After Spencer calmed her down enough, he was able to get headphones for her tablet from the car to try and lesson the sound of rain, he could see her giggling as she would look up at him as he was running around with a flashlight, the sound was building up if that was possible and Spencer was in a mad rush to get the house prepped for the largest storm known to man.
He moved Victoria into the safest place in the house, the toilet adjacent to the central hallway. With a kiss on the head, she held her teddy tighter and waved her flashlight, headphones on and some random cashed video on the tablet and not a pirated movie. Sitting on the floor, the little girl giggled and bopped up and down as if knowing her happiness would contrast with his misery.
Her tiny cheers of ‘go daddy get doggy’ were barely audible over the hammering of the rain and rattling of the windows. Spencer braced himself and hoped the dog would be waiting just outside the door.
His hopes were shattered as he opened the door and was almost knocked off his feet by the wind and rain blasting in through the opening.
A storm was not the right word for what this was, it was an assault by the heavens. The wind buffeted his hands about as he shone the torch towards the dog house and the rain felt like paintball rounds. But the noise was the worst. It was like losing your hearing, it went from the roar of a nightclub and transitioned into a deafening rave. He attempted a whistle and was rewarded with nothing but cold water in his mouth and the unblinking eyes reflected from the kennel.
Spencer braced himself for the trek across the garden to rescue man's most loyal follower.
As much as Spencer thought he could handle the outside assault, standing in the open doorway was but a fraction of the intensity outside.
As he passed the threshold the wind almost sensed his egress from safety, by the way, it surged and violently shoved him to the left before being blown 3 metres out and onto the muddy swap that was previously a lawn.
The darkness was almost complete, the only source of light being my torch and even that seemed to be losing. The powerful dolphin brand stacking up short against the intensity of the rain.
Laying in the slowly flooding backyard the extreme cold of the rain seeped into his bones and the beating of the rain was a blanket of pain.
It was at that moment that a furry tri-colour flash passed through the light of his torch and dove into the house.
For as deafening as the rain was you could still hear Spencer's internal groan and curse towards that fucking dog.
Task one completed, he crawled along the ground and poked his head inside to see the dog had already shaken himself dry and was sitting loyally and protectively next to his true master, Victoria. To add insult to injury the little jerk even had the nerve to roll his eyes and chuff at him. Spenser gritted his teeth against the pain of the aquatic deluge, after moving up to the opening into warmth and dryness, he slowly slid the door shut praying to any god that it would not lock itself while he was outside securing the window covers. That would fuck him over more.
It took Spenser over an hour to manually roll down the metal mechanical shutters that protected the windows from storms and in some cases when no one was home, unwanted intrusion. Half of the time he spent securing the house was spent going from window to window trying to find the detachable Handles that should have been attached to a clip next to the window. But evidently, most had been blown away, after doing a complete circuit around the house he found the last one attached to the clip next to the window right next to the back door he exited from some half an hour before. Spenser screamed profanities so loud that even the storm could not block all of it out.
After an additional half-hour, he had crank in one hand and the torch in another and the majority of the ground floor windows had been secured. Spenser was able to peek through the current window to check on his angel to find her petting the dog with him asleep at her feet, Jerk dog he muttered more to himself than the targets of his ire.
Another hour later and about a foot more of rain and all bottom floor windows were secured. After two hours in the storm, his boots were drenched, his body bruised and the raincoat might have been made from paper by how wet he was underneath it. Praise be to Murphy's law, the door was not locked and he was able to walk inside. The act was like walking into a hot shower. The rain was so cold and hard-hitting that it wasn't until Spenser was out of its wrath did he realise how cold it was. Closing the door behind himself and hoped the security screen would hold back any debris that was bound to be wiped up in the ever-increasing storm.
He stripped out of his wet clothes and placed them into a sink, naked, bruised but warm, the towel he had set aside was like paradise and a change of khaki pants and a nice new dry shirt had him forgetting about the tingling of his skin from the slight bruising.
