Rooms in Three days of darkness

• A Bank - Once inside - the flashes of light reveal the sad results of human nature ... money is spread all over the floor. With horrified fascination, you realize that much of it is gleaming black in the lurid red flashes - because it's covered with blood. In fact - there's almost more blood in here than money, and the smell is so potent it's nauseating you. You're amazed that you don't see any corpses ... and you wonder if the looters actually got away ... until you hear what sounds like bones breaking and something chewing behind the bank counter ...
• A Candle Lit Room - You are surprised to see the light in here, since you hadn't seen any through the windows. You notice that black material has been placed over each window to prevent light from getting out. You also notice that the feeling of suffocating terror you've been experiencing outside has completely vanished in here. A feeling of peace and safety permeates the room. You can still hear the unbelievable thunder - and the flashes of light are etched in stark relief against the black material in the windows, but in here it seems very far away. Two women, one middle aged and one elderly, are sitting near a table where a tiny candle is burning. Neither pay any attention to you as they earnestly continue their prayers. There is a tiny plaque on the table near the book.
• A Creaky Wooden Stairwell - This stairwell connect the first floor to the second floor. It's illuminated by the lightning flashes coming in through a glass door to the outside at the bottom of the steps.
• A Dark Hallway - As you proceed down the hallway you are beginning to hear voices ... raised voices ... but with the crashing of the thunder you can't make out what is being said. Or is that singing?
• A Dark Narrow Hall - You feel your way deeper into the darkness of the little hallway. There's another door to the south with a glass window in it. The hallway is so narrow that you're certain that two small people could not walk down it side by side.
• A Dormitory - You're in a small dormitory. There are beds on either side of you, each separated from the other by a wooden barrier. Each alcove has a curtain along the front that can be closed for privacy. Everything in here is very simple.
• A Hardware Store - The looting on this end of the street doesn't seem to be as bad. This store's windows are all intact ... however ... the inside is a mess. You think you see part of a large room fan - with over half of it crushed, as if it were made out of cardboard, and some giant accidentally stomped on it. Shelves are tipped over, their contents scattered far and wide. As in many of the other places, you hear noises in the darkness ahead of you. You find that your fear has climbed to such a level that you are now mostly numb. You realize your pants are wet, but you have no idea when it happened.
• A Large Dormitory - The room is too big to be completely lit up by the lightning, even though there are a lot of windows in the west wall. There are three rows of beds ... one row just under the windows against the west wall, one down the center of the room, and one along the east wall. The latter two have a network of pipes running along the ceiling on which curtains are hung. From what you can see, it looks like the curtains go all the way around the beds.
• A Large Dormitory - This seems to be a large dormitory ... but it's so big that even the many windows in the west wall aren't lighting up all of the shadows. It looks surrealistic in here ... curtains hanging from pipes ... little empty beds ... all tinged with red in the lurid flashing light.
• A Large Dormitory - You're at the north end of an aisle in the dormitory. You notice that there's an alcove that sits appart from the others to the west, since it has a wooden side and two walls, and only needs a curtain in the front for privacy. As you look south, you can see all of little beds lined up neatly under the windows to the west, and on the east you see the backs of the tiny chest of drawers and the heads of the beds that are in the middle of the dorm. This wooden alcove must belong to a dorm-mother or something.
• A Large Dormitory - As you walk around the dormitory, the floor creaks loudly under your feet. A row of beds is immediately south of you, and there's a doorway to the north that you couldn't see before.
• A Long Narrow Hallway - You feel exposed and claustrophobic at the same time as you step into this long utility hallway. Windows line both the east and west walls, and you're sure your profile is standing out in stark relief. But the hallway itself is so narrow that you also feel closed in. You hope it leads to someplace safe.
• A Long Narrow Hallway - There are no more windows, but you can sense that things have opened up a bit to the west ... maybe a door way. Another lightning flash lets you see that there is indeed a room there ...
• A Narrow Dark Stairwell - This stairwell is in into complete darkness. You can feel the walls on either side of you, and it feels like they are about to crush you. The steps creak frighteningly as you proceed.
• A Private Room - This is a very small, and there's not much in here. There's simply a bed and a very small dresser. There's a window to the west, and you can see the grounds behind the school ...
• A Rest Room - This appears to be a rest room ... but it's really really dark. There's a window in the west wall, but the lightning isn't penetrating much of the cold darkness in here. What you can see is a row of bathroom stalls against the north wall, and a long sink in the center of the room with spigots coming from a pipe that goes above the sink and runs for the entire length.
• A Rest Room - There's a window in the east wall that helps you to see this very strange looking room. In the center of the room, there is a very long shallow sink. It has a pipe running above it with a series of taps coming from it so that about 6 people can use it at once. Above the pipe, there's a narrow shelf running the length of the sink, perhaps for putting your soap down on. Along the north wall there are a few toilet stalls.
