One
Crack!
There it was again, that loud cracking noise. What was it? Steven Vern looked around his darkened apartment, and noted that not only had the television stopped working, but so had the lights. He stood up and walked toward his window that looked out onto the street 5 floors below. The sky was dark and forbidding, and there seemed to be an awful lot of parked cars in the road.
He opened his window, and felt the immense wind blowing toward the storm. Wait. Blowing towards the storm? Wind is always supposed to blow away from the storm. He straightened his glasses and leaned against the wind sill, watching the people get out of their cars. Some interested people came out of their homes and asked the people if they needed help. So their cars had stopped working too, thought Steven.
Another crack echoed through the streets, and this time Steven saw what was causing it. A blue bolt of lightning came down and struck somewhere not far away. Steven ducked from reflex, and banged his head against the wind sill as he did. "Damnit!"
He looked up again, and saw some people starring at where the second flash of lightning had struck. Others were starring at the sky.
No thunder…
Steven looked up, then back down. He was confused by these events that didn't seem to make any sense. Another crack, another bolt of lightning. He pulled back once again, but braced himself. More cracks echoed and then more. The lightning seemed to be getting more rapid. The lightning struck again and again in succession, cracking each time as though it were hitting something.
Steven watched the people on the streets below run for cover, and soon it was too much for him and he had to duck. It cracked over and over again, and the wind blew into his apartment, fluttering the pages on books and spare paper. But then it stopped, and it was all over.
A few seconds passed before he could gain the courage to stand up; he had to be sure it was over.
Finally he did look back out the window, and saw that a lot of people were coming back out onto the street. He closed his window and went down the steps to the ground floor, and excited the building. Everyone outside seemed to be going in one direction that, supposedly, led to where the lightning had struck.
Steven went with the flow of the crowed until they reached a dark spot and a little crater in the pavement from the lightning hitting it over and over. He crouched down to examine the ground, and dipped his fingers in the dust that used to be asphalt. "Fascinating…"
"That's some weird shit," came a voice from behind. "Lightning isn't supposed to strike in the same spot over and over like that." Steven stood and turned around to face a man in his mid-thirties with a panicked look on his face.
"There is a theory that states…" He trailed off as two police officers entered the scene.
"All right, people, move back please." Steven was pushed aside by the gloved hand of an officer, and was soon lost admits the throng of people. He wanted to get another look at the small crater, but he couldn't see over the heads of so many people. Instead of pushing his way through, he crawled onto a car to get a vantage point.
Then cracks began forming in the surface of the road around the crater, they moved outward--fast! People stared for a few seconds, then realized that the cracks were growing. Everyone shuffled back a bit, and a few people took off running, but most stayed. Curiosity took control of Steven, and he stayed on the hood of the car.
The cracks grew larger still, and then the ground heaved upward. All hell broke loose as people began running every which way. Steven looked at the people running, thought about staying, then decided against it. Even the officers were running away, after all. He jumped off the car and looked around at the near empty street. People were running but there seemed to be no screams. He began running with them, for the nearest building.
A shock wave shook the street around him, and he stumbled for a moment before regaining his balance. However, he did not start running again. It almost seems as though something is moving underneath the ground, but what? He turned and looked back at the now-large crater, and it did indeed seem as though something was forcing it's way out. He walked toward it, thinking about the few things it could be. It just all seemed to be too illogical.
There some people standing a fair distance from the crater stopped by curiosity and wonder. The ground shook again, and the crater heaved upward sending rocks flying. Steven starred in amazement at an object drew out of the ground. It seemed to be a large circular disk, and was soon revealed to have three metallic legs.
A tripod.