Our beginning

A storm to rival all others!

Cheyenne wasn't the only child I had adopted into my family, I had her son Maverick as a grand child and many of my children's friends had lost their families already and shown up seeking shelter. We were in preparation of going to get Cheyanne, not completely ready for the couple day adventure there just yet but it was going to happen soon. She had been waiting for over a year to finally meet us in person and have a family to raise her son with but things had gone bad when the biological father found out her plan to leave, even though he had never been interested in Maverick before that. There was no way I could turn them down so we made room and took as many as wanted to be there in as we planned our get away for my daughter and grandson. Luke had shown up before all hell broke loose and I always felt like he was looking for a home and a family but I wasn't sure what had happened with his family and I didn't press the issue. I knew how hard that subject could be for some and so I took him in as one of my sons. The day we brought everyone out for a picnic we realized things weren't going to get any better.

Reading wasn't something I got to do often unless I woke up hours before everyone. Even then I didn't get much peace since the cats were all over getting some attention. I sat and soaked in a love story for a bit, excited to find out what happened next between the Alpha's daughter and her secret love.

I was on the side porch breathing the fresh air and enjoying the aroma of moon flowers as they closed, plus morning glorys as they opened. The sun was just barely coming up and the air was a bit crisp so I was wearing my favorite black and camo Chevy hoody and a pair of my favorite blue jeans with thick warm socks. No shoes since I technically hadn't left the house, in my opinion I was in a beautiful get away world of my own creation. With the vines growing up the porch, I hadn't felt the wind pick up just yet and since I was on the porch no rain had fallen on me even though I could smell the rain and it had started to get thicker as I read the last of my chapter. My enclosure was tucked between the house and garage plus had tree branches over top of it that were shorter than the 2 buildings so they gave perfect protection to my quiet spaces tranquility and made it unseen by passers-by.

I went inside to check on everyone and start getting cats food and water, by the time I get to the front porch the wind has picked up to the point where the trees across the street are very obviously swaying. I check the weather on my phone, this wasn't on the weather when I checked earlier. A branch on the tree across the street snaps and I'm glad that my truck isn't parked there when it crashes to the cement. Our garage had been built just in time to get all of our vehicles in a safe and sturdy environment.

It was fall so the nights were crisp and bonfire worthy, while the days were warm and comfortable enough to still go for a swim. The air around me had drastically changed from cool to a bit hot, which was strange. The wind had died down and the rain was warmer than usual. I was worried about all the out door animals so I looked around to make sure everyone was alright.

After checking on a bit of everyone and everything, I started getting my prep done for our family picnic. The rain seemed to have stopped for the moment but I put towels, hoodys and blankets in the truck just incase since our weather was always unpredictable and it had gotten worse lately. I loved having picnics because I could create as I went, I had a habit of making all sorts of things for sandwiches for a do it yourself type thing and then having chips, fruit and veggies for sides and we always did dessert when we got home. Next I had to wake everyone up since family days I let everyone sleep in and got a bit more me time than usual.

I was actually pretty surprised when I walked in Johnie and Alex's room to find them both awake and ready for the day. They both smiled at me, "Is there anything we can help with Mom?" Alex asked.

"I think I have everything ready, just have to wake everyone up and then load the food in the truck as we walk out the door." I loved how helpful the two of them were.

As I walked through the house to wake the rest of the group up, Marky approached me from behind wrapping his arms around my waist, caressing my neck with multiple kisses. "Are you ready for the day?" I asked since I couldn't see him yet.

"Of course I am! I know how much family day means to you... I've already woken everyone up and had them waiting in their rooms to surprise you. That way you could have your personal time and when you were ready to go we would be ready also."

I've always loved morning that went smoothly like this morning. As everyone filed out of the house, carrying picnic materials, I did a double check of animals, doors and lights.

...........

The rain had stopped and the sky was a very pretty blue, the sun beat down and a slight breeze helped to cool everyone down. We had found 2 picnic tables to put together and spread a table cloth over them before laying out all the goodies I had prepared. I already knew that Johnie would want a simple turkey and swiss with tomato and bacon on honey wheat bread so it was pre-made and waiting for him. Everyone else dug in as I munched on this and that, once everyone had what they wanted I started packing things up to go back in the truck until we got home and then sat down to eat my own plate full of goodies. We gossiped about everything we could think of and were having a great time.

