TKLVR181
Level of Lemon Feather
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2005
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It's poor compensation, I know, but it's somethin.
Ladies n gents n 'philes of all typies, today is my LAST day of school this semester...and after this I'm going off to Wales to see Senshi for a few days (ten :super_hap ). But between now and then I'm going to seriously do at least another 1, maybe two parts of the NEST series.
Here's the last thing I had to do for school...I kind of made a drop-off ending, a technique that's new to me...streatching myself out a bit before the end of Creative Writing II. Lemme know whatcha think!
SHELLY
Becca woke up early Monday morning. Another day, another dollar. She got up, took a quick shower, and turned on the TV while she finished getting ready.
Becca was 35, with long brown hair she kept up in a bun, brown eyes, and thick brown glasses.
“…A huge hurricane in the middle of the Pacific ocean swelling up, headed right for California. Right now it’s about half the size of Katrina, and expected to grow exponentially. Further coverage tonight at…” she turned off the TV. The last thing she needed was to start worrying about something out in California. She grabbed her purse and headed off to work at the Tennessee First National bank where she was a teller. She got a doughnut for breakfast and ate it five minutes before they opened.
Six-thirty that evening she walked back in the door, made her frozen dinner, plopped into the armchair, and turned on the TV. It was still on the local news channel she had it on this morning.
She watched for a few minutes about how they had, thankfully, caught the bank robber from the next town over. She didn’t want to have to deal with him. She was about to turn it to Wheel of Fortune when something caught her eye.
It was a satellite picture. Of that hurricane they had been talking about that morning; only THIS time it wasn’t half the size of Katrina anymore.
“…as expected, Shelly has grown to at LEAST the size and strength Katrina was when she hit New Orleans. And folks, she’s not done yet. Landfall isn’t expected for another two weeks now, and we can hope she loses rather than gains strength or California might have serious problems…” Becca changed the channel. This was starting to get scary—she had family out on California—her brother, Andrew, lived in So Cal.
* * * * *
Andrew woke up Tuesday late morning, stumbling out of bed. It was late May, he had been out of college for a week now and already was in the habit of sleeping until eleven. He got up, made himself some eggs, and sat down on the couch. He turned on the TV, searching for a good cartoon.
Just then the phone rang. 11:15…only one person would call him so damned early. “
‘mornin, sis.”
“Andrew, did you stay in bed until eleven again?”
“Come on sis, it’s summer break! I just finished taking a full load and a half last semester, I had to get up at six am, I deserve it!”
She laughed. “Enjoy it while you can, bro. Listen, have you seen the weather report lately?”
Of course he hadn’t and he told her so. “Why would I do that?”
“Weather channel. Now.” She instructed. He felt silly taking orders from across the country, but he turned on the weather channel anyway, sensing urgency in her voice.
The hurricane on the screen was a monster. One and a half the size of Katrina, headed straight in towards so cal. “Oh god” he breathed.
“They don’t know if it’s going to pick up speed or lose it between here and there. But there’s no question, it’s coming straight for you. Get out. Now.”
He turned the volume up. “I’ll call you back.” He hung up the telephone and listened to the weatherman.
“Residents of Southern California are strongly urged to leave the area as soon as possible. Do NOT wait until the last minute…we at the weather channel have seen deaths caused by last-minute traffic jams entirely too often. Get out as soon as you can. This monster is going to hit without a doubt. We don’t know how bit Shelly will be when she comes to land, but she’s gonna be big.”
Andrew turned off the TV, pale. One and a half the size of Katrina? What in the world could have spawned such a monster? He immediately ran to his computer and checked weather.com for the latest specs on Shelly.
She was a monster, all right. Buoys across the Pacific had been torn to shreds after sending horrifying facts in—they had found animals in it’s wake already, blue whales dead, torn to shreds themselves by the massive hurricane.
The wind speeds of Shelly made her more like a giant waterspout than a hurricane…upwards of 150-170 miles an hour. There were images the buoys had sent in before being destroyed…Shelly always dominated the entire picture, sometimes even becoming a giant water spout, sucking water up into her winds.
Even more disturbing was the ocean floor. Underwater buoys had been sent to check the devastation—it was massive. A whole new trench had been cut out by Shelly…her winds hand penetrated under water all the way to the Earth’s outer core, in some areas letting toxic gasses spill into the water, in others finding under water oil wells and poisoning thousands of fish in the area. There was no question about it…this wasn’t a hurricane anymore. It was a waterspout the size of the largest hurricane in history. And it was headed for land.
