//------------------------------// // Phenomenon // Story: Tempting Fate // by The Specialist //------------------------------// Andrew cursed as he wildly swerved his Ford Explorer to avoid the deer outlined in his headlights. The SUV nearly nicked the deer as it skidded past, barely managing to stay on the asphalt. As soon as he passed the unexpected obstacle, he hit his breaks and rapidly brought his vehicle to a halt on the edge of the road. Damn country roads he thought, angrily glaring over his shoulder at the deer, which had already bolted off after its near brush with death. He sighed, and focused on calming his wildly beating heart and shot nerves. This is why I hate the forest and these damn roads. Never any danger of hitting a deer on the 710 or 605 Freeways, at least. Which was more than made up for the thousands of people the travel on those freeways on a daily basis (and get into car crashes), but Andrew figured he liked better the danger he knew, as opposed to an unfamiliar one. He turned and back and glared at the road ahead of him, however, the road was impervious to his anger and simply ignored him. Andrew sighed as he glanced at the clock. It read 8:00 am. Normally I’m still asleep around this hour. Damn the SAC County for pulling me in during my day off. This day already sucks balls, he decided as he released the brakes and quickly accelerated to the speed limit. Why does the universe seem to go so far out of the way to screw with me? he mused as he drove, once again not paying a great deal of attention to the road. Realizing his sullen attitude wouldn’t help anything, he tried for optimism. Hey, this day can’t get much worse right? I mean, I feel like I’ve already used up my bad luck quota for the day. Andrew should have known that you don’t toss the universe lines like that. That's just tempting fate. Andrew pulled into his driveway, scratch that, small park that served as his driveway. He took a moment to examine his house, which was still wholly unfamiliar to him. His parents had moved here after he left their home in LA to go college at a CalState. They were tired of the city, and they wanted to go somewhere nice to retire. They bought the house from a former rancher (and because it was close to SAC), and proceeded to completely renovate the house to a more modern state. Dad was always obsessed with technology, Andrew thought has he looked at the gleaming solar panels on the roof as well and the new model electric truck. He smiled sadly as he relived some old memories. Fishing with his dad. That cruise to Alaska. All those care packages from home when he still attended college. Going to Six Fl- he abruptly cut himself off. Best not to think about that kinda stuff he told himself as he trudged to his front door. He heard some scuffling on the other side of the door as he inserted the key. Smiling, he threw open the door and was quickly tackled by 60 pounds of slobbering dog. “Hey Crazy, how you doing? “Andrew smiled as he called her by her nickname. After the greeting, the dog excitedly rushed back the way it came. Andrew sighed as it disappeared around the corner. He just couldn’t understand why it always seemed to by rushing to get back to its bed in the den. It’s not like it’s going anywhere. He headed over to the kitchen to grab a coke and quickly made for his favorite spot in the house. His family had called it “The Command Center.” It had three large monitors mounted on three sides of the room, one for each computer. Each computer was custom assembled by Andrew himself, and were constantly upgraded as new parts came out. Within the various storage compartments along the sides of the room were various external hard drives that contained material accumulated during the course of Andrew life. They had everything from movies, to pictures, ebooks, video games, music, and documents from work all neatly organized by hard drive. Being a single bachelor with an engineer’s salary definitely had some perks. Andrew seated himself on his favorite office chair with a small sigh of pleasure. He activated his personal computer and typed in the password. Grabbing his earphones, he leaned back and opened a playlist on piano pieces. Hmm..I guess Yiruma would be good for now. His pieces were great…decision made, he closed his eyes and listened to the soothing sound of River Flows in You. He fell asleep before the piece even ended. And that’s when the universe decided to make its move. ………………………… While in the general area of SAC, Northern California, Andrew’s neighborhood could hardly be called densely populated. The nearest neighbors were a few miles away. So, despite all the police questioning, no one could turn up any witness’s to the debacle. The entire thing was bizarre. Where Andrew’s house had been, there was forest. The road had been cut. All traces of Andrew’s house and possessions had disappeared completely. The police promised friends and relatives to continue the search, but in truth, they doubted they would ever find Andrew. What sort of power could simply wipe someone off the map like they had never existed? One crime scene investigator looked at the scene and shrugged at his partner. “I dunno what happened.” He idly scratched his head. “It’s seems almost like magic.” His partner laughed. ………………………….. Andrew’s rather pleasant dreams were interrupted by the crash of thunder and a searing light that was so intense, it almost felt like a physical force. To Andrew, it felt like getting socked in the face by a laser. If his eyes had been open, he would have been blinded. Stumbling out of his chair and turning away from the sole window in the room, he threw himself under a desk and awaited the inevitable shock wave that came after a nuclear explosion. The light how ended as abruptly as it had stared and the room became pitch black, yet Andrew still huddled under his desk, cursing himself for never building any kind of fallout shelter or at least having a hazmat suit. The mushroom cloud is probably blocking out the sun or something….Had Andrew been thinking rationally, he would have realized how absurd his idea was. It the cloud were close enough to block out the sun, by extension, he would have been either blasted by the shockwave or incinerated. Another five minutes passed. Andrew slowly picked himself up from the floor and cautiously approached the window. As he did so, he reached under his desk and pulled out M9 Beretta from a hidden holster. He worked the slide, chambering a round, but did not yet take the safety off. Pressing himself against the side of the window, he peeked out cautiously. What he saw dumbfounded him. It was night. Andrew looked up and saw what appeared to be a full moon. Andrew’s brain went into overdrive, trying to rationalize what he saw to some kind of logic. It failed. He glanced at the clock. 