The Weight of the Rain

Chapter 2

   It was very, very dark. Or at least that's what Strad remembered. He also remembered something that, didn't make sense. He remembered fire. Fire everywhere, he could have sworn his Buick was on fire as well... not the Buick. he remembered looking away from the garage and seeing a mound of trash where the house was, he also remembered having the distinct, disconnected thought of wondering if he had taken out the trash. Wait he was moving. 

   Someone put him in the bed of a truck, there was yelling and someone said, "But they were still breathing!" that's when Strad gained some consciousness and remembered a little more, where was his brother...? He was sitting beside him... they were in the Buick! 

   Strad looked back at the Buick.

   oh no. that was all Strad's damaged brain could come up with. 

   Then someone coughed. Strad turned himself over with a large amount of pain and saw his brother there. Something was wrong with him, why was he so dirty? why did he have blood on him, why were his eyes closed? Oscar! what are you doing? He wanted to shout, what was his brother playing at? He was fine! He just talked to him! Then suddenly his head gave another throb and he decided he wanted to sleep. So that's what he did.

   For the next 3 months.

   This time he woke up, there was a lot more clarity to it. It was bright, no wait, that was just the light. Strad turned away from the ceiling and noticed walls of stone. This wasn't right. He sat up trying to ignore the pain around him. Everything seemed bleak, with no real color, He sat up, aware that he was not at home. that's when the memories came, or at least the few that he had of what happened. He suddenly was afraid, where. was. he? it seemed like a concrete box, with nothing but a steel door with some bars as a glimpse of the outside world, there was a single light in the ceiling covered by steel bars. He was trapped, imprisoned, and he had no idea why. 

   Strad noticed his glasses on a desk and was about to grab them when he realized he could see perfectly fine, he stopped, he could see better than he ever remembered. 

"huh," he said to himself and laid back down on his mattress and started to close his eyes.

   Footsteps sounded outside the door, and Strad sat up from his mattress laid across the floor, The steel door creaked and opened to reveal a woman standing there with a clipboard, dance drew up in a line of disapproval, Strad doubted that look would ever fade, even if that woman tried to smile, though he doubted she would ever do that as well.

   she looked him up and down once and then said, "Well, come along," she said as if this was normal, and walked out the door, leaving Strad to come on his own.

  "hey- oh never mind," Strad stood up and followed the woman. He walked out into a hall, straight across from him was a barred window with a glance to the outside world, large pine trees, with misty air. The Woman was already down the hall, and Strad had to jog to catch up. "where are we going? who are you? what the hell is this place?" Strad took a breath and then waited for the woman to respond. She acted as if he wasn't even there. Face forward, swift strides. So he remained silent. Finally, they reached an elevator and the woman pressed a card to a touch screen, and a keypad showed up. The woman took a second to glare at Strad and he respectfully looked away, then she typed in a code and the elevator began its descent down.

  It felt like ages before the elevator stopped and he and the woman left the elevator, the floor they ended up on looked completely different from where they had come from. A small gasp of surprise left Strad's lips as they entered a floor with individual rooms of glass, multiple scientists, and other people in white robs bustled about the floor like ants on an anthill.