The Twirl: Chapter Three

Chapter three of my book - it's a short one. If you're enjoying reading these, I'll release one chapter every week. Maybe two if it consists of a short one like this. Feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments. They're always appreciated.

As always, thanks for reading.

Chapter 3 

We stand motionless, still trying to process what we are seeing. It feels like the planet has been erased, but something still seems amiss. And then it hits me—our house.

It’s the only thing still standing. Barely a single shingle has shifted. No shutters are crooked. No windows shattered. It’s as if the storm spared us. 

It’s an eerie feeling standing on our porch, staring at what used to be our yard. The land around us is barren now, like this twirl reached out and dissolved everything in its path. No trees, no cars, no debris, nothing. Just emptiness. Yet our house remains.

I can't shake the question burning in my mind: Did anyone else survive? Are we the only ones left in the world?

My mind races like a pinball, bouncing from one thought to the next. When I finally manage to form a clear question, I ask, “Why us?” Dad knows what I really mean … Why are we the only ones unharmed?

I glance over at Dad, and I can see it in his eyes, he’s wondering the same thing. He doesn’t say anything at first, just stares ahead in confusion. Then, his voice cracks the silence. “I don’t know … the storm didn’t seem too bad … I don’t understand how it could’ve caused all of this … not to mention how our house made it and nothing else.” 

He’s struggling to make sense of it, just like I am. I know my question was rhetorical. But somehow, that makes it worse. All we have now are unanswered questions. And no matter how many we ask, I don’t know if we’ll ever get the answers.

Instead of finishing the cleanup, we decide to step off the porch, closer to the destruction so we can see it close-up. We walk a quarter-mile radius around our house. This is a nightmare. There’s no sign of life. No animals, no birds, no people. Not even a single tree has survived as far as my eyes can see. Everything is gone, vanished without a trace. 

It’s as if the world around us was sucked into the atmosphere and disappeared, leaving nothing behind—except our house.

Our thoughts just bounce off of each other, neither of us having any real answers. We have no transportation, no way to reach anyone. Everything we know is gone. The only thing left standing is the house. At least that’s all we see. 

How far does this go? How do we even find that out? Our phones are down. No telephone or electric poles even withstood the storm. That’s why I couldn’t get through to Ellie or Laney. But then why do we still have electricity? The generator shouldn’t be strong enough to power this entire house, let alone the lights that are still running.

The only thing left to do is walk. Walk until we find someone. Until we find survivors, if there are any. But even that feels uncertain. How far will we have to go to find another living soul? 

Even if we do head out, we have no idea if it’ll make a difference. We’re stranded here, completely alone. We try to think logically, to make sense of it all, but there’s no logic to this. The world around us doesn’t make sense anymore.

We think it through over and over again, every angle, every possibility. But all that keeps echoing in our minds is one question: 

Why us?