10:11 am. Andrew rubbed his eyes. Blinked. No change. He tried again. Still no change. He pinched himself. No change. Andrew was simply at a loss for words. Abruptly, he made a decision. Fuck this shit. I’m going to bed. He slowly trudged his way to his bedroom, tugged open the door, and hit his bed like sack. He was asleep moments later. ………………………………… Luna trotted gracefully through the empty hallways of Canterlot castle. She carefully watched each step, planning every fluid movement. Glancing around for observers, and finding none, she sighed and allowed herself some freedom of movement. I simply don’t understand how Tia does it she grumbled. How can she make looking so graceful look so effortless?! Practice makes perfect? HA! As if I haven’t seen thousands of mimics get it wrong no matter how much they practice… Muttering darkly, she continued her sullen walk until she reached her favorite place in all Canterlot. The Royal Observatory. Discarding her previous attitude like a cloak, she immediately brightened at the idea of simply examining her starry sky for a few peaceful hours. No court duties, no annoying politicians, complaints….none of it! A delightful break after the tedium of bureaucracy. She hummed to herself while fiddling with her telescope. What shall we look at today I wonder? she thought as she finally readied her telescope for duty. She paused, deep in thought. ……..I know! Tonight I’ll – Her thought was cut off as she spotted a bright glow deep in the Everfree forest. She immediately turned her telescope to the phenomenon, but before she could even take a look, the glow ended as abruptly as it had begun. Luna pondered as to what the phenomenon could possibly be. Nothing comes to mind immediately…She shrugged, and filed the phenomenon away for later investigation. She had more pressing things to attend to. ………………………………. Andrew groaned as he opened his eyes, automatically looking at his bedside clock. It burned a steady 5:52 pm. He looked at his window. It was as bright as day. Frowning, his sleeping mind attempted to reconcile the difference between the actual time of day, and the time of day his clock told him it was. How…what? And then he remembered. He jumped out of bed and threw open his window. He wasn’t greeted with the familiar sight of the road that led to his house. Well he was, but it had changed. Now the road abruptly ended at a tree. But that wasn’t the strange part. The strange part was that the tree had been sliced in half, vertically where it met the road. He looked around. He had always had to remove flora that grew too close to his home, they were a fire hazard. But now…….His house was completely hemmed in by trees. There wasn’t even space to move a car even if he had wanted to. First he tried to phone. No response. Then his cellphone. No response. Internet on his phone. No response. Then he went to his computer. There was no internet connection. He checked his radio. All he got for his trouble was some static. At this point, Andrew was past the stage of panic. He had watched enough science fiction and read enough novels to know that he was truly, utterly, completely, in deep freakin shit. Fact of the matter was, he was completely cut off and isolated from everything he knew and loved. There was only one thing left at the moment. Survival of the Fittest. He began by cataloguing all the food and water he had left. He had already tried the tap water, no response. He checked the old well out in the back. It had run dry when the water table fell...but if he was right….”Success!” he cried as his plastic pail returned with water. He took a sip. The water didn’t even taste slightly contaminated. Regardless, it would still have to be filtered. He filled up his containers and returned to the house, pleased with his discovery. By evening the next day (he reset his clocks to approximate local time) he had finished taking stock of all the food he had in the house, including the emergency stores. By his estimate, with proper rationing, he might be able to last a month on stored food alone, made possible only by the backup military MRE’s his dad had stored away. Speaking of which…. He needed some way to defend himself or hunt. He entered the basement. There was one side of the basement kept clear at all times. On this wall were two large tables, with one large metal safe on each of them. Andrew inserted a key and turned. He opened them and took out their most important contents. Now, on one table lay a scratched and beat up M1 Garand, a relic of WW2, with 10 clips and a bayonet. On the other, lay a Remington bolt-action in .30-06 hunting rifle with a box of rounds, and AR-15 with 4 magazines. Smiling, Andrew quickly examined the weapons and deemed then in working condition. It was a small comfort to Andrew that at least he still had to power to defend himself, at least until the ammunition ran out. With that out of the way, he took a moment to ponder their use. He was no hunter or soldier. While he may know how to handle a firearm, he did not know even the basics of hunting and tracking animals. And there was no way he could get his dog to do it, he didn’t have a clue how to train her, and she was already pretty old. If only I still had access to the internet…google always did know the answer. The only way to extend my rations is to hunt and scavenge for food. Then it hit him. There was simply no way he could survive by hunting and scavenging. His entire plan was completely wrong. Even if he could somehow manage to sustain himself with hunting and foraging, when winter hit…he would probably die. He cursed his softness and the lack of practical training for city kids for wilderness survival. He sat down and thought for a moment. His session was brief, for he did not have many options. I have to find civilization. It’s my only chance. ……………………………… It took him two days to prepare himself, physically and psychologically, for the task ahead. He had no vehicle that could traverse such rough terrain. Thus, he would be limited to simply what he could carry with him. There was no way he could leave Crazy behind, so he would have to take her into account as well. Fortunately she was trained enough to follow him and not go snooping off everywhere. He had his basic survival gear, a must have when living alone in near wilderness. He had enough rations and water to last him and Crazy four days. He had a tablet and journal to record observations. And finally, he carried his M9 and the Remington, along with 1 magazine for the M9and forty rounds for the Remington. He stepped out the door, Crazy dogging his heels, and locked it. He stepped back a few paces and looked one last time at his house. On the roof the building, extending high into the sky, sat a large pole. On top of the pole, flapping in the wind was American Flag. He had figured that it was the best way to mark his house, as he had no means of leaving some sort of trail and his memory for directions was horrible. And if, for some reason, he never returned…at least “Ol Glory would remain as a testimony to him. He threw a quick salute to the flag, turned, and walked into the forest, Crazy close behind. He did not look back.