The Birds 2: The Return of the Birds

The coppyright for "The Birds" by Daphne du Maurier is held by Penguin Publishing House. I do not own the story or charecters which are depicted in the orignial. I am just continueing the story, and g

The Birds 2: Return of the Birds

Nat threw the empty packet on the fire and watched it burn. The birds continued to scratch and claw at the barricaded windows, the smaller of them continuing to slam themselves into the boards. Then a new sound began. This sounded like nothing Nat had ever heard before, or had he.
That loud booming noise. He knew he had heard it before. It brought him back to the war. He was sitting in the raid shelter with his mother. It was the only time that that damned thing was ever needed. And he remembered what that noise was. The loud whistling noise, then the deafening boom. Bombs. They had started dropping bombs, attempting to kill any birds that had roosted, or were resting. Didn't they realize that there were still people in the villages around? Or did they figure that the birds had wiped out everyone out.
He glanced over and saw his wife and children sleep. He got up slowly, as quietly as possible. He crept to the door under the stairs, which led to the shelter. He looked up, trying to remember how high the regulation ceilings for shelters were. He thought that the ceiling looked tall enough, but after so many years, how was he to remember. Nat went back up the stairs and found the tallest planks of wood that they had taken from the Triggs. He brought them back into the basement,and stood them vertically. They were ever so slightly too tall to stand up. "Perfect," he said. Nat pushed hard on the plank, getting it to stand up straight, reinforcing the ceiling above him. He repeated this with the rest of the tall planks, and moved onto his next step.
The fireplace in the corner was old, and hadn't been used since the family moved in, so he had to clean it out. He bent down on his knees, and started cleaning it out. He opened the fleu, which opened the fireplace up to the chimney of the kitchen right above him. As he grabbed some wood to start a fire, as to warm the cellar before moving his family down there, he heard the loud crash of something falling, and a scream.
He ran upstairs to see his wife rousing the children and fighting off about five birds with a stick from the fire. They had broken the barracade at the top of the stairs and were worming their way through one by one, very slowly. He grabbed Johnny and Jill, and motioned his wife to follow him. He brought them downstaris, and slammed the door shut behind him.
The fire had gotten the room up about three degrees and it was still freezing. He told his wife and children to stay put, and made his way back up the stairs. He ran out quickly, seeing about ten birds in the room now, all very small, finches and jackdaws, and grabbed a blanket and smothered them as quickly as possible. He shoved their bodies into the slowly dying fire, and grabbed the bread box from the kitchen table. He put the bread on the table and ran up the stairs to the second floor. Nat jammed the box into the small hole that was created and ran back down the stairs. He grabbed all the blankets he could, and went back down.
He glanced at his watch, and noticed it was midnight. What was going on? The birds should be at a lull right now, the tide was wrong. There was no time to worry about it, he grouped his family up near the fire and wrapped them in blankets.
He made his way back up the stairs, grabbed the wireless, a basket of food, and some more sticks. He got back to the bottom of the stairs, and could see the fear in his children's eyes. "They're dropping bombs," he explained, " we have to stay down here until the military stops."
The continueous explosions seemed to be getting louder, as well as the sounds of the birds slamming and clawing at the windows and doors. They were driving them out of the village, and towards the cottage, Nat thought. That means they're coming this way. Let's hope to God that they don't hit the house. They must know that there are still people out here, musn't they? But that was no worry to the big shots that were in charge. A few casualties in exchange of the lives of millions. Maybe they had sent out a bulletin on the wireless as we slept telling everyone to evacuate the area, or to get to the shelter at town hall.
Nat flipped on the wireless, with little hopes, and only got static. "Damn this thing," he yelled as he threw it across the room.
He had woken the children, who stared at him with great fear, and he felt sorry for them. He hoped this would end soon, this was nothing for a child to experience.
Then he heard it, the loud whislting, which signaled the dropping of a bomb. But this one was different. It was louder, almost as if it were on top of them. Then he realized what was happening. "Lie down, quickly," he whispered to his wife and children. They obeyed, and Jill covered her ears as the sound became louder. Everything seemed to slow, the sound of the explosion was deafening, the loud snap of the supporting beams cracking, and the foundation above them falling. Then nothingness.
The last bomb had been dropped, and had taken the lives of thousands of birds which were swarming a cottage on the outskirts of town. Four casualties were recorded from the bombing. The Hocken family, they must not have gotten the late night bulletin to go to the main shelter, their cellar being a full two feet too short to be considered suitable for a shelter.