Earlier that summer morning I checked the weather and it was going to be stormy out sometime in the middle of the afternoon.
It was the first thing I did in my routine. I knew that. But what I didn't know was that it was going get a lot worse. It was raining at the moment. I didn't mind the rain very much, but didn't like what usually came along with it.
I was sitting at my secretary desk. I was the secretary for the director of NASA, Mr. Sanders. The power flickered out for a second, but turned back on in the blink of an eye. I got up from my desk and looked outside the office window. The sky was dark gray and the trees were dancing wildly. It seemed like a storm was picking up. The storm was starting to get on my nerves. Thunder was my biggest fear. I rubbed my head nervously.
I went and sat back down at your desk, picking up my luke-warm cup of coffee, hoping to calm myself.
Mr. Sanders came out of his office and checked the window. It must've been distracting him.
"This is certainly getting to be quite a storm." He said simply, and kind of disappointed.
"Yes it is. I really hope it will be over soon, Mr. Sanders."
"Mh-hm. If you'll excuse me…"
Mr. Sanders left the room. I never told him about my fear of thunder — or anyone for that matter. I were about to check your afternoon calendar when suddenly the Internet slowed to a crawl, and then stopped working entirely. Wind howled. The computer shut down. Frustrated, I picked up my smart phone from the desk and tried the Wi-Fi. It was down as well. I groaned.
Outside, rain plummeted down. There were a few idiots running around outside, hurrying out of the building and to their cars.
Then the phone lines went dead. Lightning flashed in the sky.
I went out to the hallway to see if anyone else was out and about. When thunder rumbled, the lights in the building went out. I started to tremble and nearly freak out. Storms were not my best friend. And this one was definitely getting worse. I shivered.
I turned on my smart phone's flashlight. There were a few shouts in the distance. Someone was running towards I but I didn't even have enough time to look up when they bumped in to me.
"I'm sorry! I didn't see you there. Are you okay? We're trying to fix the power." Mark Watney said.
He was heading towards Mr. Sanders office. I then remembered I was Mr. Sander's secretary, and Mr. Sanders wasn't in his office. Mark Watney was a frequent visitor.
I called to him, "Mark! Mr. Sanders left the office."
"What? Then where'd he go?"
"I'm not sure. He just left and didn't tell me where he was going. I'm not a fan of storms, so I don't appreciate him disappearing."
Mark and I both looked at each other in the dim light. My flashlight was shining at the floor.
Mark was worried. He sighed.
"Well, shit. That makes two of us. You know, a storm nearly killed me." he said, running his hand through his hair.
Then he started walking down the hallway. I decided to follow him since there wasn't anything else I could do.
"Let's go look for him." he said, "Oh. I forgot. Are you okay?"
That was an odd question.
"Well I really hate storms, so not really."
We walked side by side and first checked in the cafeteria, where Chris Beck, Beth Johanssen, Alex Vogel, Rick Martinez, and Melissa Lewis were. It seemed they were in the middle of lunch. They were startled by the power outage too, but now that Mark had joined them, they stood up, ready for anything.
"This feels familiar." said Melissa Lewis.
Rick stated, "Only this time we're on Earth, Commander."
Mark grumbled something about Mars under his breath, and cursed. I was about to ask what he said, when lightning flashed. I nearly jumped out of my shoes.
A storm had left Mark Watney stranded on Mars.
"Better not turn into a blasted hurricane. That's the last thing anyone needs." said Alex.
I yelped. If there was anything worse than a storm, it was a hurricane.
"Cut it out, Alex, you're freaking her out." Mark said.
Emergency lights struggled to turn on, and for a moment I had some hope, but they gave up. I stifled a whimper. The storm was too powerful.
"We have to get out of here." Chris said, noting my distress.
No one argued. How could anyone work in weather conditions like this?
Mark Watney unexpectedly grabbed my hand and was going to find an exit. The rest of his crew followed. I was still in shock most of the way since Mark was holding my hand.
They went to the screen room where they found Mr. Sanders talking to Mindy Park about the power outage and if there was anything they could do. No screens were cooperating. Back-ups were dead. By now I had gotten used to holding Mark's hand. If anything, it was nice, and made you feel stable again.
"Mr. Sanders!" Beth called.
