded us to like and subscribe. I felt the depression creeping back as my phone screen timed out before eventually fading to black. The information, along with the end of the video brought me back to my shattered reality. At the same time, something within me cut through the bullshit. 

I finally knew what I wanted to do with my life. College, although it was a gateway to a better life, felt like a deflated balloon to me. For most of high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. Now, after the experiences I had, I finally knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a reporter. I wanted to cover stories that other people might find boring or dangerous. I wanted to report on the weather, and what came with it. I wanted to be like Danny and Gabby. With a new sense of determination, I applied to as many colleges as I could. As far from Angola, Indiana as possible. 

Waiting for the acceptance letters was torture. Since I waited so long to apply, I wouldn’t be able to attend until the winter semester. The classes that started in the fall were all full, with cancellation lists that ran a mile long. After some careful consideration and the prospects of multiple scholarships the University of Tennessee was the school I decided on. Knoxville seemed like a pretty area. The mountains offered a protective barrier that seemed to eat up a lot of storms before they could come to fruition. Snow would no longer be a major issue in the winter time. It was rare that it ever became cold enough for the rain drops to turn into frozen flakes. 

Just as I was packing my car up to leave for UT, a new youtube video alerted me of its posting. 

—

“Guys, this is Danny, coming to you with a new video. We are back in Tennessee with Mr. Roy. You all loved him so much that we thought we would return and talk with him again. He was gracious enough to let us stay with him for a couple of days. The digs aren’t anything spectacular but there’s a roof over our heads and that’s what matters. Now, Trevor and I have been watching the radar and we have something unexpected waiting for us in the next twenty-four hours.” I waved my hand at Trevor, motioning for him to turn off the camera. 

“What’s up dude?” Trevor asked, aiming the lens at the ground. 

“Did you hear that?” I asked, looking around the shack. 

“Ya heard that didja?” Roy, who was standing in the kitchen, turned around to face us. 

“What the hell was that?” Trevor responded before I could. 

“That, my boys, was the call of a deer. Sounds like it got separated from its group.” Roy turned back to the stove and stirred the sizzling meat in the pan. 

“That was a DEER? Why did it sound so damn haunting?” I asked with eyebrows raised. I’d seen many of the four legged creatures in my life, but couldn’t remember ever hearing them make a sound. 

“It might be in despair, or lonely. Who da hell knows. I can’t tell ya why it responded dat way but I sure as shit can tell ya what the call came from. Out here in da woods, the only time I hear anythin’ aside from cracks of twigs, is when the animals call out to each otha.” Roy said before turning off the burner on the stove. “Alright boys, time ta eat.” 

“Roy, what in the hell is this?” Trevor asked while looking at his plate. 

“It’s stirfry, boy. Betta eat up.” Roy grinned before shoveling overcooked chunks of meat into his mouth. 

“Thank you for the food,” I said. 

The fork shook in my hand as I raised it to my lips. The mystery meat scared me, but not as much as Roy’s reaction if I didn’t partake. The ‘stir fry’ was tough and chewy, but it tasted fine and went down the gullet with minimal force. Every so often I would chase it with big gulps of water when a mouthful got stuck in my throat. After a few hesitant bites, Trevor started shoveling the food into his mouth like he couldn’t get enough. 

When we all finished eating, Trevor and I offered to clean up the kitchen. After some light arguing, Roy relented and grabbed a beer from the fridge. The can cracked loudly as he pulled the tab on the top. I watched as he sauntered over to the lone recliner and sat in front of the tv. A part of me was shocked that he even got a signal in the forsaken shack, miles from any city or town. 

“So what do you do in your free time?” Trevor asked Roy. 

“Is this going to be on yo YouTube channel or whateva it’s called?” Roy called out from the living room. 

“Nah, man. We aren’t recording right now, feel free to speak your mind.” I said before dunking my hands back into the scalding soapy water. 

“I wander the woods, tracking and hunting animals. One a da ones I hunted and killed is sittin in yo belly right now. Betcha neva had rabbit before, have ya?” Roy chuckled to himself as he took a swig from the beer. 

“Aw, come on. You fed us a bunny?” Trevor groaned. He was half finished with drying the dishes when I made my way out of the kitchen and into the room where Roy was sitting. 

“What? Ya didn’t like it?” Roy asked. 

“No, no. It was good Roy. Don’t mind him,” I laughed, squatting down to sit on the aged couch. 

“You ain’t one a dem animal activists are ya?” Roy cocked his eyebrow. 

“Not even in the slightest. Food is food,” I answered for Trevor. 

“I check on da bears that have found a home near da caves just south of the house. They got two babies, and mama can get real angry if ya get too close. Ya might not want to wander too far into da woods,” Roy leaned back in the chair and stuck a wad of chewing tobacco into his bottom lip. 

“I’ve never seen a bear up close before,” Trevor said. He stood in the entrance way, wiping his hands on his pants. They left water stains on his jeans. 

“I thought you said you were interested in da wedda, so what are ya doin interviewing me again?” Roy asked with his bottom lip protruding. 

“Well, we got the highest view count in our channels history the last time we spoke with you. A lot of our viewers loved your energy and ideas. Plus, Tennessee has some of the best visuals we’ve ever recorded so we figured why not. I heard through the grape vine that this area is gearing up for a hell of a storm, snow in the middle of August. Never heard of that before, especially not in the south.” I leaned forward on my knees to study Roy’s leathery face. 

I watched as the man’s eyebrows raised and lowered slowly, his expression turning serious. I wondered if I said something that struck a nerve, worried that I’d pissed him off. Roy moved the dip around with his tongue, shoving the glob into his right cheek. He took in a deep breath before speaking again. 

“Did-ja just say snow?” Was all he asked. 

“Yeah, crazy, right?” Trevor came to sit down beside me. 

“In August?” Roy looked flustered. 

“Yep.” I replied. 

“Good golly, I wonder if the rapture is coming…” 

Roy’s voice trailed off before we were thrown into an uncomfortable silence. Off in the distance, I could hear the deer cry out again. Even with knowing what it was, the haunting sound yet again sent a chill down my spine. Just as Trevor and I had gotten comfortable, Roy lifted his nose into the air. 

“Yall smell that?” Roy suddenly stood up from his chair. 

“Uh, no?” Trevor lifted his head, as did I. 

“Outside, now. Danny, go to the side of the house and grab the hose. Turn the spigot while you’re at it. We ain’t got much time.” Roy crushed the beer can in his hand and threw it into the table. 

It hadn’t rained in days, Tennessee was deep in the middle of its dry season. Part of me thought that maybe he just needed to water his plants, but as I stepped outside dread filled me. Grey-white flakes filtered down from above. The sky, which has previously been clear and blue, was now an ominous shade of dark grey. I smelled smoke, and felt a searing heat creep across my skin. 

“Come on man, we gotta grab the hose,” Trevor shouted, breaking me from my trance. 

“The forest is on fire…” I mumbled, my jaw slack from the sights around me. 

“Yeah, I figured that out. We gotta hurry and help Roy, and then we can get this shit on camera!” Trevor shook my shoulder. 

Roy was hefting a large duffle bag out from the shack. It was so heavy that all he could do was drag it across the ground behind him. Once Trevor and I got the hose and water turned on, we were instructed to cover the house in as much water as possible. It felt odd, hosing down the wooden house, but it made sense. We were taking precautions so that Roy still had somewhere to live once the fire died out. 

Trevor and I finished our job just as the fire crested over the horizon. The heat that I felt earlier was intensified exponentially. Roy had also instructed us to hose ourselves down before getting in the car. We were getting the hell out of here, as fast as the vehicle could safely carry us down the mountain. If we stayed and the shack somehow managed to stay standing, the smoke inhalation would kill us just as fast. 

“You boys betta buckle up and hold onto yo bootay cheeks. We are gonna be flyin down this mountain, ya hear? I don’t want no complainin about my drivin. It’s gonna keep us alive,” Roy had hopped into the driver's seat of my car. 

I gave him the keys without any amount of hesitation. The road we took to get to Roy’s home was so narrow it would only fit one and a half cars. Luckily we hadn’t encountered anyone coming down on our way up, I wouldn’t have known what to do. The road wasn’t just narrow either, it serpentined and had guard rails that were few and far in between.  

