The Rain ...TRA2018

Collin could see the clouds converging on the horizon. It was not good news. Back on Earth, rain was normal, it was wet, it was water. Here on Optima Prime, the rain was deadly. His wife Anne grabbed his hand and held his arm as she approached from the side. Both stair out over the distance. If the winds held out, maybe, just maybe, their farm would be spared. It wasn’t a risk either was willing to take though. “Anne, we need to take the animals down into the bunker. Get the kids and start doing that. I’ll work on moving our provisions down.” She simply nodded. Initially they had been estatic to move from Earth. Both of there families had for generations farmed on Earth, then Mars, and even a few cousins had biodomes on Venus. Optima Prime though was not SOL. Some say it was the terraforming that mutated the organisms here, some say, it could have been Aliens……. Who knows……… What Collin did know though was that in the clouds, airborne bacteria thrived that infect anything Earthly. From cows, horses, sheep, even the dogs and cats, to rats. Anything from earth, it would infect. Incubation was about 1 day, first the fever, next piss, #, and vomit everywhere. Then the eyes. That’s when you knew it was time to put them done. The blood vessels in their eyes would burst, turning them red. The final stage was derangement. That’s when the victim attacked anything. Nobody was immune. There was no compromising. There was no pleading. After the rains, people had to stay in their bunkers for three days before coming out. After 2 weeks, teams would form to go to each other’s bunkers. Most of the time, the deranged were dead by then. If not, at least they would be weakened enough to put them down without starting the cycle again. Collin still remember the last rain, he shivered from what he remembered. The Garrets were about three miles away. They let their dog into the bunker after it had started raining. It was infected, attacked the Tom. Tom got infected and ended himself. The two toddlers though…. They just didn’t understand that they needed to stay away from the body. Both got infected, and by the next day had attacked the rest of the family in their sleep. All of them were reduced to deranged cannibals, and there was enough of them in the bunker isolated from the animals to keep the strongest feed till rescue arrived. Three of Collins friends were infected after the fact. They put all the deranged down, but the hardest part was shooting his friends in the back of the head and having to tell there families he had burned their bodies. He was sick to his stomach. He swore he would never go out to check on anyone again. The people, the animals. They could all die in the bunkers. He’d watch out for his own. Still he couldn’t continue to think about such things. He looked at the storm. It was coming. He needed to work faster. He had maybe two hours before they would need to take cover.

Collin finished his work, then helped his wife and kids into the bunker. There was an entrance under the house, and an entrance in the barn. They finished getting all there animals in. Sealed the barn entrance, then went for the house. Everyone was accounted for so they went in. Sealed the entrance, then Collin went to the control room to monitor the cameras. Nothing up close on the farm, everything quiet. Then he saw it. There was a herd of sheep moving away from the storm towards his farm. There was a boy there was it Alex? Oh my God, at the pace there were going, the storm would over take them. Alex had been one of his friend’s sons. He told Anne what was going on unsealed the house, got in the truck, and drove over and picked up Alex. The storm was almost on them. He turned the truck and raced back to the house. Then he saw it. A drop, then another, and another, they were stuck. Quickly he shut the vents on the truck, too late, he couldn’t go back to the farm. He got on his phone and called Anne. She sealed the bunker. He drove out to middle of the field. If the rain came fast, and the skies cleared, maybe things would dry out quickly enough for him to make a run for it. He turned to Alex, that’s when he noticed it.
Me: “Alex, are you sweating?”
Alex: “Ya a little bit, I was trying to get the sheep to your bunker when storm came up on me..”
Me: “Did any rain touch you.”
Alex: “I don’t think so, I was going pretty fast.”
Collin touched Alex’s head. Fever……..
Me: “Your running a fever.”
Alex: “It’s just from me running all this way. I feel fine.”
It was raining hard now. Even if Collin wanted to throw him out of the truck, he would just wind up infected. They were stuck with each other. All he could do was hope he wasn’t infected. That both sat and watched the storm pass. Finally, the rain stopped. It was still cloudy though. Things would dry off slowly for sure. Night came, and Alex went to sleep. Collin stared out over the horizon. He couldn’t see hardly anything in the dark, and he didn’t dare turn on a light. That would be seen for a mile at least. The sheep that Alex abandoned no doubt are probably stage two by now. Now dangerous yet, but come morning they no doubt would be. He didn’t dare to sleep though, what if Alex was infected. He could wake up in the middle of the night to this kid trying to take a bite out of him. No, he would stay up. Every single noise in the darkness was some horrible cannibalistic animal. Collin was petrified, and worse yet he needed to pee. Alex was still asleep, so he took a bottle out, and proceeded to do his business. Just was let stream flow, Alex turned his head. Oh #, he couldn’t see the white of his eyes.
Me: “Alex, you mind turning around for a second.”
Alex: ……………
Me: “Alex, can you give me some privacy please?”
Alex:……………..

