Chapter 5
Kevin hit the "1" button on the elevator and watched the doors close, before feeling his weight shift as the car slid down its chute. It had been a week since the events that shrank the United States down to 49 states. And these days, there was a national sense of gloom, as well as the news getting more and more depressing. Another big shock was the utter destruction of even the most airtight facilities, making the military disaster of Pearl Harbor seem like a game. The Navy alone lost almost all ships in that area, about a good 30 of the entire fleet. More than 2 million inhabitants died there, and another 300,000 souls unaccounted for. Kevin tried to cope by taking a job offering for the National Weather Service in downtown Los Angeles and working with many people here and at Headquarters up near DC to do his part for the relief effort. One person he met and made friends with through email was a hurricane specialist from NASA, who worked closely to NOAA's administrator, Tom Gomez. Apparently, the U of H wasn't the only group startled and surprised at the sheer strength of Noelani, which dissipated after a while about 10 miles north of Hawaii for another strange reason, and was caught in the jet stream, heading for the mainland.
He finally was able to see for himself the damage that occurred at the university. Early pictures showed the buildings completely swept away, and the storm shelter/laboratory that he had been working in was visible to the outside world, filled with water. He could clearly see parts of the monitors, chairs, pieces of furniture; he even thought he saw dead bodies. He really wanted to go over there to help out with the cleanup, but all commercial flights to Hawaii were cancelled. Honolulu Airport and its ocean runway were found scattered and floating all around the ocean near the islands, and all other airports thee were gone. All non-commercial flights were severely limited, mostly to prevent looting and thievery, to only military and aid personnel. In all, only 5 survivors were reported found. 5 out of the millions there survived the Storm that Killed Hawaii. Some sick people even were renaming it Hurricane Jap, or even Hurricane bin Laden. As far as Kevin heard, Dr. Hal was never confirmed dead, as his body was never found. But Kevin's hopes of escape shrank after rescue crew reported finding his car a floating a mile north of the big island. It was empty, and the keys missing, indicating that it wasn't used in any way. Kevin, too was for a while declared dead, then missing, since the college hadn't had record of his departure, and everything that could have proven otherwise had been destroyed. So it was a shock when a guy came to his parents house with flowers and the plague that had adored his desk in Hawaii, and said how sorry he was to report that Kevin was at present missing and presumed dead.
His thoughts were once again interrupted when he heard the ding of the elevator and the doors swing open. There was Robert Waters, in charge of the late shift from 8pm to 10 am. Kevin glanced at his watch. 4:37pm. He was suppose to meet Allison at his house. Ever since the events of last week, he and Allison were spending much more time hanging. If one didn't know better, one would have thought they were going out or even engaged. But the truth was, they didn't do anything intimate, it was mostly to spend time, as if tomorrow they would wake up and find out that Kevin never came back. Besides, Kevin thought as he stepped off the elevator, she IS going out with that Simi guy. He then turned to Bob, who was stepping on, and noticed the evil look on his face.
"Hey Bob, you're here early."
"Hey Kev, well, you know me… besides, I thought I'd come in early, see the place in daylight, monitor something, ya know, just… well, yeah"
Kevin grinned slightly. "This coming from the guy who likes to constantly remind us of 'Weatherless City'? I know you better than that. More like you're here to monitor someone. Tell me you're still not after the Ojai girl." Bob had always been a ladies man, and would lay eyes on every girl he saw. And he usually got lucky most of the time. Bob gave a silent reply; spreading his evil grin farther out.
"O c'mon, like you're even gonna convince her to stay with you during your shift"
Bob gave a sad puppy look, "Who would want this poor puppy to spend the night in here all alone…"
"I don't swing that way, Bob… go up north a bit"
"Ha ha, San Francisco, I get it. C'mon, Waters always get their girl, you know that."
"Yeah I do, it's called a riptide and its about 20 miles over there." He pointed to the ocean.
"Oh that's cold. Besides, what are you worried about, you have that Allison girl."
"Now who's being cold, you know perfectly well that she and I are just friends, that's all."
"Don't fool me, you know you like her." Bob joked.
"Shut up. Look, I'm meeting her at my place in an hour, if I get through the traffic in time. I got to go. It's been good talking to ya."
"Ok, and tell me how your night went later!" Kevin gave him the one-finger salute. Bob just grinned even more. "Exactly what I meant, you are smart"
"SHUT UP!"
Kevin started to walk to his jeep before making his way back, to the elevator before it closed. "Wait, Bob, one more thing, you should hear it from me first."
"Don't try to tell me to stay away from Tina"
"No, seriously, there is a large low pressure system from what's left of Noelani coming up the coast. Keep a watch on that… and of course, don't forge the giant artic storm. Hey if you can explain them, maybe you'll actually move up in rank." He said with a smile.
"Ha ha again, and maybe I can go somewhere and monitor real weather."
"Oh yeah, and Bob?"
"Yeah?"
"Stay away from Tina."
She didn't come from Ojai to get seduced by you. He muttered as he made it to his jeep, turned the keys, and sped off.
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Kevin was in his jeep trying to install his storm chaser package onto his jeep when he saw Allison pull onto his street. He was able to get the radio and CD/MP3 player installed, but the rest took up more time. Allison pulled up and got out, as he was willing to give up and get out.
"You still trying to get that done? This isn't the Midwest, ya know." She said with a smile.
"Yah never know, Ally, ya never know." He said, and returned the grin.
She locked eyes for a moment, and then turned to his house. "It looks… uh, nice."
"Don't judge a cloud by its looks."
Truth was that Allison didn't find the house ugly or find anything wrong with it at all. It was a very beautiful and expensive looking house. She was just expecting, well, something unusual. But hey, she'll take his word for it. "Lead the way."
