This is a multi-part short story based on a rather interesting dream I had the other night involving hail. hehe. Having such dreams is a stipulation to creating these stories as they're all based off of some of my most memorable dreams. Read, critique, and enjoy.
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The Dreamland Articles
Hail
(part 1)
“So Kevin, what are you planning on doing this weekend? I hear there’s a really great movie on down at the local movie-plex.” said Mara in a giggly sweet voice.
Kevin stared out the window at the darkening afternoon sky and sighed lightly.
Mara stared at him curiously, then said, “Kevin, are you listening to me?”
He continued to ignore her as he watched the clouds building into thick, towering thunderheads on the horizon. A flash of lightning flickered off the edge of one of the clouds and danced wildly like a piece of string blown in a strong wind. Several more appeared after it, some nearly straight, others branching wildly like the limbs of a tree.
“Kevin, are you even listening to me?” squealed Mara, a hint of frustration in her voice. She liked Kevin a lot, but he hardly ever seemed to take notice of her, and this nearly drove her to the breaking point.
Just then the bell rung signaling the end of classes for the day. Many kids in the class cheered and hurried out of the classroom to their lockers where they exchanged their school books for portable games, music players, and keys to their cars. Many hurried to the busses waiting in the front of the building while others rushed to their cars and quickly sped away to the mall, their homes, and parties all around the city that were planned for that afternoon.
Kevin took a deep breath, got up, and began to walk out of the classroom.
“Kevin, where are you going? You still haven’t answered me!” said Mara, now thoroughly mad at him for ignoring her.
Kevin stopped in his tracks, turned slightly to the side to half heartedly look at her out of the corner of his eye and said, “I can’t go with you.”
Mara’s jaw nearly struck the floor with the force of an atomic bomb. She leapt out of her seat, seething anger drawn bluntly across her face.
“WHY NOT!” she screamed.
Kevin sighed. “I’ve got club meeting tonight and I have to work at my dad’s shop this weekend, so I can’t go with you. I’ve told you that before.”
Mara raised her finger and opened her mouth as if to scold him, but stopped cold, frozen in place as though she had suddenly been turned to stone. She said nothing, yet stared at Kevin with eyes alight with fire. He turned his face back towards the door and walked solemnly towards it, then turned down the hallway towards the chemistry lab. Mara lowered her finger, grabbed her school bag and stormed out the door after him.
“Don’t you ignore me you pig headed snob! How dare you ignore me! I lo…”
She froze in her tracks, her face turning from an expression of fiery indignation to one of horrified embarrassment. She lowered her head and tried to pretend like nothing was wrong even though she knew that she had once again almost make, what was to her, a fatal mistake. To say that she loved one of the biggest science geeks in the school would be one of the biggest social bombshells of her entire senior year. If any of the senior class elite heard about this, it could spell a lot of trouble for her.
Kevin turned into the science lab and disappeared from her sight. She quickly looked around to see if anyone was paying attention. To her surprise the entire hall had already emptied out and she was its sole inhabitant at that moment. She inhaled deeply, then took purposeful strides down the hallway and into the science lab. In there she found two guys, one girl and a teacher standing near the back of the room. The teacher looked up and smiled at her.
“Can I help you?” he asked.
Mara’s face blushed and she shook her head. “No, no. I was just curious of who was in here.” she said.
“Want to join the science club?” shouted one of the guys.
“You silly. She can’t join our group. Girls of her status don’t mingle with nerds like us.” said the girl.
The boy rubbed his head in shy embarrassment and said, “That’s too bad. We could really use someone cute in our group.”
The girl next to him jumped up and began screaming at him. “Just because I’m a nerd I’m not pretty? Is that what you’re saying, Raymond?? HUH?? Do I look ugly to you??”
“No, no. Not at all. But she is prettier.” said the boy.
“Why you ungrateful, pompous, sanctimonious…..ugh……block headed IDIOT!!” she screamed at the boy. She then began to hit him over the head with one of her textbooks.
