The Rains Wrath

A man caught in a flooding storm, meets an untimely demise or was it all in his mind?

The Rains Wrath

 

Rain drizzled down from the shifting grey clouds above.

Since dawn the sky played a melancholy melody of thunder and rain as droplets fell in various patterns, the thunderous boom maintaining a steady beat through the hours. Jimmy lit his cigarette as he stepped out from the driver side of his black Lexus ES.

The last fifty miles he’d spent speeding in and out of lanes hoping to reach his destination before it closed.

Standing outside his favorite pizzeria however, the lone car in the vast open parking lot was all he needed to know his speeding was in vain.

Confused by the time on his watch, he still had some time before the usual closing.

Wanting to see if there were any notices left for customers, he shuts his car door and heads for the entrance.

 

Carefully avoiding the growing puddles scattered in the lot, he makes it to the front and taped to the inside of the front doors reads a note.

 

‘Dear Customers,

We apologize for any disruptions in your dinner plans. A water pipe burst has forced us to close our doors for the evening; we humbly appreciate your patience at the time. We will be closed until further notice.

                                 Thank You Again,

-          The Patroni Family.’

 

“Well f**k” a frown upon his face Jimmy turns around, taking another drag from his cigarette

“There goes dinner plans for tonight.”

Taking one last puff, he looks up into the dark autumn sky as droplets of rain hit his face.

Heading back to his car he drops his cig, crushes it with his foot and returns to his Lexus as the puddles in the parking lot slowly start to overflow into each other.

----

No longer speeding down the freeway, Jimmy notices a slight change as traffic seems to have practically ceased to exist with zero cars taking up any of the lanes ahead. A few minutes pass by when the rhythmic patterns of the yellow stripped traffic line, mixed with the rain above, causes Jimmy to slowly drift asleep before violently jerking the wheel back into the far left lane.

His Lexus had hit the warning bumps on the side of the freeway, causing adrenaline to course through his veins, his vision taking on a sharper sight momentarily.

“Where are all the cars?” he wonders, taking a look through all of his mirrors.

Not a single headlight or taillight is in sight.

Gripping the wheel a bit tighter, Jimmy shifts lanes and pulls into the exit for Youngs Rd.

 

Picking up in strength, the rains physical changes can be seen and heard in the down pour, forcing him to apply the break more steadily with the red light approaching just up ahead; its brightness dulled down by the growing lack of view. Reaching a major road, Jimmy’s dumbfounded as he looks about and still doesn’t see a soul; even the stores whose large vibrant signs, stealing the gazes of any who passes by, were off.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen it this dead before” scanning the entire strip, he can’t help but wonder

“Did I miss a weather warning or something?”

Reaching forward with the thought in mind, he clicks the radio on and listens.

He’s met with static

Changing stations doesn’t alter the situation.

He runs a scan on all stations, still static.

Switching to satellite radio, he’s greeted by silence.

 

Sitting there in disbelief, the light changes to green but the car stays sitting.

Confusion fills his every being as questions batter back and forth within his mind

“I didn’t even fall asleep back there”

Looking out his back window, Jimmy watches as a tiny river of water runs down the exit ramp.

Not a single vehicle passes by.

“F**k it, let’s just get home and get some sleep”

Shaking his head and slapping himself a few times to wake up, he slightly lowers the driver window hoping the cold autumn air will keep him up

“Definitely don’t want to pass out around here”

The wheels on the Lexus ES skid in place momentarily before catching grip and accelerating through the red light, turning left onto the Youngs road, towards home.

---

Sugar pine trees align the road once one has passed the tiny down town strip of Brocksmith.

The small strip covers 3 miles but provides enough essentials, entertainment, and employer ship a small town like Brocksmith needs when there are only two thousand residents making up the entire twenty mile radius area.

 At night the roads can be a dangerous place for those who don’t know their way as sudden turns and drop offs make up many of the old roads. Animals themselves are another threat as deer, coyotes, fox and the occasional bear like to scurry around, rummaging for food and mates, depending on the season.

 

Racing like a bat out of hell, Jimmy preps for a turn that’s about to come up when a sudden boom causes his car to swerve, forcing him to slam on the breaks. Spinning out of control, he yanks on the emergency break and manages to get control of the car again. Wasting no time he pulls over to the side the best he can and steps out from the car.

His foot submerges completely in water; the endless rain starting to flood the road.

“Son of a b***h” he shouts while slamming the car door shut.