As we tore down the partially paved road, black clouds started to fill the path in front of us. Flames the color of magma licked at the trees, curling in around us. Trevor sat in the passenger seat, he always got to ride shotgun no matter the driver. The camera was held tightly in his hand as he panned it all around the car. Every so often he would turn back to look at me with an expression that read ‘what the fuck’. 

“We’re not gonna make it,” the words tumbled from my mouth. 

“Dontchu say that, boy. We are gonna be just fine. You trust ole Roy here to get ya to safety. This ain’t my first rodeo witha fire like dis.” Roy kept his eyes trained on the road in front of us. 

My arm, which was resting on the side of the door, started to sizzle. With a gasp, I yanked it back from the metal. The wind was blowing fiercely, sicking the fire on us like a pack of rabid dogs. I could no longer see the sky, all that surrounded us were painted in shades of red and black. All I could do was sit in the backseat and hope that we made it out alive. 

“What’s in the bag, Roy?” Trevor asked, pointing the camera in his face. 

“My most precious belongings, and a coupla jugs of wata. Brought em just in case the engine ova heats or we find ourselves lit up like a match stick.” Roy nodded his head as if he was agreeing with himself. 

“Seems logical enough,” I replied, not sure what else to do. 

“You doin alright back there, boy? You ain’t said much since we got outside.” 

“I’m alright, Roy. I just don’t like fire very much,” I said. 

I felt panic start to bubble and fester within me. My vision started to tunnel as the ringing in my ears grew louder. I felt like I was six years old again, crying out for my mom and dad as the house burned and crumbled around me. Being trapped in my upstairs bedroom for 45 minutes while the flames ate at everything they could, scorched 30 percent of my tiny body. The scars on my back ached as I took in the sights around me. 

I was lucky to make it out alive that day, and wondered if I had enough luck left to make it out of this situation too. I’d lived my life as well as I could, making sure to treat others as kindly as possible. I didn't do it for the good karma, but if it helped in any way I would have liked to cash in on it then. My throat ached from the smoke that’d made it past the seals on the car, and my skin dripped with sweat. 

“You think we will make it?” I asked, my voice quivering.

“We’ve dealt with scary stuff, remember that time we got caught up with the storm chasers? We were right in the middle of an EF5, the drill that held the car to the ground started to give out? Nothing can be worse than that,” Trevor answered. 

“I’m not so sure,” I replied back. 

“We are almost there, boys.” Roy grunted. 

The older man jerked the wheel and suddenly I felt asphalt under the tires. The steep slope of a mountain was replaced by a flat road. We had made it to the bottom, finally. The engine started to sputter and it felt like we were driving over one of those sticky traps they used for pests. I hoped that the car held on until we made it to safety, but with the way things were looking, I wasn’t so sure. 

That was when I heard the sirens. 

——

part 1

The aftermath of the five EF4 tornadoes that happened my last week of senior year caused a lot of damage. After the dust finally settled the tornadoes had been updated to EF5’s, once their destruction had been taken into account. Graduation was canceled since it was usually held in the gymnasium, which was laid in pieces scattered throughout the area around the school. Even if they had managed to clean it up in time, walking across the stage wasn’t something I’d have been willing to partake in. Especially since Kari wouldn’t be there to walk with me. Almost half of the senior class had been either killed or injured in the storm. 

It felt like I was existing in a fever dream, a reality too harsh for my brain to process. 

After receiving my diploma in the mail, my mother hung it proudly in our home. Right next to the other three certificates my older siblings had managed to score at the end of their four years. Search parties had been formed to look for the missing people, ones that I joined even while in the throes of depression. Nothing mattered more than finding my friend, to the point where I spent most of my waking hours scouring the land. We never found her body. 

The funeral for Karissa Petro was odd, her gravestone laid upon dirt that claimed an empty box. Her friends and family had added small trinkets and mementos into the miniature coffin before lowering it into the ground. As I choked back snot and tears, I removed the orange scrunchie from my wrist and dropped it reluctantly. I wanted so badly to look around at the people there and scream out how wrong this was. How could she be laid to rest when she was still out there in the wilderness being picked apart by animals. 

After a few months in an inpatient psych ward and a list of medications, I was finally released back into the world as a half functioning human. The only thing that seemed to shake me from my funk was the videos the WeatherBoys religiously put out. Danny, who was the front man of the channel, was helped by his best friend and camera man Trevor. The way they interacted with each other always brought a smile to my face, regardless of what was going on in my life. Their newest upload featured a well known news reporter from California. 

“So what goes through your head as you and your team cover the earthquakes that have been happening on the coast of Cali? Do you guys ever fear for your safety?” Danny was sitting in a wicker lawn chair across from the woman he was interviewing. 

“We fear for our safety all the time. Being in this line of work always comes with its risks, whether they be environmental or human. Joey, my camera man, was almost beaten up by an unhoused drug addict when we were filming the aftermath of one of the forest fires a year or so ago. Gang violence is something we have to watch out for as well. Weather can be even more unpredictable than people though. At least human beings seem to follow particular behaviour patterns. Mother Nature isn’t always that forgiving or consistent.

The earthquakes themselves are inherently terrifying. For years, scholars and scientists alike have spoken of the impacts of the fault line that resides within the outer edge of our state. The way things are going now, we may lose a good chunk of land to the ocean. When that happens, the tsunami that is to follow would wipe out a ton of lives. Every time I think of that happening a shiver goes down my spine. ” 

“Gabby, if you were to give advice to someone starting out in this career, what would you tell them?” Danny asked. 

“Keep your head on a swivel. Life is unpredictable and you never know where your next story may come from. If you end up following weather phenomena like I do, make sure you always keep a satellite phone and some flares on you at all times. You never know when you may need help from someone else, and they can’t help you if they can’t find you.” Gabby’s tone was full of sincerity. Her serious facial expression tugged at the borders of her face as if it pained her. 

“Lastly, I wanted to ask if you noticed any strange patterns with the wildlife in the area? Do you think they, too, fear for the worst?” Danny’s face lost its regular beaming grin. 

“Many aquatic animals have been beaching themselves more often than usual. Wales, dolphins, and fish have all been pulling themselves onto the shore. As for the birds in the area, they have grounded themselves, no longer flying through the sky. So far, none of my colleagues can explain why this is happening… I hope we can find an answer soon. We are seeing events we have never encountered before, and it is harrowing.” 

Gabby was shown one final time as Danny thanked her for coming on the channel and recording the interview. Trevor even turned the camera around to show his face before Danny said the tag line for the youtube account and reminded us to like and subscribe. I felt the depression creeping back as my phone screen timed out before eventually fading to black. The information, along with the end of the video brought me back to my shattered reality. At the same time, something within me cut through the bullshit. 

I finally knew what I wanted to do with my life. College, although it was a gateway to a better life, felt like a deflated balloon to me. For most of high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. Now, after the experiences I had, I finally knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a reporter. I wanted to cover stories that other people might find boring or dangerous. I wanted to report on the weather, and what came with it. I wanted to be like Danny and Gabby. With a new sense of determination, I applied to as many colleges as I could. As far from Angola, Indiana as possible. 

Waiting for the acceptance letters was torture. Since I waited so long to apply, I wouldn’t be able to attend until the winter semester. The classes that started in the fall were all full, with cancellation lists that ran a mile long. After some careful consideration and the prospects of multiple scholarships the University of Tennessee was the school I decided on. Knoxville seemed like a pretty area. The mountains offered a protective barrier that seemed to eat up a lot of storms before they could come to fruition. Snow would no longer be a major issue in the winter time. It was rare that it ever became cold enough for the rain drops to turn into frozen flakes. 

Just as I was packing my car up to leave for UT, a new youtube video alerted me of its posting. 

—

“Guys, this is Danny, coming to you with a new video. We are back in Tennessee with Mr. Roy. You all loved him so much that we thought we would return and talk with him again. He was gracious enough to let us stay with him for a couple of days. The digs aren’t anything spectacular but there’s a roof over our heads and that’s what matters. Now, Trevor and I have been watching the radar and we have something unexpected waiting for us in the next twenty-four hours.” I waved my hand at Trevor, motioning for him to turn off the camera. 

“What’s up dude?” Trevor asked, aiming the lens at the ground. 

“Did you hear that?” I asked, looking around the shack. 

“Ya heard that didja?” Roy, who was standing in the kitchen, turned around to face us. 

“What the hell was that?” Trevor responded before I could. 