When he was dry and dressed, he was able to notice the strange smell coming off him, it wasn't bad, just unusual after a few sniffs he was able to determine that the smell was stronger in the sink filled with now wet clothes and the puddle by the door and boots, it was like flowers but more specifically it was almost the same smell as my wife’s favourite perfumes and by extension the smell she always seemed to have. Thinking about it was swiftly forgotten as wishful thinking as he needed to finish securing the upstairs windows and figure out what to do next.
Both confused and a little creeped out by the smell Spenser glanced at the rain through glass doors before looking at Victoria who was still patting the dog. Walking closer to check if she was hungry or needed anything, he noticed that she and the immediate area around her were wet. The dog as if knowing the deduction he would make, sprinted away and up the stairs with its tail between his legs.
“Fucking dog, my poor little darling, did that silly woofer get you all wet” Spencer spoke, louder than he intended but not enough to overcome the heavy drone of the rain.
“Wet doggy daddy, the new dress now?” she replied matter of factly.
As Spenser picked her up, clear relief was visible on his face to find that she was not cold and wet, but damp and warm, like she had just come out of the bath and the same smell was around her.
As he moved her over to his hip she snuggled into him and licked Spenser's T-shirt.
“Oiii, non of that princess” he scolded, with more playfulness than scorn.
After she started laughing “Daddy you smell like ice cream”
Curiosity got the better of him and he took a sniff and felt the water puddle under where Victoria and the dog had rested.
Warm also, and again smelling like Eve, strange. Shaking his head as if to dispel an unwanted memory he straightened up and moved himself and his princess to her room.
After getting her out of her wet clothes and into a warm set of long pants and shirt. He used the lever to close the last few upstairs shutters. Whatever loser decided that the inside manual winders look ugly and at every opportunity should be on the outside should get drenched and beaten up by rain, oh wait he did Spenser muttered to himself.
After that task was completed, during which Victoria fell asleep in bed while waiting for Spencer to finish with the blinds and they both made their way into the central second-floor hallway. With great difficulty and care, He was able to move her to the couch without Victoria waking from her sleep. So she would be more comfortable, he had her head on a pillow and laid down with Spencer at her feet. Victoria was oblivious to the manhandling of the makeshift bed and the pounding of the storm outside, and the only reason Spenser did not panic was her rising and falling chest as she lay sleeping. Not having a shutter on the glass backdoor annoyed him as it would have cancelled a lot of the sound. He had to move a spare mattress up against it and flipped the dining table to its side to brace it before the sound was somewhat less abusive to his ears. Spenser felt at least with this he shouldn't have to deal with any more increase in the storm's sound or worse a broken glass door from debris flying into the last remaining weakness in the house. Unfortunately, during the impromptu fortification, he noticed water lapping at the threshold of the back door, which was a good 2 feet of water built up in his backyard. That was concerning for the most part because the decline from the back of the property to the front should have meant most of the water would have run off around and past his house. But that was a lot of water and flooding could be an issue if this rain kept at it. With a deep breath, with the kid asleep, most of the house was now secure and Spenser was able to take a pause and start to prioritise his efforts going forward, having to add flooding to his ever-growing mental list of things he needed to solve for things he had little control over.
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The hours that Victoria was asleep prove to be equal parts productive and concerning for Spenser. First of all, she had not awoken by the ear ringing sounds of thunder that periodically cut through the constant roar of the rain. She didn't have a temperature and she didn't wake when he had to move her from the couch to the portable camp cot he had set up in a more central area of the house, further away from windows. He was always a little worried about his daughter and his wife, with Spenser always being the slightly more paranoid of the two, but her breathing was steady and she looked calm in her sleep, so he left her to rest.
While concerning it was productive because he was able to find all the batteries squirrelled around the house and was able to get about 50L of water out of the taps into two 20L water containers and bottles before the water pressure gave out.
