Ash

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"Wake up, it's snowing!" my brother yelled.

"Ok, ok, calm down." I said. I got up and stretched.

"So what's going on?" I said with a yawn.

"It's snowing, get up and come outside!"

"What? But Winter just begun, how is it snowing?"

"I don't know, and I really don't care! Now c'mon!"

"Okay, just let me get dressed." I went over to my dresser and pulled put some heavy clothes.

"I can't believe it's snowing," I said to myself.

I walked outside and noticed it was warmer than usual. Outside, my brother was running around and screaming happily, I decided to put my tongue out and caught a snowflake on my tongue, but I had to spit it out.

"Ew! What is this, it tastes like shit!" I yelled.

"It's snow!" my brother said.

"No way, snow tastes like water, and if this was snow, it would be cold out here." My brother looked over at me.

"Then what is it?" I looked up into the sky,

"I don't know, but the sky is really gray, isn't it?" We both went back inside and layed around until we eventually fell asleep laer that night.

I woke up early the next day and looked outside, the so-called 'snow' was still falling hard. I went to the television and flipped it onto the news channel. It was all static, but I could make out some of the words they were saying.

"Alert! Do Not Exit Your Home! Stay Inside!" Then the channel turned to pure white noise. 

"C'mon you piece of junk." I said as I hit the side of it several times.

My brother walked in while rubbing his eyes, "What's going on?"

"I don't know, but the news said to stay inside, so I guess we won't be going back out." I responded while glancing out the window.

"I'm cold." He said.

"Me too, I'll put some wood in the fire-place."

"Do you think mom and dad are ok?"

"Yeah, they're fine, don't worry, I'm sure they're having fun on their trip." I lit the wood in the fireplace, and we gathered around it and got warm. As I watched the flames flicker from left to right, I went into some kind of trance. I felt my brother move away from me, but I didn;t look away from the fire. I closed my eyes.

My brother began to shake me, "Wake up! Please wake up!" I twitched and looked at him.

"What, what's the matter!?" He pointed over to the TV, it was on, but still staticy. The news reporter had a cast on his arm, and was covered with dirt.

"Everyone, for the love of god, if you can hear this, don't go outside! Stay in your homes! Keep your doors locked and your lights off!"

Another person was behind him shooting at something. The camera fell to the ground and all I could see were their feet. A few more legs passed the camera, they looked rotted and burnt. The t.v. turned to white noise again. I ran over to my window, the snow was falling really hard, but now, there were people outside. I looked over at my brother. He was staring into the fireplace like I was.

I walked over to him, "What's wrong?"

"It's not snow, it's ash..." he said as he peered into the flames.

I grabbed his arm, "C'mon, let's go into the attic." We ran up, there was one small window.

"Get to the corner." I said as I opened up the window. It was hard to see, but I made out a few people walking aimlessly around our neighborhood. They were charred. The wind carried the smell of fire and burnt flesh. We stayed in the attic that night.

I couldn't sleep that night. I just stared at the people walking around.The next morning I began to shut my eyes. I covered my face with my arm and began to drift away, but I jumped awake with a feeling something was watching me. The charred people were all in a line in front of my house staring at back at me. Their bodies were burnt, and their eyes were black. The ash began to fall so hard that I couldn't see anything, but I began to hear screams and banging at the door. 

My brother woke up and looked at me, "Stay here, I'll be right back." I said as I was going down into the house.

He watched as I climbed down the ladder into the hallway underneath us. I went into the living room where they were hitting the door and looked through the window, they were so grotesque that I had to look away in fear that I might vomit. I couldn't even recognize them due to their severe burns. As I covered my mouth and held my stomach, they all stopped hitting the door and looked at me peeking through the window. They just stared at me, and I stared back, not moving, not even blinking. I exhaled loudly and they all ran over to the window and began to shatter the glass and pull themselves through. I screamed and ran as fast as I could back up to the attic.

My brother was still in the corner when I came up. I pulled the door up and got down on my knees on top of it.

I looked over to my brother, out of breath. He was crying, "Shh, it's okay." I said as I crawled over to the corner with him. He hugged me and began to cry more and scream, "Everything's going to be okay," I said in a calming voice as I held against me.

I looked at the entrance, they were breaking through. I clenched him even tighter. I saw their arms break through the boards, as they pulled themselves up.

The last thing I heard were the horrible, painful screams of the charred bodies and my brother.