I looked over the slowly rotating baggage carousel, the spinning conveyor belt making me slightly dizzy. I bounced on the balls of my feet as I combed the masses of black suitcases. Finally, I saw the camouflage back pack slide heavily from the chute. Shouldering my way into the front of the crowd, I let out a heavy sigh. The sigh contained all of the anxiety and frustration of traveling overseas, which was quite a pain, if you asked me. After heaving the massive sigh, I felt much better, even though I hadn't eaten anything since Philadelphia, nearly 13 hours ago.
My father had been in the military until he recently retired, so I was used to traveling, although I never had enjoyed the plane rides. Finally, done with the journey! I thought with jubilation as I hoisted the backpack easily, even though it was quite heavy, packed with clothes and entertainment. I was so happy as I took the first few steps of my pre-college journey to see the world that I almost tripped, but thank god, my reputation was saved by not tripping down that quite long flight of stairs. Descending the more habitual way, I exited the automatic doors with my dignity intact.
Seeing as it was about 6:00 am, the city was just waking up, and I was greeted with a rush of the warm, dry outside air, and the view of a beautiful African sunrise. It sounds like such an over-used cliché, and impossible to boot, but my breath caught in my throat for a brief instant, and my jaw dropped. I noticed the ebony thunderclouds, indicator of a huge storm coming- the air crackled with electricity, but it probably wouldn't start for a while, I hoped.
Luckily, there were only a few people out and about, so I had no problem whatsoever finding the car and driver I'd rented to take me to some friends of the family, who lived about two hours into the countryside. The sign the driver was holding up helped too. I'd looked at numerous car sites, but apparently the webmasters for them were expert photo-stagers- the grungy driver and grimy car were far from the pictures of sparkling clean perfection on the site.
"You Jack Passmore?" asked the lethargic driver unhappily, then did a double take as he took in my red hair, green eyes, and, well, chest. "Yous a girl!" he exclaimed, momentarily shocked out of his sleepiness.
"Oh dear God I am!" I exclaimed sardonically, not really surprised. My mother just loved the damn name. Which meant that their healthy baby girl was named Jack. Better than being named Hubert, I suppose. Thankfully Jacky was a perfectly acceptable girls nickname, or I would have had to get into a lot more fights in high school.
"Grumblemubledy" he said something, though God only knows what, which I took for "Get in the car"
So I got in the passenger seat of the car, because I'm just really docile like that, and tightened my hand on the can of MACE in my purse, 'cause like I said- I'm docile.
He got in the driver's seat, and we sped off. Well, it was more like we rambled off, because I don't believe that 20 miles per hour can really qualify as sped.
And to make my day, halfway through the drive, which had been spent on blasting '80s rock music, and extremely loud singing on the part of the driver, we got a flat tire and the engine overheated. Yay.
"Humph." He judged, leaning back on his ankles. Heaving a sigh that could've rivaled mine earlier that day, he informed me roughly that it was "gunna take least an' hour."
I ahh'd, and didn't really know what else to say, so I escaped the cloud of noxious smoke emanating from the engine by climbing the hill next to the road. A clash of thunder greeted me at the top of the hill as I surveyed the land. It looked like the pictures I'd seen of Africa, the savannahs stretching on, seemingly forever, with clear, small streams winging their way through the land.
It was dark now, the storm was starting, evident by the flash of lightning, and the clap of thunder that seemed like it was at the same time. A tree right below me burst into fire, and I emitted a sharp little yelp of surprise before stumbling back. This hill looked like the highest point for miles, with no other trees on it. More precisely, I supposed I was the highest point for miles. I felt a moment of pride, it was pretty cool, and then my brain cells kicked in.
Run my brain screamed, and I remembered 8th grade Robotics &Electricity. Lightning travels to the path of least resistance…the highest point. Shit. I started running to the car. To do so, I had to run across the peak, which looking back, probably wasn't a very good idea.
I sprinted across the peak, and leaped for safe, low ground. Too late. I felt a moment of excruciating pain, smelled burnt flesh and hair, and heard the rumbling sound of thunder, impossibly loud, surrounding me, enveloping me. I hit the ground with a muffled thud. Ouch.
My vision was beyond blurry, and I saw a flash of bright green, golden, and red. Everything then went completely and exceptionally black.