Final Days (MCSM Fanfiction)

Chapter 16 - Black Out

5 Days Before Incident

Jesse stood in front of one of the large windows of the Order Hall, staring outside. Her brown eyes were wide, watching in horror as she witnessed the one thing that she prayed wouldn't come.

Snow.

Fine white snowflakes were spiraling down from the dark grey sky, coming to rest on the dying grass outside. Strong gusts of wind were throwing about the small particles of frost, scattering them across the landscape.
As if things weren't getting bad enough already, Jesse had been terrified of this happening.

"Jesse!"

Jesse didn't even blink, hearing Petra's horrified call of her name. She heard footsteps thudding down the stairs, sounding like Petra was taking them two at a time.

"Jesse, did you see what's going on outside!?"

No doubt, Petra probably also just woke up to that shock. Just like Jesse did, a mere 15 minutes ago.

"Yeah." Jesse responded softly, not tearing her gaze away from the window. "Snow..."

She heard her friend's puffing breath as Petra stopped beside Jesse, eyes locked on the window as well. What made it even worse, was the fact that Jesse could see Petra's breaths coming out in faint white puffs.

"Damn, I can't believe this." Petra breathed, her blue eyes wide as she stared at the falling snow outside.

"With you on that one." Jesse replied, her voice low and emotionless.

Sighing softly, Jesse turned away from the window and trudge over to the nearest couch, sinking down on it. She leaned her head in her hands, taking in a long, shaky breath.

The past few days had been so horrible, Jesse had almost forgotten about the sick horse she'd been trying to nurse back to health.
They had heard nothing from Olivia ever since she left for Redstonia, and everybody were worried for the engineer. Jesse had found herself lying awake at night while it thundered outside, thinking of all the horrible things that could have happened to her friend.

The weather had been getting worse as well, it rained almost every single day. It seemed to have finally gotten cold enough for the rain to change into actual snow.

Jesse looked slightly up, hearing a grunt as Petra flopped down on one of the couches as well. Only then did she notice that Petra was still in her sleepwear, her bandanna simply pulled over her bundle of uncombed hair.

"You should probably go get dressed." Jesse said softly, resting her head back into her hands. "It's cold."

Petra snorted slightly. "Thank you for informing me on that last bit, no other way I would have known."

Jesse couldn't help but smile. At least she had Petra's sarcastic company to keep her spirits up.

There has been no new leads as to where the unnatural weather was coming from. The cold had begun flooding in from every direction around them. It was like the earth had begun to freeze over and Beacontown was the last area to get closed in on.

"Come on Jesse, cheer up." Petra said, sticking her leg out and giving Jesse's knee a prod with her foot. "Just consider this a... really cold winter? I'm sure it's going to clear up eventually."

Jesse simply shook her head, not even managing a smile at Petra's attempt to make her feel better.

She had hoped the same, that things would clear up. But it was coming too suddenly, too severely. Even if it did manage to clear up, she wasn't sure how they were going to pull through the rest of the winter. Beacontown wasn't prepared for that type of harsh weather conditions.