Gmuxx Writing Post Challenge - The Exterminator

The following is my entry in the Writing Challenge being run this week by @Gmuxx. You can view the original challenge post here:

https://steemit.com/contest/@gmuxx/art-prompt-writing-contest-2

Please enjoy my entry - The Exterminator

Image Source: http://www.royfreeslots.com/TheSlots/3DSlots40Exterminator.htm

Kyle stepped carefully as he crossed the field. He held his Anemometer in front of him like a sword of protection, watching for any signs of the wind which, by all rights, should have been there.

But nothing.

The field was deathly quiet. Not a wisp of a breeze to indicate that anything odd was happening. But one look at the sky told an entirely different tale.

Blackness. A wall of black clouds blotting out the daylight. A storm of immense power was up there, just waiting to unleash it’s fury on the people below.

And yet, nothing was happening. Everything was still.

Kyle took another few steps. His goal to take a look at a small area the clouds had not claimed for their own. A small ray of sunshine bore through the clouds to light the center of the field. Kyle was determined to find out why as he neared the circle of sunlight strewn grass.

As Kyle stepped to the edge of the sunlight he looked up. His jaw dropped, wind gauge falling from suddenly limp hands. This wasn’t a hole in the clouds. This was…. What the hell was it?!?

Kyle reached for the call button on his two way radio. “Matt? Matt you aren’t going to believe this.” he let go of the key and waited for a response, eyes never leaving the sky.

“Dammit Kyle” a response finally came back. “How many times have I told you to use proper radio procedures? Over.”

That shook Kyle out of his paralyzed state. Depressing the button once again he exclaimed into the pickup. “Fuck your radio etiquette and get out here!” He glanced up again “Fucking Over.” he added before letting go of the button.

Half a mile back on the edge of the field, a heavy duty red Storm Chasing SUV sat on a dirt country road. The driver waved back and forth, apparently arguing with himself, before the door finally opened and a short overweight middle aged man climbed down to the ground. Muttering curses he started trekking across the field. Never once looking at the sky, the man finally reached Kyle grumbling.

“Dammit Kyle, you’re the fucking scientist, I’m just the driver.” he looked at his partner whose face had not left the sky. With an exaggerated sigh, his own gaze raised to the black clouds. Once his eyes reached the hole, he let out his own gasp, twin to that which had escaped Kyle previously.

“What am I looking at Kyle?” Matt finally was able to ask, eyes still locked on the hole in the sky.

Kyle shook his head, looking over to the smaller man. “An impossibility I would usually say.” he offered with more calm than he felt. “If I didn’t know better, I would say we are looking at an inverted tornado.”

“An invert…” Matt stopped. “A tornado that goes up instead of down? How is that even possible?” Matt looked back up at what could only be described as a funnel cloud, reaching up and away from the ground. Up into the sky, rather than down to the surface below.

“It isn’t possible Matt.” the other man whispered, just as a shadow started to creep across the circle of sunlight.

Their eyes once again drawn to the clouds above them, the men watches as the broad end of the funnel above seemed to begin to close off. Not narrowing, but closing from right to left. It reminded Kyle of the recent eclipse of the sun which had passed across North America a few short months earlier.

Gradually the sky grew dimmer as the funnel closed off, until finally, pitch black enveloped them as the Sun was blotted out completely. It wasn’t the odd almost dawn darkness the man had experience during the eclipse, but a full throttle, middle of the night DARK.

And then the wind started. Like a microburst of air rushing from the sky, down to the ground below, the wind blew both men back and off their feet, plastered to the ground by a wind force they could not oppose. The air pushed at them as if they were in the receptacle of a vacuum that had just been turned on and was sucking the sky down on top of them.

Eyes glued to the sky, bodies unable to move, the men stared up at darkness. And the darkness was getting closer.

---

In a ship above the planet’s surface, Zuflen-138 turned from his view screen to report “Tractor released. Asteroid Zing Alpha Niner locked into the planet’s atmosphere. Rotational pull will result in collision in approximately 10… 9… 8…”

The voice droned on as Captain Fulnar sat back in his command chair looking at the small blue planet in the center of his display. Moments later the asteroid struck the surface, an explosion roared across the planet, fire spreading from the impact crater centered on one of the continental land masses. In minutes, the entire planet was engulfed in smoke and flame.

Fulnar touched a stud on his chair “Ulnical Kubli X reporting from the Fregnar System. The third planet from the sun has been fumigated of all previous life forms. Terraforming teams should begin processing the planet for habitation no later than Mossa Friggar Ten. Captain Quicknar Fulnar Seven, Commanding Officer reports successful mission and intent to continue to Sector Sept Tin Eight.”

Releasing the stud, the Captain turned back to Zuflen-138 “Good work number two. Set course for our next extermination.”

---

Soon thereafter, the Pest Control ship, Ulnical Kubli X began accelerating away from a now orange planet. The bright green slogan on the side of the ship emblazoned with the slogan “Keep your new planet pest free with Kubli!”

---

Original Writing Prompt Image:

Original Image Source: @torico

If you have enjoyed this story, enjoy writing, and would like to participate in a challenge yourself. Please take a look at the writing challenge I just began Friday, September 1:
https://steemit.com/contest/@mikepm74/plain-mike-s-creative-writing-challenge-20sbd-pot-picture-prompt-1

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