May 20, 2019
Violent thunderstorms will develop rapidly and may begin producing tornadoes within 30-60 minutes after initiating.
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Violent thunderstorms will develop rapidly and may begin producing tornadoes within 30-60 minutes after initiating.
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Flash Fiction Challenge #73
I awoke to the sound of crackling thunder tearing the sky apart above.
I rose with a start, eyeing my surroundings. The walls were still and unmoving. The roof remained intact even though the sound of bad weather outside made it seem as if I was right next to the clouds.
My heartbeat started to slow down. Maybe I was overreacting. It couldn’t be that close could it?
It was at that moment, the large empty house echoed with the dull roar of an otherworldly beast. The natural acoustics amplifying loud rumbling happening in the sky outside.
It was time.
In a rush, I threw the worn covers off my body and the bed, practically bouncing off the mattress onto the cold hardwood floor. It was dark, but we had lived here long enough for me to know where everything was in the room. The large trash bags in the corner with a week’s worth of clothes in it; the gnarled walking stick we found while spending a night in a cave in the mountains a month before we found this abandoned house; my worn tennis shoes that were almost unwearable; by the bed, my old watch. It still worked and was the only way we were able to keep track of time, day after day. I put in on my wrist first. I looked to the other side of the bed expecting to see my mother still sleeping.
She wasn’t there.
My heart started pounding again. When did she get up? Why hadn’t I heard her? Did something happen in the night? A myriad of worse case scenarios ran through my head, thinking on how easy it would’ve been for her to have been grabbed by a passing group of travelers and taken who knows where.
My frantic thought was interrupted by the soft panting of breath rushing towards the door on the other side of the bedroom. It bust open, not giving me any time to react.
It was my mother. She was soaked, wrapped in blankets, a lantern in her left hand, her right used to keep the swath of clothing tight against her. She sounded out of breath and exhausted. Even in the dark, I could catch the glint of her eyes staring back at me. She nodded at me. Reinforcing what I already knew. She had been outside.
It was time.
Without another word, she raced out the room. I heard her feet thumping down the stairs. I rushed to the bags pulling out my largest overcoat and snow boots. Another rumble of thunder echoed through the house, lightning illuminating the room through the completely drawn blinds. It was getting closer. It took me only seconds to change, properly organizing and distributing our clothes and essential knick knacks into two trash bags. I tied them both together with a bolo knot so it could swing around my back and I picked up my old walking stick.
Rain was hitting the roof in fine even sheets.
The stairwell led downstairs to the kitchen, which was in disarray and chaos. My mother had pulled out every drawer and opened up every cabinet. Anything of use had been stacked and packed into her backpack or the satchel she was just zipping closed along her side. We had no clue how long it would be before we found actual enclosed shelter like this again. We had to bring as much as we could possibly carry, while still being mobile enough.
With care to add a few more crinkled pieces of paper inside her lantern for it to burn brighter, I headed to the door at the end of the kitchen that led to the backyard. I took a deep breath and wrenched it open.
Immediately, I was slammed with wind. If not for the weight of my mom behind me, I would’ve collasped. She was old, but she was sturdy. It was worse than I thought. The sky lit up in arcs of furious lightning and claps of thunder echoed through the sky. It was an effort to take those first few steps down from the patio to what was left of the yard. But the hand on my shoulder steadying me and the guide of my walking stick kept me straight through the sheets of rain pounding us.
In these times, our number one rule was to keep our head down on the path and never look back until we were safe. We kept to that and left out the torn wooden gate, toward the surrounding mountains. We ignored the chilling rain, the rocking of the loud thunder, and the explosive brightness of the lightning that seemed to get closer with each occurrence. All we focused on was putting one foot in front of the other.
*
I looked at my watch as we sat our bags down within a small alcove I had spotted while trudging through the stormy weather. It had been about twenty minutes away from the small mountainous hills neighboring the lone house we had found shelter in. It was quiet and dry and we had some time to catch our breath. We had walked for around five hours to keep ahead of what was coming.
“Look,” was all my mother said. She pointed outside the small jut in the rocks we currently crouched in, past the calm weather we had walked the last hour in, and back several miles in the direction of our house.
It was there.
Even from this distance it sounded like a freight train on a collision course with a giant China Dish store. A wall of lightning and wind, strong enough to shear bone; eviscerate steel; crunch diamond. The last surviving house on the street of what used to be an affluent neighborhood stood no chance. There was no struggle. One second, it was there. Then the wall engulfed it and it disappeared.