He called the zoo where he worked on Saturdays. He might be a lay about, but he DID care what happened to those animals. No one answered, there was simply a message on the machine saying that all animals had been moved to a more inward location away from danger.
Good. Now all Andrew had to worry about was himself. He began to pack.
Unbelievable, Becca thought as her little brother hung up on her. Only that arrogant ass would hang up on me at a time like this. She hadn’t heard much, but this morning the hurricane had passed over some underwater mountain ranges, and not only had it not slowed, it ploughed THROUGH them. Not only a mountain range, but there was now a gaping, 500 foot HOLE in the King reef. She didn’t want to think about the death count in marine life already—nor the loss of human life if this thing didn’t get under control soon.
But how in the world do humans stop a force of nature like THAT?? What possible force of man could stop a force of nature? She had seen apocalyptic movies, meteors and such, where brute force was used. Could they drop a bomb down there and stop something half the size of California?
And why was she thinking about this anyway? Her brother needed to come up here. Soon. Over the past fifteen minutes, the mammoth had sped up. It was now projected to reach the US by the end of the week.
The phone rang and she answered. “Sis, I’ll be there in two days. I’ve just booked the flight.”
* * * * *
Two days later, Becca picked Andrew up at the Airport in Nashville at six pm. They rode in silence the first half hour.
They were stopped at a red light just outside the small suburban city where Becca lived when Andrew burst. “WHY do these things happen? What could posess mother nature or God or whatever to create something that could plough through underwater MOUNTAINS, for gods sakes?! There were SIX blue whales found in it’s path…SIX! Ever see Star Trek Voyage Home? One of these days we’re gonna NEED those and friggin SHELLY will have wiped them all out!” he raved.
Becca nodded and let him vent. He was very likely going to lose his home in a few days, and there was nothing he could do about it. The feeling of powerlessness had to come out sometime. “You’re right. It isn’t fair. But we have to cope and move on…I saw something on TV about a preemptive committee to talk about doing something about it. They’re talking about maybe trying to bomb it.”
Andrew stared at her. “A BOMB?! WHAT have these people been SMOKING?? A bomb of that size would make a TIDAL WAVE that would wipe out all of California!”
Becca shuddered. “I know. But all we can do is hope they realize that in time.”
So whaddaya think? :super_hap
~K
Ladies n gents n 'philes of all typies, today is my LAST day of school this semester...and after this I'm going off to Wales to see Senshi for a few days (ten :super_hap ). But between now and then I'm going to seriously do at least another 1, maybe two parts of the NEST series.
Here's the last thing I had to do for school...I kind of made a drop-off ending, a technique that's new to me...streatching myself out a bit before the end of Creative Writing II. Lemme know whatcha think!
SHELLY
Becca woke up early Monday morning. Another day, another dollar. She got up, took a quick shower, and turned on the TV while she finished getting ready.
Becca was 35, with long brown hair she kept up in a bun, brown eyes, and thick brown glasses.
“…A huge hurricane in the middle of the Pacific ocean swelling up, headed right for California. Right now it’s about half the size of Katrina, and expected to grow exponentially. Further coverage tonight at…” she turned off the TV. The last thing she needed was to start worrying about something out in California. She grabbed her purse and headed off to work at the Tennessee First National bank where she was a teller. She got a doughnut for breakfast and ate it five minutes before they opened.
Six-thirty that evening she walked back in the door, made her frozen dinner, plopped into the armchair, and turned on the TV. It was still on the local news channel she had it on this morning.
She watched for a few minutes about how they had, thankfully, caught the bank robber from the next town over. She didn’t want to have to deal with him. She was about to turn it to Wheel of Fortune when something caught her eye.
It was a satellite picture. Of that hurricane they had been talking about that morning; only THIS time it wasn’t half the size of Katrina anymore.
“…as expected, Shelly has grown to at LEAST the size and strength Katrina was when she hit New Orleans. And folks, she’s not done yet. Landfall isn’t expected for another two weeks now, and we can hope she loses rather than gains strength or California might have serious problems…” Becca changed the channel. This was starting to get scary—she had family out on California—her brother, Andrew, lived in So Cal.
* * * * *
Andrew woke up Tuesday late morning, stumbling out of bed. It was late May, he had been out of college for a week now and already was in the habit of sleeping until eleven. He got up, made himself some eggs, and sat down on the couch. He turned on the TV, searching for a good cartoon.
Just then the phone rang. 11:15…only one person would call him so damned early. “
‘mornin, sis.”
