Story [Issue 34] Weather - Part 2

[mcmonkey25 717]

Read Part I here

 

Power

Ryan’s bag was almost full now. Clothes, washing essentials, some basic food supplies and bottles to collect rain water in. There was one thing that he didn’t need to pack though, his power. It had been his secret for as long as he could remember, not even his horrible mother or dead father had known about it. He had woken up with it one morning, as if he had always had it. He didn’t quite know how to control it at first, his actions being erratic, but eventually he mastered his power. His power to control wind and rain, sun and clouds. His power to control the weather. It went with him everywhere, followed him even and he could always feel it.

 

Ryan didn’t know where he would go. He had no grandparents or aunts or uncles. He had never been christened so he didn’t have any godparents either. For once Ryan regretted his father’s arguing with his mother over the whole Christianity thing. He did have one option though; in Year 5 he had created a friendship, a strong one at that. He had moved the next year to Hereford while Jack was left in Colchester. It felt to Ryan as if he had left his father there too.

 

Ryan had £250 from the emergency fund he had saved up all his life. He was smart like that, always prepared, although he knew that he would have to have run away some day. It was going to be more than enough to pay for the bus journeys up to Colchester, and back again if Jack had unfortunately moved house. But Ryan didn’t have many other options; he needed the help of someone else.

 

Jack

There was a knock on the door. Jack stretched and stared at the clock in the sitting room, 10:00 am it read after Jack’s eyes had adjusted to waking up.

 

Another knock, louder and more persistent.

 

Jack was used to not answering the door; the taxmen had almost given up pestering him. It was only him though. His mother had died in a car crash over a year ago and his father was never found after the incident. Just like Ryan’s dad.

 

Jack lived in a little bungalow worth no more than around £35,500. The money owed on it was too much for Jack to pay off seeming as he had no income and living in the most deprived area of Colchester, there wasn’t much money to be found, or stolen. Jack waited for another minute or so, but it seemed that the man at the door was now gone.

 

Suddenly a face appeared at the dirty window. Jack jumped. It was a familiar face, not one that filled Jack with dread or fear but with hope and happiness. It was Ryan; after seven long, life changing years, Ryan. Jack jumped up and rushed to the door, slipping on a blanket heaped on the ground. He shoved the bent paperclip into the door and twisted it for a bit until there was a faint click and the door creaked open.

 

Ryan strolled in as if viewing the property with an estate agent. It was cold and full of damp. The solitary three rooms in the house didn’t look at all appealing. In the kitchen was a fridge, microwave and counter along with plastic cutlery and a polystyrene plate that hadn’t been cleaned since the last meal. The bathroom was almost bare. A filthy, yellowed toilet and sink stood in each corner. They certainly made you want to hold it in. There was also a cardboard tube from a toilet roll that must have run out weeks ago. Finally there was a sitting room in which the sofa was a bed and a dusty clock sitting opposite ticked, making the only noise in the house.

 

The two friends made a rather awkward embrace before Ryan finally broke the silence. “Nice pad, when’s you’re mother coming home?”

 

“Never,” Jack replied mournfully, “died in a car crash, and you already know the rest.”

 

Ryan didn’t but he nodded anyway. He felt like he had been perhaps a bit too forward with the whole Mum thing. However, he knew Jack could make a good companion for his journey. “I’m going to Egypt,” he said, “I’m gonna stop that meteorite.”

 

“Very funny”

 

“You think, ‘cause I know where that thing’s gonna land and I can stop it.”

 

“Just leave it to the authority and its missiles, there’s nothing anyone else can do. Wait, how would you stop it anyway?”

 

“There’s something I ain’t told anyone, ever. But I’m going to let you into my confidence. I,” Ryan stumbled over his words; he had never told anyone this and it came as a shock to his system that he was about to. He was having second thoughts about the whole companion thing. A lump had formed in his throat and he wanted to run for the door. “I can control the weather.” Too late, the damage was done.

 

Jack laughed. Before he knew it, the most ferocious storm had gathered outside, then it turned to intense sun and then snow. All before Jack’s amazed eyes. Ryan was used to the changes in the weather by now. Jack was astounded, he couldn’t understand it. The pavement outside his house was wet, but everywhere else the ground was dry.

 

“That’s you, d-d-doing that.” fumbled Jack as he pointed to outside.

