Trapped in a Storm
A few hours had come and gone. All the lights still worked. Dakota confirmed that when it finally got full dark.
The "rain" had never showed a sign of slack. Thunder still shook the place from time to time. Both the girls sat in front of his tv. Kind of numb to any of the weak attempts he had made to make them relax.
They had told him they had seen their mother and even other neighbors turning into the black ooze that was raining down.
He did not take it too seriously. Something in their eyes and voice made him quiet.
He stared at his black window and he knew that there had been quite a few birds that liked to nest there. Right outside his window under the roof.
He had not heard them all day.
If they had turned to ooze. it would cover his window as surely as it was.
He started to make dinner after he called 911 again. Same automated answer.
It just did not make any sense. The ooze was outside. from the rain. Maybe some kind of toxic sludge or bio weapon gone wrong. Maybe just pollution.
It had not been pouring from other peoples doors or from the trees.
He could not remember seeing anyone else today before the girls.
He had tried to call some of his passive friends. Even his work. But no responses. Just answering machines and dial tones.
He needed normal so he made dinner. Spaghetti and some frozen garlic bread. He fed the kids because that is what people do. He sat down and watched junk tv because that is what people do.
He would not be so stressed except that no news or weather channels were playing anything live. It was all network noise and pre-recorded stuff.
The girls ate quietly. Occasionally whispering to each other, but not being difficult. Maybe they needed this forced normal too.
After dinner he stood up and rinsed his dishes. He leaned against the counter and told the girls he was going to check on the neighbors.
Immediately he could see their fear. They began talking over each other. They did not want him to leave them. He could not possibly be allowed to leave them. He was the only person they had seen all day since their mom.
In the end. They agreed on them coming with him to knock on his neighbors door.
Dakota thought maybe that would be better too. Since it was more likely they would answer if they were hiding out. Who would ignore a couple of little girls at their door asking for help?
Dakota's neighbor on his left had been an older couple. He could not remember their names. They got along all right. Dakota remembered they had exchanged little stories about work here and there.
The three of them went outside and Dakota nearly lost his eyes they bulged so bad. It was so much darker outside. The puddles were waist-high and the flooding had gotten worse for sure.
The ooze had to be over the first floor of the apartment building. He could not see further than that though.
It was like his building had been trapped in darkness.
He knocked on his left neighbors door, hard. Every second they did not answer he was more excited and afraid. He remembered their names in his haste.
" John!" KNOCK KNOCK
"Linda!" KNOCK KNOCK
"I have two little girls here and it' s flooding outside!" KNOCK KNOCK
"I can' t get ahold of anyone on my phone!" KNOCK KNOCK
"I think this is a national emergency or something!"
KNOCK KNOCK
"Please!" KNOCK KNOCK
"Please!" KNOCK KNOCK
"Please answer the door!"
Dakota calmed himself. He knew if he was not careful he could become hysterical and then he could not trust his judgement.
Several long slow breaths came and went as he calmed himself.
They knocked on the stoner guy's apartment. Nothing
They knocked on the young woman who worked at a call center's apartment. Nothing
They knocked on the door of the guys who own the really loud pick up truck. Nothing.
They knocked on the door with those three young guys who all worked at the gas station a block away. Nothing.
They knocked on the door to the guy who owns a husky. Nothing.
At the edge of the building at the last door. The three of them could see the inky black ooze creeping up the stairs.
The second floor was starting to flood for sure.
Dakota knocked a few times. Desperate to hear anything and certain he would not. He knocked hard a few more times and began to walk away.
"Someone is gonna open it" Ollie said. Gwyn nodded her agreement. Her eyes almost hopeful. Dakota was sure his eyes must look the same as he turned.
He heard what may have been crawling? Then the door unlocked. The little old woman in a pink robe opened the door.
She had always been critical and liked to sit on a folding chair at the top of the stairs and mumble judgements and criticisms. Usually at the children in the grass.
Right now Dakota was just happy to see her.
"How can I help you" she mumbled. Barely audible.
Both the girls wouldn't speak. Dakota began describing the inky oozey flood and how nobody else seemed to answer the door.
She listened and straightened her glasses and robe and looked behind them for herself.
It was if they could see her goosebumbs and her hair rise in surprise.
