Paula watched as tiny pebbles and dirt cascaded down from high above, creating an empty symphony in the cave. The echoes reverberated throughout the space and although she had grown mildly accustomed to them they still affected her in many ways. They tapped into her mind trying to fracture the delicate barrier between sanity and insanity.

Occasionally a stray memory wandered into her conscience and struggled for validity but fought against the erosion of time, which substantially diluted each and every one regardless of their sentimentality or importance. The memory that most steadfastly attempted to be recognized and appreciated was of her fiancé Tom. She could still see his wavy blonde hair and crystal blue eyes, she could still smell his masculine and attractive aroma, she could still hear his soft but confident voice say I love you. All of these things still remained in her mind and were her only connection to her comfortable and loving past, a past that was slipping away like a flower in the wind.

The wind. She shuddered at the thought of it. It was the cause of the catastrophic situation she, and very likely the rest of the world, was in. High, relentless, gusty winds; and not just normal gales but mind numbing, destructive

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and all encompassing ones, enveloping all before them in an indiscriminatory embrace of devastation.

She walked towards the opening of the cave and carefully pulled out a small oval shaped stone from the hastily constructed wall that she and the others had assembled. Instantly, the ear splitting howls of the wind permeated the cave. Peering out displayed only what she already knew, a vast and featureless terrain.

"Smooth as glass," the voice behind her said. It was Roy. His six- foot frame towered over her petite form and he outweighed her by at least fifty pounds. "Nothing left out there but flat land…and the wind of course."

She whirled around to face him. His pockmarked face, from a severe bout with chicken pox when he was a young boy, glared down at her. A wry smile slid across his features like water in a bucket of oil.

"Roy, do you mind?" she said sternly. She knew that he coveted her love and had even gotten into a drunken brawl with Tom once over her. She also knew that she must be careful. Tom was not around to protect her anymore.

Roy stood in her way. He used his size to intimidate others, which was one of the many traits that she detested in him. She had wished many times that he would have been swept away by the wind instead of Tom but unfortunately that was not the case.

"Becky needs me, I have to change the dressing on her wounds." She brushed past him as quickly as she could being careful not to anger him, that would only complicate the dire situation they were already in.

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There was only him, his teenage cousin Becky and Louise, a neighbor girl who happened to be riding her bike by Paula’s house when the worst gales started to hit. She had managed to escape with them just in time.

"Paula," Becky moaned in a weak voice. "Will you come here please? I’m very thirsty." The dark corner where she lay was full of rocks and crawled with bugs. Paula felt bad for her and wished there was a more comfortable spot for her. She scurried over to Becky and began to collect the small, dirty plastic cups they had scattered around the cave to gather water. What little water trickled down from the ceiling barely was enough to sustain one person much less four. She gave the cups to Becky who greedily sucked them down.

"Why bother with her?" Roy growled. "You know as well as I do she’s not gonna make it."

"She’s your cousin!" Paula shouted back.

Roy grit his teeth and scowled, "I don’t give a crap if she’s Marilyn Monroe, we shouldn’t be wasting water on her! She’s not gonna make it!"

Paula reared back and slapped him. She immediately regretted it, not because he didn’t deserve it but because she realized that they could not afford to fight amongst themselves. They needed to work together if they were going to survive.

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Roy stared at her. The red mark across his face glared brightly and contrasted strongly with his pale skin. But to her surprise and relief he simply walked away. Becky looked up at Paula, tears streaming down her battered face. "He’s right you know," she whispered. "You shouldn’t waste time on me."

Paula bent down and gave her a hug. "Don’t worry. We’ll get through this."

* * * *

The broken anemometer sat near the cave’s entrance. She had managed to grab it at the last minute and threw it in her bag. Why she did she didn’t know other than it might be the only part of her little brother Joey that she would have left. He had been an amateur meteorologist of sorts and had several devices used for measuring and observing weather conditions. She fondly recalled him spewing out various information about topics regarding weather. He had bought the anemometer through a catalog and had altered it to be very accurate with his own parts. He added gauges and fittings and cups to the existing ones and painted it a bright red. It was one of his most cherished pieces of equipment.

The dial he added gave a clear and fairly accurate reading of wind speed. She had fastened it to the ground just outside the cave when they had first arrived and had pulled it back in before it blew away. She looked at the gauge. The glass was cracked badly but the reading was still legible…one-hundred and two miles per hour, and that was a few days ago, the gusts had increased rapidly and steadily since then. She guessed they were probably near one hundred and fifty miles per hour, perhaps more.

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"Kinda tempting isn’t it?" Roy’s voice seemed to emanate from the darkness itself. "Just to walk out into the wind and let it take you. Ya get to see the world." His face appeared in the blackness followed by the remainder of his body. "It’ll be like flying, soaring as high as you could wanna go."

