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  With a cry of anger and pain she forced her triceps to work overtime, heaving herself up to the blue ladder she extended her left leg, curling her hip around one rung, pushing her now shoeless right foot into another she stood and began to climb. In seconds she rose onto the roof, safe from the swirling dark waters crashing against the side of this safe house and shivering against the cold wind. A crack of lightning reminded her of other dangers and that of Michael.

  She ran back to the side trying to see something, anything in the dark mess.

  In a flash she could make out the upended section of a car and four wheels. There was no way she could be sure it was their car, but she knew it to be.

  ****

  Tears would have been flowing out of his eyes, but he wasn’t sure such a thing possible underwater. His breath chocked him, Michael had become lost within his increasing confusion, it had felt like hours since he pushed his lovely wife out the filling car and then it ended up going end over end despite his attempt to avoid such a fate. Now, unsure if the carpet or the ceiling led up, unsure which way the cold water had entered his car from, nothing mattered anymore.

  Michael's lungs gave, letting out a breath of bubbles he gasped for air, bringing in burning cold water instead. The world swam as he breathed liquid, something in his chest felt like a build up and release of pressure, red clouded around him. He reached for his wife's seat, gripping something that comforted him.

  Then… nothing.

  Chapter 7: Cometh

  Heather made it to work on the west side by ten as usual, the storm had been full in force by then and making it without an accident was nothing short of a miracle. A miracle likely brought about by the storm itself, which kept every other sane person not rushing to or from work off the roads.

  She worked in a pet hotel, but as the overnighter she didn’t interact with the pets. As the only person in the entire store she wasn’t even allowed to open the kennel doors, which she thought a shame because she considered a few as family that deserved attention in their cold and lonesome cages, especially now, as the storm outside turned into a raging fury.

  The wind howled against the building, if it hadn’t been made of cinderblocks it'd have been shuddering. She heard the distant sound of rain on the metal store roof far above the soft tiled roof of the hotel.

  She spent most of the night mopping and sweeping the floors, one ear plugged into an IPOD for entertainment, Phil Collins ironically howling about how he wished it would rain down on him, one unplugged in case she needed to hear something, a dog that was sick, or one that got in a scrap with its sibling, or even a change in the weather.

  Just ten past midnight she heard the distinct tinking sound of something solid hitting the stores thin roof, even without windows to peer out of she recognized hail. Some of the dogs reacted to the strange noise with cries and shaking, huddled in their own blankets or provided lambskins, used to riding out such weather at home with their parents. She went against regulation to open a top kennel and give a tall skinny Chihuahua mix a comforting scratch under its chin on her way by.

  Lucky for her she didn’t have to see a bit of it, the hotel boasted no windows, the only sight of storm being from the play area's glass walls looking through the store that gave a limited view of the storefronts own glass front.

  She couldn’t adventure out in the store, another rule, they thought an overnighter might help themselves to something, though what she would help herself to in a store full of dog food she didn't know. She didn’t want to anyway, unlike the hotel with the dim glow of the few powered fluorescents the store remained dark at night, and in this storm which blocked out even the parking lot's tall lights, the darkness was an oily black, spooky, leaving it easy to imagine someone waiting for her down every isle. A tall man in a black coat with black gloves that where waiting to smother her screams as he dragged her off to some villainous lair.

  Even scrubbing the playroom floors with its glass front open to the store side was creepy enough for her to call off scrubbing the open lobby area. While scrubbing out the floor drain in the larger play area, picking out the hair caught in its blue grated filter, she watched the front where the dark night turned blinding white every few seconds, just before a strong crash of thunder. The nearest light pole, dozens of feet tall and made of what she assumed to be steel, swayed back and forth, dancing a somber jig in the wind, and she wondered just how much it could take before it twisted into ruin or snapped like a pencil to be thrown through the stores glass windows.

  As she rinsed down her work with a garden hose reeled into the ceiling she felt something in her gut, a pressure pushing into her, it twisted her abdomen in worry and clumsiness causing her to let go of her hose which slammed into the wall of red tiled playroom as it reeled back in too quick, something just wasn’t right.

  ****

  At one forty five she returned to the playroom, this time for the lone reason of peering out the front window. Not but a minute ago the tug at her gut had become stronger, the dogs in the hotel were becoming restless, each one seemed as nervous as the other, three different rooms peed themselves almost in unison.

  Then rain and the wind stopped, nothing pelted the windows up front, not even hail. The dancing light pole still rocked but seemed unforced by the till then extreme wind. Aside from the constant rumble of thunder and crash of lightning the night remained silent.

  She stared for a good minute out the window, expecting something, wanting anything. It was creepy enough that the hush resembled the eye of a hurricane, causing her to stand on edge, waiting for the big moment when the destructive forces would return.

  Something hit the front store window with a thud loud enough to be heard from inside the playroom, Heather jumped. She caught her chest with her hands as her heart raced miles per second, she realized she had closed her eyes against fear and forced herself to open them.