"What's been going on at work, Samantha?" she worked at a jewelry store in the mall that also gave piercings and she had seemed to be enjoying her job, especially because she had gotten a raise and a promotion.

She smiled and looked over at me looking happy as could be, "I hired some new girls yesterday that I think will do great around the shop! I'm really enjoying being able to make my own hours and hire who I feel is a good fit, being an assistant manager is a lot easier than I thought it would be." she giggled, "I get all the fun stuff and the actual store manager has to do all the paperwork so I'm loving every moment!"

"Have you done any interesting piercings or gotten any unique jewelry in lately?" I smirked, she always had fun stories about work.

"No... but the mall had some wild crazy guy in it yesterday.... He was crawling on his hands and knees licking blood off the floor! There was a viral video of it online but it got removed within a couple hours, when they tried to get him to stop making a scene he attacked a security guard and then went for a little girl that was standing behind the crowd so a police officer that had just shown up shot him. I didn't see anything after that but it didn't sound like he had died when the police started blocking off the area." she seemed curious and worried at the same time, "Weird, right?"

"I'm glad we have these get togethers or I'd never hear the fun stuff!!" Johnie saying a bit muffled but with excitement, he had a collection of animals that he took care of and ran a non-profit rescue center of sorts. I let him start it out after we got some foster animals and he did wonderful taking care of them. Alex was really into gaming and helped with the cats we took in, Samantha loved the dogs and Brian was off working on his skate board moves with Luke most of the time.

Her story concerned me but I was hoping that it was just some psycho that over dosed on something. Things had gotten strange all over the world but this would just be to much if it was real.

As everyone finished eating, we gathered the last of what was out back into the truck and the rest of the group decided to play some football while I kicked back against a tree to watch them. Relaxing I looked around at the scenery of the park. We came here often through out my life, it was an iconic park for many families in the Quad City Area. Mark and I had done our 1 year anniversary renewal of vows here, I had played in the fountain with my friends and family here, once as a teenager I had been thrown into the pond and then went back in to get my cousins shoe, I had Aunts, Uncles and cousins who had bricks around the fountain with my Dad's and my Dad's parents have a memorial bench. When it was cold out we'd go into the warm greenhouse and smell the beautiful plants they grew, I usually bought plants as we left.

Fun memories of family in many ways.

Everyone in my line ahead of me had already passed away so I didn't really go around blood family other than my children at this point, most of them were drama anyways.

Speaking of family.... here comes trouble... Ava had always been gorgeous in my eyes but it took her a little bit to convince that she was. I loved that she was a mix of races and a mix of cultures in her personality, she accepted people for who they were and gave respect where it was due. She reminded me of myself in many ways and I loved having her company. She adopted me as her second Mama the first time she met me in person and we saw each other pretty much every day after that. I loved watching her grow into herself and become the woman she had been blossoming into. Brian and Luke greeted Ava with big hugs and then she looked around for me to start her way in my direction.

She laid down on the grass beside me, "Mama, you will never believe what I saw on my way here!" she sounded exhausted and excited all at once... "There was a huge pile up on Locust with at least 20 vehicles!" she breathed really heavy as she continued, trying to catch her breath, "I can't believe you guys didn't hear what happened!! I was on my way up Gaines and had to stop because of traffic being blocked off so I told my Mom I'd walk the rest of the way." her breathing was starting to calm down and I gave her some water to drink, "on my way, I was blocked off from getting too close by the firemen and police but what I did see was pretty creepy.... they were hiding all the bodies but it looked and sounded like they were shooting them...." she looked at me almost questioning like, trying to figure out my thoughts.

Things had been getting stranger and stranger the last year but the more and more I heard from the younger generation I felt like we were in a horror story.

"Did you see anything? I'm amazed we didn't hear anything, that really isn't that far away... especially gun shots, even something muffled would echo. Anyways I would think it would but who knows."

"I saw vehicles being towed away that were pretty smashed up but there weren't any ambulances anywhere that I could see and I couldn't see anything where the accident had happened. It looked like they had sheets hanging on hospital room blockers to hide the scene. With all those vehicles, there's no way that there weren't any survivors being brought to the hospital, right?"

"I mean there's always a way that pretty much anything could happen but everything has been crazy lately so who knows at this point what......"