Splashing his way to the rear of his Lexus; already he can tell it’s a flat from the cars off set angling. Kneeling down to get a better look at the wheel, the light blue hue of his suede blue pants darken as he gets soaked right up to the thigh.

“Should have just stayed home” sighing he proceeds to look at the wheel.

“What the f**k did I run over?” Jimmy wonders out loud.

As he reaches down, he can feel torn up rubber between his fingers.

The remains of the tire are completely shredded, as if he’d run over a tiny explosive of some sort.

Looking back at where the initial incident occurred, he can’t get a good look as waves of heavy down pour continue to dissipate any sight that’s beyond ten feet in radius.

Sighing once more, Jimmy stands up and walks further into the downpour; kicking up water with every step as the water on the road has risen to his ankles now and shows no signs of letting up.

 

Not having driven very far from the accident, he reaches the spot within a few minutes.

Sunset’s final hour had been taken by the storm, leaving the sky in a grey, darkened early night, forcing Jimmy to pull out the mini flashlight on his keys.

The water level has risen to his shins now as he kneels into the flooding waters, feeling around slowly with his hands; mini flashlight clenched within his jaws.

Probing the area around himself, his left hand comes across something metal and dragging it up out of the water, Jimmy grows even more confused.

“Why would this even be here?”

Gripped within his left hand, he holds a two foot long piece of metal.

It’s right side is sharp and broken off while the top is curved and flat, as if a piece of guard rail had been broken off.

“Did this come from the highway?”

Looking around for any guard rails nearby, he still can’t see beyond ten feet as the rains relentless downpour shows no mercy for those caught in it.

 

Heading back to his car, with the piece of metal in hand, an uneasy feeling, as if being watched, slowly creeps over him, causing the wet hair on the back of his neck to stand.

Unable to shake the feeling, Jimmy picks up pace but the rising water makes it more difficult as the flooding road creeps to his knees, causing him to finally fall into panics grasp.

The distance between the accident and his car weren’t far apart and yet it feels like he’s been running for a while now.

“I should have seen the taillights by now” his panicking mind repeats, as if somebody had accidently bumped the spinning record player.

Panic taking over his entirety, Jimmy goes to turn left and run when a rush of water coming down the hillside to his right, sweeps him off his feet.

Submerged in water now, with the piece of rail guard still in hand, he pushes himself up out of the water, only to find that the flood had taken him to the other side of the road.

Fighting the force of the current, he manages to brace himself before trying to take a step, however, no longer being on paved road, the grass beneath him gives way and Jimmy slips face first into the water once more.

Feeling himself being pulled by the current he tries to twist and contort his body around before being viciously slammed into a tree.

The blow forces the air from his lungs, causing further strain in his fight to resurface.

A tight burning sensation in his chest about to give way, he breaks through the waters surface, just in time to gasp for air.

 

Being knocked from his grip when he was first swept up from the road, Jimmy watches as his keys, along with his flashlight are pulled beneath the current, casting him in complete darkness as night takes over.

The only reason he still held onto the piece of metal tightly was so he didn’t find himself being impaled by it, instead of killing him, it was the only thing keeping him above the water as he managed to lodge it into the very tree he was slammed into.

Fighting the strength of the rushing water with little strength he still has, Jimmy manages to wrap his left arm around the trunk of the tree.

The freezing water stealing his breath, he tries to dislodge the shard of metal, with the idea that maybe; he can use it to climb higher.

Gasping for air, he holds on as the strength of the flood picks up; only for the waters icy grasp to numb his fingers and causing his own grip to rapidly fade away.

Holding on in dear desperation he heaves his body above the water.

A shimmer of hope floods his body before the sight of his cars taillights, heading straight for him, sends an ice spike through his heart. The strength of the flood smashes the car straight into his right shoulder, yanking him from the tree and sending him flying back, deep beneath the water’s surface. The current yanks and jerks Jimmy’s body before he feels the last bit of his strength fade and his chest gives in as the most intense burning pain he’d ever felt in his life fills his lungs.

The water was as cold as ice.

---

Mrs. Taylor stood above her hostages’ burial casket.

A glass box with holes beneath, connecting to rubber hoses, sending water from the barrels of rain water she had collected; the other end of the hoses were deeply submerged within.

IV needles hooked to hallucinogenic drugs stuck out of her victims arms as his lifeless corpse lay at the bottom of his casket.

“That was for my son you piece of s**t”

Taking one last look at her deed, Mrs. Taylor turns around and heads for the door.

Blowing out the couple candles that light the tiny room, she seals the door and climbs the long dirt stair case leading above.