• A Rest Room - There is a line of small windows high up on the east wall, and this gives you just enough light to see that you're in a rest room. The stalls line the east wall, and sinks line the west wall. This must be a girl's rest room because the urinals are missing.
• A School Yard - As you stumble over the grassy area north of the street, you see a large sign in a flash of lightning, and you can make out the words "Middle School." You assume that the large dark building ahead of you must the school itself. Someone is screaming maniacally over and over ... they sound like they're pretty close ...
• A Short Hallway - This is a very short hallway. There's a stairwell going up against the south wall, and a doorway with a full length window in it leading outside onto the grounds behind the academy. You hand accidentally brushes the wall and you discover that there's a bell next to the door with a rope hanging from it! You wonder what it's for!
• A Short Hallway - There's a window at the west end of the hallway, and a staircase that goes up to the third floor against the south wall. It's very empty - and you're beginning to wonder if perhaps you should try to find refuge someplace else ... there are an awful lot of noises in the darkness around you.
• A Sloping Dirt Driveway - It's so dark that you can't be sure - but from the rocks that roll under your feet and cause you to almost lose your footing, you're fairly certain that you're off Main Street and in someone's steep dirt driveway. You can feel the houses that line the road looming on either side of you, and in the flashes you can vaguely see their outlines. You consider going further down the driveway - hoping to find shelter from the insanity all around you ...
• A Small Dormitory - There are two windows in the east wall ... and lightning allows you to see that this is a small open dormitory. It's very small - it only has six beds! You're beginning to realize that this must be a girl's boarding school - and an elite one at that! Each little bed has a very tiny four drawer chest next to it.
• A Storage Room - Strange markings have been crudely painted on the wall here in what appears to be Predator blood!
• A Wide Stairwell - This stairwell connects the second floor to the third floor. The steps are wide and deep, and fairly shallow, which makes them easy to climb. There's a landing against the east wall of the building half way to the top, from which you can see both the downstairs landing and the top one.
• A Wooden Staircase - This creaky staircase connects the second floor with the third floor. There's light at the bottom of the steps which is coming in from a window there, but the top is in complete darkness. You feel the hair prickle on the back of your neck when you look up there.
• Above the Courtyard - There are huge double doors up here ... you can hear human voices on the other side. In shadows below you can see movement ... and you strain your eyes to see if any of the movement is near the stairwells that lead up here ...
• Academy Courtyard - As soon as the lightning allows you to see you surroundings, you decide you must be in the yard of some sort of religious place. Maybe a school. There are doors into the buildings on three sides of you. North is that large building that abutted the sidewalk, west seems to be a double stairway rising from opposit sides up to a large second story door. At the foot of the stairwells, there's a statue of some sort - of a man in an ancient styled long robe holding a small child. South is another more simple stairwell going up to another door. You're sure this would be a very attractive spot under different circumstances.
• Academy Yard - Donner MAULS you with his MAULS!! Donner MAULS you with his MAULS!! Donner MAULS you with his MAULS!! Donner INJURES you with his MAULS. Donner MAULS you with his MAULS!! Donner MAULS you with his MAULS!! Donner rips apart the fabric of time and space A Grotto A really large impressive man-made grotto blocks your progress in this direction. As you peer into the darkness, the next flash of lightning allows you to see that there is a statue set back just a bit into the stone grotto. It looks like a lady with a long dress and a veil ... and she has a crown of real roses on her head.
• Agamenticus Road - Your hopes are rising with every step that brings you further out into the country. You have a fixed idea in your head that if you can just get out of this town, the sun will shine, the temperatures will go back to where they're supposed to be for this season ... normal *living* people will be going for casual strolls, or rocking themselves out on their porches. Oh yes - and all the demons will vanish. A thought keeps trying to force its way out from underneath that idea - that perhaps it's like this all over the world right now - but won't allow it to surface and be heard. You - can NOT - allow it to be heard.
• Agamenticus Road - You're not exactly hearing crickets ... but you're more at peace on the inside than you have been since all of this started. You're definitely out of town now - or at least, you're out of the busy part of town. You have no clue where the road goes, but you haven't lost your bearings, then you're going further southeast into Maine. You think if you keep going in this general direction, that you'll have to hit the ocean before too long ... won't you?
• Agamenticus Road - The street is very narrow here at the fork. From the way the lightning looks to the west, there seems to less of a hill there than there was closer to the center of town. You heart leaps as you wonder if perhaps you will finally find a way to leave town in this direction ...