“That, my boys, was the call of a deer. Sounds like it got separated from its group.” Roy turned back to the stove and stirred the sizzling meat in the pan. 

“That was a DEER? Why did it sound so damn haunting?” I asked with eyebrows raised. I’d seen many of the four legged creatures in my life, but couldn’t remember ever hearing them make a sound. 

“It might be in despair, or lonely. Who da hell knows. I can’t tell ya why it responded dat way but I sure as shit can tell ya what the call came from. Out here in da woods, the only time I hear anythin’ aside from cracks of twigs, is when the animals call out to each otha.” Roy said before turning off the burner on the stove. “Alright boys, time ta eat.” 

“Roy, what in the hell is this?” Trevor asked while looking at his plate. 

“It’s stirfry, boy. Betta eat up.” Roy grinned before shoveling overcooked chunks of meat into his mouth. 

“Thank you for the food,” I said. 

The fork shook in my hand as I raised it to my lips. The mystery meat scared me, but not as much as Roy’s reaction if I didn’t partake. The ‘stir fry’ was tough and chewy, but it tasted fine and went down the gullet with minimal force. Every so often I would chase it with big gulps of water when a mouthful got stuck in my throat. After a few hesitant bites, Trevor started shoveling the food into his mouth like he couldn’t get enough. 

When we all finished eating, Trevor and I offered to clean up the kitchen. After some light arguing, Roy relented and grabbed a beer from the fridge. The can cracked loudly as he pulled the tab on the top. I watched as he sauntered over to the lone recliner and sat in front of the tv. A part of me was shocked that he even got a signal in the forsaken shack, miles from any city or town. 

“So what do you do in your free time?” Trevor asked Roy. 

“Is this going to be on yo YouTube channel or whateva it’s called?” Roy called out from the living room. 

“Nah, man. We aren’t recording right now, feel free to speak your mind.” I said before dunking my hands back into the scalding soapy water. 

“I wander the woods, tracking and hunting animals. One a da ones I hunted and killed is sittin in yo belly right now. Betcha neva had rabbit before, have ya?” Roy chuckled to himself as he took a swig from the beer. 

“Aw, come on. You fed us a bunny?” Trevor groaned. He was half finished with drying the dishes when I made my way out of the kitchen and into the room where Roy was sitting. 

“What? Ya didn’t like it?” Roy asked. 

“No, no. It was good Roy. Don’t mind him,” I laughed, squatting down to sit on the aged couch. 

“You ain’t one a dem animal activists are ya?” Roy cocked his eyebrow. 

“Not even in the slightest. Food is food,” I answered for Trevor. 

“I check on da bears that have found a home near da caves just south of the house. They got two babies, and mama can get real angry if ya get too close. Ya might not want to wander too far into da woods,” Roy leaned back in the chair and stuck a wad of chewing tobacco into his bottom lip. 

“I’ve never seen a bear up close before,” Trevor said. He stood in the entrance way, wiping his hands on his pants. They left water stains on his jeans. 

“I thought you said you were interested in da wedda, so what are ya doin interviewing me again?” Roy asked with his bottom lip protruding. 

“Well, we got the highest view count in our channels history the last time we spoke with you. A lot of our viewers loved your energy and ideas. Plus, Tennessee has some of the best visuals we’ve ever recorded so we figured why not. I heard through the grape vine that this area is gearing up for a hell of a storm, snow in the middle of August. Never heard of that before, especially not in the south.” I leaned forward on my knees to study Roy’s leathery face. 

I watched as the man’s eyebrows raised and lowered slowly, his expression turning serious. I wondered if I said something that struck a nerve, worried that I’d pissed him off. Roy moved the dip around with his tongue, shoving the glob into his right cheek. He took in a deep breath before speaking again. 

“Did-ja just say snow?” Was all he asked. 

“Yeah, crazy, right?” Trevor came to sit down beside me. 

“In August?” Roy looked flustered. 

“Yep.” I replied. 

“Good golly, I wonder if the rapture is coming…” 

Roy’s voice trailed off before we were thrown into an uncomfortable silence. Off in the distance, I could hear the deer cry out again. Even with knowing what it was, the haunting sound yet again sent a chill down my spine. Just as Trevor and I had gotten comfortable, Roy lifted his nose into the air. 

“Yall smell that?” Roy suddenly stood up from his chair. 

“Uh, no?” Trevor lifted his head, as did I. 

“Outside, now. Danny, go to the side of the house and grab the hose. Turn the spigot while you’re at it. We ain’t got much time.” Roy crushed the beer can in his hand and threw it into the table. 

It hadn’t rained in days, Tennessee was deep in the middle of its dry season. Part of me thought that maybe he just needed to water his plants, but as I stepped outside dread filled me. Grey-white flakes filtered down from above. The sky, which has previously been clear and blue, was now an ominous shade of dark grey. I smelled smoke, and felt a searing heat creep across my skin. 

“Come on man, we gotta grab the hose,” Trevor shouted, breaking me from my trance. 

“The forest is on fire…” I mumbled, my jaw slack from the sights around me. 

“Yeah, I figured that out. We gotta hurry and help Roy, and then we can get this shit on camera!” Trevor shook my shoulder. 

Roy was hefting a large duffle bag out from the shack. It was so heavy that all he could do was drag it across the ground behind him. Once Trevor and I got the hose and water turned on, we were instructed to cover the house in as much water as possible. It felt odd, hosing down the wooden house, but it made sense. We were taking precautions so that Roy still had somewhere to live once the fire died out. 

Trevor and I finished our job just as the fire crested over the horizon. The heat that I felt earlier was intensified exponentially. Roy had also instructed us to hose ourselves down before getting in the car. We were getting the hell out of here, as fast as the vehicle could safely carry us down the mountain. If we stayed and the shack somehow managed to stay standing, the smoke inhalation would kill us just as fast. 

“You boys betta buckle up and hold onto yo bootay cheeks. We are gonna be flyin down this mountain, ya hear? I don’t want no complainin about my drivin. It’s gonna keep us alive,” Roy had hopped into the driver's seat of my car. 

I gave him the keys without any amount of hesitation. The road we took to get to Roy’s home was so narrow it would only fit one and a half cars. Luckily we hadn’t encountered anyone coming down on our way up, I wouldn’t have known what to do. The road wasn’t just narrow either, it serpentined and had guard rails that were few and far in between.  

As we tore down the partially paved road, black clouds started to fill the path in front of us. Flames the color of magma licked at the trees, curling in around us. Trevor sat in the passenger seat, he always got to ride shotgun no matter the driver. The camera was held tightly in his hand as he panned it all around the car. Every so often he would turn back to look at me with an expression that read ‘what the fuck’. 

“We’re not gonna make it,” the words tumbled from my mouth. 

“Dontchu say that, boy. We are gonna be just fine. You trust ole Roy here to get ya to safety. This ain’t my first rodeo witha fire like dis.” Roy kept his eyes trained on the road in front of us. 

My arm, which was resting on the side of the door, started to sizzle. With a gasp, I yanked it back from the metal. The wind was blowing fiercely, sicking the fire on us like a pack of rabid dogs. I could no longer see the sky, all that surrounded us were painted in shades of red and black. All I could do was sit in the backseat and hope that we made it out alive. 

“What’s in the bag, Roy?” Trevor asked, pointing the camera in his face. 

“My most precious belongings, and a coupla jugs of wata. Brought em just in case the engine ova heats or we find ourselves lit up like a match stick.” Roy nodded his head as if he was agreeing with himself. 

“Seems logical enough,” I replied, not sure what else to do. 

“You doin alright back there, boy? You ain’t said much since we got outside.” 

“I’m alright, Roy. I just don’t like fire very much,” I said. 

I felt panic start to bubble and fester within me. My vision started to tunnel as the ringing in my ears grew louder. I felt like I was six years old again, crying out for my mom and dad as the house burned and crumbled around me. Being trapped in my upstairs bedroom for 45 minutes while the flames ate at everything they could, scorched 30 percent of my tiny body. The scars on my back ached as I took in the sights around me. 

I was lucky to make it out alive that day, and wondered if I had enough luck left to make it out of this situation too. I’d lived my life as well as I could, making sure to treat others as kindly as possible. I didn't do it for the good karma, but if it helped in any way I would have liked to cash in on it then. My throat ached from the smoke that’d made it past the seals on the car, and my skin dripped with sweat. 

“You think we will make it?” I asked, my voice quivering.

