Jet's Short Story Sanctum

[JetShadez66]

"Through the flames, I am purified; Through the flames, the world smolders; Through the flames, hope is lost; Through the flames, life if found"

-D-

[JetShadez66]

I stood next to man, along the green fields, the golden pastures, and rolling hills before my eyes.
I’d been here before.
To my east was a straight dirt road climbing up the over exaggerated hills disappearing into the blue sky, populated with the white cumulus skating across the earth, evacuating the upcoming events. The south showed fields of freshly sprouting produce for the harvest, what could be the future of the people of the land. To the west the dirt road stretched into the glowing ball of light, now starting to set on the picturous scene. To the north, a lone white farm house, across the dirt road was miles of land, planted, watered, and given the chance of producing life.
He knew it wasn’t to come. He kicked his feet into the dirt, looking back down towards the earth, swallowing hard he stared at me as a cue on what was to come next.
We left the farm house the next day, dressed, pressed, and ready to celebrate. Though the party was going to be out of this world, the sadness filled the air of the known future.

“Reports are that they will come from the west….”
“At this point the talks are over, the government has pulled back…”
“There is little to do, but to sit and wait. We can only do so much…”

The scene was surreal, a banquet for the ages, a party for the life time, a time of rejoicing, happiness, and prediction of the future ahead.
“We found a house just down the road. We’re very eager to start planning it, moving in, and starting life.” Stated the overly joyous bride.
“It’s going to be great. We finally get to enjoy what we hoped would be this perfect future.” Smiled the proud new husband.
The people walked about the room, a two story former college building in Nebraska. Suits and ties, bows and braids, it was the Midwestern utopia’s of weddings. Cake and punch, little girls in white summer dresses bouncing along through the traffic of family and friends. They engaged in conversation with each other, all throughout the day, the wedding was at 6:00am and the party was to last all day long…
…no matter what.
Each laugh, each awkward silence brought about a chill in the room. The men would talk sports, smile at each other, and non-verbally say their goodbyes, wishing for one more season.
Each smile, each pause of breath would bring the known out into the public. The women would talk of children, cookbooks, and when the talking stopped, they only prayed for one more day.
I struggled to be happy for the man across the room, the man that the day before looked at his planted harvest, looking at his future, knowing that no matter what the future couldn’t be stopped. He smiled at his wife, fighting the sickness forming in his stomach, trying to avoid the tears from flowing from her eyes.

I found myself walking up stairs into a vacated library, naturally the book keeper was still there, pouring over books, making notes, and acting as if today was just another day at work. She had her pile to the left on her cluttered table of Plato, Shakespear, and Orwell, the ‘next days work’. She smiled at me while I walked past the sections of history, looking briefly into the timeline bringing us to this moment. Finally, I stood before a small, tradition four pane window stretching over the growing city in front of me. The sky was spotless, sun shining with all of its might, trying to evaporate the sorrow from the banquet below. The clouds had left upon their exodus the previous day, it truly was the perfect spring day.

I walked towards downstairs, trying not to make eye contact with the little child playing in the stairwell. I stepped through the traffic of murmurs and speeches, past the joyous bride, past the proud husband. I stepped into the small doorway venturing out into the world, my future, my ‘known’. I stopped, paused, turned, and took a mental panoramic of the crowd. They seemed to stop their ways, drop their invisible shields, and turned just briefly, in unison to look at me. The tears filling in their eyes, their hearts crying for it to stop, the souls already attempting to escape the known.

I gave a gentle nod to them all, and started to walk into the day. The sirens had been alerting the city for the past thirty minutes. The streets were bare, the sidewalks empty, the city had stopped. I squinted my eyes, looking at the spotless sky to the west, looking for the known escaping the atmosphere.

The first landed nearly 200 miles to the northwest of where I stood, the heat already had touched my face, the blinding light had filled my eyes, and the roaring overcame my ears. The cloud, the perfect mushroom arose to the heavens. Throughout my shot of life, the horizon was merely a growing crop of heat and death. I knew it was merely moments before it was to come to an end, the hissing noise was upon my own head, I dared not to look up knowing what the world was coming down on me. I searched for my protector, she gracefully interlocked her fingers into mine. The white, extreme to highest, filled ever since of my body and soul. I could hear the screaming only for a moment…

[JetShadez66]

Through the wind and trees I sped along the narrow two lane road. The paint had worn off from years of wear, and the surface appeared more cracked than whole.

Regardless of the state of the road, nor the state that I was currently in, this much I knew for sure…

I was in a rush.

I was flying through the corners and curves. Sliding down the hills and racing up the top. Pine trees on both sides seemed to hang over myself in their summer greens. I felt a bit as if the walls of nature were closing in on me. Alas, I found myself slowing down dramatically as I slipped into a small niche among the conifers. The road I was on bowed out to the south of town, with the small, historic district aimed to my north. I caught a glimpse of the little sector of safe haven, it’s small brick streets, it’s two story corner buildings full of books and local coffee’s and tea’s. The bicycle laying near the door to the one on the left, street lamps on each side of the brick street, waiting to be lit to allow their gleam to shine brightly through the night. It truly was the iconic, American utopia one couldn’t even begin to imagine.

While I was taking in such a breath taking view, I had failed to notice that the town itself was empty. Not a soul walked amongst its carved streets, hopefully businesses, or hopeful street lamps. The town was empty, and I soon found myself surrounded by its reason of isolation.

From the north a wall of water started to run through the streets, crashing through the buildings, shattering glass, and dislodging books. Utopia as it seemed was merely just a distraction in hell. With the water rushing through the town, I tried as I might to drive my little car through the old, concrete road and out of harms way. Unfortunately the water was coming as far as the eye could see. The buildings were collapsing around this perfection, and I was stuck in the middle of harms way.

With the poor car running as fast as I could possibly control, with the water lapping up on each side of the curbs along this road, with the roar of the water coming at me from the north, I knew that my time had run out.

The people must have received the warning, the people must have known, the people must have accepted the fact that they would no longer be safe. I thought these assumptions as the water started to find its way around my tires, slowing myself down, stopping the car, and silently explaining my impending death.

The water was all around me, filling in through the vents of the car now, there was no way I was going to make it to the lone hill a few miles to the west. While thinking back past my life, how I had wondered through these years, my mind fell back on the innocent town, the sad, soul destruction at the hands that tend to bring such life. I was becoming nothing more then a piece of backdrop in the same wishy washy world.

[cmoney88]

Hmm, interesting piece. I think you tried to collapse a much grander idea into a much smaller piece. There is so much in here that can be expounded on. Please do! I get the feeling you are attempting but I can't see the frame work. IMHO. Keep at it! Keep writing and sharing, that's how we all improve!