Poison Paradise - Damned of the 2/19th

Changing Homes

Sarah sat cross-legged inside her shelter, holding the baby on her lap and playing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" while Renee sat further back. The rain was dripping through the roof of shelter in multiple places but it was better than outside. The rain was hammering down, with a constantly changing direction wind blowing the wind first one way than the other, often directly into the shelter. Lightning flashed in the sky and the thunder shook the shelter every time it boomed out. It had only been mid-afternoon when the storm had started and it had been going on for nearly three hours without any sight of letting up.

Thunder roared and the baby shouted "NO!" back at it then laughed.

Monsoon, Sarah thought to herself, staring outside. Everyone had scurried into shelters, although there were a few switch-arounds as people found themselves in shelters inhabited by someone they didn't like.

I wonder how long the storm can last? Sarah wondered, going back to silently helping the baby through the hand motions of the old nursery rhyme. She'd heard that monsoons were bad storms that even interrupted World War 2 military operations and caused a lot of property damage in the Pacific, but she'd never thought she'd see one.

I wonder if it's hitting Hawaii? She mused, staring at the rain.

"Christ, we're so far behind him we might as well be monkeys," Renee said from right behind Sarah.

"Eep!" Sarah jumped slightly and the baby laughed. She scooted, turning inside the shelter. There wasn't much room, and the dirt floor was already slick mud with rivulets of water running across the "floor" of the shelter. She glared at Renee. "What?"

Renee held up the thin copper wire with sticks attached to each end. "You know what this is?"

Sarah shook her head.

Renee looked down at it and made a face. "At first I thought it was a garrotte, you know, what spies use to strangle people in movies? Then I remembered my aunt doing pottery and that's  where I remembered it from."

"How is it," Sarah paused while the thunder boomed again. She sighed. "How is it related to pottery?"

Renee tapped the mud. "You use it to cut clay. That means our guy out there is cutting clay to probably shape it."

"How would he know how to do that? I mean, I can't picture a guy his size, in the military, learning pottery," Sarah said.

Renee laughed, the lightning flash making her look crazed for a split second. Renee waited till the thunder stopped before she spoke, still grinning.

"That's the problem with so many people. You look at what you see in front of you, make assumptions, but never ask the obvious questions," She grinned. Another lightning flash that the baby laughed and clapped her hands.

"What questions?" Sarah asked. Renee was starting to get on her nerves. "What questions are you talking about?L"

"Who was he beyond the uniform, beyond what you see," she smiled. "You see a uniform, think his life is entirely devoted to marching around, grunting while he works out, and killing people. But that's at what is basically his job. What did he do before the military? Was he a Boy Scout? Did he have summer jobs? Did he go to college? Did he take pottery classes in High School? All those questions should be obvious."

Sarah nodded, flushing a little at the slight rebuke in Renee's tone.

"Don't fall into the same trap as everyone else. You have a brain, Sarah. Use it," Renee smiled. She pointed outside. "How does our local savage mesh into our deserted town, which is basically a mockup full of mannequins, with military armored vehicles in the street."