The Storm that gave people Courage

The television screen was flashing. Every channel was saying that a gigantic thunder storm will be coming within the next few hours. Every person must stay at home, stock up on resources and find reliable shelter. The windows of every house were boarded up. Within 30 minutes, dark clouds covered the entire evening sky, the city was engulfed with darkness. Sirens were wailing indicating that every person must return home and not come back out till the sky becomes clear. The roads had become completely empty. Everybody in the shelter of their home. The city was silent. Suddenly there was a long bolt of lightning making the night sky look like an afternoon of a summer day. And seconds later a loud sound of a “BOOM” came and the city was filled with darkness once again. The sound was so loud that it could make a grenade sound like a tiny firecracker. Not a single street light was lit up and not a single sound could be heard. On the radio there was a news that the power grid has been struck by lightning and help was arriving in the next few hours. The city was so silent that the first few raindrops were as loud as the lightning. The rain was picking up speed. Everybody was sitting near the radio waiting for the news on the condition of the power grid. Suddenly, the current program was interrupted by a newscaster saying that an entire van of people who were coming to fix the grid had disappeared. This made the people around the radio confused and scared. There have been many instances of disappearances around the entry area of the city. There was a rumor that there was a creature which had a slouched figure with gigantic claws that could overturn an entire bus in a matter of seconds. A strong gust of wind blew the boards off a window. The people were discussing whether the rumor was true or not when lightning cracked with a suspicious figure sitting near the window. When lightning cracked again, the mysterious figure disappeared. The people were frantically running to hide in their own places, scared for their lives. Another lightning strike, illuminating the road in front of the house. There was a sound of a splash, then another, then another, becoming louder by every splash. Slowly, the sound became fainter and fainter until it could not be heard. Everybody breathed a sigh of relief. The radio crackled and the current news program said, “The disappeared van has been found. The people inside have minor injuries due to them crashing into a tree. It has been assumed that they had veered towards the outside of the road due to the rain. We will update you to the latest news as soon as the driver and passengers in the van wake up.” The people were even more worried about the figure that they saw outside the window now. A faint sound of a siren could be heard but it was hard to make out from where it was coming from. Everybody started theorizing that it maybe was rescue for the people of the city, or maybe it was police who had come to catch the creature that is lurking around the city. Once again, the radio crackled and the newscaster said that the occupants of the van had woken up and they said due to the bright lightning they had gotten distracted and veered due to the wet road. They will return to their job once they would have recovered. Another batch of workers is being sent to fix up the power grid and electricity may be restored by the next hour or two. The people were even more relieved and suddenly the newscaster said that during the rescue for the people in the vans one of the employees saw a glimmering light like a fire. Getting closer he saw that there was a group of people around a fire that was covered by a straw roof. When interrogated, they said that all of them had slipped on a banana peel next to the city entrance and fainted when they fell and when they woke up they were unable to find their way back out so they made shelter due to the storm that was to come. So all the people that were missing have been found and would be sent back to their homes. When the news report ended, everybody realized that a glimmer of sunlight could be seen through the curtains. The storm had ended and the sky was clear. The road was wet and the citizens came outside as well talking about how they had lost all hope of ever coming out of their house. Also it turns out that the splashing sound outside their doors was of a person that was checking every house to see if they were safe. The rumor had been proven false and people were also reunited with their families once again. The people returned to their normal lifestyle without the worry of any creature that would come and overturn a bus or devour them. Other storms also followed but the people were not afraid of any minor rumors and simply waited for the storm to end. Also the people who were missing and were found returned to their families. It was found that they all had suffered the same fate. There was a banana peel next to the road and it was placed in such a manner that every person that slipped on it landed in a bush. In the confusion all of them wandered into the forest. The first person there had made shelter and the rest of the people helped him make the shelter even better and forgot about the entire situation they were in. The families of the people found this quite hilarious while the people themselves did not. There was a petition that the banana peel should be sent to museum as the one peel resulted in the disappearance of several people but unfortunately it failed.