I quickly finished zipped up, sealed the bottle, just then Alex lunged for me, I was more than twice his size, but he was scratching, clawing, trying to bite. I wrapped my hands around his throat, then squeezed. Tighter, tighter, tighter. I squeezed the life out of him. His hands stopped moving, his legs stopped flailing. Finally he died. God I hope I was quiet enough. I was exhausted. Was that white over in the corner? Yes, it was. I turned the truck on. I turned the lights on. The sheep had found me…… They had all turned. The attacked the truck, I put it in gear and raced out of the field, hitting several of them along the way. What was I going to do? I couldn’t lead them back to the farm, nor could I take them anywhere else. I pulled the truck over then turned off the lights. Hopefully if I was quiet they’d lose interest and look for something else. The Optima Prime was rising. A few more hours and the suns heat would burn off the moisture and kill the bacteria. I decided to sleep.

I woke up around 3, and proceeded to look around. Everything looked dry. Alex was starting to stink now. No obvious animal around. I opened Alex’s door and shovel him out. Then quickly closed the door behind him. I started the truck up, and started driving around to check for damage, or animals. I did have my pistol, but opening the windows to shoot would be dangerous. Better to run stuff over. I called my wife to check on her and the kids. No response…..could be they tried to conserve batteries…..I’d try again later. I went back to the field the sheep were in, the dead had been ripped apart, only thing left was bones and some wool here or there. Looks like they were following the road though to the neighbors farm. I drove

up on them and proceeded to spatter half a dozen more. There was only 2 left now at this point. But they were positioned in the middle of the dying and dead eating one of there own. I’d have to wait. I sat there and watched, their once white wool now drenched in blood. I hated this planet. Finally, my opportunity came. I plowed them over, and started driving back to the farm. All of a sudden the truck stopped…….. tried to start again. No dice, again. Still nothing. Can’t get out yet, need to wait one more day. Tried the radio, Anne still wasn’t picking up. Back on earth we would have a broadcast radio station giving out information. Here though, those things seemed to attracted the lightning, and that brought the storms, and the storms brought the rain….. no one wanted that job, so it never developed…. I put on a cd and tried to snooze. I woke up in the dark, battery was dead. Truck was dead. Nothing to drink except my own piss. No thank you, I was really starting to hate this planet…. Nothing to do, but sit and think, memories of past storms. The good times and the bad. Playing games with my kids in the bunker. I should have left Alex to die…….The sun came out, I shouldn’t leave the truck until at least 3-4 though. It would take me an hour or two to get back to the house. My pistol could handle small stuff, it was the big stuff that I would have issues with. I could wait a day, but that would mean drinking my own piss. Who wants to do that? No, I’d leave the truck.
I opened the truck, nothing crazy was charging after me, I stepped out slowly and stretched. I looked at the outside of the truck, looks like some sheep leg had knocked the fuel line loose, no fuel, no engine. If the battery wasn’t dead I could have probably driven home……I started walking…. It was just getting dark when I got home. I went around the house, no forced entries, I went in, to the bedroom on the second floor blockade the door. Went to the bathroom, dragged a dresser in with me, along with some blankets and a change of clothes. Blockaded that door, go a shower, got dressed and went to sleep.

I woke to a mouse biting finger, son of a bitch. I killed it. I was bleeding. Was I infected? I undid the doors and went down to the bunker. I entered my code. A message appeared from Anne on the Console. Mouse got in, infected us. By the time you get here we would have turned, don’t come in. I sat down by the doorway. I was dead, my family was dead. I went up stairs and called my neighbor, gave him the password to the animal vault. Explained what happened. I went down to the bunker, opened the door and stepped inside. The vault was black. I couldn’t see anything. I closed the door behind me and called out for Anne. I heard some sounds and through the darkness I could make out a silhouette. I didn’t want to see her face now. If she was alive she had probably been feeding on the kids. She approached me. I pulled out the gun and shot her. She dropped. I heard a scream. Clara’s scream, my daughter. I called out to her. She made her way to me. She told me how her brother was the first infected, then mom, then her. I sat and listened. I consoled her. Told her everything would be ok. Then I put the gun to her head and pulled the trigger. I then put the gun to my own. I hate this world. I hate the rain.
Today, on channel 11 news. Another case of derangement. It appears that the bacteria that causes hallucinations and infected a family today. A farmer turned the gun on his family and himself. One of his neighbors got a call from him, and immediately called the police. Sadly, they were not in time to take them into custody. In other news, the CDC warns people to stay calm, if you are delusional, remember, there is a cure, it can be fixed. If anyone begins showing symptoms, immediately call emergency services. They can help. Mosquito sprays are ramping up to kill off populations, if you are bit, please seek immediate testing. To date no one has died of the disease itself, only from killing themselves, or from attacking others.

Whoa! Strong powerful imagery, characters, twist, ....

a reply to: camain

I kept thinking about the Palmer Eldritch story through that. You nailed the grim awfulness of that guy's life really well.

a reply to: SprocketUK

Yea I just kept thinking through it all, when did he actually go mad? was he actually on another planet? he said there was no radio broadcasts on his planet, could he actually be on Earth since there was a CDC? Did he strangle some kid looking at him weird cause he was peeing in a truck right beside him?

It just got me thinking of how somebody with mental illness would behave, or react to everyday life.

Like giving someone with Schizophrenia a magic mushroom or something, and they had a bad trip.

Camain

Gory, but interesting and unique. I liked it.

A little too "guts and eyeballs" for me, but good story.