Spencer clicked the TV off and decided to just drink his morning coffee in silence. His wife was working late again or early depending on your perspective, not that a stay at home-ex-army dad would not understand working late. His wife was on some big government secret breakthrough that she couldn't tell him about. Anything other than the yearly re-brief on the current things Spencer was told about but can't talk about. The wife, the workaholic, was unable to hide how pregnant she was anymore and was given every opportunity to take time off by her boss, however, she chose to work on... something. Basic procedures for the last few months, her whole research team would be on lockdown until the bureaucracy could understand what was going on enough to have a funny name on it with some caveated letter. After that, she would only be able to talk about it at her work so…. It was just him and the kid last night and she so graciously decided to not sleep much at all, deciding to sleep the morning away like an 18-year-old and not the 4 years old she was.
The TV had shifted from click-bait political trash to actual news, the strange weather that was messing with all the predictive models of the El Nino cycle, adding to the laundry list of links to climate change. The news went on reporting on Massive storms out at sea that build up in hours to only dissipate within seconds, odd things happening in the middle of cities with power, animals behaving strangely and in particular a surge in rat populations. On this morning's panel of experts, a “Doctor” was talking about the Heightened aggressiveness and birth rates recorded in zoos and wildlife preserves, in domestic pet's birth rates that have increased exponentially and at twice the natural speed of gestation. Spencer smiled as he recalled a feature of an endangered white tiger being filmed breaking into the adjacent large cat pens and proceeding to procreate with every female kitty within reach.
A buzz from a phone distracted Spencer long enough from his contemplation end and at the same time a call from upstairs
“DADDDDDDDYYYYYYY”
Spencer’s daughter was always like this when she woke up, smiling and chatting with the words she had learned and forming sentences that missed a few words which made it all the more endearing. he glanced at his phone before getting up off the couch, to give his daughter the attention she expected by now, that was her being carried downstairs and breakfast was given like some princess and him a butler.
Password: *****************
Wife: It's big babe, REALLY big. We can talk now because it won't matter in a few hours
Wife: The energy the thing is making is the key to everything.
Wife:...
Me: That's what she said.
Spencer's reply was automatic and sent before he knew his thumbs had hit send
Odd, was the thought after actually taking in what she sent, even on an encrypted chat she should have not said anything about her work, strange then that she sent it too, she would have had to go outside send it then go back in, normally she would send and forget not send a follow-up message. It had stopped the dots which meant she was typing.
By this point in time, Spencer was at the top of the stairs and standing in the little one's master bedroom that used to belong to his wife and me.
Absently he came to the thought of why she didn't just come downstairs but instead lay down next to the lump in the blankets.
The expected reply buzz never came from his left hand as he pocketed the phone and picked up the tiny angel, to her squeals of joy.
"Daddy cuddle, I want butter and toast," she asked with a look that said nothing else would do.
A quick night nappy check and getting the clothes from her room layout on the floor. She had started doing this before she called for me, obviously not trusting his own choice of clothes and which she insisted had been clean and not the same she had on yesterday.
After she got her breakfast from the kitchen she went over and sat at the table with the look of smugness only a child can have.
The only missing part of his routine morning was the buzzing of his phone, with the awaited message from his wife asking what Victoria’s daily attire was.
“Strange mama must be busy,” he said to the mop of blonde hair and big blue eyes staring at him while she was waving the tv remote in the air as if to say ‘priorities father’.
“I am Mummys princess” echoed her singsong voice after hearing the matriarch's monikers.
“ Yes you are, want to watch tv so dad can do his work out?”
The response was expected but pleasing to hear from her.
“OUTSIDE YEAH”
“Ok, let's set you up with some shoes so you can watch da”
The hour of happy Victoria watching her dad do funny dances with heavy things was interrupted by her timely demands for more food
“Daddy, I'm hungry and I want water, please,” she said with a hint of irritation and predictable demands for her mid-morning snacks.
“Fruit?” he asked with some hope,
“toast n butter” she squealed with indignation.
The weights of the last set were placed down and he finished for the most important members of the household's needs were catered to.
A lunchtime Disney movie on her tablet was all the requirements for Victoria to let me clean the whirlwind mess of toys and books.
…….
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Sometime later he glance at his phone whilst on the way downstairs was all the confirmation he needed from his wife, she was not joking about how big the discovery was, she had always texted back every hour or so during a work marathon. It was an unofficial policy about seeing sunlight in the facility she was stationed in and by extension checking her phone after removing it from the lockboxes in the foyer. Every hour or two all the eggheads and support staff would trickle out in groups or on their own, look at phones, get coffee or just see the sun for a short while. For her to not message means they are keeping everyone locked in or worse locked down.
The last reason and the worst of the conclusions about the message's absence was made as Spencer entered the lounge room. It was still shrouded in the same gloom that the upstairs blackout curtains create.
From sunny mornings to grey-black clouds in the time it took him to put toys away, Spencer chuckled to himself, he guessed climate change was a thing after all.
A few more steps towards the back of the house and glancing out through the glass of the back door confirmed a mother of all storms was rolling in. Dark almost purple foreboding clouds could be seen on the horizon, like the Hemera of ancient Greece, darkness was being pulled across the sky by Eos. A sigh escaped his lips as he mumbled about wanting to do washing today.
He stood for some time just watching as the storm rolled from the horizon into the range of the coast.