  She smiled in spite of herself, a little silver basket rattled against the store side's windowed front, then slammed against it again. Just a shopping cart in the wind from an uphill store, having taken flight in the night storm it picked up speed on the incline on a mindless mission to scare the crap out of her.

  Her knees had weakened, but her beating heart slowed to normal. Unable to take her eyes off the memorizing sliver of silver batting and tapping against the glass like a lost bug seeking an unreachable light source she ignored her sudden need to use the restroom.

  The wind outside picked up again, the light swayed back and forth, then it stuck. It looked odd, curved away from the store like an immense yet invisible source stood upon its tip. The shopping cart wiggled, to the left then the right, and something odd happened, the light dimmed, darkened, and then disappeared. It didn’t go out, it was like a wall had come in-between it and the store, a wall which parted only twice to prove the light was working. The base detached with a snap, and it was gone.

  There was a sound, a new sound amongst the wind and hail, the rumble of an avalanche. She remembered her uneasy feeling, the cart slammed against the window causing her to jump again, and her heart stood still. The cart was mid air, floating three feet off the ground. It slammed again and again, there was a flash of something across the store front and an explosion. Her knees gave out forcing her to steady herself with the glass wall of the hotel as the entire glass front of the store burst inward.

  The basket catapulted through the store, doing somersaults each time it hit the top of an aisle, destroying a few bags of dog food, followed by a giant D from the shops marquee which decimated the first three isles. Toys and bags of treats flew through the air, hundreds of bits of food pelted the windows she stood behind. The glass of the playroom, though hurricane proofed to stand up against the force of a hundred pound dogs, shook and rattled under some unseen force as front isle of the store seemed to dance and pull towards the new hole in the storefront.

  The darkened hanging fluorescents swung violently, a few detaching from their chains to swing down and c
ause more mayhem with the remaining bags of food, as glass and food and other debris tapped against the playroom windows. Somewhere in the store birds where screaming. She thought that might be the second most horrible sound she’d ever heard.

  It was right behind the sound this invisible monster was creating, like a jet engine propelled a grinder through the store, accompanied by a chorus of ghost wind rifts that howled through the building. Heather realized what she was seeing, and she ran, but a metallic beam that had fallen from far above crashed through the tiled roof of the dog’s relief room blocking her way out.

  Out a locked door only accessible from this side she forced her way into the lobby. Out here she was in the open, the monstrous wind currents pushed and pulled her, the noise deafened her, pelted by bits of dog food which smelled of whey and fish. Hail and glass flew into her long hair. Shielding her face with her hands she ignored the empty cash register as the wind pulled it off its desk and shattered upon the floor, punching numbers into a simple button lock to re enter the back of the hotel.

  Here it was peaceful as she shut the second of two wooden doors behind her. The wind didn’t grab at her, but it didn’t seem that would last, as she turned to she watched the doors she had just passed through, the innermost door danced on its hinges, the wind causing it to slap against its own metallic lock. The store itself was now more than dark, it was gone, behind a massive wall of swirling dust and debris that where lit by the hotel’s lights.

  She watched, once again memorized until those lights flickered off, leaving her with the few emergency powered lights within the hotel. Part of the roof caved in behind her, glass bulbs shattered, a dog yelped in surprise, another howled in fear. She turned away from that to make a run for the empty side near the back of the hotel.

  On the vacant side of the kennels there was a fire exit, but once she was outside, then what? It was here and there was no shelter from this monster behind the store. She came up to the middle most isle, failed at flipping open a kennel with her shaky left hand as she crouched, and succeeded in her second attempt. She crawled in and closed it, using a blue slip lead she had pocketed earlier in the night to tie the door shut around the latch, hoping the removable hinging that allowed it slip up and out would hold.

  The monster drew closer, she could feel the currents once again push and pull her, glass shattered somewhere. The door she had come through cracked and broke, the howling wind was inside, the dogs where screaming, rising in position to the worst thing she had ever heard. She loved dogs and no dog should have ever been caused enough fear or harm to cause it to voice such a human noise.

  Gripping the bars that supported the kennel above, curling her fingers into tight fists, hoping the steel would support her, that the way these heavy metal cages where grouted into the floor where enough, she tightened her grip as it came for her, throwing pieces of wall, metal, and something wet and papery against her. She felt her bottom lift, pulling her away from her perch as her hair flew violently about her face.

  The kennels gate rattled, it bounced, and then it came off. Held in place by the lead she had tied it swung, swayed, and bounced outside, threatening to become yet another missile in the wind. Lifted fully off the ground, losing her grip of the kennels roof she scrambled to hold onto the inside of cage, blocking her exit like a cat refusing a bath in a bucket. The walls, the roof, everything disintegrated into the clouds that swirled around her, her only safety the kennel walls themselves. As more things crashed, more dogs cried, and something glass popped overhead.

  That last little pop was enough to pop her little bubble of sanity she had kept since this nightmare had begun, she screamed in terror as her vision waned, her breathing became limited and she was sure that within the minute she’d be twister fodder.

