Chapter 1 - The Sky Begins To Thunder
The glass patio doors rattled violently in their steel tracks. Brad stumbled out onto the flagstone terrace, rubbing his bruised elbow with one hand and clutching a half-empty tumbler in the other. His expensive tailored tuxedo was disheveled, but his flushed face burned with pure, drunken malice. Behind him marched Tiffany, flanked by thirty dressed-up classmates who had poured out of the ballroom to watch the spectacle.
“You think you can lay your hands on me, you worthless freak?” Brad snarled, spitting onto the manicured grass as he closed the distance between us. “You walked in here smelling like dirt and sweat, wearing military surplus rags, acting like you belong with real winners. You didn’t even pay the two-hundred-dollar entry fee, Bethany! You’re a broke freeloader who couldn’t make it in the real world!”
Tiffany crossed her bare arms, letting out a sharp, mocking laugh that echoed across the dark fairway. “Call the local sheriff, Brad! Tell them the class weirdo assaulted you! Let’s see how tough she acts when she’s locked in a holding cell overnight! She probably stole that bulky walkie-talkie from a construction site!”
I stood completely still on the edge of the eighteenth green. The night air had turned freezing, but my blood was calm, measured, and cold. I didn’t look at Brad’s red face. I didn’t look at Tiffany’s diamond earrings. My eyes were fixed on the horizon just above the silhouette of the pine trees bordering the country club.
“You have about forty-five seconds to step back inside that clubhouse, Brad,” I said, keeping my tone so even it seemed to infuriate him even more. “For your own safety.”
“My safety?” Brad roared with laughter, turning to the watching crowd. “Did you hear that? The mall cop is threatening me! Let me tell you something, Bethany. You were a pathetic loser in high school, and ten years later, you’re still a nobody sitting at the bottom of the food chain! You want to play soldier? Let’s see what you’ve got!”
He lunged forward, raising his heavy fist to strike.
Before his foot could touch the turf, the earth beneath our boots began to tremble. A low, guttural vibration rolled through the ground, vibrating so intensely that the champagne flutes on the outdoor tables began to hum and shatter.
Suddenly, a deafening mechanical roar ripped the night sky in half.
May you like
Two massive black silhouettes crested the tree line at treetop level, their twin turboshaft engines producing a terrifying, chest-thumping thunder. Twin multi-million-candlepower searchlights snapped on simultaneously from the noses of the birds, blinding the patio with brilliant, searing white light.
The gale-force rotor wash hit the terrace like an invisible freight train. Tiffany shrieked as her silk gown whipped violently around her legs, the floral centerpieces tearing from the tables and flying across the lawn. Brad froze mid-stride, his arms raised in pure terror as the downdraft knocked him flat onto his back.
