The Rains - Day 1 - A novel

I have another hub that's the start of this novel. Its called, what else, The Rains. In the beginning of the hub I described why it had taken me so long to do this and if anyone would be interested in reading it. I hope whoever does take the time to read this hub, they will make an honest effort to review the work and give me an honest critique. This isn't the first novel I've written and had published, but I hope it will eventually be one of many yet to come.

So, on that note, here is another exert from THE RAINS. I hope you enjoy.

1 - - -

"Well, Kurt, what do you think about that shit?"

"I think it's about time we seriously started looking for a way out of this cell, Sean."

Sean, a lifer, had been looking for a way out of the State Prison in Lansing, Kansas, since being transferred four years before. Kurt, who was the short timer of the two, doing fifteen to thirty, felt the same way. No prison term should turn into a death sentence when the courts said it shouldn't. Both men were technically guilty, but neither would have been convicted on moral grounds alone. However, that was not how the justice system worked in this country. It didn't depend on your motives, or your intentions, it was the evidence that was counted against you that got you locked up. Plus, neither felt they had adequate counsels. But that was neither here nor there. Facts were facts, they were behind bars, and if they didn't find a way out soon, they'd probably die there.

"Damn rains," said Kurt. "What do you think the screws will do if they actually hit the States?"

Sean didn't say anything. He simply pursed his lips and looked at the floor.

Kurt groaned. When Sean looked as if he were contemplating a new pair of shoes, his many sources of information had usually spilled a butt load of crap down the proverbial toilet. "Shit! What have you heard?"

Sean looked at his friend and said in a somber voice, "Have you ever heard of the Emergency Management Agency?"

"No," Kurt admitted, pursing his lips. "Why?"

"Well, there the one's that tell the stews what to do with us in a national emergency."

"And. . ." said Kurt, gesturing for him to continue.

"They're supposed to kill us."

For the first time in his adult life Kurt was speechless. Turning from his cell-mate and grabbing the reinforced steel bars of his 'home', he stared into space. His mind going blank. He didn't know how to respond to that. After a time of contemplation of his own, Kurt looked at Sean and gulped. "How do you know? Your sources?" Meaning the prisons 'information highway system'.

Sean shook his head, then explained. "This isn't just something I've heard." He grabbed the bars like Kurt and slowly twisted the bars in his hands, grinding his palms into the metal. He looked out of the bars and into the cell-block seeing nothing but cells, level after level of them. Turning to Kurt he said, "I've seen the order in black and white. When I was with Naval Security, it was part of the overall security plan. It's designed to protect citizens in case of a National Emergency or an emergency large enough to cause nationwide panic."

Holy Shit! Kurt's mouth fell open in astonishment. The Stand all over again. Shit! "So, how do we get out of here?"

Since the rains began, security for prison systems all over the country had been dramatically increased. At Lansing, yard time had been stopped altogether. A policy of 'never too cautious' became the norm inside the walls. Work details were cancelled. No one left their cells except for meals, and only one cell block at a time, instead of the whole population showing up. Not only were nerves being frayed by what was happening to the country, but they were being frayed by not being able to be clean. Showers were cut down to only once a week. Constant bickering and fighting were starting to be the norm inside stir. Something was definitely up. Too many changes in too short of time. Any major chances to scheduling or 'yard' time had to be approved by the prison board. The warden didn't have that kind of power alone. The old timers knew something wasn't adding up, and the others were just figuring it out.

There is nothing I am afraid of like scared people. - Robert Frost

If you can control your fear, and still go forward, you have the edge on your enemy. - S.A.

1 - - -

Every radio station in the country reported panic in the streets. In some cases, people were reportedly crushed to death in stampedes as mobs descended on supermarkets, pharmacies, and hardware stores, trying to stock up on supplies. Acid rain was coming to the states, and panic was setting in across the country.

Normally acid rain falls in industrial regions of the United States. Washington, Oregon, and the western states hit the hardest. This is caused from the pollution of the upper atmosphere from carbon emissions from huge factories and refineries. These emissions rise to form a cloud of toxins that are soaked into rain clouds, in turn causing the moisture in the clouds, normally simple water molecules (rain) to fall. But something in the natural order of the prevailing winds in the upper atmosphere had shifted those clouds to form in other parts of the states as well. The Earth had been changing at an alarming rate for the past 200 years, especially in the rise and fall of the industrial revolution. Scientists had been warning the general population that if these changes did not stop, there would be dire consequences to the Earth's natural ecosystem. No one seemed to heed the warning. But now . . . everyone was listening. And panicking.

Car wrecks began to happen at an alarming rate. Police only answered calls in which it was a life or death situation. The National Guard had been called in in many states to help local authorities regain some form of order. But what law makers and governors all over the country didn't realize was that the National Guard and the armed forces were made of people who had families of their own. In less than two weeks, the military system broke down to such an extent their was no reforming it. Thousands died because there was no help available. The nation was being divided into thirds in relation to the amount of damage and chaos taking place. And due to the amount of carnage happening, there wasn't enough police to handle the rising fear from citizens.

In the Rockies and on the West Coast, saner minds seemed to be in charge, although their were flaws to the system. People were making preparations to use a newly developed plastic to cover anything from cars, motorcycles, toys, and whole houses minimize property damage caused by the rains.

In every state, every county, where this material was being stored, it was being overrun with crazed mobs trying to get their 'fair share' of this new hope. Many people were killed or maimed by police trying to keep an orderly distribution of these miracle materials.

2 - - -

Good Evening, this is Jim Thompson. We interrupt this broadcast for a special report. The 'Acid Rains' have reached to heartland of the American Continent. This bulletin just in from the National Meteorological Observatory in Washington, has just reported the East Coast being drenched by 'Acid Rains.' Scattered thunderstorms up and down the East Coast have been reported. As of this time no deaths have been confirmed but local and state agencies have issued warning that anybody caught looting will be shot on sight.

Please stay tuned for more information as it comes in.

You tell me.

Happy reading!