“We’ve dealt with scary stuff, remember that time we got caught up with the storm chasers? We were right in the middle of an EF5, the drill that held the car to the ground started to give out? Nothing can be worse than that,” Trevor answered. 

“I’m not so sure,” I replied back. 

“We are almost there, boys.” Roy grunted. 

The older man jerked the wheel and suddenly I felt asphalt under the tires. The steep slope of a mountain was replaced by a flat road. We had made it to the bottom, finally. The engine started to sputter and it felt like we were driving over one of those sticky traps they used for pests. I hoped that the car held on until we made it to safety, but with the way things were looking, I wasn’t so sure. 

That was when I heard the sirens. 

——

part 1

The aftermath of the five EF4 tornadoes that happened my last week of senior year caused a lot of damage. After the dust finally settled the tornadoes had been updated to EF5’s, once their destruction had been taken into account. Graduation was canceled since it was usually held in the gymnasium, which was laid in pieces scattered throughout the area around the school. Even if they had managed to clean it up in time, walking across the stage wasn’t something I’d have been willing to partake in. Especially since Kari wouldn’t be there to walk with me. Almost half of the senior class had been either killed or injured in the storm. 

It felt like I was existing in a fever dream, a reality too harsh for my brain to process. 

After receiving my diploma in the mail, my mother hung it proudly in our home. Right next to the other three certificates my older siblings had managed to score at the end of their four years. Search parties had been formed to look for the missing people, ones that I joined even while in the throes of depression. Nothing mattered more than finding my friend, to the point where I spent most of my waking hours scouring the land. We never found her body. 

The funeral for Karissa Petro was odd, her gravestone laid upon dirt that claimed an empty box. Her friends and family had added small trinkets and mementos into the miniature coffin before lowering it into the ground. As I choked back snot and tears, I removed the orange scrunchie from my wrist and dropped it reluctantly. I wanted so badly to look around at the people there and scream out how wrong this was. How could she be laid to rest when she was still out there in the wilderness being picked apart by animals. 

After a few months in an inpatient psych ward and a list of medications, I was finally released back into the world as a half functioning human. The only thing that seemed to shake me from my funk was the videos the WeatherBoys religiously put out. Danny, who was the front man of the channel, was helped by his best friend and camera man Trevor. The way they interacted with each other always brought a smile to my face, regardless of what was going on in my life. Their newest upload featured a well known news reporter from California. 

“So what goes through your head as you and your team cover the earthquakes that have been happening on the coast of Cali? Do you guys ever fear for your safety?” Danny was sitting in a wicker lawn chair across from the woman he was interviewing. 

“We fear for our safety all the time. Being in this line of work always comes with its risks, whether they be environmental or human. Joey, my camera man, was almost beaten up by an unhoused drug addict when we were filming the aftermath of one of the forest fires a year or so ago. Gang violence is something we have to watch out for as well. Weather can be even more unpredictable than people though. At least human beings seem to follow particular behaviour patterns. Mother Nature isn’t always that forgiving or consistent.

The earthquakes themselves are inherently terrifying. For years, scholars and scientists alike have spoken of the impacts of the fault line that resides within the outer edge of our state. The way things are going now, we may lose a good chunk of land to the ocean. When that happens, the tsunami that is to follow would wipe out a ton of lives. Every time I think of that happening a shiver goes down my spine. ” 

“Gabby, if you were to give advice to someone starting out in this career, what would you tell them?” Danny asked. 

“Keep your head on a swivel. Life is unpredictable and you never know where your next story may come from. If you end up following weather phenomena like I do, make sure you always keep a satellite phone and some flares on you at all times. You never know when you may need help from someone else, and they can’t help you if they can’t find you.” Gabby’s tone was full of sincerity. Her serious facial expression tugged at the borders of her face as if it pained her. 

“Lastly, I wanted to ask if you noticed any strange patterns with the wildlife in the area? Do you think they, too, fear for the worst?” Danny’s face lost its regular beaming grin. 

“Many aquatic animals have been beaching themselves more often than usual. Wales, dolphins, and fish have all been pulling themselves onto the shore. As for the birds in the area, they have grounded themselves, no longer flying through the sky. So far, none of my colleagues can explain why this is happening… I hope we can find an answer soon. We are seeing events we have never encountered before, and it is harrowing.” 

Gabby was shown one final time as Danny thanked her for coming on the channel and recording the interview. Trevor even turned the camera around to show his face before Danny said the tag line for the youtube account and reminded us to like and subscribe. I felt the depression creeping back as my phone screen timed out before eventually fading to black. The information, along with the end of the video brought me back to my shattered reality. At the same time, something within me cut through the bullshit. 

I finally knew what I wanted to do with my life. College, although it was a gateway to a better life, felt like a deflated balloon to me. For most of high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. Now, after the experiences I had, I finally knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a reporter. I wanted to cover stories that other people might find boring or dangerous. I wanted to report on the weather, and what came with it. I wanted to be like Danny and Gabby. With a new sense of determination, I applied to as many colleges as I could. As far from Angola, Indiana as possible. 

Waiting for the acceptance letters was torture. Since I waited so long to apply, I wouldn’t be able to attend until the winter semester. The classes that started in the fall were all full, with cancellation lists that ran a mile long. After some careful consideration and the prospects of multiple scholarships the University of Tennessee was the school I decided on. Knoxville seemed like a pretty area. The mountains offered a protective barrier that seemed to eat up a lot of storms before they could come to fruition. Snow would no longer be a major issue in the winter time. It was rare that it ever became cold enough for the rain drops to turn into frozen flakes. 

Just as I was packing my car up to leave for UT, a new youtube video alerted me of its posting. 

—

“Guys, this is Danny, coming to you with a new video. We are back in Tennessee with Mr. Roy. You all loved him so much that we thought we would return and talk with him again. He was gracious enough to let us stay with him for a couple of days. The digs aren’t anything spectacular but there’s a roof over our heads and that’s what matters. Now, Trevor and I have been watching the radar and we have something unexpected waiting for us in the next twenty-four hours.” I waved my hand at Trevor, motioning for him to turn off the camera. 

“What’s up dude?” Trevor asked, aiming the lens at the ground. 

“Did you hear that?” I asked, looking around the shack. 

“Ya heard that didja?” Roy, who was standing in the kitchen, turned around to face us. 

“What the hell was that?” Trevor responded before I could. 

“That, my boys, was the call of a deer. Sounds like it got separated from its group.” Roy turned back to the stove and stirred the sizzling meat in the pan. 

“That was a DEER? Why did it sound so damn haunting?” I asked with eyebrows raised. I’d seen many of the four legged creatures in my life, but couldn’t remember ever hearing them make a sound. 

“It might be in despair, or lonely. Who da hell knows. I can’t tell ya why it responded dat way but I sure as shit can tell ya what the call came from. Out here in da woods, the only time I hear anythin’ aside from cracks of twigs, is when the animals call out to each otha.” Roy said before turning off the burner on the stove. “Alright boys, time ta eat.” 

“Roy, what in the hell is this?” Trevor asked while looking at his plate. 

“It’s stirfry, boy. Betta eat up.” Roy grinned before shoveling overcooked chunks of meat into his mouth. 

“Thank you for the food,” I said. 

The fork shook in my hand as I raised it to my lips. The mystery meat scared me, but not as much as Roy’s reaction if I didn’t partake. The ‘stir fry’ was tough and chewy, but it tasted fine and went down the gullet with minimal force. Every so often I would chase it with big gulps of water when a mouthful got stuck in my throat. After a few hesitant bites, Trevor started shoveling the food into his mouth like he couldn’t get enough. 

When we all finished eating, Trevor and I offered to clean up the kitchen. After some light arguing, Roy relented and grabbed a beer from the fridge. The can cracked loudly as he pulled the tab on the top. I watched as he sauntered over to the lone recliner and sat in front of the tv. A part of me was shocked that he even got a signal in the forsaken shack, miles from any city or town. 

“So what do you do in your free time?” Trevor asked Roy. 

“Is this going to be on yo YouTube channel or whateva it’s called?” Roy called out from the living room. 

“Nah, man. We aren’t recording right now, feel free to speak your mind.” I said before dunking my hands back into the scalding soapy water. 

“I wander the woods, tracking and hunting animals. One a da ones I hunted and killed is sittin in yo belly right now. Betcha neva had rabbit before, have ya?” Roy chuckled to himself as he took a swig from the beer. 