• Agamenticus Road - Things seem fairly still out this way ... there are none of the shrieks and screaming there were in town, and you don't see any movement in the bushes or down the road. You wonder if you've finally found a place the demons haven't hit yet - perhaps even a place that's been spared for some reason. You begin to breathe more slowly and evenly as you feel some of the sheer terror drain away from you.
• Agamenticus Road - Your heart sinks down to your toes as the next flash of light shows the road south of you disappearing under water which gleams blood red in the lurid lightning. It's not rushing by like the river was - in fact, it seems very still - but there's no telling how deep it is. You wonder why it hasn't frozen over in this unearthly cold as you stand there, shivering and dejected.
• An Enclosed Porch - This porch is apparently used more for starting plants and storage than for relaxing on, because you don't see any place to sit, but there is a table with pots on it, and there are boxes against the wall of the house. You're amazed at how untouched everything is! You try opening the door into the house with no success. Even when the lightning flashes, you are still unable to see what is in the house - as if the windows were blocked off with a dark material ...
• An Entryway - There's a huge heavy feeling door up a short flight of steps to the west. The echoes from your movements seem muffled and you think that you're in a partially enclosed place. You never realized you were claustrophobic, but you are forcibly trying to prevent yourself from running blindly into the darkness screaming as you go ...
• At a Heavy Wooden Door - There's a wooden door to the east ... and it looks like it may go down into the cellar of the huge building. The lightning seems to be getting worse ... and there's a lot of screaming and movement on the grounds around you.
• At a Small Raised Garden Bed - In the darkness, your feet hit something hard, and you almost fall over. The next tremendous clap of thunder rattles your teeth, and in the red illumination you see that you've almost fallen into a small raised up garden bed. In all of this insanity, the sweet fragrance of fresh basil drifts up, and you're momentarily confused because the lovely odor reminds you of warm gardens and long peaceful sunlit days. In this fog of unreality, you notice another set of stairs going up to the little house.
• Back Landing - The floor here is very slippery, and you wonder how many hours of work whoever lives here must put into it every day to keep it that way. There's a stairwell going down, and a window overlooking what appears to be a small courtyard to the south.
• Convent Entrance - The hardwood floor actually feels slippery under your feet. The hallway here is wide ... with doors on both sides of the hall, and a stairwell to the second floor. The decor is very simple, but what things there are seem to be immaculate.
• Dark Hallway - The voices are getting louder. It sounds like a group of people ... definitely more than one voice, but they're all speaking in unison as if they're reciting something. Prayers? Chants?
• First Floor Hallway - The window in the door to the north opens up onto a couryard ... and in the lurid lightning flashes you can see a large white building directly ahead of you and a double staircase to the west. As you turn back around to the inside, you see that you're at a junction of a short hallway to the west, and a very long one to the south.
• First Floor Hallway - There are doors on either side of you as you proceed down the hallway. In the lightning flashes, you are able to see that both of the rooms are classrooms! There is a bulletin board on the wall near the west classroom door.
• First Floor Hallway - Another short hallway opens up to the west ... and you think you see a classroom on your east. You are in deep darkness in this part of the hallway, but the north end of the hallway is almost continually lit up by garish red lightning ...
• First Floor Hallway - The hallway seems endless! There are still rooms on either side of you, but in the lightning only the west one looks like a classroom. There don't seem to be many windows the south ... at least not in the hallway itself.
• Flanagan's Market - As you come through the open door, someone runs into you headlong in the darkness and knocks you off your feet. The cursing receeds into the distance. In the lightning you see empty packages of batteries, and several smashed flashlights on the floor at your feet. You fiddle with them long enough to realize that you're not going to get any light this way ...
• Front Landing - Another slippery wooden floor. You hope that no one ever has to cross it in a hurry. The thunder somehow seems louder up here. You see that there is another stairwell up, but you hear strange sounds up there, and your courage fails you at the thought of investigating. The hallway you're in is about the same as the one downstairs, only a bit narrower.
• Grassy Yard - The bottom of the driveway is flat and grassy, and seems to serve as a front yard for the little house in front of you. The house is hidden away behind the larger houses lining the street. To the west you can hear what you think is the roar of the Salmon Falls river ... and the very sound twists your stomach into a knot, because you've never heard it sound so violent. Just ahead there are some some steps that go up to what appears to be an enclosed porch.
• Hallway - When the lightning flashes you see that there's a door to the outside just south of you. Though the windows in the double door, you see a sort of courtyard. The hallway continues north into the darkness. Against the southwest corner, you see a small stairwell going up.
• Hallway - The hall is narrower here, and the lightning doesn't help light things up as well. You can hear soft thumps over your head ... and an occasional howling sound - like a dog baying. You notice that you haven't seen any animals anyplace yet though ...