On the food front, he had 2 weeks of food with pasta, rice, canned and long-life items, with maybe a week of CRP from all the time he had brought back extra from field exercises. The perishables would last less than a week But if this storm lasted longer than that everyone would have bigger issues, not the first time Spenser wondered aloud that the storm could not possibly go that long... Probably.
It was during another one of Spenser's musings that he looked at his phone and noted again that the cell towers were still down and power was not likely to be coming back before this had ended. With a deep breath, he switched his phone off to save power.
The bigger concern he had was not the cell outage, his provided was spotty in the rain at the best of times. No, it was the fact that there was nothing on the radio, at all, no AM, no FM, nothing on the ISM band, only the slightly discernible sound of static, at first Spenser had thought all his radios were broken or the batteries were low, however, that was quickly dispelled when he pressed transmit and was able to hear own voice with the squelch on the receive only sets.
“Any call sign Radio check over”
“…….”
Just his voice playing back to him, for what was probably the hundredth time judging from the voltage left indicated on the battery unit.
“Any call sign. Any call sign radio check radio check over”
“...................”
“Nothing OUT”
Even the emergence channels were silent, and that sent cold shivers that scared him the most.
He spent the next little while getting together some of the go-bags with extra clothes, some of the ration packs, batteries and some other odds and ends, in case he and Victoria needed to leave in a hurry after the storm passed, but other than that he was just sitting next to the portable cot waiting for her to wake with the dog in overwatch from the landing on the stairs, with the cats probably in one of the other rooms hiding, or did they go out this morning…
“Shit” Spenser cursed, getting a stirring out of his daughter, but she kept sleeping.
.
……….
“daddy… sleeping haha”
blinking away the fog in his head and finding a little hand was gripping a few of the fingers on his left hand and she was now sitting next to Spenser, the cot was no obstacle for her it would seem. Spenser slapped his face a few times to wake up as he realised he must have dozed off at some point on the surprisingly comfortable couch. It was at that moment as he stood up to reacquaint himself with his other senses and the still ongoing roar of the rain that he realized how incredibly hungry he was, and it was not the skipped lunch hunger, it was the days with no food hungry.
“Dad food please?” Victoria all but shouted again to get over the din of rain.
After picking her up and a phone power cycle to check for an unlikely restoration in cell coverage and time.
The time was 1738 shown by the little digital analog clock on his phone, and that wasn't so late for an afternoon nap but his grumbling gut was insistent that he was way more hungry than what was reasonable. Before eating he should make sure nothing had changed, the garage door still had the LED torch in its spot next to the door and turning it on to check a charge and to sweep its illuminated across the garage, he noticed a massive growing puddle lapping a few meters from the threshold, the water slowly seeping in from beneath the roller door. Spenser let out another sigh.
“Can’t this just stop already?” he said to Victoria as she followed him to the freezer, both were going to get wet feet in addition to the meals from the chest freezer. Noticing two reflected orbs he zeroed the light beam across the garage and spied Moriarty the dog asleep on one of the empty shelves his head lolling on the edge about 10 cm from the open dog food bin, his stomach bulging.
“You pupper, are too smart for your own good” Spenser scolded the dog for getting into his food container, not in the slightest bit concerned or worried as the hound was currently using the month's worth of dry dog food as a mattress on said shelves.
“Daaddy can I have some food, please”
A small squeak only just loud enough to hear even though she was right by Spenser's arm got him moving again.
Setting up one of the camp propane cookers its design could accommodate an ad hoc oven style configuration. Spenser was able to cook a few of the partial frozen ready meals to a fairly good standard. After what felt like hours, but was only 15 minutes the food was ready and both devoured food like it was Christmas dinner that was delayed because of the late arrival of one particular uncle. With no reason or ability to preserve the perishable food father and daughter ate loads of side dishes and almost the entire content of the freezer. Victoria with her little teeth was eating the premade steak and sausage, like some kind of barbarian and Spenser had forgone manners due to a ravenous appetite that seemed to have no end. Both had by the end, be able to get through a loaf of bread worth of cold meat and salad sandwiches on top of the 12 meals that had been cooked in the cooker.
