Sign up now for a
Free Email Account &
your own Online
Writing Portfolio!
Username:
Password:  
Entry Calendar
<<     February     >>
SMTWTFS
   1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
26272829
Complete archive | RSS
Sponsored Items

Click Here To Bid  

Read a Newbie
Badges
Testimonials
Tell a Friend
Know someone who'd
like this page?

Email Address:

Optional Comment:

Who's Online?
Members: 401    
Guests: 1196    
   
Total Online Now: 1597    
Writing.Com Time

Tuesday
February 14, 2012
9:12pm EST


Content Rating Notice:  Recommended for Readers 18 Years and Older Only
  >> Book >> Writing >> ID #1565859  |   Show DetailsPrinter Friendly Page Tell A Friend
Writing Day By Day
Challenging myself to write 500 words per day!
Rated:
18+
by
This item accepts reviews only.
<<< Previous | Back to Entry List | Next >>>
Entry #652607, added on 06-01-09 @ 1:40 pm EDT
   Entry Access Restriction: None.
June 1--600 wordsEntry #652607
The wind screamed outside as the storm's winds lashed the side of the house. Darla felt a shiver run down her spine as she wondered if this would finally be the "big one" that the forecasters had been predicting. For the past several years they had ben saying that the area was well overdue an EF-5 tornado.
In Oklahoma, as in the rest of Tornado Alley, folks were becoming complacent about the weather. That usually spelled out a recipe for disaster. Once people stoped heeding the warnings was when people died.
A ripping sound above signaled the first of the shingles peeling off of the roof. Darla wondered what it would cost to fix her roof, so lost in her thoughts she didn't hear the roar at first.
When it did register, she realized it was like nothing she'd ever heard before. Jet engines, trains, all the descriptions she had ever heard didn't touch the deafening sound she heard now. Twenty seconds went by before she realized she should be below ground. Dashing to the back door of her house, she wrenched open the door and fled to the cellar. The door resisted and she tugged with all she had. It finally gave an inch but that was all she needed. She yanked it open and hurled herself inside just as debris was beginning to sail overhead.
Once inside, she fumbled for the lamp she kept inside and turned it on casting pale light around the dark dungeon. A spider or two flitted out of the light's reach. Darla shuddered. She hated spiders. She would have to set off a bug bomb tomorrow.
Darla's ears stopped up as the vaccuum of the tornado filled the air around her. Something big banged hard against the cellar door and she jumped nearly out of her skin.
As soon as it had started it was over. To Darla, it seemed like hours when in fact it was mere minutes. She tried the door and it gave only inches this time but enough for her to wriggle out. Her pickup truck was blocking the rest of the door, sprawled across the cellar. Where her house had been was a concrete slab with debris and pipes here and there. The grand old oak trees in her yard were grotesquely twisted, some ripped up by their roots and tossed about. Most of the neighborhood looked the same. At the far east end, some homes were damaged but remained mostly intact. Farm equipment had been tossed about like so many children’s toys. Dawning crept across Darla as she realized the closet farm was over a mile away. This twister had been on the ground for awhile.
Others began emerging from cellars and inner rooms of their homes. Shock and fear registering on their faces. She took note as they became visible to her; the Smiths, old man Carter, widow Anderson. Children shrieked as they saw the destruction and adults stared in shocked disbelief. Some moved to check on their neighbors while most stood rooted in place. A wail went up as a woman that Darla didn’t recognize sank to her knees and began screaming.
A new sound added its presence from the distance. Darla almost raced back into her cellar before she realized that it was clear overhead and the sound was the siren of a vehicle not the storm siren. State troopers and county deputies arrived on the scene, more sirens screaming in the distance. Lawmen stepped from vehicles to check on those they could see and to inquire about those who might still be missing.















© Copyright 2009 Nikola (UN: nmarshall at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
Nikola has granted Writing.Com, its affiliates and its syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work.
<<< Previous | Back to Entry List | Next >>>

Log In To Leave Feedback
Username:
Password:
Not a Member?
Signup right now, for free!

All accounts include:
*Bullet* FREE Email @Writing.Com!
*Bullet* FREE Portfolio Services!