Overtaken

The wind whipped through her dark hair as Lydia watched the tumbling white clouds roll over her. They were still white, but she could see the gray in the distance—the dark promise of doom creeping closer in from the future. It was happening it again.

"It is vital you do not panic. Seek shelter on higher grounds. Head towards your closest evacuation dock. It is vital you do not panic…" The female robotic voice had kept repeating the same words, same messages, and same hopeless instructions over and over for the past 3 hours now. And everyone was panicking. Lydia silently rolled her eyes at whoever had come up with these instructions. Everyone was panicking, they would continue to panic, and no man-made female voice was going to calm anyone down. Seeking shelter on higher grounds isn't much of a help since the ground doesn't get very high on Isle Kosta, the high mountains are on the next island, Scinta. This brings up the last instruction, "head towards your closest evacuation dock." That must have been some cruel joke. It's not even worth going down to the docks at all, evacuation is a luxury for the rich only. The less rich and luxurious have to stay, ride out the Storms they send, and hope their deaths will be free of pain. Of course, for most of them, even that is too much to ask for.

Lydia wasn't panicking though, although her mother had been lost to the last Storm, she herself had still survived 2 of them. However this time, she would have to make it through with her little sister, Alice. Leaving the violent wind behind her, Lydia opened her front door, walked down the corridor and creaked open the last door on the left.

"Al? Alice? You awake?" She was greeted with silence. Not even breathing could be heard from inside. The oak door let out a little shriek as Lydia dared opening it a little wider.

"Alice are you-ah!" Lydia tumbled forward from the impact and landed with a little thud on the small bed.

"Yeah! You got her! Ha-ha!" Said an all-too familiar voice.

"I got you, Lyddie! I got you!" said an excited Alice, and Lydia wondered how peaceful it must be to be so clueless.

"Jayden, what are you doing here?! You're supposed to be at the dock!" He was the most idiotic boy she'd ever met. Jayden had an evacuation ticket, his family always bought one for him, but he would never use it. He'd just give it away to someone else, someone he didn't even know. He'd offered it to Lydia a few times, but she would never accept it to leave him behind—He was her best friend.

"And miss all the fun? No way."

"Jayden, you're an idiot. Even Alma left us. I found a note this morning, but I suppose it wasn't really a surprise." Alma was their appointed Guardian, assigned to them after their mother had been taken by the last Storm 6 years ago. Since it was against protocol for Them to leave a newborn child and 12 year old girl to fend for themselves, They had to appoint somebody.

"Oh come on, we'll get through this, just like we did the last two. And this time we get extra company until They rescue us." His brown hair was tousled and he had his smile pulled back in a sideways grin revealing pearly white teeth. But you could see in his green eyes he was panicking just like everyone else, simply keeping it hidden. The ground shook as a roar thundered from outside and the rain picked up.

Jayden gave Alice a reassuring hug and wrapped her in a blanket before he and Lydia quickly went around the small house, collecting anything they thought would be useful into their packs, all the while trying to ignore the howling wind and the annoying robotic voice telling them not to panic—even though they might not be alive in the morning. Lydia didn't fill her pack with too much, simply water, food, mirrors to reflect light, radios, and a picture of their mother. After Jayden had filled his pack up they went into the bedroom to get Alice.

"How much time do we have left?" he urgently whispered to Lydia before opening the door.

She thought back to the rolling dark clouds she'd seen, quickly gaining distance and mocking everyone's attempt to survive with their thunderous roars of laughter. "About an hou-" she was cut off by a deafening roar and a flash of lightening. Immediately after, the rain picked up and the power went out.

"None. Let's go!"

"Lyddie? W-w-what's going on?" Asked Alice in a small whimper, tears rolling down her rosy cheeks. Lydia didn't have it in her to answer. So she simply swung Alice onto her back as Jayden grabbed their packs, and the three of them headed to the roof of the neighbouring building. They sat there, the three of them, huddled together in they're blankets.

Then the waves came in.

Towering and huge, they rolled in one after another, growing in size each round. No matter how many times she'd been through the Storms, Lydia could never accept the screams that they left embedded in her memory. With her arm around Alice and her hand in Jayden's, she closed her eyes and dreamed of waking to a sunrise as beautiful as Alice's hair and waters as calm and safe as Jayden's eyes.

- Aria-Rose G.H Rhuins