The Sky Demon

As Tom looked out of the bedroom window, he saw one of its hinges had broken. Leaving the hinges for a moment, he turned his attention to three miles away, to the beautiful English village of Bridgeminster, with a population of just fifty-five. His wife, Lucy, was visiting her mother there in her Mini Cooper; and would probably be there soon. Because their house was higher up on a hill, Tom had a good vantage point, and, with his binoculars, he looked out for Lucy arriving in the village. A moment later, through the binoculars, he saw Lucy’s Mother come out of her quaint garden from her thatched cottage to greet Lucy as she pulled up outside in her car. 

Shortly after, it started to rain and became windy, blowing nearby trees in Tom’s garden, swaying them to and fro as the wind got stronger. Finally, thick, dark cumulus clouds appeared, and the rain now became heavier and heavier, blowing into his bedroom, soaking the curtains. He quickly closed the window, not observing the damaged window hinge had loosened further.

Tom continued to look through his binoculars at the village through the window. After a few minutes, the rain stopped, and the dark clouds moved away, heading towards the direction of the village. He opened the window again and continued to look through his binoculars. He saw the now thick, ominous black clouds descend and envelop the village, with lightning flashes darting in and out of the clouds. Shortly afterward, he heard a distant clap of thunder, and after a few minutes, saw the clouds strangely lift above the village and dissolve in front of his eyes.

All that was left of the village was the tops of the roofs and chimneys of the cottages just poking above a body of water, like a submarine’s periscope. Seconds later, they were gone.

Tom covered his face in anguish as he thought of Lucy and her mother. Tears ran down his cheeks as he now believed everyone in the village, including Lucy and her Mother, had probably drowned.

In a moment, another strange, dark cloud formed, and this time it seemed to be heading straight in his direction!

As he looked at it in his binoculars, he could see it was increasing in size. Suddenly, out of nowhere, another cloud formed just above it. “It must be a few miles across!” He thought.

To his left, about a mile away, he spotted a farmer in a field in his red tractor; it was his old friend William. Just then, Tom felt a shiver run down his spine as a feeling of foreboding came over him. He turned his attention to the odd clouds again, but they were gone. As he panned the binoculars, his face grew pale and cold beads of sweat poured down his forehead; when he spotted the strange cumulus clouds that were now twice as big as before were now drifting towards the farmer’s direction. He quickly grabbed his mobile phone and called his friend. “Come on! Come on! William, answer. Why don’t you answer?” What seemed like ages, suddenly his friend answered - “Hi, mate, how are you? What do you want?” Tom shouted,

”Look, Just listen, and believe me that you’re in danger!” Get out of your tractor now and run like hell towards my place.”

”But why? Tom, what’s wrong?” “Look above to your right now. Can you see those black clouds?”

”Yes, just some ordinary rain clouds!” His friend replied nonchalantly.

“No!” Tom exclaimed. “They are not typical clouds. They just flooded the village a few minutes ago!”

Just then, Tom checked where the clouds were in his binoculars - “OMG!” “Run! Run! For your life, William! They’re above you!”Tom Screamed. William jumped off his tractor and made for Tom’s house.

He was halfway down the field when he saw a flash of lightning; then he heard a loud clap of thunder; seconds later, heavy drops of rain started to pour down on him. Looking up, he saw the now-massive, thick, black cloud descending upon him.

Tom saw through his binoculars, William struggling to escape as he wadded through the waterlogged field with his heavy mud-caked boots. Suddenly he saw a lightning flash and again heard the ominous sound of another clap of thunder. Afterward, it began to rain heavily. The shower turned into giant drops of rain. 

William was maybe just fifty metres from the entrance.

But he was now exhausted. The massive drops of rain weighed heavily on his body as his clothes were now saturated. The rain had flooded the field, and the water was now up to his waist. He tried to swim for it, but it was no use; his clothes weighed him down.

The large cloud was so low now it was at ground level, and because of this, Tom could not see anything through his binoculars. He tried to contact William on his phone again, but it was dead.

By now, it was getting dark, but Tom could see the moonlight reflecting on the clouds as they suddenly dissipated. Within a minute or so, a new cloud formed and was doubling in size. Now just a mile away, he saw the menacing black cloud heading towards his house!

Tom rushed downstairs and closed the garden doors and all the windows in the kitchen and living room. After he raced upstairs and shut all the windows in every room.

Afterward, he got flashbacks of his wife, Lucy, and how happy she was as she got into her car to visit her Mother. He started to break down, thinking now he had lost his wife, mother-in-law, and now his best friend. But then he somehow refocused on his now imminent danger; as he became aware of an eerie presence closing in on him.