Bbbbzzzt from his phone.
Password: *****************
Wife: work is going to get the boy for me, warning will be on TV soon, just wait it out k
Wife: come to work when it's over. I love you dork. Keep the girls safe
Me: Will do gorgeous, she is watching a movie, love you 2.
With a bigger sigh and a glance back to the inbound storm he walked to the lounge and sat next to Victoria. Almost as a creepy foreshadowing, the sky got darker still.
Spencer confirmed his daughter was still engrossed in some princess movie, he kissed her forehead as directed and did when any man would do with the approach of a storm. Absolutely nothing.
With the ease of an elephant, he flopped back onto the couch and Victoria snuggled into him, fumbling for the remote that had been wedged between the seat covers, he turn the TV on and the volume down before switching to the news, a few clicks later the news was on and the report into what would be the single most important news story on earth for the last 3 thousand years was about to begin.
“Oii daad, I can't hear it” she protested after he reached over and lowered the sound by half on her tablet, to then have to move it up one in capitulation.
“Thanks, daddy”
An image of a very flustered male tv anchor flickered to life cutting out the previous segment talking about the new bill in the local house of parliament, that in itself was not odd. The oddity was that Spencer knew for a fact that the new services would have shown other news as a banner on the lower of the screen with a logo for the station he was on. No, what cut into the commercial Fox-news equivalent was the local government broadcasting news channel and the large red banner at the top of the screen ‘Emergence Extreme Weather Warning’.
Clicking the guide button on his remotes, the confirmation of his suspicions was alarming. All the programming had been replaced with the broadcast, and no other programing data was available.
“That bad hay?” he asked no one
To which Victoria shushed him.
Clicking the volume up to be able to hear it, a panicked voice broke through
“...ust in, breaking news for the meteorological department, a cyclone or supercell has .. appeared over the coast within the last few hours and is continuing to grow.”
He said the last bit like he didn't quite believe the teleprompter.
“ We received a warning from the federal government an hour ago and have since been repeating this message on all media bands and streaming services enacted by your ISP,” a slight shuffle of paper and a sip of water and he continued, in the brief respite the presenter gave himself Spencer was able to notice a few inconsistencies with the scene before him.
The anchor was not one of the local reporters he knew about, his face did not have the telltale signs of makeup, the camera was slightly off and you could see absolute chaos in the gap between the fake cityscape screens behind him. The biggest tell was the absence of any news logo at the top or bottom of the screen. The news banners that run along the bottom of the screen would follow the storm warning message with an ‘error RSS feed. Check the internet connection.’
“what the shit” he vocalised as the flustered man continues
At the same time, the movies Victoria was watching started to buffer and a frozen image of a snowman with a spinning circle was replaced with the ‘internet connection down’ message and a confused cartoon animal was on the screen crying.
“DAAAADDDY you did it again” she yelled
“Sorry bubba, let daddy fix it” was Spenser's response to the tiny harumph.
As he used the remotes to swap back from the guide mode to normal TV, the last channel was now the default channel, but it didn't matter how many times he changed the channel up or down it was all the same.
“Not a daddy show, kids show on right now,” she said pointing to the TV, assuming he was trying to get her movie on the big TV, but she must have seen his face because she just sat there and watched with him, arms crossed and a scowl on her face.
The same guy was still at his desk having a side conversation with someone trying to fix the gap between the hastily constructed green screen that flickered from city-scape to green. He was now, even more, fluster than before and looked to have even forgotten that he was still live on TV at all
Suddenly he jerked, squinted at his teleprompter before trembling slightly, he took a deep breath and began.
“This is a message from the federal government, since receiving this we have been unable to contact any of the main media channels and our connection to the international hosting services via satellite is down. This message is being broadcast on all national emergency frequencies and bands, as per governmental special instructions Martial Law Order, as per relevant sections of the Defence act. ” he seemed to grow paler as he read the teleprompter, he glanced to the side before nodding at someone and continued.
Spenser looked at his phone and saw no new messages, nothing yet from his reserve unit for a call in. He frowned and looked back to the screen.
“A Catastrophic storm warning is now in effect and a state of national emergency, areas affected are…” the anchor processed to stare at the camera for a few seconds before looking to his left.
“ do we have any imagery? ….”
A barely audible response came through.
“It's 5 min old Chris, we lost data after that.”
“Dear God” he said just before the small screen that had an image of a cartoon rain cloud was replaced with a map of the country with black clouds roiling a few kilometres of the coast, all the oceans and surging towards the coastlines with large swirling storms forming over major cities out of nothing, before jumping back to the start and playing again in a loop.
Intermingled within the darkness you could see huge lightning bolts dancing in purples and blues.
“Everywhere...the warning is for all states and territories…. And all countries…”
Thunder sounded then harsh, deep and ominous and a cold bead of sweat ran down Spenser’s back.
“Authorities recommend staying indoors and seeking shelter within rooms with no windows, emergency services are being deployed to stock local schools with resources for use as shelters and authorities recommend ... ” he rattled on a few more standard storm warning tips, this continued for a few hours on a loop before at approximately 1723h the sky darkened to the point of complete blackness, a quick glance at his phone showed the dreaded cross denoting no mobile tower coverage. It was at that moment that the power flickered off, a huge boom sounded as the rain hit the house sounding more like machine-gun fire that rattled your teeth, and the little girl started to cry.