“Aw, come on. You fed us a bunny?” Trevor groaned. He was half finished with drying the dishes when I made my way out of the kitchen and into the room where Roy was sitting. 

“What? Ya didn’t like it?” Roy asked. 

“No, no. It was good Roy. Don’t mind him,” I laughed, squatting down to sit on the aged couch. 

“You ain’t one a dem animal activists are ya?” Roy cocked his eyebrow. 

“Not even in the slightest. Food is food,” I answered for Trevor. 

“I check on da bears that have found a home near da caves just south of the house. They got two babies, and mama can get real angry if ya get too close. Ya might not want to wander too far into da woods,” Roy leaned back in the chair and stuck a wad of chewing tobacco into his bottom lip. 

“I’ve never seen a bear up close before,” Trevor said. He stood in the entrance way, wiping his hands on his pants. They left water stains on his jeans. 

“I thought you said you were interested in da wedda, so what are ya doin interviewing me again?” Roy asked with his bottom lip protruding. 

“Well, we got the highest view count in our channels history the last time we spoke with you. A lot of our viewers loved your energy and ideas. Plus, Tennessee has some of the best visuals we’ve ever recorded so we figured why not. I heard through the grape vine that this area is gearing up for a hell of a storm, snow in the middle of August. Never heard of that before, especially not in the south.” I leaned forward on my knees to study Roy’s leathery face. 

I watched as the man’s eyebrows raised and lowered slowly, his expression turning serious. I wondered if I said something that struck a nerve, worried that I’d pissed him off. Roy moved the dip around with his tongue, shoving the glob into his right cheek. He took in a deep breath before speaking again. 

“Did-ja just say snow?” Was all he asked. 

“Yeah, crazy, right?” Trevor came to sit down beside me. 

“In August?” Roy looked flustered. 

“Yep.” I replied. 

“Good golly, I wonder if the rapture is coming…” 

Roy’s voice trailed off before we were thrown into an uncomfortable silence. Off in the distance, I could hear the deer cry out again. Even with knowing what it was, the haunting sound yet again sent a chill down my spine. Just as Trevor and I had gotten comfortable, Roy lifted his nose into the air. 

“Yall smell that?” Roy suddenly stood up from his chair. 

“Uh, no?” Trevor lifted his head, as did I. 

“Outside, now. Danny, go to the side of the house and grab the hose. Turn the spigot while you’re at it. We ain’t got much time.” Roy crushed the beer can in his hand and threw it into the table. 

It hadn’t rained in days, Tennessee was deep in the middle of its dry season. Part of me thought that maybe he just needed to water his plants, but as I stepped outside dread filled me. Grey-white flakes filtered down from above. The sky, which has previously been clear and blue, was now an ominous shade of dark grey. I smelled smoke, and felt a searing heat creep across my skin. 

“Come on man, we gotta grab the hose,” Trevor shouted, breaking me from my trance. 

“The forest is on fire…” I mumbled, my jaw slack from the sights around me. 

“Yeah, I figured that out. We gotta hurry and help Roy, and then we can get this shit on camera!” Trevor shook my shoulder. 

Roy was hefting a large duffle bag out from the shack. It was so heavy that all he could do was drag it across the ground behind him. Once Trevor and I got the hose and water turned on, we were instructed to cover the house in as much water as possible. It felt odd, hosing down the wooden house, but it made sense. We were taking precautions so that Roy still had somewhere to live once the fire died out. 

Trevor and I finished our job just as the fire crested over the horizon. The heat that I felt earlier was intensified exponentially. Roy had also instructed us to hose ourselves down before getting in the car. We were getting the hell out of here, as fast as the vehicle could safely carry us down the mountain. If we stayed and the shack somehow managed to stay standing, the smoke inhalation would kill us just as fast. 

“You boys betta buckle up and hold onto yo bootay cheeks. We are gonna be flyin down this mountain, ya hear? I don’t want no complainin about my drivin. It’s gonna keep us alive,” Roy had hopped into the driver's seat of my car. 

I gave him the keys without any amount of hesitation. The road we took to get to Roy’s home was so narrow it would only fit one and a half cars. Luckily we hadn’t encountered anyone coming down on our way up, I wouldn’t have known what to do. The road wasn’t just narrow either, it serpentined and had guard rails that were few and far in between.  

As we tore down the partially paved road, black clouds started to fill the path in front of us. Flames the color of magma licked at the trees, curling in around us. Trevor sat in the passenger seat, he always got to ride shotgun no matter the driver. The camera was held tightly in his hand as he panned it all around the car. Every so often he would turn back to look at me with an expression that read ‘what the fuck’. 

“We’re not gonna make it,” the words tumbled from my mouth. 

“Dontchu say that, boy. We are gonna be just fine. You trust ole Roy here to get ya to safety. This ain’t my first rodeo witha fire like dis.” Roy kept his eyes trained on the road in front of us. 

My arm, which was resting on the side of the door, started to sizzle. With a gasp, I yanked it back from the metal. The wind was blowing fiercely, sicking the fire on us like a pack of rabid dogs. I could no longer see the sky, all that surrounded us were painted in shades of red and black. All I could do was sit in the backseat and hope that we made it out alive. 

“What’s in the bag, Roy?” Trevor asked, pointing the camera in his face. 

“My most precious belongings, and a coupla jugs of wata. Brought em just in case the engine ova heats or we find ourselves lit up like a match stick.” Roy nodded his head as if he was agreeing with himself. 

“Seems logical enough,” I replied, not sure what else to do. 

“You doin alright back there, boy? You ain’t said much since we got outside.” 

“I’m alright, Roy. I just don’t like fire very much,” I said. 

I felt panic start to bubble and fester within me. My vision started to tunnel as the ringing in my ears grew louder. I felt like I was six years old again, crying out for my mom and dad as the house burned and crumbled around me. Being trapped in my upstairs bedroom for 45 minutes while the flames ate at everything they could, scorched 30 percent of my tiny body. The scars on my back ached as I took in the sights around me. 

I was lucky to make it out alive that day, and wondered if I had enough luck left to make it out of this situation too. I’d lived my life as well as I could, making sure to treat others as kindly as possible. I didn't do it for the good karma, but if it helped in any way I would have liked to cash in on it then. My throat ached from the smoke that’d made it past the seals on the car, and my skin dripped with sweat. 

“You think we will make it?” I asked, my voice quivering.

“We’ve dealt with scary stuff, remember that time we got caught up with the storm chasers? We were right in the middle of an EF5, the drill that held the car to the ground started to give out? Nothing can be worse than that,” Trevor answered. 

“I’m not so sure,” I replied back. 

“We are almost there, boys.” Roy grunted. 

The older man jerked the wheel and suddenly I felt asphalt under the tires. The steep slope of a mountain was replaced by a flat road. We had made it to the bottom, finally. The engine started to sputter and it felt like we were driving over one of those sticky traps they used for pests. I hoped that the car held on until we made it to safety, but with the way things were looking, I wasn’t so sure. 

That was when I heard the sirens. 

——

The sky had been angry for days, a relentless pelting of water upon the entirety of the city. Had it only been a few hours no one would have thought anything strange, but when it lasted for a week there was concern. Nobody went outside their homes unless absolutely necessary. If they did, they dressed in long raincoats and rubber boots. Those that were brave enough to face the storm moved in pockets of differently colored umbrellas, huddled together for dear life. 

The wind blew fiercely, creating diagonal walls of frigid rain drops. It howled as it applied pressure on the trees, bending them damn near to breaking point. Some eventually did fall, whole patches of earth still clinging to the roots, putting up a fight until the very end. Everything seemed to be painted in shades of grey and blue, like a sickness had fallen upon the land. It felt cold and lifeless. The roads flooded - the drainage system unable to keep up. The riverbeds and bridges were no more, they lay deep below a growing pool. 

Thunder rumbled and shook the ground, feeling more like an earthquake than the aftershocks of lightning. With each bolt that charged out, shades of purple and red momentarily filled the sky. The shadows that were exposed with each crack of lightning sent shivers down my spine. The thick and tangible clouds looked as if they were hiding a monster within them. So big that it looked like a mountain range on the horizon. Indiana didn’t have any mountains, just flat planes and rolling hills. 

