Chapter the First

"Race, wake up." A voice somewhere above him ordered.

"Mmm, no." Racetrack murmured.

Even though he was still eighty-nine percent still asleep, Racetrack Higgin's brain registered the sound of curtains being thrown open to let in sun. Of which there was none that particularly gray day. "Race, wake up." The voice ordered again.

"So nice and warm and warm," Race pulled his fleece blanket around him tighter.

"Fine then."

Race now a full ninety percent back asleep was glad that the voice had now exited hopefully for good.

Suddenly cold fingers ran across his arms and in a startling turn of events, the cover was ripped from his body to reveal Racetrack who was going au naturelle.

That is to say absolutely ass bared naked.

This transgression pushed Race into utter wakefulness and sent David reeling backward. "Oh man, you guys. I am gonna kill you!" He yelled, whirling around to find several young adult men gathered around the doorframe.

One grinned and turned the camera around so that his face was in line with the lens. "And that is Davey getting his first glimpse of man's part." Spot declared.

"God, why didn't you warn me?" David asked.

"Cause if we had, we wouldn't have had this beautiful footage of you." Blink pointed out, motioning to the camera in Spot's hands.

"Think about it Davey, have you never wondered why there's a pile of Race's clothes in the bathroom after he takes his shower and you don't see him take any in with him?" Mush added trying to be helpful.

"Disturbing thoughts!" David yelled.

"Yeah, well, now that you got footage of me and my wang, how about you get the hell outta my room!" Race yelled, wrapping his sheets around his waist and pushing David out into the hallway before slamming the door.

"My fingers!" Blink cried as the heavy door bounced off his hand.

"Move 'em!" Race ordered before attempting to close the door again.

Race pulled clothes on before heading out into the hall where he met his St. Bernard, Toto.

"RACE!" A furious Jack roared. "Your dog ate Sarah's letter to me."

"Yeah, well, I can't help it that Toto finds Sarah's perfume as a sign that things are edible. Tell her to stop drenching the paper in it before she sends it to you," Race snapped off not really in the mood to be bother about whether Toto eaten of the 50 million letters that Sarah and Jack exchanged. "Or get an email address like a normal person. Toto can't eat your inbox then."

Toto was doing The Dance of the Leash. So Race quickly grabbed the leash off the wall and headed out, still angry with his roommates. As Toto pulled Race down the street and his arm almost out of its socket, Race wondered if his life would ever amount to anything interesting.

Suddenly Toto's head jerked up and Race found himself defying gravity as the large dog suddenly galloped across the street, nearly causing a wreck. Toto only ever went after something with this much interest if it was a cat, a T-bone steak, or . . .

"SPECS! Look out!" Race yelled.

"Wh-" Too late, Toto leapt over the small card table and attacked the teen sitting behind it.

"Oh man! I just got the slobber out of my hair from last time!" Specs groaned as a very large tongue rolled across his face.

Racetrack managed to pull the dog off Specs after several minutes. "Sorry, Specs."

Specs rubbed the copious amounts of drool from his face. "Man." He sat up gingerly and wiped himself off. "Gross. That dog'll be the end of me one day." He glared at the St. Bernard who in turn only lolled his tongue at him looking sweet and innocent and loveable.

"I don't think spit can kill you."

"I could drown in it!"

Specs pushed up his very wobbly card table and set the three cards down for Three Card Monty on top of it.

"I'll see if I can drag him home," Racetrack grumbled grabbing the leash up and pulling against it with all his might, which compared to Toto (who weighed almost twice as much as he did) didn't do much in the least.

"Better hurry home. Looks like there's a storming coming in." Specs added conversationally, placing his hands on the dog's haunches and pushing. Toto begrudgingly got to his feet and followed Race down the street.

Race looked around and noticed the street was eerily empty. But this was New York. The streets should never be empty. Never. It was unnatural. It was creepy. Just plain out wrong.

A rainbow appeared in the gray sky, sparkling but it began to fade, and the sky seemed to get much darker very fast.

Race blinked as a torrential downpour of rain began pounding down on him and Toto. He glanced around and noticed a quaint little house across the street. The door creaked open and Racetrack gratefully sat down on the floor, wringing the rain out of his shirt.

And then he happened to glance out the window. "Holy hell," and then he paused. "Since when is New York in tornado alley? What are the chances of their being a tornado?" However, the fact that there was a tornado could not be ignored and Race glanced around wildly, praying for a basement, but there were no doors only a bed. Race stood as the house began to shake violently, causing him to tumble head over heels and slam his head against the footboard of the bed.