The Storm of the Century

>You’ve always liked bad weather, ever since you were a kid.
>But a category 4 hurricane still makes you uneasy.
>You work in a data center so the past few hurricanes have forced you to go to work and check on the servers.
>It comes to no surprise to you that your boss called when the storm made landfall and asked you to go in to make sure the building was secured.
>Your 20 minute drive to work seemed like an hour.
>The evacuation route was the easiest way to get to the building.
>Too bad it was also the main highway out of the state.
>You look to the east and see the storm on the horizon.
>The dark clouds moving ominously closer as if there is impending doom.
>The streaks of lightning slowly growing closer.
>You arrive at work and see all the storm shutters down covering the windows.
>You park right next to the door and get out.
>Making your way slowly around the building, you check each shutter to ensure they are secure.
>You enter the building and lock the door behind you.
“Fuck it’s getting dark outside fast”
>The lobby is eerily quiet with no lights on.
>As you enter you shut down the security system and turn enough lights to navigate the call center.
>You make your way to the data center.
>It always made you nervous being alone in here because of the halon fire suppression system.
>If it were to engage while you were inside, you’d have about 1 minute to get to the door before the oxygen in the room was gone.
>You hear the rain picking up outside as you enter the data center.


>You make your way around the room stopping at every battery to make sure they have a balanced load and sufficient charge.
>2 hours later after running your minor diagnostics you decide to check on the weather.
>Leave that potential death trap and head to your desk.
>Sitting in dark corner of the office you log into your computer.
>radar.weather.gov
“Damnit…”
>As soon as those words leave your mouth you see a bright flash through the cracks in the shutters covering the windows accompanied by extremely loud thunder.
>It looked like something moved by the windows during the flash.
>No time to investigate.
>The lightning knocked out the power.
>You jump out of your chair and grab your flashlight.
>Heading through the warehouse was creepy enough with the shitty lighting during the day.
>Now its pitch black and you can only see the small circle in front of you as you move forward.
>Pausing only for a brief moment as you enter the large black room, you sprint through the isles towards the circuit breaker.
>As you close in on your destination you slow down and begin to open the boxes along the wall.
>You get to the large box at the end and find it still in the on position.
>Great, now to check the generator.
>You open the doors at the end of the warehouse.
>The wind and the rain thrust into the room and nearly push you on your ass.
>Is it the Apocalypse!?


>Standing in the doorway, you gaze out over the parking lot to see broken tree limbs and debris flying everywhere with bright flashes of lightning now and then.
>Fucks.exe has thrown an unexpected exception and must close.
>Exit program? [Y] N
>You’ve got a job to do, and right now that includes going outside.
>You make your way to the generator as fast as you can.
“At least it’s not on the roof…”
>It’s not on.
“You’re kidding me.”
>Unlocking the main box, you see that there was an error switching to from maintenance to autorun.
>You reset the errors and manually start the generator.
>As soon as you see the lights come back on inside you book it back to the door.
>You struggle against the wind to close the warehouse door, but you manage to do it.
>Only the flood lights are on in the warehouse illuminating certain areas.
>You begin to go over the breakers to make sure nothing tripped.
>As you’re checking the 10th box you feel an oppressive shadow behind you.
>Frozen with fear.
>Spinning around leading your vision with your flashlight, you see
>Nothing…
“Hello?”
>Silence.


>The sound of alarms ringing from the batteries in the office brings you back out of your trance.
>You quickly finish going over the breakers occasionally glancing over your shoulder.
>Paranoia…
>You don’t bother to close all the boxes.
>You sprint back to the server room.
>No flood lights inside.
“…”
>Going over every rack, you make sure nothing has shut down.
>You step out of the room and slide down the door to sit on the floor.
>Another flash of lightning brings your attention to the front windows.
>Someone is here.
>The alarms throughout the building are starting to annoy you but you tune it out.
>Sitting down back at your desk you bring up the security cameras.
>Rewind back to your first glance at the windows.
>The fuck?
>It only exists for the split second the lightning struck.
>Fast forward to the warehouse.
>You notice there is a shadow moving behind you.
>You watch yourself spin around trying to get a look at it.
>It just moved with you staying in your blind spot the entire time.
>It continues to do this as you move throughout the building.
“Damn I wish the lights were on”
>It disappears when you moved back to your desk to check the cameras.
>Clever girl…


>You can hear the wind picking up outside.
>It’s barely covering up the sound of the tornado siren blaring outside.
>The fuck!?
>The faint sound of a freight train closing in on you gets you anxious and scared at the same time.
>You decide the safest place would be in the data center.
>The sound of a train is starting to become very clear over the noise from the thousands of fans spinning in the room.
“Oh Shit”
>That’s right, there’s a tornado at the front door and it wants a hug.
>The building begins to shake and the whistle of the wind sounds as if it’s going to shatter your ear drums.
>You look out of the bullet proof glass into the office to see the front wall beginning to give way.
>These doors can’t repel wind of that magnitude.
>You brace yourself in between the isles of racks and prepare for the worst.
>If you were a religious man, now would be the time to pray.
>The force of the wind makes the large metal doors give out a loud groan as they begin to stretch.
>A smile breaks out on your face.
“They’re holding. I don’t believe it.”
>You spoke too soon.
>The roof begins to peel back from above the doors.
>Just as you feel you’re going to be sucked out of the building, the tornado shifts direction and drops everything in the room.
>The rain is now pouring into the room.
>Last time you checked, water and electricity didn’t mix well.
>Those doors probably wouldn’t open if you put all your weight into them.
>Suddenly you see a glow 2 rows over from the main fiber switch.


>Instant regret for turning on the generator.
>At least if there’s a fire you won’t suffocate.
>Hesitantly, you move towards the end of the row.
>The entire surface of the switches is glowing with bright, vibrant colors.
>You extend your hand slowly to touch it.
>Just then another lightning strike floods the room.
>The electricity runs across the flooded room making its way to you in the blink of an eye.
>In that split second, you feel something shove you into the switches.
>Your hand should have stopped on a hard surface.
>It didn’t.
>You fall straight through into some vortex.
>The shadow that was stalking you can be seen entering the hole and sealing the portal shut behind it.
>So this is what dubstep looks like.
>You tumble for what seems like 5 minutes through a void.
>Your eyes focus on what you can only believe to be trees in the dark.
>Hitting the ground with a thud, you black out.