We were pulled to the attention of screams coming from the direction that Ava had come from....

A woman running in our direction looked to be covered in blood and screaming for someone or something but there was no one between us and we hadn't seen anyone.

"Someone's coming out of the bushes after her... is that a gun?? everyone run!! Get to the truck!!! Go!!"

I had gotten Ava up off the ground and had her running before anything came out of my mouth, everyone ran to the truck with me and as we got all the doors shut we saw who was coming through the bushes... police started shooting at the woman and her body fell apart as we watched...

I was thankful that visor piece was on the front window and no one had removed it. Our windows had been tinted as dark as we could legally go so no one could see us in the truck and luckily they hadn't seen us all load in. Johnie had hid his face in my shoulder the moment we got in the truck, I was holding him close so he didn't see what had just happened but he had felt me shudder and heard everyone gasp. I don't think I had ever heard everyone in my truck be so quiet ever... we all couldn't believe what we had just seen happen and I looked to my left to see traffic start going as normal again, then glanced around to see if anyone was watching us, took the visor piece off the front window before I drove through the grassy part of the park to get out of there as fast as I could without getting any unwanted attention. When we got 4 or 5 blocks away, I pulled onto a side street and we all got out to rearrange and get more comfortable. I hadn't been worried about Johnie being in the front seat with me until then since I wanted him out of that park so badly, I couldn't let him see what had just happened. We stayed silent for a long time... it was probably the quietest ride across town I've ever had with a vehicle full of people. I avoided Locust and Gaines all together going out of my way to i80 and 280. I wasn't willing to have any other issues with my children with me, my only concern at this point was getting them to our safe space and getting everyone settled in. Of course, I couldn't make them all stay but I could keep Johnie safe and have someone there with him and all of the animals we cared for. At least now we knew something was going on right here in town and the government was hiding it from us.

As we pulled up in the garage, everyone seemed to have gotten color back to their faces. I asked if everyone wanted cookies, brownies and ice cream as we walked in, as if nothing had happened. Everyone seemed to in a way agree and headed towards the dinning room table were I had already had napkins for treats and mugs for ice cream set out from my morning prep. I turned the oven on warm so the goodies would be a little bit warm up and got ALL the different types of ice cream out of the freezer, when everyone had started getting what they wanted I went to grab the cookies and brownies out of the oven, turned it off and got everything on a plate to head back into the front room. The house smelled amazing and it seemed to bring everyone back from what had just happened. We enjoyed a game of Skippo and I got the movie room set up for everyone to eat popcorn and watch anything but horror movies. After earlier, I couldn't bare to let anything remind the younger kids. Even though I knew Johnie hadn't seen anything, he knew something bad had happened and had seen the woman before we started running to the truck. I just wanted to make it so he could sleep piecefully if only for one more night.

By about 9 pm everyone had fallen asleep in the movie room other than Mark and I, we had passed around blankets and pillows before we chose the list to put Johnie to sleep with but hadn't planned to be the only ones awake. I made sure everyone was warm and snug under their blankets before making my way up the stairs with Mark to start locking the yard down and closing off windows. I had been preparing for something like this and had covered as many safety precautions as I could hoping that it wouldn't come to this but knowing that the signs were all obvious that something was going to happen. We closed off all of the gates and made it so the only ways into the house were from the front door and the yard, the only way into the yard other than the house was the garage and the garage could only be opened from the inside or by one of our phones. I had hoped to be more prepared but this was much better than nothing.

.............

After triple checking that everything had been done right and that the generator was hooked up properly to the solar panels, I sat in the kitchen not wanting to be to far away from the basement but not wanting to start a conversation and wake someone up either.

Mark came in from the yard, "Garage and yard are good to go. Chickens are shut in their coop for the night, ducks are in the side yard and have their spot with cats pretty much closed down other than their entrance. I checked everything out with all the vehicles and got the bags you wanted in each one for emergency first aid, we're ready for anything that comes our way. We don't know what we saw earlier and we can't worry about until we have more information." I could tell he was trying to comfort me but I wasn't sure that was going to happen anytime soon.

I followed him down to the couch in the laundry room, after we got the dogs set up in their areas, where we drifted off to sleep....

