The world seemed to be still, as though it was collectively taking a deep breath like a child preparing to receive a shot from a doctor. The red glow that was rising in the sky, visible through the fog and directly above the Midwest Generation electrical power station had formed into a glowing ball of energy expanding in the night sky. The energy swelled, twisted, and separated as it grew. Its color started off as bright red, but then changed into a fiery orange that was almost yellow towards the center and a cooler looking deep red along the edges. It’s twisting and separating continued until it formed into a horrific fanged face that resembled a monstrous jack-o-lantern. This image hung in sky for several minutes before it slowly faded into the mist.
“This night just keeps getting better.” He said sarcastically.
Despite the darkness, Reggie decided to continue to his dorm room at H. F. Melctoste Hall. The moon was still providing sufficient light to see and he made his way across campus without any incident. He was only about fifty feet from the dorm when the electricity came back and the lights and sounds from before returned. It removed the eeriness that he was beginning to feel and brought back some much needed feelings of comfort.
Although he could hear other residents throughout the building, his path to his basement room was undisturbed and he was able to enter without incident. His room was actually what they called a shared suite, which meant there were four bedrooms connected to a central common room with a mini kitchen, refrigerator, and a community bathroom. His room was in the corner farthest from the common room and bathrooms.
Melctoste Hall was one of two newer buildings that the university had recently built to accommodate a growing student population. His building suffered from being booked a semester before it was really ready and as a result, rooms in the basement didn’t get windows. This initially caused a great debate at the university on the grounds of safety and fairness, but when the pricing was lowered and the age requirements increaseded for students in those rooms, most opposition ended. Reggie grabbed a drink and headed to his bedroom.
After a few sips of water he throws his backpack and belongings on his bed and looks in the mirror. His shirt is torn and covered with dust, dirt, and dried blood. His jeans don’t look much better. His hair is matted down and caked with dirt, blood, and pieces of glass and his face is suffering from numerous cuts and small bruises.
As he studies himself in the mirror his shock finally wears off and he begins to feel all of his fatigue and pain from the past two hours. His hands are sore and burning, and his shoulder and neck are both stiff and sore from the seat belt in his car. He’s also incredibly hungry.
Before he did anything else, he decided a shower should be his first priority followed by some clean clothes and then something to eat. Looking over what he has left in his food cabinet, he settles for a ham and cheese sandwich and a bowl of waffle-flavored cereal. After two helpings of each, he washes it down with a quart of orange juice. It is a typical meal for him and his roommates. After eating, he decides it’s time to see what the news is saying about all of this, especially with Halloween being the next day.
Every channel, both on the TV and radio is nothing but static or snowy screens. Thinking that maybe there might be a loose connection to the TV, he triple checks all the cables and wires, but everything appears to be correctly in place. He switches back to the radio, trying to find some frequency to come in but despite a few instances of brief interruptions, he finds only static, and that includes the universities own radio signal. The thought of not being connected to the events outside, as horrible as they were, begins to unnerve Reggie. Slowly, he’s beginning to wonder if he is totally alone from the rest of the world.
While contemplating that thought he grabed his portable radio and decided to head up towards the roof to try and get a clear signal. Most of the dorm's residents are in their rooms behind closed doors. As he passes the rooms he hears different things; some people are talking in low hushed tones, others are crying and trying to console each other, and then there is the damned and dumb who are using this as an excuse to party and act irresponsible. Sadly, there are more of them than others.
Once he makes it to the roof, he goes to the center of the building and tries to find a signal on the radio. Almost everything is static, but he is able to get two faint signals that are completely useless to him. One is apparently a Hispanic radio station that’s playing some song, but there must be trouble at their studio because the track is skipping and playing the same few notes over and over. The other signal he picks up is someone frantically talking in a language that sounds like it’s European. He can’t make out anything that the man is saying, but his fear and doom are conveyed clearly.
Reggie’s feelings of isolation have increased at this turn of events. The feelings of exhaustion and pain weigh even heavier as his last hope of finding information seems to have left him. Walking to the edge of the roof, he looks out at the trees and after a few minutes of pity and fear he notices that the only lights in the area are those at the university, apparently the backup generators are keeping the entire campus powered.
“Total blackout! That’s what must be happening.” He thought to himself.