From the bedroom, Tom looked out the window; as the moonlight shone in his garden. The trees were still, without any wind blowing their branches. It was as if something had sucked out all the air in the atmosphere.

“But where were those clouds now?” He thought.

”Feeling tired and exhausted, Tom decided to lie down on his bed and sleep for a while. Moments later, Tom woke up startled to hear a loud whistling sound; and a loud howling wind. Shortly after there was a crash, his bedroom window had fallen to the floor. Suddenly a bright flash lit up the bedroom. Seconds later, there was a big boom of thunder. Finally, there was the sound of a heavy Ping! Ping! Ping! On the roof, a heavy shower had started. Rain now blew through the gape where the window once was into the bedroom, soaking everything.

Suddenly Tom heard a smash downstairs; he went and checked and saw the garden doors had caved in and water was now flooding the living room.

.

The howling wind grew louder; then, there was another clap of thunder, and the rain got even heavier. The water was now over a foot deep downstairs and was rapidly flooding the house. Tom gave one last glance at his home; then, he gingerly walked outside the front door and rushed towards the car. As he did so, he suddenly felt a searing pain in his upper back after a giant raindrop smashed into him. Another hit his right thigh; his face grimaced as he limped to the car just a few yards away.

 Finally, he opened the car door and got in. Just then, some large raindrops pummelled the car roof. Tom put the key in the ignition and hoped the car would start right away. He was surprised, hearing the sound of Vroom! Vroom! and he quickly drove off. Looking in the rearview mirror, as he moved out of the drive, he caught sight of the house collapsing and quickly disappeared underwater. 

Tom sighed with relief as he drove down the country road to get to the nearest town, some ten miles away. But, checking the petrol gauge, he might just make it. 

 After driving, just a couple of miles from the nearest town, he felt his heart sink when he heard the sickening sound of a puncture to a front tyre. Pulling over, he got out his spare from the back of the car and changed the tyre.

As he pumped up the new tyre, a sense of foreboding hit him again, and a cold shiver ran down his spine. He turned around, and in the sky, another big, dark cloud racing towards him. It was about a few hundred yards away. His heart started to race as he frantically pressed his foot faster on the foot pump. The cloud was so close now! It was just a matter of a minute or so, and it would be upon him. Managing to pump up the tyre, Tom dived into his car, slammed the door, and turned the ignition key. ”OMG!” “Why don’t you start?” The cloud was now overhead. Suddenly there was a bolt of lightning, then a terrific boom; And then a heavy shower. “Come on! Come on, you Mother…!” Just then, the engine started, but the car began to rock from side to side as a howling wind hit it. He put his foot down on the accelerator as hard as he could and drove off. Just behind him, he saw in his mirror raindrops the size of rocks smashing into trees, knocking them over.

He carried on driving as fast as he could; suddenly, a car raced by him on the opposite side of the road, heading straight for the clouds! There was no way he could’ve warned them. 

After driving a few miles, feeling exhausted, Tom pulled over somewhere quiet. He just needed to have the time to process everything that has happened. He started to think of the first time the clouds hit the village, then moved over to his friend and then to his house. And that how strange it was the clouds seem to have a life of their own, that they seem to have an agenda. These clouds indeed weren’t natural!

He decided to rest and stay the night where he was until morning.

As morning came, Tom planned to travel to the nearest town and get more petrol.

Turning on the car radio, Tom listened for any news of flooding in Kent, particularly in Bridgeminster. There was nothing. Then he checked for today’s weather: Fine, clear skies, no rain forecast.

Nearing the next village, he changed to a music station and listened to some harp music. Then It dawned on him, “what if something like HAARP deliberately created these clouds?” “What if someone was hell-bent on destroying the British population, segment by segment?” “That’s all very well in theory, but could he prove it? and would anyone listen?”He pondered. He decided to put his theory to the test when he got to the next town.

After filling his car with petrol, he went into an internet cafe. He googled for any floods recently in villages and towns in England. His face turned white when a website by a whistleblower had displayed a list of eight flooded villages in Kent in the past three months, not including Bridgeminster. For some reason, no news channel on the television nor any of the media reported these occurrences.

But somehow, this underground website seemed to know all about these disasters. So Tom continued reading the article and discovered that all the villages had vanished underwater and that there were no survivors! So Tom delved further and saw a map of Kent where it showed all the flooded towns. Suddenly a pattern had emerged. What he had discovered was unbelievable!

Number one, each town/village was flooded the first day of the week, Monday. Secondly, every day the flooding took place, the weather forecast said it would be fine, with clear skies and no rain. Thirdly, each of these towns is less than ten miles from the other!”

After doing his research, Tom looked for an email address or contact number on the website to communicate with the writer. Finally, he emailed the author and asked him to email or phone him. 