• Highland Avenue - The hill is really steep here ... and you feel overshadowed by the large old houses south of you, because they are built on a higher part of the hill. Not even the lightning seems to penetrate anything to the south. Large brooding trees hang over the road and add to the oppressive feeling. You are suddenly just so tired. All you want to do is find a place to curl up in where nothing will find you ... where you can warm up ... where you can be sure you won't see any more sights like the ones you saw in town ...
• Highland Avenue - The hill is really steep here ... and you feel overshadowed by the large old houses south of you, because they are built on a higher part of the hill. Not even the lightning seems to penetrate anything to the south. Large brooding trees hang over the road and add to the oppressive feeling. You are suddenly just so tired. All you want to do is find a place to curl up in where nothing will find you ... where you can warm up ... where you can be sure you won't see any more sights like the ones you saw in town ...
• Highland and Paul Streets - You thought you were at the top of this steep hill where two tiny streets meet until you realize that the houses south of you seem to be built even higher up. It's so quiet up here - except for the thunder and lightning - that you could almost make yourself believe that this nightmare you've been walking through hasn't really been happening. Almost.
• In Front of the Academy - You're on a small lawn - a bit incongruous in the middle of town. South of you is a fairly large white wooden building, built in post colonial style, but still very very old. The building is very dark ... you wonder if perhaps you could find a place to hide - a place to get out the horrendous cold ... maybe a place to rest. You're so awfully tired. You feel like you've been running in this insane darkness forever. There's a sign on the lawn before the building.
• In a Large Colonial Style House - The lightning flash is close enough to make you jump in fright, but you're not sure if it was the sudden deafening explosion of sound, or if it was what the flash revealed to you. A woman in her mid 50's is laying on the floor in a pool of blood. From what's been done to her, you feel certain that she's dead. She's dressed in fancy clothes, and her face is covered under layers of makeup. You guess that her hair was probably also well coifed before, well, before this ...
• In the Lodge - Your first impression of this place is that you have stepped into hell itself. You seem somehow removed from the mundane mortal world - and placed in a furnace - which roars all around you. Demons of all sizes and shapes scamper off in all directions. You are standing before the gates of hell.
• Locker Room - Complete darkness! You're having to proceed solely by feeling your way along the edges of the room. As your hand taps the wall, it rings hollowly. You realize that this must be a locker room, and you can feel lockers lining all of the walls around you.
• Main Street - You can hear the river from here ... but in the eerie red lightning flashes you can see that the bridge is out - mangled almost beyond recognition. You realize that you're not going to be able to get back into New Hampshire in that direction. As you stand there, sweating and shivering uncontrollably, you wonder if your convulsive shivers are from the supernatural cold in the air - or from the mortal terror engulfing you. Just a bit ago - it had been a warm summer afternoon ... and suddenly, with no warning ... this immense cold and darkness had swallowed up your world. Nausea builds up in your guts as you try to take it all in ...
• Main Street - A man is running down the middle of the street here - and his screams are gutteral and primal. A very short but intense blast of red lighting reveals to you that he is naked, and has a bloody ragged stump just below his left shoulder instead of an arm. He runs past you, screaming repeatedly, looking behind himself as he runs. He disappears into the darkness behind you. Another immense blast of thunder - and then dead silence. You wonder what happened to the running man ...
• Main Street - You grope your way along in the thick blackness. Occasionally your foot kicks against something soft, and your stomach churns as you imagine what it could have been. When the deafening thunder stops, you can hear unearthly hoots and shrieks in the distance. You wonder how things could have gotten so crazy ... you wonder if you're dreaming all of this ... you can't imagine that any of this could really be happening ...
• Main Street - The next bright flash makes you realize that you've come into center of town. Houses no longer line the streets. There is a little shop of some sort to the north, and you can see gas pumps south-east of you. When the thunder stops for a moment or two, you can hear screams and horrifying howls all around you.
• Main Street - You are surrounded by the deepest, coldest darkness you're ever experienced. When the lightning isn't turning the sky and everything around you a deep sickening red, the darkness itself begins to come alive. It seems to take on a texture ... a flavor even ... and the texture is sticky, like drying blood ... the flavor - flat and metallic, like the fear numbing your mind. Will this day end? Will the world be the same again? ... Will the world still ... be?
• Main Street - As you get closer to town, the screaming and shouting get louder. You wonder if it's wise to continue down Main Street ... but then you remember that what you found in most of the houses was no less terrifying. A very loud crack of thunder - very close - makes your heart skip a beat. You taste blood in your mouth and realize that it startled you so much that you bit your tongue - but your adrenalin is running so high that you can't feel the pain yet.