“Andrew, did you stay in bed until eleven again?”
“Come on sis, it’s summer break! I just finished taking a full load and a half last semester, I had to get up at six am, I deserve it!”
She laughed. “Enjoy it while you can, bro. Listen, have you seen the weather report lately?”
Of course he hadn’t and he told her so. “Why would I do that?”
“Weather channel. Now.” She instructed. He felt silly taking orders from across the country, but he turned on the weather channel anyway, sensing urgency in her voice.
The hurricane on the screen was a monster. One and a half the size of Katrina, headed straight in towards so cal. “Oh god” he breathed.
“They don’t know if it’s going to pick up speed or lose it between here and there. But there’s no question, it’s coming straight for you. Get out. Now.”
He turned the volume up. “I’ll call you back.” He hung up the telephone and listened to the weatherman.
“Residents of Southern California are strongly urged to leave the area as soon as possible. Do NOT wait until the last minute…we at the weather channel have seen deaths caused by last-minute traffic jams entirely too often. Get out as soon as you can. This monster is going to hit without a doubt. We don’t know how bit Shelly will be when she comes to land, but she’s gonna be big.”
Andrew turned off the TV, pale. One and a half the size of Katrina? What in the world could have spawned such a monster? He immediately ran to his computer and checked weather.com for the latest specs on Shelly.
She was a monster, all right. Buoys across the Pacific had been torn to shreds after sending horrifying facts in—they had found animals in it’s wake already, blue whales dead, torn to shreds themselves by the massive hurricane.
The wind speeds of Shelly made her more like a giant waterspout than a hurricane…upwards of 150-170 miles an hour. There were images the buoys had sent in before being destroyed…Shelly always dominated the entire picture, sometimes even becoming a giant water spout, sucking water up into her winds.
Even more disturbing was the ocean floor. Underwater buoys had been sent to check the devastation—it was massive. A whole new trench had been cut out by Shelly…her winds hand penetrated under water all the way to the Earth’s outer core, in some areas letting toxic gasses spill into the water, in others finding under water oil wells and poisoning thousands of fish in the area. There was no question about it…this wasn’t a hurricane anymore. It was a waterspout the size of the largest hurricane in history. And it was headed for land.
He called the zoo where he worked on Saturdays. He might be a lay about, but he DID care what happened to those animals. No one answered, there was simply a message on the machine saying that all animals had been moved to a more inward location away from danger.
Good. Now all Andrew had to worry about was himself. He began to pack.
Unbelievable, Becca thought as her little brother hung up on her. Only that arrogant ass would hang up on me at a time like this. She hadn’t heard much, but this morning the hurricane had passed over some underwater mountain ranges, and not only had it not slowed, it ploughed THROUGH them. Not only a mountain range, but there was now a gaping, 500 foot HOLE in the King reef. She didn’t want to think about the death count in marine life already—nor the loss of human life if this thing didn’t get under control soon.
But how in the world do humans stop a force of nature like THAT?? What possible force of man could stop a force of nature? She had seen apocalyptic movies, meteors and such, where brute force was used. Could they drop a bomb down there and stop something half the size of California?
And why was she thinking about this anyway? Her brother needed to come up here. Soon. Over the past fifteen minutes, the mammoth had sped up. It was now projected to reach the US by the end of the week.
The phone rang and she answered. “Sis, I’ll be there in two days. I’ve just booked the flight.”
* * * * *
Two days later, Becca picked Andrew up at the Airport in Nashville at six pm. They rode in silence the first half hour.
They were stopped at a red light just outside the small suburban city where Becca lived when Andrew burst. “WHY do these things happen? What could posess mother nature or God or whatever to create something that could plough through underwater MOUNTAINS, for gods sakes?! There were SIX blue whales found in it’s path…SIX! Ever see Star Trek Voyage Home? One of these days we’re gonna NEED those and friggin SHELLY will have wiped them all out!” he raved.
Becca nodded and let him vent. He was very likely going to lose his home in a few days, and there was nothing he could do about it. The feeling of powerlessness had to come out sometime. “You’re right. It isn’t fair. But we have to cope and move on…I saw something on TV about a preemptive committee to talk about doing something about it. They’re talking about maybe trying to bomb it.”
Andrew stared at her. “A BOMB?! WHAT have these people been SMOKING?? A bomb of that size would make a TIDAL WAVE that would wipe out all of California!”
Becca shuddered. “I know. But all we can do is hope they realize that in time.”
So whaddaya think? :super_hap
~K