Paula steadied her nerves as best she could. "You’re tired Roy," she reasoned. "You need some rest. I’ll get you a blanket." She reached for her bag and withdrew a tattered quilt that her mother had sewn when she was a little girl. Roy rushed forward and seized her wrist.

"We could go together. Imagine it, the two of us flying high, seeing the world," he said.

She yanked her arm from his grasp. "You need some sleep," she retorted angrily and walked back to her spot in the cave. She could feel his eyes watching her and knew very well that he was beginning to lose his mind.

Sleep did its best to elude her but sheer exhaustion, both physically and mentally, eventually won out as she fell into a deep and troubled slumber. She dreamt of Tom pulling his truck into her driveway to pick her up for a date. She dreamt of her father working on his hot rod in the garage. She dreamt of her mother cooking up her famous tuna casserole. She dreamt of her brother Joey excitingly running around the house when his latest piece of equipment came in the mail. She even dreamt of Fred, her bloodhound, wiling away the days on the front

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porch. She dreamt of all these things from her past which were unmistakably tainted with the painful stain of reality.

Her sleep was broken by the sound of stones crumbling. She jerked awake

and flung her gaze towards the entranceway of the cave. Roy was there, standing directly in front of the wall and carefully, almost delicately, removing stones from it. He already had several smaller rocks tossed aside and was working on dislodging a large one from the center as the howls of the wind were beginning to permeate the cave causing the ceiling to rain down dirt and pebbles.

Paula leapt to her feet and ran to him screaming for him to stop. "Roy what are you doing?" she cried. "You’ll kill us all!" she could hear the gusts of wind grow stronger as they tried to enter through any opening they could.

Roy easily pushed her to the ground and increased his effort in removing the large stone. "I’m gonna see the world," he laughed. "Top of the world ma, I’m gonna be on top of the world!"

Paula grabbed a grapefruit sized rock and flung it with all her might at Roy. Her aim proved good and it landed squarely on the back of his head. He collapsed to the ground cursing at her. Paula realizing the opportunity scuttled over to where he lay and frantically began pulling her shoelaces out to tie him up with. But the wall had been compromised by Roy’s efforts and started to crumble right before her eyes.

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"You dumb broad," Roy hissed through bloody teeth. "I want to fly, do you hear me? I want to fly!" He reached up and grabbed Paula’s ankle and flipped her

onto her back. The blood was literally pouring from his wound coating both of them in a sticky mess of crimson. "I’ll teach you to stop me," he growled. He stood up and

digging his hands into the wall yanked a large stone near the center out. The wind immediately whipped in through the opening and flung everything, including Paula, Louise and Becky against the back wall of the cave. Roy hung on and began to crawl through the hole. The sight of his skin being peeled back like a ripe piece of fruit was too much for Paula to bear; she buried her and the girl’s faces in the blanket. She made the mistake however, of looking up one last time just when Roy reached the outside of the cave and was sucked away with such force that he did not even have time to make a sound. She forced her way back to the wall. Her face and hands stung terribly from the wind and she could feel the blood begin to cover her but she managed to reach the wall and push the rock back into place. Thirty exhaustive minutes later she had the only barrier between them and death reasonably rebuilt and secure.

Behind her she could hear Becky and Louise crying. As if the situation they were in were not bad enough they also had the loss of loved ones haunting their feelings. But at least Roy was gone, of that much they could be grateful for.

Paula walked over to the girls. She wasn’t their mother or even a friend but she knew she had to be the one to be strong if they were going to survive. Cradling their heads in her arms she joined them in sobbing.

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* * * *

Hours passed with no lessoning of the wind. It continued to relentlessly swirl and gust in a song of nature promising death. It had flattened everything in sight to a smooth, featureless plain, void of civilization. The incredible power it displayed was beyond anyone’s comprehension or understanding. It was controlling the Earth, tossing aside puny humans at its whim.

Paula sat up and wondered if there was anything left of the outside world. She knew there must be an explanation for the wind. There was little doubt in her mind that there were many scientists and researchers who could easily explain it but that was of little comfort to her or the girls, or any of the people who had been wiped out. Would they be able to stop it? She doubted it. How could someone stop high winds, especially ones that reached hundreds of miles per hour? Nothing built by man could withstand such a pounding onslaught.

She looked over at Becky and Louise; they were fast asleep next to one another behind her. Their faces masked the pain and fear that she knew lurked below the surface. They were both so young, much younger than she was, and like her they still had so much to live for.

And then she heard it. It was faint almost to the point of being non-existent but it was definitely there; a low, soft voice…Tom’s voice, and it was calling her name…from outside the wall.

"Pauuullaa. Paulaaa, it’s me Tom."

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The wind diluted the clarity of the words greatly but she was still able to decipher them somewhat.

