Gary Works
First came the rumbling. It was like the Earth's tummy wanted a meal that was long overdue. Then came the sonic boom. Most eyes looked north or west or east; all turned toward Gary. The thoughts of most people in the area were never if there was an explosion at the factories, but when. Sure, small explosions happened from time to time. Noxious gasses erupted and escaped. Grain feed storage tanks exploded. A few times, a train would derail and chemicals would spill. But "the big one". The "great white buffalo" of explosions, the explosions of legend and myth. That day was today. Down to a woman there were tongue clicks of disapproval, scowls and wrinkled noses due to the smell, and a general malaise as people took note, stored it in memory, and went on with their business ignorant of what really happened in Gary, until it was to late to do anything but die.
Portage
Whitney's asthma was playing up, had been all day. She seemed to reel and gasp for air. Her husband, Sean, came staggering to her side. His nose was bleeding.
"Damn that was loud!" Sean looked over at his wife. "Are you ok?"
Before she could answer a low rumbling like a freight train seemed to assault their ears from every direction at once. The stared into each other's eyes, terrified. But it only lasted a minute.
Valparaiso
Outside of the lab, students were doubled over coughing. Titus looked at them for a moment, but his nose started to bleed. Between his own nosebleed and the darkening sky, he knew something was dreadfully wrong. The rest of the Valparaiso University Science Department was in a frenzy. The earthquake early warning system used to detect frakking earthquakes was doing a rumba. Many in the department heard the sonic boom and their ears were still ringing.
Titus pulled himself away from the window to check his instruments. "Since the sonic boom, we've detected 42 mini quakes in the region. The temperature continues to rise. The epicenter seems to be..."
North Judson
Calvin and Ruth were heading east on the 10 not ten minutes out of North Judson. The sonic blast shattered the windows of their gold 2001 Buick Century. Calvin slammed on the breaks. Ruth's left eye was twitching as Calvin took both her hands in his. Her skin was hot to the touch. Beads of sweat intermingled with the blood on her face. Ruth mouthed over and over again but Calvin heard nothing but a high piercing whistle. Ruth's whole body began to violently spasm. Frantically, Calvin unbuckled himself and his wife. He cradled her in his arms gasping for his next breath. Ruth, in his arms, was now still. A tire exploded sending a jolt through the car and then another. Calvin hadn't noticed. His eyes, bulging and red, were fixated on something far off into the fields that seemed to grow larger with each passing second.
Lafayette
Kendra was in the Pay-Less shopping and wrangling three over caffeinated kids. LaShaunda, the eldest, was darting up and down aisles in single minded focus. She returned time and time again with random food stuffs: Mikesell's, Coca Cola, hot dogs, Red Bull, cheese. the middle child, Rashad, was hanging on the cart, swaying as he rapped some old school 80s hip hop that was streaming into his ears from his IPhone. The youngest, Jenae, was in the seat happily clapping to her brother's performance. Her eyes gleamed and she giggled whenever her sister returned. LaShaunda would kiss her sister's forehead every time.
The sonic boom shook the Pay-Less. Even Rashad stopped his music. "Mommy, what was that?" His eyes were wide with fear. Jenae was now crying, a small stream of blood was coming out of both her ears. LaShaunda dropped the crunchy peanut butter and blackberry jam bottles into the shopping cart and hugged her brother. Kendra tried soothing Jenae, but nothing seemed to make her stop crying. The Pay-Less was bedlam. People were running all over the place, screaming, crying. Kendra gathered her children and headed to the check out.
In the distance, she could hear glass shattering and car alarms blaring. Through it all, came a low rumbling, like a freight train. Scared, Kendra didn't know what to do. She grabbed Jenae out of the cart and pulled on Rashad's hand. LaShaunda had his other hand and they pushed their way out of the Pay-Less just in time to see hell manifesting itself on Earth.