" Th-the news cut out hours ago. Last th-thing th-they said was weather all over was going dark and reports of flooding." She stammered all on one breath. "The man on channel 1919 said to stay indoors until it was over unless it was ABSOLUTELY necessary for your safety."
She began to mumble about how all of our neighbors must have taken the opportunity to get locked in at some store. Maybe even the bars.
Dakota told her he thought it would be safest to wait together until help comes and the storm ends. Especially since the "water" was still rising.
She ABSOLUTELY refused.
"If it gets bad enough that this place floods then you can come get me." The old woman almost yelled. "if ya need something to do so bad then count the raindrops!"
With that she shut her door with a snap.
Gwyn frowned but said nothing. Ollie was gaping and repeating " Rude. That was just so rude. How rude, we just wanted to help."
Anger made a lot of the fear push away for a minute.
Dakota told the girls "she's afraid too. The last thing she heard was stay home. We can't blame her for wanting to just stay home."
They headed back to Dakota's apartment. Just outside his door something happened to remind them how odd their situation was.
The ooze under his window was like a puddle spilling over the edge of the walkway.
A large black bird. Maybe a crow shot from the puddle and right at Gwyn. It did not make a noise just flew past Dakota and Ollie in a straight line toward Gwyn.
She lifted her hand to swat at the bird out of instinct.
It flew away into the "rain" but left a nasty cut on Gwyn's left hand.
"Oh what! Why that gross bird!? Did it come from that stuff by the window or was it sitting in it !?" Ollie moaned.
Gwyn let Dakota take her hand and look at it with only a sharp intake of breath.
It was bleeding but not bad. Normally he would think it would need a few stitches
First aid was something he knew from his job. He had been trained. Even if he never had to use that training.
He brought them inside "girls you don't know if there are more if those birds out here."
He cleaned her hand carefully and wrapped it after spraying some triple anti-biotic ointment on it.
Dakota really admired her stoic attitude. He could only smirk as Ollie oo-ed and ahhh-ed over his pretty work. Gwyn was a couple years younger than her sister, but it was clear that she was more mature. Who could blame her for playing up her indifference to such a cut in this situation.
They started to sigh and yawn shortly after the first aid.
Dakota felt very uncomfortable with this situation. He had had friends stay over before. Even a few women. But never kids. Certainly never strangers.
It was a crisis and it was obviously pretty badly flooding out there.
As if to remind him an especially loud thunder ripped the air and shook the floor.
So, he gave the two girls blankets from his closet and the pillows off his bed. He was tired. He knew he couldn't sleep. But he did not want to stay in his living room with this awkward situation.
The girls refused to be left alone. So, he stayed in his chair while the girls laid down on his couch.
He could not say when he fell asleep. When he woke up he saw Ollie moving. She was moving her black hair out of her face.
His eyes shot open as he realized he saw black hair. Not Gwyn's brown hair or Ollie's blonde.
He got up and went toward her. He stopped in the middle of the floor on his third step for a few reasons.
The furniture had been surrounded by black ooze and it was above his ankles.
The black hair was a spider as large as Ollie's face.
At his sudden halt the bulbous furry spider moved to the side of her head and disappeared behind her back.
Dakota didn' t know what to do. He had never seen such a fat large spider before. It had fangs! He could see them all the way over here.
The ooze was in his home too. If he tried to get the spider would it bite? Was it poisonous? If he called out to her would she panic and provoke it?
The dilemma was solved. Before he could creep over to the girls. Ollie waved a hand near her shoulder. trying to brush something away. She opened her eyes all at once and rolled off the couch.
Had Dakota not seen it. He would not have believed it.
The spider had bitten her behind her neck. Before she touched the liquid flooding his apartment. It had become liquid itself and sucked itself into her bite.
As she tumbled she woke up Gwyn. With groggy eyes she saw her sister fall off the couch and splash into the inky liquid.
I recoiled as Gwyn dove forward and her sister was gone.
As soon as she touched the "water" her body had liquidized and she was gone.
Gwyn began to yell "Olliiiiie-". As soon as she had touched the liquid with her injured hand she began to change.
Her body too, began to liquidize. First her left hand under the "water" then her arm. Then her body.
Her face was twisted into a mask of terror. Looking at Dakota as she seemed to dissolve.