I woke up to one of the dogs barking and a sound that made me wonder if a tree was hitting the house repeatedly. As I got up, my movement woke Mark up and he followed me up the stairs. When I opened the front door I was overjoyed that we had already locked everything down because the sky was a brilliant orange and the storm we were in gave off a sort of pink fog in a way. The rain was coming down heavy with chunks of ice here and there, wind was quite literally making the trees smack at the house. We had already closed all the storm shutters and done everything that would come in handy for a situation like this so I wasn't extremely concerned about the house.

I turned to Mark, "Let's see if any of these animals want inside..." and started looking around for any cats or dogs in the yard or on the porches that hadn't been finished yet.

"Mom?!" Alex yelled from the basement, "the lights won't turn on! Mom?!" I started heading towards the stairs, "Is that you, Mom?"

"Here I come! The generator will kick on anytime now! Mark and I got everything done lastnight before we went to sleep so all we have to do is gather animals up." I had a few battery operated candles in my hands and passed them out. I wasn't sure who was up first but they all were scared and jumped when all the power kicked on.

"Let's go upstairs. You guys can gather and check on animals and I'll get some food started, maybe the smell of bacon and eggs will get the cats to come inside?" I headed upstairs with everyone that was awake close behind me. Johnie jumped when he heard a thud against the side of the house and grabbed Ava which made her scream and Alex jump.

As I got food ready, the cats started coming in the side door and wondering what they would get, most of them pretty wet. I could hear the wind picking up and the rain coming down harder on the roof as I started pouring pancake batter onto the pan. Our areas severe storm siren started going off and everyone in the house woke up and found their way to the smell of food. I wish I would have done more about my gardens before I went to sleep but I hadn't planned for a storm. I'll have a better set up for next time and we'll make some amazing fresh foods with whatever got damaged.

"Go get plates and I'll start serving ya'll up your food!" I went to the fridge and got a pre-made bowl of food out to warm up in the oven for the dogs and another for the cats, slid them both in the oven and started getting everyone what they wanted to eat. When I was done getting everyone a full plate of breakfast, I started getting all the cats fed and then the dogs as I munched on what was left. I typically eat while I cook, even when I'm cooking for the dogs and cats I end up eating a little bit here and a little bit there since we eat the same foods. I was taught that feeding my carnivores animals took 70% bone and 30% of everything else they needed so I turned to hunting to be able to feed them properly. I had learned through trying different feeding methods that they loved it when I heated their morning meal up and enjoyed a bit cooler of a meal when the day got hotter. What we ate, they ate and we all thrived from it.

I joined everyone in the front room after I got some tea and added honey. Brian and Raven were on one side of the nook breakfast bench, Johnie was in the corner in the middle and then Alex and Ava were on the opposite side from Brian. With how big my boys had gotten, I was amazed they all fit there. Luke, Bella and Samantha were at the big dinning table expecting to get cinnamon rolls as soon as they got brought to the table. Mark hadn't come back from upstairs so I turned the oven off and cracked it open so they would cool but everyone knew not to touch them. I headed towards the stairs and when I got in the door I thought I smelled fire but I wasn't sure and rushed to the top to look around. The sounds from the storm were much louder up here and it was a little dark with the storm shudders closed but I knew my way around. I found my love in the upstairs kitchen, which was strictly my kitchen, making my favorite waffles!! He would cook them with strawberries and blueberries in the batter, I love them so much!!

I learned over and gave him a kiss, "You're the best!" wrapping my arms around him I whispered, "Foods done, I'll make you a plate and get you a few cinnamon rolls." then I wondered off and back to the dinning area on the main floor.

As I got cinnamon rolls passed out and was guarding Mark's food I started eating my own, we all jumped from the house shaking and a very loud crash sound that made my heart leap and my feet follow. I ran straight up the stairs to find my husband on his way down to check on us. He had food in his arms and told me he had already cleaned his mess. After getting everything on the table that had been in his arms I grabbed some waffles to munch on as we investigated and handed him his plate as we walked out the door. With all the noise we had heard I would have thought the house had been hit but no. The neighbors house had been crushed by the tree in their yard but no one was there, no one had lived there for years. I was curious as to how bad the damage was around town but not enough to leave the house. My phone was going off about tornado sightings and we swore we could see one towards Sunset Marina but all we really got was heavy rain and wind at the house as if we were protected in some way, shape or form.