• Main Street - Another sharp deafening crash of thunder - and you begin to wish it would actually hit someplace ... perhaps then something would catch fire and you'd be able to see where you're going. A sick feeling churns in the pit of your stomach as your fear numbed brain begins to realize that this is no dream - and that there is no escape ...
• Main Street - Things have opened up all around you here - as if there are lawns or courtyards on either side of the street. You can't see clearly enough in the lurid lightning strikes to see what is actually there. You can smell smoke very strongly from here, but you can't see where it's coming from ...
• Main Street - Between the earth shattering peals of thunder, you hear cursing and hollering coming from the north ... you peer through the immense darkness to see where the sound is coming from, and in the next flash you see a broken glass door going into another shop to your north ...
• Main Street - Buildings are again closer on both sides of the street - you can see their outlines against the blood red clouds rushing by whenever the lightning lifts the immense black veil weighing down on the world. Your head is aching from the strobing red flashes, and your breath is coming in ragged gasps. Sweat is pouring off you, blinding you, although you are cold enough to shiver. On this night, hell has truly opened its gates and loosed its demonic minions ...
• Main Street - You creep along, running your hand along the walls of the buildings as you go ... the darkness is so intense when the lightning isn't flashing that you can taste it - you can touch it - it actually has a smell and makes the air you breathe feel "thick." You almost welcome the horrifying red lightning strikes ... until you are able to see what is all around you ... and then you welcome the darkness again ...
• Main Street - This is insane! The world around you has lost everything and anything that you ever related to! Why is it so dark? Why is this incredible lightning storm numbing your senses with almost non-stop pyrotechnics? How long has this been going on? ... ... You feel you've lost all sense of reality - all sense of time ... Are you dead? Did you end up in hell? You can feel the edges of your sanity slipping closer and closer to a deep abyss.
• Main Street - From what you see of the outlines of the buildings around you when the lightning flashes, you think you're leaving the center of town. All of the buildings around you seem to be pushed further back from the road ... there just appears to be more open space around you. The wider spaces are less oppressive ... but you also feel more exposed.
• Main Street and Portland Ave. - What a mess! In the strobing lurid light you see that there's been a horrendous accident here. You have no idea how many cars are involved, but they must have all been going pretty fast - because the heap of twisted metal in front of you is almost impossible to sort out visually. You can see movement in the remains of the car nearest you ... and you carefully make your way over to see if you can help. Another lightning bolt shows something out of a horror flick moving in ways that seem improbable ... and it appears to be intently working on the unresisting man next to it. Yet another flash, and you realize the man has to be dead - both of his eye sockets seem to be empty, and his neck is almost completely severed from just above his shoulders ...
• Main Street and Route 236 - You are at an intersection, and you can hardly tell what's around you in the red streaks of lightning. You wonder at the strangeness of the constant lightning - how it barely seems to light things up. You can only catch occasional glimpses of what's around you ... and of baleful low blood red clouds that are moving by with unnatural swiftness.
• Main and Paul Streets - Donner rips apart the fabric of time and space Main Street Buildings are again closer on both sides of the street - you can see their outlines against the blood red clouds rushing by whenever the lightning lifts the immense black veil weighing down on the world. Your head is aching from the strobing red flashes, and your breath is coming in ragged gasps. Sweat is pouring off you, blinding you, although you are cold enough to shiver. On this night, hell has truly opened its gates and loosed its demonic minions ...
• Main and Young Streets - In a lull between lightning blasts, you find yourself fighting the panic that threatens to overwhelm you. There are noises in the profound darkness all around you, and for a moment you feel as if you are suspended in a void - as if there is nothing around you to hang on to ... as if your existence is a momentary fluke in the living nothingness surrounding you.
• Paul Street - The street inclines sharply here. Everytime the lightning flashes, you get a glimpse of small single family homes on the east, and a wide open field on the west. Except for the contant thunder, things seem very very still on this little street. The houses are all dark - and there's not a movement anyplace. You wonder if you should be comforted by that - or if perhaps you should be more wary ...
• Paul Street - In the flashing red light you see a long low building to the east - a bit pushed away from the road. There are a few cars in front of it - so you gather it must a business with a small parking lot. West of you is a courtyard of some sort ... you thought you saw a light colored gleam there, but the strobing light is making it almost impossible to decipher anything for sure.
• Paul Street - This appears to be a little side street, and you don't see anything obvious going on. Perhaps this narrow little byway will afford you a bit of shelter from the insanity all around you. There's a big building east of you, and the building itself abutts the sidewalk. You're not sure, but there seems to be a more open place up ahead.
• Paul Street - From the looks of the building on the west, you guess that it must be some sort of school. Three stories tall - and very imposing. It over- shadows everything in the blood red flashes of light. In contrast, the east side of the street is lined with trees and there seem to be small homes with tidy little lawns. You can still hear an occasional howl or scream from town ...