Angola, Indiana wasn’t much. A midwest city that looked just like the rest. Collections of shops, gas stations, schools, and parks. South Old US Highway 27 ran through the center, a road commonly used by townsfolk and outsiders alike. It was a highway that I knew like the back of my hand, although the speed limit was 55MPH, I tended to push it closer to 60. A habit one of my older siblings imprinted on me. 

I’d been stuck inside for days. It’d gotten to the point where I was wishing to be back on that highway. Flying down the asphalt with the windows down and the sun on my skin. Anything would be better than being trapped in our waterlogged home. Mom kept saying how grateful she was not to have a basement. One could only imagine what the flooding would have been like if we did. 

Personally I was on her side in this case, but when it came to the possibility of a tornado, I wish we did have a basement. Having to run outside to get to the cellar doors on the east side of the house wasn’t my favorite thing to do. You'd have to brave the strong winds and the objects that were carried upon them. I always hated tornadoes and the sirens that came along with them. 

After seven full days of rain, the sky parted and released the sun from its prison. I don’t think I’ve ever been more grateful to go to school. Senior year was coming to an end, and I was excited to move on to bigger and brighter things. College was my ticket to freedom, a chance to live my life out from under the thumb of my family. 

News stations and weather reporters never understood why the rain had lasted that long, and why it only covered select cities for those seven days. Angola wasn’t the only place to be hit with such a strange weather phenomenon. Knoxville Tennessee, San Francisco California, Detroit Michigan, Winston-Salem North Carolina, and Dallas Texas were just the start of the list. There were conspiracy theories or speculation, but nothing concrete. I remember laughing and rolling my eyes as I listened to a YouTube interview of a man from somewhere in the Appalachia.

“The government’s got one a’ dem wedda machines. Bigger than yo typical UFO and with the powa to produce whateva storm they’d like. Dis here was a practice run folks. Keep ya eyes in the sky, you might catcha glimpse,” Roy said.  He had a yellow smile that seemed to be missing a few teeth, and skin so sun-tanned it gave the impression of leather. 

“You heard it here guys, that was Mr. Roy from Seymour, Tennessee. Make sure you tune in to the next video as we cover the theories on the strange storms that seem to be happening all across the United States. This is WeatherBoys and we will see you in the next video. Make sure to like this video and smash that subscribe button!” 

The camera angle changed to showcase a youthful face. Danny, the channel's host, was displayed in full view. He had a crew cut and an angular bone structure. My heart squeezed as he smiled one last time before the video ended. He was only a couple years older than me, maybe 20 or 21. No one could fault me for having a crush. 

I spent the next few weeks studying hard for final exams, and fleshing out my projects for marketing and debate. I was also gearing up to become an assistant coach for the cross country team I’d been running with for the past four years. Being the youngest of four kids meant I was damn good at arguing for what I want, since I constantly had to fight for a spot at the table, and I was damn good at running. Using my fists wasn’t a skill I could take out into the real world so I decided it was much better to foster my ability to use words as a weapon, and turn tail if my safety was in question. 

Most of the projects that we presented in high school were in the form of PowerPoint presentations. You weren’t supposed to stand there and read a full essay, so most of my slides contained bullet points and pictures. The rest of the information would come from a well-practiced and well-informed speech at the front of the class. Even though I enjoyed the information I was learning about, the prospect of standing there alone made my palms sweat. I’d rather encounter a wild animal in the middle of the woods than stand up in front of my classmates.

The last week of school was near the end of May. The sky was crystal blue, clear of any cloud cover as far as the eye could see. The air was particularly warm that day, with a cool breeze that blew my curly brown hair into my face as I walked. Every so often I would have to pull a chunk from my mouth before it threatened to gag me. I rolled my eyes and scoffed as I looked down at my naked wrist, cursing myself for not remembering a hair tie.  

“Laurel, there you are! I’ve been looking all over for you,” Kari called out from within a crowd. The students parted as she pushed her way through them, arms held out in a defensive stance. 

“Sorry, I was running late. I just got here a second ago,” I sighed. “You got a scrunchie?” 

“Oh, sure thing girl!” Kari pulled her shirt sleeve up to reveal a bright orange fabric hair tie. She tugged it off her wrist and handed it to me. 

“Thank you, ugh the wind was absolutely crazy. So, what’s up? You were looking for me,” I looked over at my friend. 

“Right, yes, I was looking for you! Are you going on the run slash hike through Hell’s Point this weekend? I was thinking of joining if you were? I don’t want to be running with a group of only guys. I’ve seen enough scary movies to know that’s never a good idea.” Kari looked at me with enthusiastic seriousness. 

The way Kari spoke always had me hanging on to every word. Her personality and actions made her feel magnetic. She was like the sun, all the people she interacted with orbiting around her like planets. I was one of those people drawn in by her gravity. It felt nice to be revolving around someone as fantastical as her. It was such a shame that she didn’t get to burn for longer, I wish I’d let myself get attached sooner. I wish I had joined cross country when I joined middle school, I would have had three more years by her side. 

“Yeah, I was thinking of going. I have to check with my mom before I give a concrete answer. Gotta make sure that there aren’t any plans I’m not aware of,” I laughed awkwardly. 

My fatal flaw was that I spent so much time wrapped up in myself that I rarely paid attention to those around me. Aside from Kari, that is. It wasn’t that I didn’t care, but that I spent a lot of time on my studies. Once high school hit I knew that I had four years to bank up every ounce of free learning I could. I’d watched my three older siblings and my mother scuffle and struggle over lack of funds and the prospects of a better life. I didn’t want to be miserable and in debt like they all seemed to be. 

Heading through the halls with my arm linked around Kari’s I told her of my last presentation for the year. I was covering the negative effects of A.I. data centers on the area around them and how it would be contributing to the global warming crisis. Honestly, I could go on forever about all the cons that outweighed the pros. Even as I talked with my friend I tasted poison on my tongue. It felt physically sickening to speak about. 

“Don’t you think all the animals are going to start going crazy? I mean shit, the noise that those places create makes me feel like I’m going to have a psychotic break. And I’m just hearing it through an Instagram reel,” Kari said. She was just as passionate about the hatred as I was. 

“It’s definitely possible. Most of the wildlife are evacuating the areas and moving into places with larger human populations. I’m not sure if it’s because of the noise or the fact that the water in the area is being polluted. Either way, it's diabolical that they’re able to do this for some shitty fantasy videos and a circle-jerk chat GPT conversation.” I patted Kari’s arm as we turned the corner.

As we entered the hallway, Kari came to a stop. I was so caught up in the conversation I took another step and felt the resistance on my arm. First, I looked back at Kari, and then I followed to where she seemed to be looking. That was when the lights in the ceiling started to flicker. Outside the sky had darkened to the point where it looked like someone had snuffed out the sun. I felt all the hairs on my body raise and then the sirens began. They sputtered to life like a car that hadn’t been started in years. A soft whine turned into a solid wail. 

“Laurel, what is that?” Kari’s voice was barely audible. 

Before I had a chance to answer, the Mayor’s voice came over the loudspeakers, momentarily pausing the drone of the siren. He sounded shaken, as if he was completely unprepared for the broadcast he was actively performing. I let go of Kari’s arm and walked closer to the windows at the end of the hall. Close enough to hear better while still keeping a safe distance from the glass. 

“Citizens of Angola, this is your Mayor. This is an emergency alert. Five tornados have formed throughout the city. They are currently ranked as an EF4. Take shelter immediately and enact protective measures. May God be with you,” the Mayor’s voice was replaced by the siren once again. 

Kari and I looked at each other with wide eyes and open mouths. Soon after the Mayor’s broadcast ended, our principal put out one of her own. The school momentarily erupted into a crescendo of chaos. Screams and cries echoed throughout the halls as students scrambled out into the middle of the school. There weren’t many halls and rooms without windows. Most of us had to cram into the boiler room, janitor's closets, and the gymnasium. I made sure to stay as close to Kari as possible as we funneled our way into the gym. 

Most of the kids who had made their way into the large room with polished wooden floors were already seated. They sat close to the wall that jutted up to the main wall of the school and had their legs crossed. Some of them were bent over at the waist hugging their knees. Others were still sitting up and chatting with friends who sat around them. By the time Kari and I made it inside we took up a spot near the bleachers. 

“Laurel, I’m scared.” Kari was shaking visibly. 

“Me too, Kari. I hate tornadoes. This has got to be a nightmare. You heard the Mayor, right? There are five of them,” I could hear my own voice wavering. 

