Sound of Thunder

wiinner---9/12/08

ID: 896794   (Rated: 13+) Daily Flash Fiction Challenge  Enter your story of 300 words or less. Note new starting time! by arakun the twisted raccoon

         “Did you hear that? It sounded like an explosion somewhere!”

         The sound was still echoing. It scared me! The echoing died away followed by silence.

         Peter said, “Something really big just blew up.” He stood there his rake in hand as if he had forgotten what he had been doing with it. Neighbors emerged from their doors. By this time there was a smudge of smoke on the horizon, rising into the clear blue sky.

         “I was getting ready for work and had the TV on. All of a sudden the screen went black and then that awful noise,” Helen said. “Do you suppose the noise has anything to do with the TV?”

         George, my next door neighbor was trying to make a cell phone call. He couldn’t get through. “I’m trying to get Richard and see if he knows anything. It won’t go through. There, now it’s ringing.” But there was no answer. “He must be busy,” George said.

         Tory who was four and lived next door asked excitedly. “Was it an askeroid? I bet it was an askeroid!”

         George told his son, “You mean asteroid. No I’m pretty sure it wasn’t an asteroid.”

         “Then it was a bomb,” somebody said. “Somebody bombed the city.”

         Nobody argued with that but we didn’t want to believe it. George said he was going in to turn on the radio.

         I did the same thing and that’s when I learned that everything had changed forever in our world. Life was so normal fifteen minutes ago. The new school year had started. Peter’s parents were coming tonight. It was all so normal and now I don’t even know what normal is any more. Something basic and valuable had been stolen from us.


293 words