The Fall - Ch 2

         He was sitting in this same spot with his laptop on his lap and writing. As he wrote he took a deep breath and realized how much he had missed this while living in Baltimore. The air here was definitely cleaner, but more than that. It felt as if it were a completely different chemical makeup. Not just the pollutants, but also the oxygen levels. This was the type of air where you hated to exhale, because you were afraid that the pollution in your own body might contaminate the area. It was also a gorgeous view, which was what he was currently describing in his e-mail to Alexis. He wanted her to come to him in the worst way. He was describing the view in its entirety. From the stream bubbling its way through the valley formed by 2 small green hills, to the grasses being moved in waves by the breeze, to the purple Appalachians. He wrote about how he was sitting and watching the sun rise directly over the hills in front of him. Looking slightly south-east he could just about make out the area where the wilderness ended and joined into the area that would lead you into New York City. He knew she would love it here, if only she could come and give it a chance.

         As he was typing this out he heard something approaching from across the stream. He lifted his head to watch whatever it was come out of the woods, since his rifle was back at the cabin he wouldn’t be hunting anything today. As his pale blue eyes looked up from the laptop they saw a white blur move between two trees across the river. The blur was way too fast for him to be able to tell what exactly it was, so he remained still on his small rocky perch. The light breeze was hitting him directly in the face, so he blinked repeatedly, trying to clear his eye to make sure that the next time he saw the movement he would be able to catch what it was.

         He looked farther down the hill from where he had seen the initial blur and his breath caught in his throat. Stepping out from between the trees was a white wolf of medium size. It was somewhat thin, but with a beautiful, unblemished white coat. As he started breathing again he felt the need to cough building in his throat, and when the scratching became unbearable he let it out. When Mike’s eyes opened again, he looked to the far side of the stream, expecting the wolf to be gone. Instead, a pair of cold blue eyes looked back into Mike’s own. The wolf was staring back at him with its mouth open and its tongue hanging out, as if to say "Are you done now?" Instead of being frightened or startled, the animal looked somewhat amused.

         The wolf continued down the hill and stopped right at the side of the stream. His cold eyes never leaving Mike's face, he brought his head down and took a short drink from the cool, clear water of the stream. Mike watched from 30 feet away as the wolf's ears perked slightly and then it began to move quickly towards him. It stopped just short of him, whined once and then ran behind the rock that formed the overhang. Once back there it sat down and whined a few more times. Mike slowly walked towards the wolf and just as he got to the far side of the rock there was a series of tremendous flashes to the west, where he had just been looking.

         Falling back on his Army training, he immediately dove behind the boulders and fell facedown with his head towards the flash. Mike knew instantly what the flashes were, even without seeing the expanding dome that looked like a perfect ball of molten metal. Seeing a nuclear blast is something that can never be mistaken for anything else. From 50 miles away there was about 5 seconds where the world was still normal, in sound at least, then Mike felt his ears pop as the pressure pressed in heavily. He wrapped his arms around the rock above his head and pulled the top of his head tight against it. He could feel the rough side of the rock digging into the top of his head as he pulled tighter in anticipation.

         About seven seconds after the initial flash the rumble started. He could feel the ground underneath him start to vibrate. He could feel the pebbles starting to bounce off the tops of his boots, and he shrugged his shoulders so that the ball of his shoulder was pressed into his ears. Even with that, the sound that followed was deafening. The only thing Mike could think of was his instructor at Ft Lost-In-The-Woods describing the sound like 4 freight trains getting to the same spot in time at the same time, and all 4 of them carrying a full load of gasoline behind them.

         Mike was protected by the rocks for the most part, but could still feel the skin on the backs of his hands and forearms starting to burn. At this point he was absolutely certain he was going to die. Fifty miles was nowhere near far enough to survive something like this, especially with multiple weapons in the same area. As he was diving, Mike had seen the reflections of at least 5 separate detonations. He could feel himself being lifted off the ground by the vacuum the blast wave was causing.

         Just when he thought he couldn’t hold on anymore the wave reversed itself, confirming that it was indeed a high yield nuclear weapon that had gone off. The top of Mike’s head slammed against the rough rock, giving him a decent size cut across the crown of his head and dazing him slightly. At the same time his body was slammed into the ground, knocking the wind out of him. The last thing he saw was the dust starting to settle around him before everything faded to black.

         He woke to something wet slapping him in the face. As his eyes opened and slowly came into focus he realized the white wolf was still there with him, licking the side of his face. During the explosions he had forgotten about him completely. As he was able to see more clearly he stood slowly, shaking out the cobwebs in his head.

         He could feel the blood start to run down the back of his head from the cuts where he hit the rock. As he looked in the direction of the blasts, it was again confirmed that this was not a conventional weapon. He could see five malformed mushrooms rising slowly in the distance. They were mostly black, but still had flashes of red and orange in them. It reminded him of an all powerful dragon twining through a lethal storm cloud. That told Mike that he wasn’t out cold for long.

         As Mike looked around he could see several of the older, taller trees in the forest had been toppled by the blast wave. He couldn’t believe that this was happening. Everything had a vaguely dreamlike quality to it. Mike had trained for 8 years for this eventuality, but never thought it would actually happen. He broke into a run back to the cabin. There was a TV there that might have some type of explanation.