“Don’t remind me,” Kari groaned. 

As my friend and I hunkered down on the ground, I heard the wind bashing against the building. Every so often there would be a loud boom, like something large had been slammed against the roof. The crack of glass breaking cut through the noise, sounding almost beautiful within the symphony of destruction. My lower back ached as I stayed in position but I did my best to ignore it. Sweat beaded on my face and ran down my skin before dropping onto the floor below me. I squeezed Kari’s hand, her fingers interlaced with mine. 

That was when all hell broke loose. 

The doors in the gym that lead to the outside blew open. The metal smacked against the outer wall before being ripped from their hinges. Then, the roof began to lift. The light flickered briefly before sparking and shutting off. Long metal support beams that stood between us and the ceiling groaned as the tornado bore down on the school. It felt like someone had stuck a giant vacuum hose into the gym and turned it on. As the roof ripped off in chunks I felt my own body being pulled along with it. 

“Kari! We need to grab on to the bleachers!” I shouted over the roaring wind and sirens. 

“Okay!” She shouted back. 

As Kari lifted her head I saw tears flowing freely down her cheeks. She gave a brave smile as she wrapped both hands around the metal bar that sat at the bottom of the bleachers. I did the same, and tried to return to the hunched over position I was in before. I had to fight the suction of the storm and felt myself failing. I wanted to scream and cry, but neither would come out. All I could do was grip the cool metal beneath my palms and pray to a god I did not believe in. 

Various screams rang out around us, ones that I could not identify. I wanted to turn around and look but knew that if I did this, that I would be endangering myself. There was nothing I could do to help them anyways. All I could do in this situation was endure and try to survive. That was when the bleachers started to unfold from the wall. As the wind roared and clawed at the school, it tried its damnedest to take us with it. The metal and wood contraption unfolded to its capacity, I prayed that the bolts that attached it to the wall held. I didn’t want to get sucked into oblivion. 

“Laurel, I don’t think I can hold on anymore.” Kari was hiccuping and sobbing. Snot ran down her lips and onto her chin. 

“Just a little bit longer, it will be over soon!” I screamed back at her. 

I watched in horror as Kari’s fingers started to slip. It reminded me of when I used to play on the monkey bars during recess when my hands got sweaty. The only difference was that we were laying on our bellies, there was nothing below us to catch us when we fell. Instead of going down, the tornado would take us up. Squeezing my left hand tighter around the metal support, I let go with my right to reach for Kari. Just as the tip of my finger touched her hand, her body gave up. My eyes followed after her as she was ripped through the air like a puppet on a string. 

“KARI!” I screamed. 

Right before Kari disappeared from view, I saw her smile one last time. She looked absolutely crazy, a psycho-maniac with a toothy tear filled grin. I called out for her like a broken record, tears now tumbling down my own cheeks. My mind replayed that final moment over and over as I fought the wind with every ounce of strength I had. Something large and hard hit the back of my head, splitting my skin and bringing warm blood to the surface. Even so, my grip remained strong until the end. 

When the tornados finally dissipated, the destruction was immense. 70 people had died in less than an hour, 30 or so were still missing. Kari was one of those people who fit into the missing category. I suffered from a head wound that needed stitches and a few cuts and scraped from objects that had been carried on the strong winds. Looking back on it now, it was really strange that the tornadoes only touched down near buildings that housed large groups of people. Schools, the police station, the hospital, a corporate office, places where it would cause the most death and despair. Thankfully, most of the residential areas were still standing. 

I spent the next few months in the vice grip of depression, unable to handle the loss of my best friend.

—

part 2

The sky had been angry for days, a relentless pelting of water upon the entirety of the city. Had it only been a few hours no one would have thought anything strange, but when it lasted for a week there was concern. Nobody went outside their homes unless absolutely necessary. If they did, they dressed in long raincoats and rubber boots. Those that were brave enough to face the storm moved in pockets of differently colored umbrellas, huddled together for dear life. 

The wind blew fiercely, creating diagonal walls of frigid rain drops. It howled as it applied pressure on the trees, bending them damn near to breaking point. Some eventually did fall, whole patches of earth still clinging to the roots, putting up a fight until the very end. Everything seemed to be painted in shades of grey and blue, like a sickness had fallen upon the land. It felt cold and lifeless. The roads flooded - the drainage system unable to keep up. The riverbeds and bridges were no more, they lay deep below a growing pool. 

Thunder rumbled and shook the ground, feeling more like an earthquake than the aftershocks of lightning. With each bolt that charged out, shades of purple and red momentarily filled the sky. The shadows that were exposed with each crack of lightning sent shivers down my spine. The thick and tangible clouds looked as if they were hiding a monster within them. So big that it looked like a mountain range on the horizon. Indiana didn’t have any mountains, just flat planes and rolling hills. 

Angola, Indiana wasn’t much. A midwest city that looked just like the rest. Collections of shops, gas stations, schools, and parks. South Old US Highway 27 ran through the center, a road commonly used by townsfolk and outsiders alike. It was a highway that I knew like the back of my hand, although the speed limit was 55MPH, I tended to push it closer to 60. A habit one of my older siblings imprinted on me. 

I’d been stuck inside for days. It’d gotten to the point where I was wishing to be back on that highway. Flying down the asphalt with the windows down and the sun on my skin. Anything would be better than being trapped in our waterlogged home. Mom kept saying how grateful she was not to have a basement. One could only imagine what the flooding would have been like if we did. 

Personally I was on her side in this case, but when it came to the possibility of a tornado, I wish we did have a basement. Having to run outside to get to the cellar doors on the east side of the house wasn’t my favorite thing to do. You'd have to brave the strong winds and the objects that were carried upon them. I always hated tornadoes and the sirens that came along with them. 

After seven full days of rain, the sky parted and released the sun from its prison. I don’t think I’ve ever been more grateful to go to school. Senior year was coming to an end, and I was excited to move on to bigger and brighter things. College was my ticket to freedom, a chance to live my life out from under the thumb of my family. 

News stations and weather reporters never understood why the rain had lasted that long, and why it only covered select cities for those seven days. Angola wasn’t the only place to be hit with such a strange weather phenomenon. Knoxville Tennessee, San Francisco California, Detroit Michigan, Winston-Salem North Carolina, and Dallas Texas were just the start of the list. There were conspiracy theories or speculation, but nothing concrete. I remember laughing and rolling my eyes as I listened to a YouTube interview of a man from somewhere in the Appalachia.

“The government’s got one a’ dem wedda machines. Bigger than yo typical UFO and with the powa to produce whateva storm they’d like. Dis here was a practice run folks. Keep ya eyes in the sky, you might catcha glimpse,” Roy said.  He had a yellow smile that seemed to be missing a few teeth, and skin so sun-tanned it gave the impression of leather. 

“You heard it here guys, that was Mr. Roy from Seymour, Tennessee. Make sure you tune in to the next video as we cover the theories on the strange storms that seem to be happening all across the United States. This is WeatherBoys and we will see you in the next video. Make sure to like this video and smash that subscribe button!” 

The camera angle changed to showcase a youthful face. Danny, the channel's host, was displayed in full view. He had a crew cut and an angular bone structure. My heart squeezed as he smiled one last time before the video ended. He was only a couple years older than me, maybe 20 or 21. No one could fault me for having a crush. 

I spent the next few weeks studying hard for final exams, and fleshing out my projects for marketing and debate. I was also gearing up to become an assistant coach for the cross country team I’d been running with for the past four years. Being the youngest of four kids meant I was damn good at arguing for what I want, since I constantly had to fight for a spot at the table, and I was damn good at running. Using my fists wasn’t a skill I could take out into the real world so I decided it was much better to foster my ability to use words as a weapon, and turn tail if my safety was in question. 

Most of the projects that we presented in high school were in the form of PowerPoint presentations. You weren’t supposed to stand there and read a full essay, so most of my slides contained bullet points and pictures. The rest of the information would come from a well-practiced and well-informed speech at the front of the class. Even though I enjoyed the information I was learning about, the prospect of standing there alone made my palms sweat. I’d rather encounter a wild animal in the middle of the woods than stand up in front of my classmates.

The last week of school was near the end of May. The sky was crystal blue, clear of any cloud cover as far as the eye could see. The air was particularly warm that day, with a cool breeze that blew my curly brown hair into my face as I walked. Every so often I would have to pull a chunk from my mouth before it threatened to gag me. I rolled my eyes and scoffed as I looked down at my naked wrist, cursing myself for not remembering a hair tie.  