Mara grinned at this as the teacher tried to break them up.
“Raymond! Sara! Knock it off you two. There’s no need to fight.” said Kevin after several moments.
“But she started it!” said Raymond.
“But you…” said the girl.
“Enough. We’re hear to do science, not start a war.” said Kevin, a powerful sound of authority in his voice.
“Then what’s she here for?” asked the girl, pointing at Mara.
“She has a crush on me and is probably here to spy on me to feed her unfettered desire for me.” said Kevin half mockingly.
Mara’s face turned blood red and her ears perked out as she stiffened in utter embarrassment. She immediately turned and ran out of the room screaming.
The teacher, Raymond and Sara all looked at the door, then back at him in stunned curiosity.
“That girl has a crush on you?” asked Raymond.
Kevin chuckled, then nodded. “Silly, isn’t it.”
Sara smiled. “I think it’s romantic.”
Raymond looked at her in disgust. “Romantic? I think it’s absolutely gut wrenchingly gross. Who’d want to fall in love with a girl? A brand new lab set, yes. But a girl? You’d have to be out of your mind.”
Sara shot Raymond a look of anger that would kill a horse at 20 meters. Raymond saw this and was considerably frightened.
During this entire exchange, Kevin had kept his eyes in his book, his head down, and had remained completely calm despite the war of words. His ability to maintain a solemn composure in any kind of situation was commendable. It had come from years of experience working in his dad’s funeral parlor.
Mara raced down the hallway and around the corner where she stopped and put her back against the wall as she tried to compose herself. She was very nearly ready to bawl like a baby and at this point in time, that was the last thing she wanted. Yet she loved Kevin and his response to her had cut her deeper than the sharpest knife.
“You idiot! How could you be so cold! I love you!” she whispered to herself as she fought to hold back her tears.
Just then something next to her popped. It sounded like someone had hit the wall with a sledgehammer and shattered part of the masonry. She felt the wall vibrate briefly, then go still. Then she heard another pop, and another. She opened her eyes and looked to her left to see three large holes in the wall and matching holes in the floor just a few feet from the wall. Another hole appeared and another and another. She suddenly realized that she was in grave danger. She immediately turned and ran back down the hallway towards the science labs. Even though she wasn’t sure if it was safer down there or not, it was the direction that Kevin was in and he might be able to protect her from whatever this was. Several more pairs of holes appeared in front of her and behind as she ran with all of her strength towards the labs.
Randy sat reading his book as Sara and Raymond discussed the possible uses for a newly discovered chemical compound that had been announced just the week prior. As he read the book he began to hear a strange whistling coming from outside. He sat up and strained his ears to try and identify the sound.
“Quiet you guys. I hear something.” he said.
“It’s probably just the band practicing outside.” said Raymond.
He heard a pop followed by more whistling that sounded like incoming artillery shells.
“Wait a second, I hear it too.” said Sara.
Kevin continued to listen for a moment longer when he began to hear popping sounds coming from the hallway. A second later a ceiling tile and a lab desk exploded in a spray of ice, foam, and black lacquer tabletop.
The teacher swore. “What was that?” he said.
The whistling began to grow louder and sounded like the barrage of a thousand artillery shells upon their little building. Several car alarms went off outside. The four of them quickly got up and hurried to the window. Outside several cars sat in the teachers parking lot covered in two inch wide gaping holes. The band was scattering and running for cover as several blood covered bodies lay on the field, large gaping holes in their chests, legs, head or in other areas of the body. They watched in horror as hail began to rain down on the rest of the fleeing band members and began killing each of them one at a time. Anyone it struck it maimed or killed instantly. One of the band members caught a hail stone on his shoulder. The stone tore through his shoulder like it was tissue paper, blowing his shoulder apart and sending the arm sailing several feet away. It then continued on for another couple of feet and buried itself in the ground.
The teacher swore. “What is that stuff?” he said.