So Tom waited in the internet cafe in the hope that the whistleblower would contact him soon. Two, three hours passed, no email reply. Just when the cafe closed, his phone rang. “Hi, Is that Tom?” I got your email about the floods!”

“ho, er! Yes, hello, can we fix a meet?” Asked Tom.

“Yer, your email said you’re staying in Derlington, Kent. I know it quite well!” ”There’s a pub there called ‘The Ball and Frog.’ I will see you there at ten o’clock; I’ll be carrying a brown briefcase!”Said the whistleblower.

Tom arrived at the pub. Then he bought a lager and sat down in a corner by himself. He scanned the half-filled pub for the man but was unable to see him. A few minutes later, a man with short, dark hair, wearing jeans and a jacket, walked in holding a brown briefcase. Tom gestured to him, and the man nodded, then got himself a drink and sat at the table.

"I’m glad I found you on the internet; I’ve had a terrible twenty-four hours.” Said Tom. “Right, let’s finish these drinks and chat in your car; it will be safer!” Said the man, 

“Sorry to hear about your loss Tom.” “If you read my article, you know thousands have died in those floods!” Replied the whistleblower. 

“So tell me, sorry, what’s your name?”Asked Tom,

“Just call me John.” The whistleblower replied.

“How are you involved in all this?” Tom said.

“Well, let me tell you, I worked for five years with a weather systems company as a meteorologist and physicist. The company was researching on creating rain clouds for countries with drought. But I accidentally came across secret research; I didn’t suppose to know!”

“Oh, I see, John, you saw something you shouldn’t have?”Tom said,

“Yes, that’s correct.” “I stopped working for them a year ago because I had discovered a rogue team of scientists in Britain who plan on using this technology to wipe out every village, city, and town in the UK!”

“You see, Tom, The clouds you saw at Bridgeminster were not natural clouds.” “They were created by a machine similar to HAARP!” “Yes, I know something about these things!” Said Tom.

“But how can they be stopped?” Asked Tom desperately.

“Well, I have evidence in this briefcase that could stop them!” Replied John.

“Now to business, I presume you have already worked out there is a pattern to these floodings, yes?”Asked John, smiling. “Then you know the next town they are targeting is a village called Carltowten, In Kent, Just twelve miles from here.”

“And they plan on flooding the village tomorrow!” Answered Tom. ”Yes, that’s correct!”Said, John.  

“Tell me, where are you staying, Tom? “Well, I’ve booked into bed and breakfast not far from here.”

“Good, tomorrow, meet me here at 2 o’clock; we are going to see something astounding, cheerio until tomorrow,” John said.

After meeting at the pub, Tom and John drove to the village, Carltowten. Having arrived there, John asked Tom to stop near some woodland. So they got out of the car and walked through the woods. Nearby was the village. “Look, Tom, above that hill, can you see it, that drone in the sky?

“Yer!” Said Tom looking through his binoculars.

 “Now, follow me quietly,” John asked. They started walking through the woods, John suddenly stopped.“Look!” he pointed. “don’t you see it, a hundred yards in front - hidden among those trees?” He whispered.

With his binoculars, Tom bent down, then saw a camouflaged armoured vehicle with a large aerial dish on its roof. 

John tugged on Tom’s elbow and beckoned him to follow him again. Then they walked out of the woods and looked up at the drone again. A speck of cloud soon appeared in the sky. and started to increase in size. Thereafter, above the hill, the cloud grew denser and darker and began to move in the direction of Carltowten. 

“We’ve got to do something!” Shouted Tom. “We can’t do anything, I’m afraid, Tom!” John remarked. The dark clouds now hovered over the village, and just as before, the dark clouds descended, enveloping the town. 

 Tom ran back into the woods, and John followed after him. “No, come back!”He shouted.

As Tom ran through the woods, he picked up a heavy tree branch and walked stealthily up to the hidden vehicle. Quietly he opened its door and saw two soldiers sitting down wearing headphones. One of them was operating the drone, and the other controlled the clouds “You Bast…!” Shouted Tom; he was just about to hit one of the soldiers when - “Stop Tom! put the branch down!” Tom turned around and saw John pointing a pistol at him.

“What the heck!” “What are you doing?”

“Come outside!” ordered John. “You two carry on.” He said to the soldiers. Closing the vehicle’s door behind him. 

“Hands up, Tom!” “ Keep on walking, out of the woods!” 

“Look, Tom, over there!” John pointed to where the village had stood. another pretty village has gone!”

Tom stared horrified as the village had vanished, covered in water.

“By the way, Tom, Your whistleblower friend, John, was extremely helpful in giving me your phone number!”

                                       End