Scarlet Rain, part two
A horror short story
Need to catch up?
This story also available in my anthology Advanced Word Associations.
Shae coughed and panted over the toilet until she was sure it was out of her system, then changed out of her khakis. The new outfit was all a little big for her, but at least it was loose, and not something skintight that was the wrong size.
She reluctantly put her bloody shoes back on and picked up her bloody vest and jeans with her fingertips. It was only after she tossed them in the trash that she noticed the urinal and realized she was in a men's room. Well, it was hardly the worst that could happen. The worst was up in the stratosphere, raining blood over her hometown.
She passed the woman in the hall and said, "I owe you one."
When she got back, the TV was showing a replay of that video. Her father wasn't there anymore. He must have gone back into the studio for weather updates.
The video ended and returned to the anchor desk. "Once again, that was unaltered footage of the object currently shedding red rain from the sky. And we've just received this breaking update: County Mayor Harris has issued an immediate evacuation order. All county residents with available transportation are ordered to—"
Shae's phone shrieked and rattled. It had gotten the evacuation order as well. At the same time, she got a text from Dad.
"Go ahead and go. I'll catch up."
All this told Shae one thing. They didn't expect that monster in the sky to stay there. And if it fell, there would be no stopping it, and no way to save anything underneath. Then she had no time to waste. She grabbed a newspaper, ran out with it over her head, and got back in her car. Just as she started the engine, she got a call from her mother. "Mom, are you all right? Are you evacuating?"
"That's why I called," Mom said. "Are you still at Channel 3?"
"Just about to leave. Dad had to go back to the studio."
"Then I need you to come pick me up. I have a flat tire."
It figured. Shae was already getting ready to abandon the only place she'd ever called home, while death loomed above. Everything had only begun to go wrong. "I'll be right there. Give me just a minute."
What didn't help was that her parents lived all the way on the other side of town. As she pulled out of the parking lot, Shae could already see the gridlock building up on the freeway, so she'd have to go by a more circuitous route.
"I just got another update," the DJ said. "There are reports that people and animals are experiencing extreme side effects from drinking the rainwater. Please, whatever you do, do not do that! Do not drink it, don't let your pets drink it, just get out of here as soon as you can."
Shae turned off the radio. The last thing she needed to hear about right now was what she was seeing right in front of her.
She crossed the river, and the rain got thicker as she approached the center of town. The blood streaked across her windshield so much she had to keep using the water jet to keep it clear. As she drove, the scenery around her became more and more distorted. The trees, now completely drenched, raised and writhed their branches toward the sky. Strange alien stalks sprung from the ground, looking more like fungi than plants. A dog ran down the curb, fleeing from the extra pair of arms that had sprouted from its back.
She floored it, forgetting all her defensive driving education and ignoring all the traffic signals and steering around the other cars careening toward escape. The fact she didn't crash she took as a sign of divine intervention.
After she cleared the tunnels, the rain thinned a little, but the storefronts and drive-thrus of Eisenhower Road now inhabited an alien world, with more flailing trees, more hideous varieties of fungus, and more creatures that had once been ordinary animals.
Even human.
A hunchbacked giant shambled by with horns protruding from its shoulders. By the comedy club, a three-eyed cat thing as big as her car hissed at her. A ten-foot-tall six-armed man with a melted face leaned on the wall of the Catholic school but didn't notice her.
Had they really just let curiosity get the better of them, and tasted the blood?
She coughed, and a panic attack came with it. She hadn't tried to drink it, but how much had misted up and fallen on her lips by accident? How much of the moisture had she breathed in? She checked her arms for any new spots or marks, and it caused her to veer into the left lane and narrowly miss a head-on collision with a Wrangler. She didn't notice any changes yet, but one could come at any moment.
The car skidded as Shae turned onto Ramon Street. "Please God, if you're out there, let Mom be okay."
Her mother's Kia sagged over its front passenger tire. Mom herself was waiting out on the porch with her umbrella open, and she jogged out as soon as Shae rolled up. Shae didn't bother putting the Chevy into Park. She unlocked and opened the door and tossed her sketchbook to the floor. "Get in! Hurry, get in!"
Mom shook as much as she could off her umbrella, threw it into the backseat, and buckled up. "God, this is awful. Just look at what it's done already."
Some of those stalks were springing up in the front lawn, not just here, but all up and down the street. Just a day ago Shae had come over for dinner, and everything was a lush green, with neighborhood kids playing in the circle, couples taking their dogs and babies for a walk, nothing but blue sky above. She'd grown up here, played in that very same circle, waited for the school bus there.
Shae changed her mind. This wasn't an alien world. It wasn't even a dark shadow of the old world. This was Hell.
She would have wanted to draw it if it didn't make her want to throw up again.
"Are you all right?" her mother said.
"Fine," Shae said. "Just peachy." She couldn't see or feel anything growing on her, so that was a small relief. "I'll feel better when we get away from the rain." If nothing else, having Mom in the car was a reason to drive more carefully. No reason to get two people killed.
"They said on TV that if it fell, it'd crush everything from Watermark to Ulster." Mom lifted her eyes to the ceiling. "God couldn't be this angry, could he?"
At the turn back onto Eisenhower, a dog covered with spines was fighting a cat with stegosaurus plates. Shae made a right, toward the exit on Ward Avenue. Just about every route out of town was bound to be backed up for miles, so she figured it made no difference if she chose the nearest one.
Mom picked the sketchbook out of the floor and started flipping through. On a normal day Shae would have slapped it out of her hand—Shae was fiercely protective of it, especially with all the nude drawings inside—but today, she could hardly bring herself to care. "You've really grown as an artist, Shae."
"Thanks," Shae said. "I was actually out drawing when all this started."
Mom reached the blood-spattered page. "I see." Going back, she said, "I didn't know you were taking life-drawing classes."
"I'm not. Those are reference photos I found online."
Mom took a closer look. "I don't recall raising you to look up smut."
"It's not— Mom, they're professional life models, and it's literally just for art reference, and—eeyahhh!" Shae swerved around a three-headed buzzard that crawled in the middle of the street. "God, it's getting worse. Mom, be honest with me: is this the end?"
"We're not going to die, Shae," Mom said.
"That's not what I meant," Shae said as she turned onto Ward.
"Just keep driving." Mom's voice was quavering. "Keep driving, Shae."
That was turning out to be easier said than done. Trees had begun to fall over the road, and some fungi were spreading from the sidewalks. Twisted roots clawed onto the houses on each side, cracking the walls.Â
A fungus like a pumpkin on a giant stalk hit the windshield as Shae maneuvered around a tree. Aside from causing a skid and giving her and Mom a fright, it left a spiderweb dent in the glass. As if it wasn't hard enough to see.
"Come on," Shae said, "not much farther." She prepared to dodge a puddle that took up a whole lane.
Something burst out of that puddle onto the other lane. "Shae, look out!"
Shae spun the steering wheel, and the car screamed out of control, and as she and her mother shrieked, the whole demonic world circled around them.
Suddenly the car tilted back and stopped with an ugly impact.
To be continued…