  Chapter 8: Home alone.

  Where the hell where they?

  It was just becoming two and there had been no word from them, there was no phone signal or power. Harry wanted his parents, his age had disappeared for a need for security, and then he sat up from under their blankets to a new sound.

  It sounded like someone dropping marbles on the glass tables and porch outside, hail. The tink, tink was almost mesmerizing, it’d put him to sleep if he hadn’t shared his dog’s terror of the raging storm. All the while that feeling in his gut was growing ever stronger.

  He decided it was time to act. San Antonio had never been much to face tornado threats in its existence, its recorded weather history stretching back decades had a dozen known tornadoes listed, and none of them had been much above an f zero, whirlwinds barley worthy the name tornado. But he had watched the weather degrade due to climate change and tornado season become more and more violent every year on the tornado chasing shows, he would not chance waiting until too late. Harry hopped out of his parents’ bed and made his way out the door, across the tiny square foyer was another door that led to a closet under the houses stairs, center of the house itself, supposed to be the safest place in his house during such a storm.

  Lightning struck a tree in the woods, the house rocked with such a close impact and the air smelled of burning ozone, but he ignored it as the tinking sound of hail strengthened into hard impacts. It sounded as if it had stopped throwing marbles and started tossing softballs. Harry pulled out four suitcases, an old electric drum set, and ancient canisters full of vacuum equipment, many belonging to an outdated vacuum that no longer existed.

  After clearing out the closet he walked towards the back door. Surrounded by windows including a large plate glass one about his height within the door itself lightning should have posed a threat here, but there where taller sections of the house and much taller oaks in the woods which provided better targets for those electrical discharges. Still, the violent flashes of light which lit the light layer of large hail made him cautious.

  He jumped at a loud crash on the other side of his house; his lab ran for his parents’ bed, her tail tucked between her thighs, urine exploding out around it. There was a louder explosion that shook the house, not one of fire but of metal and screeching created by the implosion of his garage door, something had gone through it and the door leading into his garage shook under the threat of wind. “Shit, Tilly!” he screamed for her.

  A window upstairs imploded with a small pop and the tinkle of glass on wood. That window enforced by metal divisions it wasn’t even plate yet or something had taken it out.

  His house shook and groaned, falling apart as dust and those annoying little popcorn curls of paint fell from the ceiling followed by thick pieces of plaster. He ran for his dog, his heart beating in his ears but drowned out by the ghost like howling whistle of the wind, picking her up off his parent's bed, struggling with her weight and ignoring the strong smell of her urine. She let herself be carried into the closet where he set her down to shut the door before she could make another run for it.

  There was a louder crash, the roar of something like water followed by the crash of several plastic items, most likely his TV and game systems. Grimacing at the thought of his stuff becoming a ruin he pushed his dog further into the far corner, the shortest region under the stairway while the door, one way in, one way out, rattled and slammed against jamb. There was no way to secure it, no lock, so he waited and hoped.

  It danced its violent dance, all the while he expected to some kind of alien light out of some old movie to appear on the other side, he thought it might have been E.T., and then it stilled. He breathed out a sigh, but jumped, pushing himself further back, his brave little lab pressed into the wall behind him, as something beyond it slammed down hard, cracking the door in half and buckling it inward. The stairs above him seemed to give and sag, the walls wore a thin crack that slid against themselves like active tectonic plates, the stairs closed in from above. The wind's howl was distant now, but he was sure this was it.

  Chapter 9: Homeward Bound

  Wendy had spent the last few hours crying, she had no idea what time it was because her phone had not been
water proof. Now soaked, stuck on the roof, and surrounded by flood waters, she was alone. She knew he was dead, her husband of so many years gone, no doubt in their vehicle or his body floating cold and lifeless, graying in the waters. She could feel his spirit when he had left her.

  All those years spent at pot festivals, marching for women’s rights, gay rights, race rights, all of it gone, she was alone. She was afraid, afraid for herself, and afraid for her son. Wendy hoped he was home, safe and warm with their dog, but she had no trouble imagining him too gray, lifeless, floating in the murky water after making the same stupid mistake as his father.

  “Fucking stupid Michael” she cursed her husband’s name in a moment of spite and wept again.

  Something pelted the top of her head, she felt at it but there was nothing there, it might have just been more of the rain but it had felt different. There was a click to her left, then to her right, and she rose in fear of whatever might be attacking her, when her thinned conscious realized that she wasn’t under attack, at least by anything cognitive.

  The downpour had lightened only to be replaced by an increasing amount of coin sized hail, she sheltered her head with her arms which felt too heavy and weak to keep held up. She looked right, left, anywhere for shelter, but had been through this before she had broken down, there was nothing up here that could shield her, there weren’t even any access doors to break into. Had this been her home state of New York there would have been roof access, and she supposed some tall buildings downtown had them as well but here far outside loop four ten where nothing but flat one-story buildings with ladders for roof and AC maintenance.