• Portland Avenue - Things have really opened up here ... there are still houses and trees on either side of the road, but the houses seem much smaller and the trees seems as if they're pushed back a lot further away from the road. Your heart with hope as you realize that you must be near the edge of town. The idea keeps going through your head that if you could just get out of town, everything would be ok somehow. There's an awful racket just south of you, and you stop to listen - trying to decide if it's safe to go any further after all. Things here are decidedly warmer than they were to the north.
• Portland Avenue - Oh boy. As soon as you get here, you realize you've really made a very big mistake. This seems to be the spot that all of the demons are pouring out of. They all seem to be coming from a place to the west. There's a large sign on the lawn there - and you catch just a glimpse before you turn to flee back into the darkness.
• Portland Avenue - Oh boy. As soon as you get here, you realize you've really made a very big mistake. This seems to be the spot that all of the demons are pouring out of. They all seem to be coming from a place to the west. There's a large sign on the lawn there - and you catch just a glimpse before you turn to flee back into the darkness.
• Portland Avenue - Things have really opened up here ... there are still houses and trees on either side of the road, but the houses seem much smaller and the trees seems as if they're pushed back a lot further away from the road. Your heart with hope as you realize that you must be near the edge of town. The idea keeps going through your head that if you could just get out of town, everything would be ok somehow. There's an awful racket just south of you, and you stop to listen - trying to decide if it's safe to go any further after all. Things here are decidedly warmer than they were to the north.
• Portland Avenue - Oh boy. As soon as you get here, you realize you've really made a very big mistake. This seems to be the spot that all of the demons are pouring out of. They all seem to be coming from a place to the west. There's a large sign on the lawn there - and you catch just a glimpse before you turn to flee back into the darkness.
• Portland Avenue - The houses to the west must be built on a hillside because they block off all the lightning flashes from that direction ... as if there's a solid wall behind them. You're sure the houses here are all really lovely in the proper setting, but seeing these huge colonial mansions blocking out any light as they rise on the hill beside the road gives you a feeling of immense oppression under these particular circumstances. They seem to be haunted in their own right ... notwithstanding this supernaturally evil night.
• Portland Avenue - You make your way through the piled cars with great difficulty, and your heart is in your throat the entire time. Broken metal - glittering shards of glass ... all threaten to make your flight more painful and slow you down to a crawl. A truly terrifying bolt of lightning hits something nearby, and in the sudden light - you see that many of the cars in the heap have movement in them. Not normal human movement ...
• Portland and Highland Avenues - You must be getting further out of town. The houses are pushed back further from the road, and there are more trees blocking out the flashing skies. The houses along here look like fancy colonial mansions ... and you decide that this must be where the money is, er, was, in this town. There is a steep narrow street to your west.
• Rollinsford-South Berwick Bridge - The darkness here is so deep that you can taste it. Some of the most terrifying thunder and lightning you've ever experienced is the only light anywhere - and is blinding as it tears through the darkness around you. It seems to be red ... or at least it lights up your surroundings with an unnatural red glow. Screams of terror and agony fill the air - and other sounds ... sounds like none you've ever heard before, punctuate the spasms of mortal terror that are suffocating you. Why is it so dark???
• Route 236 - You almost break down and cry as you realize that your progress south is stymied by yet another washed out bridge! The water is rushing by very quickly - and is loud enough to block off all but the loudest lightning strikes. It looks like blood in the dull red light as it rushes before you across the road.
• Route 236 - Lightning reaveals cars all over the road ... just sitting there. It looks like a big disorganized parking lot, with cars parked every which way. There's a steep bank to your east, and another open space to the west. The road appears to continue to the south.
• Route 236 - There doesn't seem to be anything on either side of you. Lightning flashes show that there's still a steep grade to the east ... and perhaps a drop off to the west. It certainly seems wide open there when you are able to actually see in that direction. You're not at all sure about this street you're on. It's wide and straight, and you hope it leads out of town - but there's no place for you to hide ... you are beginning to think that this could be a very very long walk ...
• Route 236 - This street appears to be more open than the main drag. You can just make out a marker near the curb that says "Kittery 11." This must be a major route through here ... maybe you can get out of town this way. The intersection here is wide, and the lanes are separated by an island. You feel very exposed as you stand here in the flashing lighting.
• Sarah Orne Jewett House - It takes you a moment to realize that it's not pavement you feel under your feet. It's grass. A series of more distant strokes of lightning reveals that the cars have smashed through a white fence into a well kept up yard ... and working your way through the tangled wreckage, you've wandered off the road. There's a broken white wooden sign laying at your feet.