Spenser was getting worried that he and Victoria might have some kind of super worms when she finished her latest meal with a grandiose declaration.
“Mm..k finishes, bedtime daddy" in her sweet little voice, followed by a massive yawn that morphed into a burp.
She promptly shuffled over to the cot, snuggling into her blanket and was almost asleep before her head hit the pillow.
It was around this time that he checked his phone again for the second time since waking up. The little digital representation was showing that the hand was indeed on the six and the big hand was on the five, it was the other details on his phone that gave him pause, for starters the digital display now expanded due to the phone, not being restricted by a lock pin, its exact time now showed not 1738 or more specifically 1823 right now, But 6:23 AM and the day said Friday, a deep dread hit Spenser in the gut, the storm had hit on Tuesday…..
“Holy fuck where were asleep for over two days”
looking at the sleeping girl, that spike of fear wrapped around his spin slithered up from his gut and took hold at the base of Spenser's skull.
Victoria was now soundly asleep, a few horrible scenarios ran across his mind that was slowly being clouded with panic before he had to stop his panic induce meltdown with a monumental effort of will, he smashed away the dark thoughts.
Justification ran through his mind, the darkness is just making her tired, kids are not used to not having light stimulation, it makes them more tired, he tried to reassure himself, he was also tired so that was probably right.
Feeling another crescendo of rain and thunder as the storm pelts the house with yet more rain, Spenser realised his helplessness, a fear that he would not be able to get help if something was wrong.
“Fuck me.” he spat.
The storm continued to rage outside for another few hours with the booms of lightning resounding now and again, Spenser kept his mind off this by busying himself with work. During that time, he had to put rolled-up towels against the gap below the garage door to try and stop some of the water from seeping in, uselessly repackaged his go bags and rearranged the food and water supply.
A crash and a few whimpers were the only interruptions to his busy work, that upon investigation ended up being the dog falling off the shelves, which made Spenser smile and Victoria giggle in her sleep.
“wooffffffer” she mocked the poor beagle, eyes opening for a second before drifting closed again.
In the darkness, he could just make out the silhouette families K9 sulking out of the garage and coming to rest on less wet terrain, namely the middle landing of the stairs, leaving wet paw prints along the way. The water patches glistened with a rainbow of colours as spencer scanned them with the shine of his torch, further investigation revealed a similar smell to all the water before and a warmness that defied logic.
“Silly dog” Spenser spoke to no one in particular while glancing down to see if the dog's escapades had disturned his daughter, only to find her deep in sleep and still resting on the cot.
“Might as well go to bed then bubba?” he said more to hear something that wasn’t the drone from the deluge of rain from above.
A slight murmur was his only response, but he was already walking up the stairs with her in his arms to put her to bed. The thought crossed his mind that his fatigue was unusual, but the seeping darkness was confusing and it felt to him that it was the deep night
With a groan, he shifted Victoria as he alighted the last step of the stairs.
He was really tired and craved a coffee, but he surmised it was the near pitch blackness and inability to hear anything but the rain that was also causing his drowsiness and he haven’t had a brew in a day now.
After making sure all the window shutters in the master suite were all still secure and tight, the double glazed windows kept out the sounds somewhat but almost did nothing for the drone of rain on the tin roof. Spenser tucked Victoria into the master bedroom’s queen-size bed, and she promptly kicked one leg up and removed the blankets. With a smile, he lay down next to her and closed his eyes and almost instantly started to drift off.
With the roar of rain and the boom of thunder a warm tingle ran from my gut and spread throughout his body. An alarm bell started ringing in the back of his mind and he should have been alarmed, but as he slowly drifted off to sleep a spike of pain and pressure hit his head like nothing I have ever felt before, Light-filled his vision as he struggled to move his body in an attempt to mitigate the growing pain, a silent scream on anguish left Spenser's touch muffled by his inability to open his mouth and hazy darkness with gaining speed consumed the blinding light leaving only a small pinprick of radiant light be for blinking out into nothingness.