((Just a little something I am working on.
I'm not sure where it's going yet, but I like the start so far.

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Chapter 1

The Strom came.

Nobody knows why or how, but they came.

Everything changed.

I was but a child playing one day. I was happy in the green grass beneath my bare toes and chasing butterflies under an azure sky. It was glorious.

The next day, I only remember my father yelling, grabbing me, and running for the car with me tucked under his arm. It was different and I shuddered endlessly as I tried to figure out what was happening. I covered my eyes when he told me to. I heard the screaming as he locked the doors and started the engine.

“Stay down, baby! Stay down in the seat! Don’t look!” My father’s voice was adamant but I had to peek, didn’t I? I had to know what was going on. It was confusing as the car swerved from side to side to avoid something… someone. I didn’t know, but I felt the movement.

Panic. I don’t think I had ever known that feeling before. I understood confusion but panic left my mouth dry, my chest thumping wildly, and my ears ringing. It was not a good feeling.

A man was swept from our path by something- something large. I thought it was a tremendous bear. Then I noticed the tentacles and screamed as they wrapped around him, tearing and pulling him apart. I shuddered and screamed again.

Strom.

It was such a strange unassuming word. Five simple letters made it up. The meaning was far more than a simple form and far more than my seven year old brain could prepare for at the time.

The man was gone and I was screaming. That is what I remember.
“Don’t look, baby! I told you not to look!” My father’s voice caused me to crawl down into the floorboard. I shook wrapping my arms around me. I could hear the growls, snarls, and screams echoing from side to side.

That thing it had tentacles, and it had ripped that man apart. Bile rose in my throat and I put my hand over my mouth trying not to vomit. It was then I realized that my mother and brother were not with us. Had Daddy just left them behind? No. He would not do that. What happened? I didn’t understand.

I heard the sounds that popped and squeals of pain followed by more screams and snarls. Our car moved further and further away from our home. After what seemed like forever, the sounds lessened.

My father looked like a madman I decided when I got brave enough to watch him. He was nervous, sweating and afraid. I could almost smell it on him as if it permeated the air inside the car. I watched the sweat bead up on his forehead, pool, run, and then drop off on his shirt.

“Where are we going, Daddy?” I finally had to ask. “Where’s Mommy and David?”

He winced. “Mommy and David… they… they won’t be with us anymore, baby. We are going to the base. They will know what to do there. My friends will know…” he said even softer at the end. He hoped they would know but he did not say it to me. He never took his eyes off the road except when his gaze darted around looking for the Strom. Of course, I did not know that was what they were yet.

The base. That was where my Daddy’s soldier friends lived. I never doubted his words that they would know what to do. I never doubted anything he said because I had no reason to. All too soon I would learn even my Daddy was wrong sometimes.

And he was very wrong about the base.