Beauty and the Beaast

Amber: Attack

Yawning, Amber stretched. A kink in her back reminded her that she was not at home in her lovely double bed, but instead camping out on Julie’s futon. Her eyes slowly opened.

The lamp on the stand beside her shone dimly, casting a warm glow over still-snoring Darcy. The power must be back on, she thought. I wonder what time it is.

A glow flickered in the corner of her eye, so she turned to see what it was. Julie sat close in front of a mini tv on the floor, her arms wound tightly around her legs that were pulled up to her chest. Amber quietly got up and joined her on the hard concrete. Julie glanced at her, turned up the volume, and scooted back so she could see.

Chaos filled the screen. Images and video of houses, barns- even whole apartment buildings- being torn apart by the storms flooded out along with a very anxious newscaster’s voice. “…thousands of people are homeless with ten times that amount missing and presumed dead. The president announced in a press conference broadcast earlier today from his underground bunker that all able-bodied men are needed to dig people out of the rubble.”

The screen suddenly flipped to the President’s face, looking as though it was peering through a webcam. Somehow he still managed to look stately, though. His lips moved for a moment before the sound caught up with him. “Efforts are to be focused on densely populated residential areas and branch out from there. This is a catastrophe the world hasn’t seen since the ice age, but we are Americans, my people, and there’s nothing the American spirit cannot recover from. Be strong. Stay indoors unless absolutely necessary. I-,” here his voice broke for a moment, “I will be praying for you.”

The newscaster picked up where he left off, appearing with the horrible images still playing behind him. “As we will for you, Sir. Late last night President Marcus and his family were moved into their private underground bunker, but not before a cabinet shaken loose by the storm had fallen on their eleven year-old daughter. She was declared dead upon impact.”

Gasping, Amber covered her mouth with her hands. Not Lilly! The spunky President’s daughter had stolen the limelight from her father ever since he’d taken office three years ago. It had even been half-jokingly said that she was the only reason he’d won with such a landslide vote. And now she was gone.

“In case you thought we were the only country suffering from such radical weather conditions,” continued the man, “take a look at these pictures sent in by our agents around the globe.” A toppled skyscraper in Tokyo, the crushed roof of the palace in Russia, and a whole town in Britain submerged by a flood scrolled by one by one. With each image she felt sicker.

“Tell me, Amber,” Julie whispered. “Why would a good God allow something so horrible to happen?”

Answers swirled around in her head before disappearing as fast as they came in the shock of it all. Finally, she stammered out, “I-I just don’t know.”

They sat there together in silence for a half hour, just watching the heart-breaking footage. Even the newscaster was no longer bothering to talk. There wasn’t really anything more to be said.

And then it happened: the moment that would be ingrained into her mind forever. The first explosion hit.

Then twelve more.

She couldn’t feel more than two of them- and at first she thought they were more thunder-, but very quickly she knew she was dead wrong when the smartly dressed man on the screen started screaming at the top of his lungs while the camera rocked wildly. When things settled down, he grabbed his ear, listening intently to whoever was speaking before looking at the camera. A deer-in-the-headlights look fell over his face as he spoke. “This just in: an emergency broadcast from NASA announces the detonation of more than ten UFOs around the world. I repeat: UFOs are pummeling the earth’s surface! Stay indoors!”

A shudder ran through the camera. “What was that?!” he screamed at someone off camera. An indiscernible mumble made him exclaim, “An earth-quake? Here? Should we evacuate?” More mumbling. “I’m not going to sit here and go ‘down with the ship’, if that’s what you’re saying.” The mumbling grew louder. “Ok!” he growled back. “I get it. Keep rolling.” Without waiting for a response, he straightened his rumpled jacket and adjusted whatever receiver was in his ear before turning back to the camera. “Ladies and gentlemen, I have been informed that this building is quite safe and we will be continuing today’s broadcast.”

Julie began to cry.

Wrapping her arms around her, Amber tried to comfort Julie and push back the fear that was threatening to overwhelm them both. She tilted her head back to look at the ceiling. “What’s going on?” she whispered. “Is it the end?” It certainly seemed like it.

The newscaster, whose name appeared at the bottom of the screen as Fred, straightened his tie. “Why don’t we take a little commercial break, Rick? I need to call my wife to see if she’s okay.”

Immediately a commercial for Caribbean Cruises appeared, shining with sunshine and calm beaches. Julie choked on an unbidden giggle. “I don’t think they’ll be getting many customers this year,” she whispered.

Exhausted by tears, Amber didn’t say anything at first, but the more she thought about it the funnier it seemed until she just couldn’t hold back. They both collapsed on the floor in a fit of snorting laughter. Awakened by the noise, Darcy padded over and sat watching them, head cocked in confusion.

“It’s really not all that funny,” Julie gasped out between giggles.

“No, it’s not,” agreed Amber. “We must be going insane from too much… stuff.”

“’Stuff?!’” A new fit of laughter overwhelmed Julie. Amber soon followed.

By the time Fred came back on, they were almost under control with only the occasional giggle escaping. “The earthquakes have ceased for now and the numbers of wounded are slowly coming in. We’ll have an update within the hour. In other news-.” The mumbles came again from off camera. “What?” He squinted at whoever was mumbling. “Oh, my wife’s fine. Just shaken up. Anyway, as we continue this morning’s broadcast-.” Here he suddenly swallowed as though something were in his throat. He tried to say his line again. “As we continue-.” His face started to redden and he reached up to tug at his collar with a finger. “Is it getting hot in here to you?” he asked whoever had been mumbling. He picked up his notes and fanned himself with them. Every second his face reddened more.

“What’s going on?” Julie whispered.

“I don’t know.”

Perspiration drenched Fred’s face. He started clawing at his throat, a horrible choking noise filling the air. Froth appeared at his lips. And then, suddenly, it was all over. Fred lay slumped across his desk. The camera slowly tipped to one side and an arm slid by. A moment later screams erupted off-camera.

“What’s going on?!” repeated Julie. Amber didn’t even bother to answer, she was so shocked. Whining, her dog pushed his head under her lifeless hand.

Two seconds later a frazzled brunette rushed up to Fred’s body and grabbed the mic from wherever it was hiding. She held it to her mouth and screamed into it, “They’re dead! They’re all dead! All the men in the station have died! It must be a terrorist attack!” She burst into tears in front of the still sideways camera. “Shut the camera off. Shut it off, I tell you!” In an instant, all was static.

The girls just sat there, staring at the gray, white, and black lines squiggling across the screen. Then, with a shaking hand, Julie flipped the channel. Static. She flipped it again. More static. Every station she flipped to- except the pre-programmed ones- were nothing but static. She finally stopped trying, the station landing on some new Disney show. For a while they said nothing, then Julie said quietly, “At least maybe the children won’t know what’s going on.”

As much as Amber wanted to take comfort from that fact, she knew it was only a matter of time before they found out.

The sight of Fred slumped over his desk filled her mind. She thought of Fred’s wife. The poor woman! She’d probably just watched him die on tv. And yet, there was only one thought that echoed in her mind:

When would the horror end?