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(Page 2 of 6) Saelieni Chapter 1 by Gregory Harvey His ears were left with only the sickly rumbling of the aged engine. Yes. A stop off in Yulumson would be a good idea. It should be over the horizon in any moment.
Attempting to look over the small hill that obscured his view, Arthur noticed that the horizon was a shade of brown. Great. He'd just washed the bloody car this morning and now he'd have to drive through a dust storm. And all that dust would be just great for the engine, wouldn't it?
Don't worry, be happy.
Arthur chuckled to himself.
That slick talker at the car yards wouldn't care. Behind all the sales talk he seemed like a nice enough bloke. So it was a little dust... just hose the crap off and it'd be right. ‘Course it'd be right!
***
The sword was wedged through the bed in such a way that it's tip was less than three inches from Melanie's left eyeball. When all the crap had started falling she instinctively had crawled underneath the bed, which she had been resting on after the party last night. At first she had thought it was a hail storm... but when the pram crashed outside of her window she didn't know what to think.
"Mum?" She called out once more, nearly panicking now, "Mum, are you okay?"
She dared not move much. If she raised her head the slightest she feared the sword would cut through her eye. But if she stayed... the damn thing (which somehow had managed to slice into the house via the roof) might finish cutting through the bed... and stab into her face anyway... but she didn't think that was likely. It had been hanging for the best part of half an hour already. Why would it move now?
"Mum? Where are you?" She shouted once more.
Melanie had last heard her mother in the kitchen before she had nodded off.
But the town was silent now. Deathly so.
***
The ute hauled itself over the hill, and Arthur could see the first of the brown dome that had enveloped Yulumson. It was the weirdest dust storm he had ever seen... and now he was wishing he'd brought the camera. What a great shot he was missing out on! He thought the dome might go as high as a hundred meters into the air, spreading across the two or three kilometers that was the width of the town. It was spectacular... if a little unsettling.
Arthur couldn't wait until he was inside of it, even if he could not have said why. It was always cool, being inside a dust storm; it was like you had just stepped into another world. Hopefully it wasn't one of those strip-the-paint-off-your-car dust storms. Nah... it was moving too slow for that. In fact, from where Arthur was, it didn't look as though it was moving at all.
His ute rolled easily down the hill, without too much stress on the engine. As he neared the town, the dust surrounded the vehicle, until all four sides were amongst a deep brown fog. Arthur had never seen a storm as thick as this one. It was actually like...
The front left tire hit something on the ground and the ute barrel rolled into the air. It crashed about ten meters from the point where it went airborne. It had rolled and the roof lay crumpled against the ground; the windscreen had shattered.
The engine had stalled, and after Arthur had regained consciousness he thought he was deaf for a moment, as there were no sounds to greet his ears.
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