Sprinkler Story
Matthew Ryan Fischer
Everything slowed down, that’s how it felt to Sammie. Someone was
screaming. She didn’t know who, she couldn’t see them. Someone was screaming
and people were starting to turn and look stressed out.
Sammie was reading a book when the sprinkler system kicked on at
Madison Hills Park. She was sitting at a table in the covered area, so she
wasn’t getting wet, but she heard all sorts of commotion so she knew something
was happening.
Sammie instinctively stood up. She wasn’t sure why. She didn’t
know what good standing would really do in this situation, but her fight-or-flight
instincts had kicked in, so she was suddenly ready to do something, just not
sure what.
Somewhere off in the distance she heard a lone voice above the
random screams of terror. It was a commanding voice – someone was barking out
orders, but they were still too far away for Sammy to hear what they were saying.
She took a step towards the voices. She wanted to see what was
happening. She wanted to hear what directions were being given. Then her grip
loosened and the book slowly slipped from her hand. She wasn’t paying attention
to the book anymore. She had more important things to pay attention to.
Outside the covered area chaos had erupted – people were running
in random directions, others were falling to their knees and the ground. Some
were vomiting, while others were bleeding from their eyes, ears, and some
through the skin. Death was in the air. Sammy didn’t know what to do.
The commanding voice cut through the noise. “The sprinklers – it’s
in the sprinklers!”
Sammy paused where she was. She had almost stepped out onto the
grass.
“Stay out of the water! The pathogen—”
The voice suddenly stopped. Sammy wasn’t sure why, but she immediately
assumed the worst.
Sammy was trapped – the chaos was all around, the water was all
around, the death was all around. She stood frozen, not sure where to go, not
sure how to survive. Maybe it was airborne. Maybe she was already dead. She sat
down, wanting to cry, but forced herself to keep it together.
She watched the people nearby slowly die. In the distance she
watched people running away. Whoever had been running around yelling orders and
warnings was gone. There was no rescue in sight. It was sad and lonely and
incredibly frightening. Sammy sat there and waited, unsure what she was waiting
for, just hoping that she wasn’t waiting to die.
No comments:
Post a Comment