Ravaged Land - A Post-Apocalyptic Novel Read Free

gave no signs that it was weak. The others were gathered by the door waiting for instructions from Ryan. He flipped some switches that caused air to start circulating, and I could hear the humming and buzzing of other things starting up. Once he was satisfied it was all working as it was supposed to, he closed the last door that would keep us inside and the nasty weather outside. We were locked inside. Underground.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter two.
     
     
    I was freaking out about what just happened. I held it all in mainly because I didn’t know how to express it and I didn’t want to cause everyone else to panic any more than they already were. I was worried about my mom, was she home? Was she OK? I wished there was some way for me to communicate with her so I could tell her I was safe.
    “What was that?” The boy with black hair bellowed, “I’ve never seen anything like that!”
    “I think I counted five tornadoes at one time, and that’s just the ones I could see,” the pale boy added.
    Ryan turned on a small TV that was up against the wall centered within the living room. It was mostly cracks, whistles and gray fuzzy snow with little flashes of a grayish shadow of the newscaster who was overly dedicated to his job. He sat there spouting out everything that was going on outside, and for us, what was happening above ground. We all sat in absolute silence trying to make out what he was saying between noises and the static.
    “Seek immediate sheltkrrrrrrrrrrrrrr… tornadoes, clusters of them…wizzzzzzzrrrr… here is a look at the live radar…krrrrrr. Fwaappp area covered in red, this is no joke folks…whhhhhoooooooooo in all my years… fizzzz never seen something like krrrrrrrrrrrrrip.” It started to come in a little clearer for just a moment “We’ve had reports of homes pulled right off their foundation and thrown into neighboring states. Hail the size of watermelons and as sharp and deadly as axes falling from the sky. Downpours that are causing major flooding and even landslides. We’ve just, just…krrrrrrrrip no end in sight, stay safe out there krrrrrrrrrrr.”
    Ryan broke the silence, “I guess we’ll be down here for a while.” We all stared at the fuzz on the TV trying to make sense of it all. Everything outside was being torn apart and we didn’t know where our families were or if they were even OK. I couldn’t stop myself from thinking the worst— that our families hadn’t found shelter in time, or a good enough shelter. The storm came so fast. We barely made it to safety. And why didn’t the weathermen know it was going to be this bad? How lucky I had been did not escape me, I didn’t know how I’d ever thank Ryan if I survived this.
    His grandpa’s shelter seemed quite safe, I couldn’t even hear anything that was going on above us. I wasn’t sure how we’d know when it was safe to leave this place, but the storm couldn’t last forever. We would have to wait for someone on TV to come back and tell us it was OK, and then I could go find my mom.
    Ryan held out a bottle of water in front of my line of vision, “Drink?” he asked in a low voice. I nodded a thank you even though I had no intentions of opening it. I wasn’t thirsty even though my mouth felt like sandpaper. I’d drink when I got home. The water at my house was great.
    I had forgotten about the girl’s wound until I heard her making little gasping noises as she dabbed her shirt sleeve against her forehead. “It really hurts,” she whispered to the tall boy with a sniff, and he put his hand on her shoulder.
    I hadn’t noticed Ryan had left the room until he returned carrying a mirror and a first aid kit. “That’s a big scratch,” he said handing her the kit. Her bleeding had slowed significantly. She was lucky it hadn’t been worse.
    “Thanks,” she said taking the kit and handing it to the tall boy.
    I watched the radar on TV and tried to see if I could make anything out. With everything so