 

“Yep”

 

Jack was shocked, he couldn’t believe what has just happened, and if Ryan was serious about this, what if he was serious about stopping those missiles. But he couldn’t just follow him there. Jack thought through everything they would need, especially the money. But Ryan was his oldest friend, and he wasn’t going to leave him now. “What do you need?”

 

“First? Lunch.”

 

The Plan

After eating their lunches of stale bread and slightly-off cheese, Jack and Ryan slumped down onto the sofa and began to discuss the plan to go to Egypt. Ryan told Jack of how he went to the library and found out the co-ordinates of the meteorites predicted landing place from some science website. They decided that they would have to get on a plane but they soon realised Ryan’s emergency fund wouldn’t stretch that far. Accumulatively, Jack and Ryan had £175 but they found out it would be £200 each to go to Egypt. Apparently dying next to one of the Seven Wonders of the World was popular seeming as it was going to be the end of the world.

 

Two days later and Jack had his bag packed; it went next to Ryan’s in the hallway. There were supposedly four days until the meteorite struck. They had decided that the best way to get to Egypt with hardly any money would be to smuggle themselves onto a plane. He had no idea how, but he guessed Ryan had an idea. There was another knock on the door and Jack called Ryan who was resting in the sitting room. The taxi had finally arrived and it was time for them to leave.

 

“Why would you two young lads want to go to the airport on your own when the world’s about to end?” enquired the taxi driver as they got in.

 

Jack, who had always been a good liar, especially so after the authorities began to become suspicious of him, replied: “Oh, my brother and I, we are going to Edinburgh to spend our last days with the family.” It appeared to content the driver despite the fact Jack and Ryan looked little alike.

 

They all stayed silent after that. The roads were deadly silent and it creeped Ryan out. No-one walking home, no children playing. The world had almost become a ghost town. It soon would be. If you were alert enough, you could occasionally see an adult peering out of a window from behind the curtain. Once they were on the motorway there were a few other cars, all packed full of items.

 

After over an hour driving in the stuffy taxi, Jack and Ryan tumbled out, paying the driver his rip-off fees. Yet who could blame him, wouldn’t it be good to go out of this life rich?

 

The airport loomed over them, at least there was some commotion here, the slight hum of doors sliding open as people came and went, most with tears in their eyes. Once inside, Jack and Ryan stared at the glowing electronic boards showing the few flights in and out of the country. Finally they spotted the one which said:

 

EGYPT, 3:30pm, on time 

 

That was all they needed to see. They walked into the toilets and there they hatched the second part of their plan. They knew they would have to steal uniforms and pretend to be flight attendants. They looked old enough so that would be fine. Luckily, in came two attendants chatting to one another. Suddenly, they both found themselves crumpling to the floor. One had been hit by a metallic bin and the other, one very ancient copy of the Bible.

 

Flight

No-one had recognised or seen anything unusual about the two ‘trainee’ flight attendants. They served coffee normally and spoke in the pleasant yet slightly patronising tones that flight attendants have to talk in. Then a message came from the overhead speakers:

 

“Seatbelts on please, we are coming in to land in Cairo, if you look out the window to the left, you will be able to see the Great Pyramids of Giza. Do stop off there once you have landed, it is a great place to see before the end of the world.”

 

By now Ryan had realised that most of the people on this plane wanted quick deaths, they had also worked out where the meteorite would hit first and had come to be the first to be relieved of their hard lives.

 

Jack had worked out, using a laptop and the plane’s free Wi-Fi that if they stopped in the shabbiest looking hotel in the area, they could just get their money to stretch far enough. There probably wasn’t going to be a return journey for them.

 

Finally, the plane began to tip downwards and then land on the runway. Ryan and Jack allowed the passengers to file out before having to go round and clean up. What happened next could not have been expected at all. It turned out that the real flight attendants had decided that they would get their yearly pay in one massive chunk and as it was almost the end of the world, Flybe gave them each £20,000 in a sealed suitcase with a combination lock on. They were both in awe, but pretended to be completely cool about the whole situation. They were sorted; they had money, and a good amount of time. All they needed now was to get it right; else it would be the end for all.

Edited July 29, 2017 by Hexed

[deadtoyou 2,502]

(clap)

[Darren4Turbo 4,913]

Part 2 is really good  :D 

 

Nice job  ^_^ 

[liverpoolaum 811]

nice

[jazz20 1,181]

nice article :)

[austlee 56]

Very well done; I enjoyed it alot