Cascade

Stuck In Paradise

I looked out the window, frozen in awe as I watched the spectacle unfold in the streets bellow. It had seemed like a normal enough event when the sky opened up and the rain poured down in an unending torrent. It happens often enough, a summer thunderstorm here or a sudden rain there. It wasn't until the sound of shrill screams reached the eighth floor that I looked up from my work.

I had slowly made my way to the large window in the conference room to stand among my startled looking coworkers. I stood there with them staring out at the oddly green colored rain as it drenched the world. It seemed to eat away at the paint that colored the city, making it ooze down the walls in sticky threads with an acidic hiss and leaving oddly colored smoke in its wake.

But, down below amidst the discolored mist was what made me freeze in place, heart pounding. People were shouting and screaming as they pointed to others on the street who were hunched in on themselves. It was hard to tell at this distance, but it almost looked like there skin was bubbling as if it was being boiled. Some of them looked to be slowly melting, a growing puddle of red-ish black goo growing at their feet as screams ripped from their throats.

The other looked like they were changing size and shape, their coloring molting and shifting as they cringed and shrieked. Some of them collapsed to their knees and clutched their heads with white knuckles as horns ripped themselves out of their skulls.

The people passing by either stood frozen or screamed at the sight of the bloody masses that writhed and twitched as body parts ripped themselves violently into existence. Their clothes tore as their bones snapped and crackled into new places, sometimes breaking the skin to let streams of blood leak out onto the already flooded streets.

I watched as the streets slowly turned a sickly brown and the people down bellow who weren't crumpled over in pain slowly started to regain their senses before fleeing the scene in a panicked rush to safety.

My coworkers were silent as we watched, frozen, as the rain poured down upon the bleeding city.

                                                                            ~ ~ ~

I felt a gentle breeze brush against my bangs, moving them to tickle against my nose. I scrunched up my nose in an effort to get rid of the feeling. I breathed slowly as I shifted more toward consciousness, a cold feeling slowly seeping into my skin. Sometimes my bedroom would get pretty cold in the winter, but I never remembered it being this cold. My, it also felt an awful lot like grass.

I let out a quiet sigh and shifted. A dull pain slowly bloomed in my shoulder and I shifted some more in an effort to get more comfortable. As I shifted the pain slowly grew worse until it became a sharp stinging and I was forced to wake up. Groaning I blinked my bleary eyes open and raised a hand to rub them. When I opened my eyes again I paused.

I was lying on my back in a patch of grass under a large glass roof. The glass was cracked in places with vines and plants spilling in through the larger holes.

Slowly I sat up to take a better look around. There were plants growing with wild abandon all around me. Large tropical ferns waved in the breeze from the broken windows and the cracked tile floor was spotted with grasses and flowers that had pushed through the grout. The sunlight streamed in from the ceiling and reflected off the dew on the surrounding foliage making all the plants look like they were sparkling.

Some kind of green house? How'd I end up here?

I looked up to the ceiling to try and tell what time it was. The glass was caked with dirt but I could still make out the blue of the sky. What had I been doing before? I blinked slowly at my brightly colored surroundings as I tried to recall. I'd been going on a run with Cyber, Branches, and Mat. We were coming back and then?