• Second Floor Hallway - Some light is coming from the windows in the hallway to the west, but it's very very hard to see any details because of how erratic it is. You're so cold and tired - you wonder how many hours this unbelievable night has already lasted. You wonder - is it the end of the world?
• Second Floor Hallway - There's a window to the north looking down onto a courtyard outside. To the east, there's a set of stairwells, one going up, and one down. The hallway itself is long and disappears into the darkness to the south.
• Second Floor Hallway - It's pretty dark this far down the hallway. There's lightning flashes from far up the hallway to the north, and there seems to be some of the same just a bit south, but a lot dimmer. The huge building just rocks and shakes with the louder thunder blasts. You wonder if anything will be left standing once this night is over.
• Second Floor Hallway - The hallway is in deep darkness here. There's lightning flashing in the window on the north end of the hallway, but it's not doing much to light up the area around you ... however, some of those blasts are making the building shake around you.
• Service Area - There are fewer windows in here and it's harder to see. Two sides of the room are partitioned off ... one seems to be a clean-up side, with a sink, a huge square machine that you think is a commercial dishwasher of some sort, and other similar things. The other side is the classic school cafeteria service area ... with a runner to slide your trays before the serving dishes. It's not very long, and you gather that the menu must be the same for everyone.
• South Berwick Family Practice - You walk onto the long glassed in porch, hoping you'll find refuge inside ... but lucky for you, just before you march right into what you think might be the waiting room, you see a twisted, haunched over monstrosity leaned over a still form on the floor just the ahead of you. The next flash of light shows you that the creature is playing with a stethescope, as if it were trying to decide what to do with it ...
• St. Michael's Church - As soon as you enter you notice a definite change in atmosphere. It's still very very cold in here, but somehow - the darkness here feels more like a safe shelter than a threat. You're not sure, you think you see a tiny pinpoint of light a bit west of you, toward the front of the church.
• St. Michael's Church - The dot of light resolved itself into a Presence light candle next to a golden tabernacle on a small side altar in the front of the church. The tiny flame doesn't give off a lot of light - but the gold of the tabernacle is warm in the glow. You feel safe here, protected, as if you were completely removed from the insanity outside. You try to sort that feeling out - to understand why you would feel that way ... and it dawns on you that you can feel a Greater Presence here, a benevolent "Someone" that nothing evil can approach. A humble awe rushes over you as you realize that this quiet Omnipotence is far more powerful than anything you've run across outside.
• The Chapel - You are standing in the back of a small chapel ... from the soft candlelight in the front and the lightning flashes, you can estimate that it would hold just over 200 people if the benches were packed. You can see dark forms in the front ... but the light is so dim and uncertain that you're not really sure what you're seeing.
• The Chapel - Nuns! All of the front rows of the chapel are filled with nuns! The amazing thing is that they seem so tranquil, so serene, as they say their prayers together. There are moments of silence, moments of prayer in unison ... and even some sweet sounding songs in full harmony. The warm candle light and absolute peace of these women makes you almost forget what's happening outside of these walls. Nothing evil dares to approach this intensely peaceful and holy scene.
• The Community Room - There's a large table in the middle of the room, and a variety of mismatched chairs lining all of the walls. There is more stuff in here than you've seen anyplace else ... baskets with yarn sticking out of them are next to a few of the chairs, and pens and pieces of paper are strewn haphazardly across the table. It looks like someone was just here and left in a hurry. In fact, it looks as if a lot of someones were here not too long ago ...
• The Counting House - This looks like a museum. Lightning flashes in through the huge old fashioned windows illuminating bits and pieces of the room you're in. You see a sign on one wall that says "The Counting House" in large letters, and you can only pick out a word here and there from the smaller writing underneath ... "counting yards of cotton" ... "heading up or down river" ... and you can see something about a cotton mill. Whenever the thunder isn't deafening you, you hear sounds coming from deeper within the building that make your blood run cold ...
• The Counting House - 2nd Floor - Lightning flashes through the long wide windows on the second floor. Somehow the sound of the flood water rushing by outside is even louder up here. There is constant movement around you ... and in the garish red flashes you see display cases shattered and general mayhem all around you ...
• The Grounds - You are on a nice manicured lawn ... which crunches under your feet with every step you take. It's so dark out here that you can't see find your way off the lawn ...
• The Monument - The road forks around a monument of some sort here. In the lightning, it seems to be a statue of a soldier on a high pedestal, and there is also a canon in the grass at the foot of the statue. You can see an inscription, but in the uncertain red light, you can only make out a few words. The wider road continues south, and a narrow one forks to the west.
• The Recreation Room - This room is very large. There are sofas and chairs around the edges of the room, and there's a large upright piano against one of the walls. There's also a beat up looking round table with a game of some sort on it and something that looks like an old floor model hi-fi system near a door in the east wall. This must be a lounge of some sort for the students to meet in.