"What?"
"Is this power going to come back on any time soon?"
"We're still trying to figure that out." Mindy answered.
Thunder roared. I yelped and clung to Mark. He patted my back gently to try and calm me.
"I hate storms." I mumbled.
"Don't worry, we'll get through this."
Mindy and Mr. Sanders didn't end up coming up with a solution. After some heated arguing between everyone whether it was safe or not to stay, Mr. Sanders made a decision to dismiss everyone for the day. The winning comment was from Commander Lewis.
"Remember the storm that got Mark stranded on Mars?"
Mr. Sanders cursed under his breath and grumbled. He took a moment, and gave up. It was useless with the power out anyway for anyone to get any work done.
"Alright. Everyone can go home for the day." Mr. Sanders announced, to everyone's relief, though he wasn't happy about it.
Everyone left the room, and headed down many halls to get to the front. Mark's crew left first. I watched as they ran out into the storm, with umbrellas trying to escape. Thunder roared.
Mindy left, and went the opposite direction of Mark's crew. Then Mr. Sanders excited the building. Hopefully other employees knew by now that they could leave for the day.
Now Mark was preparing to go. He had on a jacket and grabbed an umbrella from the pocket.
"Come on." he said.
I didn't want to go out in the storm. I let go of Mark's hand, trying to hide in the dark. He turned around, confused. He noticed me stalling. Honestly, I'd rather stay inside where it was safe.
"What is it?"
"Mark, I can't. I can't go out there." I shook your head, almost about to cry.
Mark came close to you and held your shoulders. He said, "I'll be with you the whole time. I promise."
He could see the fear in my eyes.
Lightning flashed outside. Thunder rumbled. The wind picked up even more. The last thing you wanted to do was go out in that weather and find your car.
"I can't…" I started but thunder cut me off.
"Look, how about you come out to my car and crash at my place until the storm is done?"
The idea calmed me. I let out a shaky sigh and nodded. He hugged me quickly.
"Okay." I said, ready to go.
Mark held my hand again.
"Ready?"
"Not really!" I yelled as he opened the door anyway, now regretting my decision to go with him.
We ran out into the pouring rain together.
"Mark!" my voice was drowned in the storm. I wanted to tell him I wanted to go back inside.
Mark kept pushing ahead. Your clothes were soaked within a second. It took all my remaining will-power not to run back inside. Mark tripped over a bump in the sidewalk and fell. I turned around and helped him up, despite my fear the delay would make us stay out in the storm longer.
"Thanks. We're almost there!" he encouraged you.
Fortunately, Mark Watney had VIP parking right up front. He struggled to get the keys out of his pocket, and dropped them. He picked them up from a puddle of rain water, cursing, and opened the passenger door. I jumped into the passenger seat, even though my clothes were soaking wet. I shivered.
Mark closed the door for you and got in on the other side. Now we were safe.
"Thanks." I said, appreciating Mark letting me come with him.
Mark started the car and turned on the heater.
"It's the least I could do." he smiled charmingly at me, and began to pull out of the parking lot.
Mark drove rather well in the rain, despite nearly having been killed in one. After a while I wasn't so nervous, and trusted Mark.
During the trip, I talked and watched the rain streak down the windows. Mark turned on the radio. It came to a disco song and he turned it off. He turned on the heat and eventually my shivers stopped. My clothes began to dry.
"Disco was the only thing I had to listen to on Mars. I hate disco."
I knew that, but still laughed. I knew about his whole journey to Mars. It still fascinated me that he was letting me come to his place for the day, and that he could make me laugh, even though there was a storm not even an inch away from me. I felt safe with him.
It took about a half an hour to get to Mark's place. He pulled into the driveway. It was still raining.
"Here we are." he said.
Mark got out. He then came over to me and helped me out of the car – he must've forgot the umbrella, but we were close enough to the house where it wasn't that big of a deal. We were standing incredibly close to each other. I hardly noticed the thunder or lightning.
I realized I wasn't afraid of storms anymore. Okay, well less afraid than I were earlier. Mark must've noticed, too.
"Thanks Mark." I said.
The rain streaked down, but felt warm. Mark gazed at me. I reached up and kissed him kindly. A moment later, his arms were around me and he pressed his lips down on mine.
The End