He had just started to feel better about the situation and was contemplating how long the university could run on the backup generators, when he heard a screaming voice in the air behind him accompanied by the familiar flapping of leathery wings. Just over the trees of the field behind the residence hall, he could make out a nightmare approaching through the air. Being six stories above the ground gave him better visibility due to the mist being thinner at this altitude.
The voice belonged to a woman, wrapped up in a tentacle that was attached to an inky sphere with wings. This creature had just pulled the woman out of the car that it had wrapped up in another arm that ended in a giant taloned claw. The car was almost crushed in half by the power of that claw. The blob that was the main body of the creature seemed to contract and expand with each heavy flap of its wings. Reggie couldn’t see any eyes, but he could make out dozen of gaping maws with rows of pointy yellow teeth.
One central mouth was larger than the rest and opened wide while the tentacle brought the doomed women into it. Her final screams dominated the air of the campus, hanging in the mist as though it might become a permanent fixture, but they became muffled as the mouth closed down on her with a wet, bone-snapping sound. Reggie could hear shouts and screams coming from a few of the rooms below from people who had also witnessed that scene. When the monstrosity got to within one hundred yards of the building, he could hear the crunching and tearing of the women’s body as it brought her remains into one of its smaller mouths.
For reasons he wasn’t sure of, fate picked that moment for his radio to pick up a signal from the Emergency Broadcast System. As it’s loud, high pitched screech filled the air, thousands of eyes blinked open on the creature and it began to flap towards Reggie and the rooftop.
The night’s ability to paralyze him was no longer effective after all he’d seen and been through; instead he looked around for the door down stairs. Judging by the speed of this latest nightmare, he saw that he had no chance to make it to safety before the creature made him his next snack. Reggie decided to try and run to an open area of the roof so that he could jump and dodge out of the creature’s way as it came to him.
Looking over his shoulder as he ran, he saw another tentacle grab at the car in its claw and rip off one of its tires and throw it at him. Its aim was poor as the tire hit the roof more than twenty feet from him. As he stopped in his tracks, he realized he was still holding the radio that had gotten the monster’s attention in the first place. Having no other plan and nothing to lose at this point, he flung the radio over the opposite side of the building and made a run for the stairway door.
Each step he took towards the door was accompanied by a whoosh and flap of the creature’s wings as it flew closer and closer and then finally over and past him. He never looked back as he got to the door and ran inside. He didn’t stop until he had exited the stairwell a couple of floors below as he was half convinced that thing could ooze it’s way in and get him.
The floor he entered was full of people talking about what had just happened and the end of the world coming. People were exchanging ideas and theories and asking Reggie what he knew since he had been out on the streets when this started. As everyone was talking, a girl came out of the stairs from the floor below and started shouting.
“The Internet is up! People from all over the world are talking about what’s going on!” she said in a hurried manner.
Instantly the hallway began to empty as people ran back to their rooms to get to their computers. Reggie followed suit and went downstairs to his own computer. Most of the major American news sites were down, but he figured this to be a side-effect of the power outages. Most of the reports were coming in from Europe and Asia and remote parts of the
As Reggie searched, he repeatedly came across reports over the last few days of strange creatures and troubles around the globe.
A Warning of Terror or Elaborate Hoax?
By Cian McCormack, RTE
Published: October 26th, 2007
Two days after the strange phenomenon in
British officials aren't releasing any information on the group that calls themselves The Druid Council of the Meath, saying only that they are investigating the authenticity of their threats and that they have yet to determine who was responsible for the explosions along the M3 road last week.
The next report he read picked up on the previous article and shed more light on the subject:
Rebellion in
By Shane Hegarty, The Irish Times
Published: October 28th, 2007
After British authorities publicly stated that the Druid Council of Meath was unable to back up the threats it made, they forced construction to resume on the M3 road in the disputed section of
As emergency agencies responded to this new attack, a robed figure claiming to be the ancient Celtic Druid Curoi mac Daire, somehow appeared on British TV and made the following announcement:
“The British government and their Irish puppets may very well have doomed the rest of the world with their ignorance and careless actions, but The Druid Council of Meath will not stand by and allow for our ancient land to be overrun by the forces of evil.
From this point forward, we will now be the controlling sovereignty of
Shortly after this message was delivered over both television and radio airwaves, all government buildings in
British forces are already organizing and preparing for an assault on the ancient ruling site of Celtic kings.
As Reggie contemplated exactly what this meant, he looked at his clock and saw that he had been back at the dorm for an hour and he was more afraid than ever.
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