“Laurel, there you are! I’ve been looking all over for you,” Kari called out from within a crowd. The students parted as she pushed her way through them, arms held out in a defensive stance. 

“Sorry, I was running late. I just got here a second ago,” I sighed. “You got a scrunchie?” 

“Oh, sure thing girl!” Kari pulled her shirt sleeve up to reveal a bright orange fabric hair tie. She tugged it off her wrist and handed it to me. 

“Thank you, ugh the wind was absolutely crazy. So, what’s up? You were looking for me,” I looked over at my friend. 

“Right, yes, I was looking for you! Are you going on the run slash hike through Hell’s Point this weekend? I was thinking of joining if you were? I don’t want to be running with a group of only guys. I’ve seen enough scary movies to know that’s never a good idea.” Kari looked at me with enthusiastic seriousness. 

The way Kari spoke always had me hanging on to every word. Her personality and actions made her feel magnetic. She was like the sun, all the people she interacted with orbiting around her like planets. I was one of those people drawn in by her gravity. It felt nice to be revolving around someone as fantastical as her. It was such a shame that she didn’t get to burn for longer, I wish I’d let myself get attached sooner. I wish I had joined cross country when I joined middle school, I would have had three more years by her side. 

“Yeah, I was thinking of going. I have to check with my mom before I give a concrete answer. Gotta make sure that there aren’t any plans I’m not aware of,” I laughed awkwardly. 

My fatal flaw was that I spent so much time wrapped up in myself that I rarely paid attention to those around me. Aside from Kari, that is. It wasn’t that I didn’t care, but that I spent a lot of time on my studies. Once high school hit I knew that I had four years to bank up every ounce of free learning I could. I’d watched my three older siblings and my mother scuffle and struggle over lack of funds and the prospects of a better life. I didn’t want to be miserable and in debt like they all seemed to be. 

Heading through the halls with my arm linked around Kari’s I told her of my last presentation for the year. I was covering the negative effects of A.I. data centers on the area around them and how it would be contributing to the global warming crisis. Honestly, I could go on forever about all the cons that outweighed the pros. Even as I talked with my friend I tasted poison on my tongue. It felt physically sickening to speak about. 

“Don’t you think all the animals are going to start going crazy? I mean shit, the noise that those places create makes me feel like I’m going to have a psychotic break. And I’m just hearing it through an Instagram reel,” Kari said. She was just as passionate about the hatred as I was. 

“It’s definitely possible. Most of the wildlife are evacuating the areas and moving into places with larger human populations. I’m not sure if it’s because of the noise or the fact that the water in the area is being polluted. Either way, it's diabolical that they’re able to do this for some shitty fantasy videos and a circle-jerk chat GPT conversation.” I patted Kari’s arm as we turned the corner.

As we entered the hallway, Kari came to a stop. I was so caught up in the conversation I took another step and felt the resistance on my arm. First, I looked back at Kari, and then I followed to where she seemed to be looking. That was when the lights in the ceiling started to flicker. Outside the sky had darkened to the point where it looked like someone had snuffed out the sun. I felt all the hairs on my body raise and then the sirens began. They sputtered to life like a car that hadn’t been started in years. A soft whine turned into a solid wail. 

“Laurel, what is that?” Kari’s voice was barely audible. 

Before I had a chance to answer, the Mayor’s voice came over the loudspeakers, momentarily pausing the drone of the siren. He sounded shaken, as if he was completely unprepared for the broadcast he was actively performing. I let go of Kari’s arm and walked closer to the windows at the end of the hall. Close enough to hear better while still keeping a safe distance from the glass. 

“Citizens of Angola, this is your Mayor. This is an emergency alert. Five tornados have formed throughout the city. They are currently ranked as an EF4. Take shelter immediately and enact protective measures. May God be with you,” the Mayor’s voice was replaced by the siren once again. 

Kari and I looked at each other with wide eyes and open mouths. Soon after the Mayor’s broadcast ended, our principal put out one of her own. The school momentarily erupted into a crescendo of chaos. Screams and cries echoed throughout the halls as students scrambled out into the middle of the school. There weren’t many halls and rooms without windows. Most of us had to cram into the boiler room, janitor's closets, and the gymnasium. I made sure to stay as close to Kari as possible as we funneled our way into the gym. 

Most of the kids who had made their way into the large room with polished wooden floors were already seated. They sat close to the wall that jutted up to the main wall of the school and had their legs crossed. Some of them were bent over at the waist hugging their knees. Others were still sitting up and chatting with friends who sat around them. By the time Kari and I made it inside we took up a spot near the bleachers. 

“Laurel, I’m scared.” Kari was shaking visibly. 

“Me too, Kari. I hate tornadoes. This has got to be a nightmare. You heard the Mayor, right? There are five of them,” I could hear my own voice wavering. 

“Don’t remind me,” Kari groaned. 

As my friend and I hunkered down on the ground, I heard the wind bashing against the building. Every so often there would be a loud boom, like something large had been slammed against the roof. The crack of glass breaking cut through the noise, sounding almost beautiful within the symphony of destruction. My lower back ached as I stayed in position but I did my best to ignore it. Sweat beaded on my face and ran down my skin before dropping onto the floor below me. I squeezed Kari’s hand, her fingers interlaced with mine. 

That was when all hell broke loose. 

The doors in the gym that lead to the outside blew open. The metal smacked against the outer wall before being ripped from their hinges. Then, the roof began to lift. The light flickered briefly before sparking and shutting off. Long metal support beams that stood between us and the ceiling groaned as the tornado bore down on the school. It felt like someone had stuck a giant vacuum hose into the gym and turned it on. As the roof ripped off in chunks I felt my own body being pulled along with it. 

“Kari! We need to grab on to the bleachers!” I shouted over the roaring wind and sirens. 

“Okay!” She shouted back. 

As Kari lifted her head I saw tears flowing freely down her cheeks. She gave a brave smile as she wrapped both hands around the metal bar that sat at the bottom of the bleachers. I did the same, and tried to return to the hunched over position I was in before. I had to fight the suction of the storm and felt myself failing. I wanted to scream and cry, but neither would come out. All I could do was grip the cool metal beneath my palms and pray to a god I did not believe in. 

Various screams rang out around us, ones that I could not identify. I wanted to turn around and look but knew that if I did this, that I would be endangering myself. There was nothing I could do to help them anyways. All I could do in this situation was endure and try to survive. That was when the bleachers started to unfold from the wall. As the wind roared and clawed at the school, it tried its damnedest to take us with it. The metal and wood contraption unfolded to its capacity, I prayed that the bolts that attached it to the wall held. I didn’t want to get sucked into oblivion. 

“Laurel, I don’t think I can hold on anymore.” Kari was hiccuping and sobbing. Snot ran down her lips and onto her chin. 

“Just a little bit longer, it will be over soon!” I screamed back at her. 

I watched in horror as Kari’s fingers started to slip. It reminded me of when I used to play on the monkey bars during recess when my hands got sweaty. The only difference was that we were laying on our bellies, there was nothing below us to catch us when we fell. Instead of going down, the tornado would take us up. Squeezing my left hand tighter around the metal support, I let go with my right to reach for Kari. Just as the tip of my finger touched her hand, her body gave up. My eyes followed after her as she was ripped through the air like a puppet on a string. 

“KARI!” I screamed. 

Right before Kari disappeared from view, I saw her smile one last time. She looked absolutely crazy, a psycho-maniac with a toothy tear filled grin. I called out for her like a broken record, tears now tumbling down my own cheeks. My mind replayed that final moment over and over as I fought the wind with every ounce of strength I had. Something large and hard hit the back of my head, splitting my skin and bringing warm blood to the surface. Even so, my grip remained strong until the end. 

When the tornados finally dissipated, the destruction was immense. 70 people had died in less than an hour, 30 or so were still missing. Kari was one of those people who fit into the missing category. I suffered from a head wound that needed stitches and a few cuts and scraped from objects that had been carried on the strong winds. Looking back on it now, it was really strange that the tornadoes only touched down near buildings that housed large groups of people. Schools, the police station, the hospital, a corporate office, places where it would cause the most death and despair. Thankfully, most of the residential areas were still standing. 

I spent the next few months in the vice grip of depression, unable to handle the loss of my best friend.

——