Out of the Rain

Contributed by brinablank on 20/03/10

Sheets of rain come crashing down, shattering against the asphalt. We need a place to squat, wait out the storm. When your blood courses cold, each drop pierces to the bone. Liquid shots of frozen lightning.

Freddie’s webbed feet slap-splash in pools of chaos. I try to keep up. Brother Jack would break my tail for following a tree frog, notoriously unreliable sons-of-bitches that they are, but this is no time for pride of low-lying beasts. Chameleon, tree frog… We are brethren, refugees of a world devolving beyond our livability. Besides, Freddie knows the way. I can always ditch him later.

For now, he leads. He has the plan.

“There’s a hole in the side of this human shelter, about two clicks northwest of here,” he told me. “We’ll squeeze in, find ourselves a hot spot and some grub– ride it out in comfort.”

I’m about ready to start kicking myself in the ass for listening, when lo and behold, I see the shelter. And the hole. Sweet, glorious hole.

We squeeze through, just as he said, and on the other side it’s a whole other world. We enter into what I guess to be the main chamber. A warm, dry, golden paradise… that just doesn’t feel right. There is this sickening stillness, absolutely no wind whatsoever. As if there were no air. It’s awful and I feel vaguely sick.

And the sounds– strange, unsettling noises emanating from the other chambers.

All I can think is “danger.”

Freddie’s bulbous eyes dart opposite directions around the room, as we move along the outer edge. Now that we’re in, we have no idea what the fuck we’re doing.

Scanning lookout, I catch a flash of green and I turn my eye toward it. A Dragon. Exotic beauty trapped under glass. Danger is replaced by poetry.

Warmed by false suns

she lies in perfect stillness

Igniting fierce fires

fueling savior urges

I will shatter her prison walls

With only my beating heart

I charge.

Then, within steps of her cage, I stop. Fires out and heart broken. I am looking at her, but she is looking right through me. One look into her empty eyes is all I need to know. She is gone, and I am leaving. I want nothing more to do with this place. I want out.

I hear Freddie before I see the cat. High pitched chirps sound the alarm only seconds before the furry bastard pounces, giving me just seconds to scramble. I skid-slide on the high gloss floor, his claws clicking rapidly behind me. In blind panic, I climb the first vertical element in my path. Once I’ve reached the plateau, I haven’t a clue where I am, but it seems safe enough. I’ve lost Freddie. The cat is far below, hissing and swiping at the air, before bolting for some other chamber of the shelter.

Stretched out in front of me is an expanse of smooth, shaved wood. Two cool white disks sit at either end, surrounded by slender metal objects. There’s an object on one of the disks that smells something like food. Suddenly, I’m starving. I move in for a closer look, just as I hear the feline’s return. And he’s brought someone with him. A Human. Shit.

The human is holding some sort of grey box to his head. A gun? I’ve heard of them, but never seen one.

I can’t breathe.

I turn to flee, but am frozen somewhere between fear and instinct, paralyzed as my body tries desperately to blend with the surroundings. Futility. Dammit, I don’t do white. Camouflage is impossible in this unnatural place.

A flash of pure light fills the world from behind me, and in this moment I am dead. The world goes dark.

Except it doesn’t and I’m not. Somehow, I’m alive, and so I run like hell from this place–hoping to stay that way.