• The Sun Rises! - Sr. St. Denis lifts her hands in your direction and begins to pray. A peaceful feeling washes over you ... The Sun Rises! You are amazed when you open your eyes to find that you've been transported forward in time. The sun is brightly shining, the storm is gone ... and there are no demons in sight. Before you stands an angel of great beauty. He is looking at you with great compassion, and seems to be waiting for something.
• The Wilkerson's - You almost gasp in surprise as you enter and see light in the room! An older, but not elderly, couple are sitting at the kitchen table, bent over some small books. The man looks at you, and indicates an empty chair at the table. They then both continue what they were doing when you came in. They seem to be saying prayers together, reading aloud from their books.
• Third Floor Back Landing - There are doors on three sides of you ... and a window to the south. The lightning sounds very very loud up here, and you can feel the building shaking with the worst of the thunder blasts. You wish you could find a warm safe spot to curl up and sleep. How long have you been wandering in this dark cold place?
• Third Floor Front Landing - You're on a landing at the top of a wide stairwell. There's a doorway to the south, and a window overlooking a courtyard and a white building which is smaller than the one you're in, but which isn't really small at all. Lightning is flashing so steadily out there it's a bit like a very badly written movie ... you only wish it really were ...
• Tiny Hallway - The hallway is very very narrow, and added to the intense darkness, you start to feel claustrophobic. You begin to wonder if you should continue in this direction ...
• Upstairs Hallway - Although you're further from the windows here, you don't feel very safe. The house is continually shaking and rattling - and occasionally you can hear a scream from off in the distance ... but you can't ever tell if it came from inside or outside. There's an awful lot of bumping around just above your head ... you hope whatever it is stays up there.
• Well Manicured Lawn - In the flashes of lightning you see that you're on a well kept lawn before a large white building. You can see that there's a sign in front of the building, but the strobbing lightning isn't giving you the chance to read what it says. It looks very dark and uninviting, and you're afraid of what you'll find there. A more brilliant red lightning flash lets you see a mangled body on the porch of the building ...
• Witchtrot Road - This lonely strech of road seems to go on forever. You have no idea what diretion you're going in any more - or where this road will come out. You're sure you keep hearing whisperings and twigs snapping in the trees around you, and you're deathly afraid of being struck by lighting because some of the trees you pass are very tall and look like they would be great lightning rods.
• Witchtrot Road - This lonely strech of road seems to go on forever. You have no idea what diretion you're going in any more - or where this road will come out. You're sure you keep hearing whisperings and twigs snapping in the trees around you, and you're deathly afraid of being struck by lighting because some of the trees you pass are very tall and look like they would be great lightning rods. There's a house on small hill to the south.
• Witchtrot Road - This lonely strech of road seems to go on forever. You have no idea what diretion you're going in any more - or where this road will come out. You're sure you keep hearing whisperings and twigs snapping in the trees around you, and you're deathly afraid of being struck by lighting because some of the trees you pass are very tall and look like they would be great lightning rods.
• Witchtrot Road - Donner MAULS you with his MAULS!! You wish that your wounds would stop BLEEDING so much! Donner MAULS you with his MAULS!! You wish that your wounds would stop BLEEDING so much! Donner MAULS you with his MAULS!! You wish that your wounds would stop BLEEDING so much! Donner MAULS you with his MAULS!! You wish that your wounds would stop BLEEDING so much! Donner MAULS you with his MAULS!! You wish that your wounds would stop BLEEDING so much! Donner MAULS you with his MAULS!! You wish that your wounds would stop BLEEDING so much! Donner rips apart the fabric of time and space This lonely strech of road seems to go on forever. You have no idea what diretion you're going in any more - or where this road will come out. You're sure you keep hearing whisperings and twigs snapping in the trees around you, and you're deathly afraid of being struck by lighting because some of the trees you pass are very tall and look like they would be great lightning rods. There's a house on small hill to the south.
• Young Street - You grope your way along - occasionally bumping into immobile cars ... and in the lightning you can see that some of those cars are in the very center of the narrow street - abandonned - with the car doors still wide open. You seem to be wading through a waking dream - a living nightmare. Surely, this can't really be happening.
• Young Street - In the lightning flashes, the street looks abandonned. The screams and strange ululations you were hearing on the main street are almost out of hearing. If it weren't for the intense cold, you would find a place to sit and rest ... it seems like you've been moving along for ever ...
• Young Street - You're suddenly startled from your numbness by a sudden screeching and howling from the north. In the lightning you can see moving forms darting between the houses and trees there ... silhouettes of beings that are completely unrecognizable to you. You decide it would be unsafe to proceed in that direction ...