Blood Clot Rain

Written for:

"The Writer's Cramp - Poetry Week"  13+: Write the best POEM in 24 hours or less and win 10K GPs!

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Rachel opened her front door and listened to the squelching sound the cars made as they drove along the road. The scientists called it acid rain but the locals referred to it as blood clot rain because of the texture, it was very thick and jelly like. The smell was like something had died, especially when a nice sunny day followed. She shook her head and groaned, stepping outside and hearing the squish with every step she took. To her it almost looked like human entrails. She heard creepy stories ever since she was young about people finding body parts in amongst the mess.

A giant squeegee relieved the mess on her car, leaving red tinged streaks all over it. She cursed herself for the hundredth time for getting a white car, but the salesman had been so convincing. She backed slowly down the driveway and headed to work, her wipers working overtime keep the gunk off the windscreen.

Turning into the drive at work she slowed, it was a couple miles to the building, and it had to be on a dirt road. She stopped, almost considering going back and calling in sick. Driving through this muck on a dirt road was definitely a first. She'd only been in the job about three months and it was close to eight months before that the rain had come. A big black pick-up rattled past, blaring its horn at her, waking her out of her thoughts. Damn, that was her boss. Letting out a heavy sigh she followed behind the pick-up, steadily falling behind because of the thick goop that flung up onto her car.

Damon's pick-up skidded to a halt and Rachel followed suit, stopping a few feet away from him. She watched as he jumped out of the truck, motioning to her to follow. She groaned at the thought of walking through the mud and rain mix and grudgingly got out, carefully walking over to him. He was covering his mouth, pointing to something with the other.

"What the hell is that?" He asked, dry heaving into his palm. Rachel's face remained puzzled as she moved around the side of the truck to stand next to her boss. Her hand immediately went to her mouth and she turned away from the sight. She closed her eyes trying to force the image from her mind but it was frozen in front of her eyes.

What looked like a child, no older than three, lay on the ground covered in a red sticky liquid. There was no skin present on the body, only the muscle and soft tissues showed, in places bones poked through the blood, shining brightly in the morning sun. Its organs were hanging out of a large gash in the side of its body.

Rachel started running back to her car but slipped and fell into the muck, vomit spewed forth, covering her hands and clothes. She could hear the noises of Damon being ill behind her. Feeling hands on her shoulders she looked up to see him lifting her to her feet.

"Let's go, we need to get the cops..." he put her into the passenger seat and jumped into the other side, moving off slowly. Neither talked about what they saw. The only thing Rachel could think of was that they were supposed to be stories, stuff that didn’t happen to the average person.

“Stories… but they’re supposed to be stories…” was all she could manage as the female inspector handed her a cup of cool water.

“Take a breath, its ok, now what was it you saw exactly?” Rachel closed her eyes but opened them a second later as the image was burned to her retinas. Shaking her head she told the officers standing around Damon and herself what they had seen. The inspectors face paled as she looked at her colleagues. “Get the M.E.”

Rachel heard disgusted shouts from the back of the room. “Turn it up.” She heard someone yell. She recognized the voice of the male reported from the news.

“All over town this is a similar scene-“ she heard him stop quickly as he tried to stop himself from being sick on air. “No one knows where all of these child-like creatures came from-“ again he stopped. Rachel didn’t blame him one bit. “Only one has been found alive, the scientists from our top university are examining it as we speak-“ a spluttering cough followed then they killed the feed. The next voice was that of the female presenter apologizing to the audience for the cut transmission.

“Local authorities are pleading with everyone to stay indoors, stay where you are, do not travel anywhere until this recent rain has been cleared.” The TV set was turned off as people ran to the phones to call their loved ones to tell them that they would not be home, but the phone lines had burst to life with people reporting the creatures all over town. The inspector showed Rachel and Damon into a room with make-shift cots set up for them, and fresh clothes for Rachel to change in to.