Sirens at the End of the World

Fire.

Eyani, Oshtik and I whirled at the word, and began heading back toward the caves and the rest of the clan. We weren’t the only ones; the entirety of D’Keda swarmed away from the normal chores and moved to cluster near the edge of the cliff face, facing out toward the open grass.

I was surprised to see the fire was so big, considering how wet it had been for the last two weeks. Even from close to a kilometer away, I could easily see it crawling across the areas with dried grass, roiling plumes of dark smoke rising up from the flames. The wind was probably helping. It blew strongly toward us, riding the storm front, and bringing the scent of ash and char to our noses. The sky was an odd shade, even for Minerva; gray-green, with thick grey anvil-head storm clouds rolling across the sky. The horizon was quickly shading to orange as the fire grew.

I don’t have the first clue about fighting a grass fire. My brain was rifling through every incidence I’d ever heard of using fire breaks and removing fuel sources, but none of it seemed applicable to the spreading orange mass consuming the plain in front of me.

The clan was becoming incredibly skittish. I didn’t blame them. Except that most of them were turning their eyes to the sky and not the fire. I began to hear murmurs. “The clouds dance.” I didn’t understand. I looked down at Oshtik; her gaze was riveted skyward too.

At first I didn’t see it. I’ve seen thunderstorms all my life, and the clouds often swirl and roll as they sweep through. I thought nothing of the circular shapes twisting through the sky now. Lightning continued to crawl across the sky; the thunder sounded unnaturally loud to me. I raked my eyes across the clouds. The wind was getting very strong. Tiny bits of grass and leaves stung my legs. I could feel my heart beating faster: what was wrong? Where was it?

Then, almost like a living creature, a portion of the biggest anvil-head suddenly swept downward, forming a dark, roiling funnel shape.

My skin crawled. I felt the hair on the nape of my neck rise, and goose bumps rose along my arms and legs.

Lighting outlined the funnel cloud just as it touched down, throwing up a plume of debris. It twisted slowly, almost gracefully, and danced straight into the worst of the grass fire.

I’ve seen footage of tornados before. Everything seems almost like it’s in slow motion. Your brain can’t wrap itself around the immense scale of what you’re seeing. For a brief moment the scene in front of me felt like that. The tornado enveloped the flames, slowly pulling a column of fire up into the funnel. Pieces of burning debris flared around the base, orbiting the column in lazy circles.



It was eerily beautiful. There were a few flashes of blue or green snaking up the burning column, as the tornado rolled over a patch of ground rich in chlorine salts. It moved inexorably toward us, a fascinating, terrifying monster out of a meteorologist’s nightmare. I couldn’t tear my eyes away. The entire clan seemed frozen and the world felt silent. We stared in awe at the destruction moving toward us.

Then someone screamed. My brain shuddered to life. The clan exploded into a surging mass of shrieking, panicked bodies as everyone raced for the relative safety of the caves. I scrambled to grab the kids. Oshtik immediately slipped away and disappeared into the surge. I was screaming after her. Eyani was frozen, his eyes still riveted on the oncoming tornado. I picked him up bodily and pelted along the cliff face, toward shelter.

Debris from the storm swept past us in the high wind. A particularly sharp piece of something sliced past my cheek and I faintly registered that blood was dribbling down my face. I didn’t even feel the cut itself. My entire being was caught up in getting away from the horror behind us. I wasn’t thinking at all. I could feel my lungs surging, and my feet pounding the ground as if they belonged to someone else. There was nothing left of my mind except the need to run, run, run!

There was a growing roar behind us. I sprinted up the path to my cave. Larger debris was flying past now, and the world was narrowing to a hazy grey mass of ash and smoke. I ducked into my cave and crushed Eyani into the farthest corner, behind a bend in the rock. I wrapped myself around him and faced us away from the cave entrance. We huddled together, shuddering, as the roaring of the wind seemed to devour the world. It raged across the cliff face, making a loud shrieking sound as it passed between small flutes of rock.

It sounded like a siren heralding the end of the world.