"Are you in there Paula? Pauullaaa…"

Torn between the joy of hearing his voice and common sense she felt herself crawl towards the entrance way of the cave. Becky and Louise were still sound asleep and oblivious to the impending danger they faced otherwise they surely would have tried to stop her.

She reached the wall and began to remove a small stone near the top. Logic and the instinct to survive were pushed aside by her longing to see her beloved fiancé again, to hold him in her arms and to kiss his lips once more. Dehydration constricted her throat making it nearly impossible to utter a response to the voice other than a low groaning.

"Paauullaaa. Paauullaaa.."

Any hint of malevolence in the words was masked by the source of them. Her finance, the man who she was going to escape with to the big city and pursue her dream of having a family with and attending college. The man she was going to spend the rest of her life with as Mrs. Thomas Kannery. The man she was going to grow old with.

"Paaulla…I’m here. It’s me Tom."

Against her better judgment she pulled the small stone out.

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Hesitation gripped her mind, momentarily causing her to pause in looking out of the opening. She was scared. However, she was also surprised at how well she had dealt with the situation so far and had faith in herself that she never had before.

She had also developed a special bond with the two girls and felt a responsibility for them.

And then she looked out of the hole.

The wind hissed in her face with a ferocity that was terrible to behold. It was still an unyielding behemoth of nature unmatched by all before it. Shielding her eyes as best she could, she strained to see the outside world.

At first, nothing was visible, only the roiling, empty void of nothingness that had cursed her eyes and mind so many times before. But then, an image appeared. A vague silhouette of a face materialized approximately five feet from the wall. Gradually a body formed beneath the face and melted into it giving it a full image of a person.

It was Tom, her beloved fiancé who had been taken by the wind! He looked at her and smiled, a loving and familiar smile.

"Hello Paula," he said through the assault from the wind, which was whipping his blonde hair all about his face.

She was speechless; words failed her completely. The impossibility of what she was seeing was matched only by her desire for it to be real.

"Tom, is it really you?" she stammered like a schoolgirl.

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A look of frustration washed over his face. "Do you doubt your own eyes?" he asked.

"Should I? I want for it, for you, to be real but I’m not a child. I know it can’t be." What she was saying hurt her almost as much as the wind slapping her face.

He turned away from her, lifted his arm and gestured to a desolate spot behind him in the distance. Paula strained to see what he was pointing at. She saw a small object jutting out of the ground but could not discern exactly what it was. Tom raised both arms and approached the wall. Bringing his hands closer together he formed a barrier that shielded the wind from the opening in the wall.

"You must look closely now," he instructed. "You must see through the winds."

She leaned forward and marveling at how he had managed to obstruct the winds with just his hands, focused on the object and at last she was able to see what it was. It was a flower, a single, bright red flower that resembled a rose.

How could it survive in the wind? She concluded that it could by the same means by which she was talking to her dead fiancé.

"It’s a sign…of survival. It shows that there is always hope, that anything can survive if it has faith."

Paula felt an enormous weight lifted from her shoulders. For the first time since the nightmare began she felt hopeful. Tom smiled as he lowered his arms,

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forcing her to shield her face from the winds again and back away from the hole even though she did not want to.

"I must go now," he lamented. "But I have something for you." He lifted his arm and produced a small red flower similar to the one in the distance behind him. "To remember me by…forever."

Paula reached out and quickly snatched it from him. Her hand bled from the biting wind but she paid it little notice, all that mattered was the flower and what it represented.

His smile embedded itself in her heart long after he had faded away into nothingness. The empty space where he had stood hurt far worse than the wind, which seemed to be increasing yet again. She reluctantly forced the stone back into its spot on the wall and using what little water they had, mudded it back into place.

Outside the wall, the flower began to swell. Its pedals wilted and turned a sickly, dirty white in color as enormous, pulsating spores jettisoned out from its center to be carried by its wind to all corners of the globe for germination. All around it writhing tentacles sprouted up and flailed in the gales like insane dancers as translucent slime coated its entire mass. It was aware and intelligent and gyrated from side to side in a grotesque mockery of laughter. An image of Thomas Kannery formed at its base and smiled. It had been easy…real easy.

Paula sat back down on her blanket and looked at the girls, they were still sound asleep. Even the chaos of the wind coming into the cave when she removed

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rock didn’t stir them to consciousness; sheer exhaustion controlled their bodies beyond any doubt. She lifted the flower and inhaled its fragrance. The aroma was

strange, almost unrecognizable, but she realized that it had been awhile since she had last smelled a flower. She set it on the ground beside her blanket and laid down. Sleep visited her quickly and transported her to its peaceful realm; a welcome and much needed diversion from reality.

The flower arched itself upright and its pedals started to wilt as they changed to a sickly, dirty white color. And then it began to swell.