A storm millions of miles big continuously swirled the Earth; and we were in the eye of it. Always forced to be one step ahead as it shifted trajectory and moved every so often. After months, we thought we had the timing pinned down. But it was early. I reached into one of the trash bags on the ground and pulled out a small notebook I had and opened it. Inside were small scribbles on calendar days and times. A sort of guesstimation of how the storm moved and how long we were afforded to stay in one spot before it started on its rampage again.
It came seven days early this time. What used to be hours in difference now had turned into days….and that could be the difference between life and death, especially being forced to wake up in the dead of night and escape. Something was causing it to change. But the storm was just as much a mystery now as it was five years ago when it first formed; and those days had been even more grim. Millions had died every single day.
I closed the notebook. I could worry about this later. Maybe with luck we’d find more people and get more supplies. It had been weeks since we’d seen another living thing. But we couldn’t count out hope.
“We better keep moving Mom,” I said. I scooped up my bags and righted myself. There was a path outside the opening that cut through the hills to the other side. With luck we could make it around by dawn and rest. For some reason the storm never moved during the daytime.
I couldn’t let her down. She was all I had left. I was all she had left. We had to keep going for each other.
It was time.
A lot of storms on my mind, smh. Decided to dust this one off from the vault and tweak it and post it. Looking forward to some much drier weather this upcoming week.
Explanation of the flash fiction challenge is HERE and HERE.
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At least 7 injured after tornadoes, severe weather rip through parts of Oklahoma
At least 7 injured after tornadoes, severe weather rip through parts of Oklahoma
March 30, 2016: A tornado touches down in Tulsa, Okla. (AP)
March 31, 2016
At least seven people were injured after severe storms spawned several tornadoes across northeastern Oklahoma Wednesday night, authorities said.
The City of Tulsa said in a statement that several roads were closed and police and fire crews were scouring the city. In one damaged area, they were searching every home, but…
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Powerful storm system sweeping East Coast kills 4 in Virginia, raising death toll to 7
Powerful storm system sweeping East Coast kills 4 in Virginia, raising death toll to 7
[fxgallery style=”one” size=”full” imagealignment=”left” last=”yes” background=”#141414″ overlay=”black” icon=”CD” deactivateicon=”yes” caption=”Nick Mobley helps clean up a house owned by a family friend, Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016, after a storm hit Appomattox County, Va. (Jill Nance/The News & Advance via AP)” textalign=”left” textcolor=”light” linktype=”page” pagelink=”u-s-news (7)”…
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Dozens of homes destroyed after tornadoes touch down in Alabama, Mississippi
Dozens of homes destroyed after tornadoes touch down in Alabama, Mississippi
National forecast for Wednesday, February 3
February 03, 2016
Strong storms in the Southeast spawned tornadoes that touched down in Alabama and Mississippi Tuesday, damaging or destroying dozens of homes and at least one church, as well as a prison. No fatalities or major injuries were reported.
The worst damage occurred Tuesday in Sapps, Ala., a small community near the Mississippi border…
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Strong storms, winds likely today, NWS says
As has been the case with recent months, the National Weather Service in Morristown is issuing a warning about severe weather that is set to head this way.This time around, though, the warnings don’t involve snow, but concern heavy winds, thunderstorms and possibly tornadoes that could hit the outskirts of the Johnson City area today, Meteorologist Lyle Wilson with the NWS said. “At this point, it looks like there’s a possibility of damaging winds and thunderstorms,” Wilson said.Some thunderstorms and hail hit parts of Tennessee on Thursday, he said, with reports of three-quarter inch hail hitting parts of Knox County as well as pea-sized hail landing around Tazewell, but no reports of such weather around Washington County.The Johnson City Police Department issued a warning through Twitter and via email from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in which it said a cold front will push to the outskirts of the area, leading to the development of widespread showers and thunderstorms, with the possibility of tornadoes. The report said the greatest chance of severe storms will be across the Cumberland Plateau and Southeast Tennessee.Wilson said he suspects the worst weather will be farther south and west than Johnson City, but that’s just the preliminary report.As is always the case with the weather, Wilson said, these reports are subject to change.“People should be paying attention to media and listening to their weather radios for updates. Stay alert, ” Wilson said. For updates, check NOAA.gov.Follow Tony Casey on Twitter @TonyCaseyJCP. Like him on Facebook at http://ift.tt/PtO9ZU Strong storms, winds likely today, NWS says