Kevin made his way to her, and took a quick glance around. "No boyfriend today?"
"Nah, the evening is yours." And with that Kevin wrapped his arms around her in a deep, yet friendly hug. Allison responded by returning the hug, and they stood for what seemed like hours. Allison then leaned to his ear. "Am I going to actually see your house?"
Kevin stopped abruptly, and backed away. "Sorry" he said and let her inside.
If the outside looked normal, the inside looked different. The entry way was a hallway down to the living room and the kitchen. Aside from a table and letter holder by the door, a coat rack, and plants lining the hall, there was an abnormal amount of framed pictures of clouds, storms and extreme weather. Many, Allison noted, seemed to have been taken by Kevin, including two pictures taken in the Antarctic. One was Kevin with a dish of water flinging it out onto the snow. The second was Kevin smiling holding the same dish, with the water hanging on it in long strokes of icicles, showing how quickly water froze at that temperature. Further down the hall were photos of hurricanes, thunderheads, hailstones, and of course, tornados. She already knew Kevin had a large fascination with twisters, and sure enough there were plenty of beautiful pictures of them, many from his research. One she saw was a very rare incident that she had never heard of, until Kevin told her about it. It was outside of a small town in Oklahoma that Kevin took a picture of three twisters next to each other. While one was joining another, a third was just breaking off of the middle one, making a strange shape of a capital 'V' with a '?" coming out of it.
Kevin led Allison to the living room, and then went to the kitchen to get some drinks for the two. Allison took this moment to look up at his study, at the back of the living room and next to the kitchen, separated only by the raised floor on which the study was located. Aside from the usual office chair, large desk, and a computer system, there where many monitors around the desk, giving his study the impression of a top secret control center. On the desk were a microphone, a web cam, all kinds of papers, and a NOAA mug with cold coffee in it, with a caricature of a tired guy in a suit and the words "Ask me again and I'll forecast my fist in your face with a 100 chance of pain!" Next to the desk was a table, with maps of currents, the world, climates, and other such weather essential maps, but one caught her eye. On top of the rest of the maps, was a map of the North Pole, and a bunch of satellite photos of what appeared to be three giant storms over the North Pole. The most recent photos, dated yesterday, showed clouds covering a quarter of Canada, half of Alaska, Northern Scotland, and Siberia. On the map, Kevin seemed to have marked different station around the artic circle, and the words "Lost Contact" and a date. Allison realized that the three storms looked like hurricanes, super large 'canes with a humongous eye, and that every city and monitoring station within the Artic Circle was marked as "Lost Contact." She quickly glanced at the computer, which started flashing. Seeing as it was just a new email, she glanced at the sender: Janet Tokata. So, she thought, he finally got a girl. Although not wanting to sneak into his personal life, she hit the email icon on his computer to bring up the mail so he could see. Without warning the new email came up, and after seeing the words update and hurricane, she ended up reading more. It told of the large storm and of the last transmission from Nome, Alaska. Apparently, they said the storm created a strong surge that rose up to 25-40 feet in some places, and that it showed a heavy blizzard. After that, all contact from Nome was lost. Absorbed in her thoughts as she was, she traveled back to the map and studied it until Kevin came out, holding two glasses of Coke. Kevin quickly put down the drinks and ran up to her, and hastily started to pack things away.
"Sorry 'bout the mess Ally… been working overtime with this… didn't mean for you to see this…"
Allison stopped him. "Hold on, what's going on with that, I haven't heard anything at the USGS."
"It's nothing… just a storm… just my job."
"Don't play with me on this. The entire Artic Circle has disappeared!"
Kevin stopped for a second, before putting everything back in a sliding drawer under the table. He then put his hands on the table and leaned against it, head down. "Look, Ally, I can't tell you. Its not because its top secret or anything, but I cant tell you." He looked up at her. "We just don't know."
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The evening went along as planned. Kevin finished with the tour of the house, including an introduction to Nimby, a beautiful orange and white tabby kitten named after the word Nimbus cloud, and his fireplace mantel where his photo of him and Dr. Hal in Hawaii stood atop, candles burning around in tribute to his professor. Kevin and Allison talked about what they left off at, everything they had done, remembering the old days in high school, and early college. Funniest memories of things that happened. Basically enjoying life. Admittedly, Kevin had looked at Allison more than once and thought about how beautiful she was, and then quickly tried to shrug off the thought and return to the conversation, with Bob's words in his head "You know you like her" reminding him every so often. Eventually, it was time for Allison to make it back home, and Kevin walked her to the door, and gave her a hug, although he held on longer than he usually did, enjoying her company and the warmth from her. As she turned, he said goodbye, and looked out across the LA basin. From where he was, he was able to see the entire city of Los Angeles, with downtown in the middle, and Library Tower piercing the horizon. Out in the direction of the coast he could see clouds coming in, black as night. "Hey Ally, tomorrow Noelani's remains will hit us. We're looking at good-sized thunderstorms for the morning. Call me later." He watched as she got into he car and drove off. There was heavy fog coming in, unlike any fog he had ever seen, and he was sure there would be hundreds of sig-alerts later in the morning. Strangely, he got the feeling that the city was way too calm. Not just any kind of uneasy calm. No, it was the kind of calm before danger hit. Calm before the storm.
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(A/N: Well, guys, this is it. Unless you haven't figured it out yet, this is where the movie you have all seen and have clear in your minds comes in for control. Thanks for reviewing, especially to Truedesire2005: my first review, annalisavk: for your feedback, FlyingShipwreak: for you advice… am I doing better, and to Cassandra Lee: if you have any questions, feel free to ask. Be ready for more action, and I warn you I first wrote the next chapter when I first came up with the idea, so do panic if the next chapter is short, I'll try to lengthen it, but I don't know what to do yet. Keep reviewing!)