Several more pops could be heard from behind them followed by screams from the hallway. Mara raced through the doorway of the science lab as several more hail stones exploded through the wall behind her.
“HELP ME!!” she screamed in horror.
Taking quick action the teacher ran across the room to a large metal door and began working a combination dial on the door. Kevin and the others took cover best they could behind a nearby desk as the hail began to become more intense. Now the popping had become a roar and the four of them cowered with fear as glass, ceramic, metal, wood, and other debris exploded and crashed down all around them.
The teacher threw the handle on the metal door, swung it wide open, then with a gigantic heave pulled a metal rolling rack out of the doorway and pushed it to the side.
“Quick! Over here! Hurry!!” he shouted to the four scared teenagers cowering behind a nearby bench.
Kevin quickly grabbed Mara and shouted, “Follow me! Hurry!”
They rushed across the room amid flying debris that showered their faces with stinging glass and other materials and through the metal door. They quickly wedged themselves in as tightly as they could. Moments later the teacher jumped in behind them and slammed the door shut. He held onto the internal emergency handle as tightly as he could as the light in the small metal reinforced room flickered, then went out. The room they were in was called a chemical safe. A special reinforced metal room designed to be used to store special or extremely dangerous chemicals from theft or to protect the rest of the building should one of them explode or catch fire.
The noise inside the chemical safe was muffled and dull, but it was obvious that whatever was happening outside was pure and utter unrestrained hell on earth. After several minutes the sound faded and it became quiet as a grave. The teacher slowly turned the emergency escape handle of the door and opened it slowly. Several small fires flickered nearby as the lab lay in utter ruin. He opened the door further and leaned out, then looked up to see that the roof was nearly gone and a light, gentle rain had begun to fall. He opened the door completely and stepped out, cautious of where he stepped because of the heavily damaged state of the floor.
“Dear God, what happened?” he whispered.
Kevin and the other three students with him also walked out of the chemical safe that had been their protection and marveled at what lay around them. He looked at the debris strewn floor and noticed something as the others wandered aimlessly behind him.
“Be careful where you step. The floor will likely crumble if we’re not careful.” said the teacher.
Kevin walked over to a nearby pile of debris and reaching down, picked up a large, two inch diameter chunk of ice. He was shocked at not only how heavy it was, but how relatively undamaged it was. To have come this far, done this much damage, and yet be nearly unhurt itself was a huge accomplishment.
“What’s that?” asked Raymond.
“I think it’s what just fell on us.” replied Kevin. He then looked up and through what had once been the south wall of the science lab and saw the utter devastation that lay all around them. “Once we’re sure it’s safe, I think we should look for survivors.” he said. Everyone agreed.
Rickenbom looked out over the ravaged remains of what had been the southern half of the city of Bloomsburg and chuckled with evil satisfaction.
“Did we get him?” he asked in a low, rumbling voice.
A man next to him with a pair of field glasses studied the city streets below. He grunted.
“I can see his car, but it looks relatively unharmed. It must be armored extremely well to have survived that. They’re driving away now and I don’t see any injuries on the body guards or anyone in the convoy.” he said.
Rickenbom grumbled. “It does not matter. We will just get him next time.”
“But he can’t be allowed to arrive at the G17 conference or he’ll ru…” said the man.
“Ruin it?” interrupted Rickenbom. “Not likely. Look. The building they were going to hold the conference in is nearly demolished. There will be no meeting today or anytime soon. Our job here is done. Come, we leave now.” He turned and walked several paces, then stopped and put his hand on the shoulder of a white lab coat clad scientist next to him and with a sinister, demonic grin said, “Well done.” He then continued walking towards his car as he chuckled with evil delight.
The scientist dropped to his knees, an expression of horror and remorse sketched deeply across his face. “What have I done? What have I done??”
The man with the field glasses shook his head, turned and grabbing the scientist, yanked him to his feet and said, “Come, you have more work to do.”
To Be Continued…