Indianapolis
"CBS4 Your News now. Breaking news! Moments ago an explosion rocked Gary, Indiana. Reports are coming in that at 9:17 am, this morning, there was an explosion in one of the factories. 911 calls are overwhelming cities and towns in North-east Indiana and beyond."
"Fox 59 here, and welcome. Many Indianapolis residents are saying they've tried to contact family and friends in the northern part of the state and they are getting error messages that say their calls cannot be completed as dialed."
"Sky Trak 13 radar reports shows a spike in temperatures from out monitoring stations. Temperatures went from 55 degrees to 85 degrees to over 120 in mere minutes. Some stations reporting 135 degrees before going offline."
"CBS4 is urging residents to stay indoors and stay tuned to this developing story. I65 and I69 are jammed as motorists are trying to outrun what seemingly looks like a dust cloud. Here are some pictures from traffic cams before they are going off line. Take a look"
French Lick
Alma sat in church in her Sunday best. Upon the first radio broadcast over half an hour ago, she meticulously dressed with stockings, her best dress, a strand of pearls, and her ever faithful hat. Her late husband Elizar, El for short, had bought it for her on their 40th Anniversary. She picked up a framed picture of the two of them from that anniversary party. She had smiled and whispered she would be joining him soon. She sat in the pew wondering if she should try calling her children and grandchildren again. Maybe she could try texting. But she sighs and thought better. She returned her phone to her purse and gazed up at the visage of Jesus on the cross. She wasn't really listening to what the pastor had to say. At this point, all words were moot. Alma was content to sit here and die with about 50 or so other parishioners, many of them elderly who had nowhere else to go and no one to go with.
Marcus sat at his desk typing on his computer furiously. He was hunched over and his glasses had slipped down his nose. Conspiracy theorists had come out of woodwork and his Twitter feed was flowing at a speed that seemed unreal. His other browser was on Facebook as he had been messaging friends and family out of state since just shy of 0930. The more he pounded on his keypad, the more the tears flowed.
The corner of College Ave and Maple Street was RayRay's preferred hangout. He had been on this corner for years despite the cops removal of him. Various citations from drunk and disorderly to public nuisance to menacing charges failed to sway him from his self appointed duty, to announce that the end of the world was coming. RayRay wasn't the sort to gloat but he shouted at passersby that he had been predicting this would happen and that indeed, the end was nigh.
Cara sat on the 145 heading south. It was nothing but a huge parking lot now as people scrambled to get out of Indiana. The scrambling led to nothing more than a huge ass traffic jam. Nothing was moving on the 145 nor I64, where people were hoping to escape to Kentucky or Illinois. Rumor had it that both states closed their borders and had erected roadblocks to keep Indiana residents from coming in. All Cara could do is look out over Fleming Creek and stare into the water, sobbing. She figured if she were going to die, at least the view is pretty.
Jared and Jacqueline sat at their grandfather's grave at Mount Lebanon Cemetery. Between them, they had finished off the thermos of Gunfire, their grandfather's favourite drink. The twins moved in with their grandpa when he was in his 60s. The retired ARMY man had raised them after their parents died in a car wreck coming home from "date night". He was a no nonsense, by the book, rules are rules type of man who raised them well. They had always looked to him for guidance and now they needed it more than ever. Sure, they could have spent their remaining time with their own families; Jared married now going on four years with a two year old and Jacqueline in an on again off again relationship with her high school sweetheart. But they had come into the world together and they damn well were going to depart it together too.
As the temperature rose and the sky blackened, the twins held each other tightly and sang the song their grandfather sung to them as they drifted off to sleep...
Arirant, Arirant, Arariyo
Arirang gogaero neomeoganda.
Nareul beorigo gasineun nimeun
Sibrido mosgaseo
balbyeongnanda.
Cheongcheonhaneuren
janbyeoldo manko,
Urine gaseumen huimangdo manda.
Jeogi jeo sani Baekdusaniraji,
Dongji seotdaredo kkotman pinda.
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