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I don't know how long we stayed huddled in the corner of the barn. It felt like hours, but who knows? The storm's fury seemed never ending, and it was truly nothing short of a miracle that the entire barn didn't collapse. The damage caused by the lightning bolt had been terrific, and it ultimately led to a crack in the roof from one end of the barn to the other. The rain had poured inside, soaking everything. Despite our best efforts to stay out of its line of fire, our whole group ended up drenched.
And then, as suddenly as it had begun, the storm ceased.
The clouds vanished in a matter of minutes, giving way to the first twinkling stars of the evening. The rushing wind died away and resumed its quiet, gentle patterns through the forest.
“Well, that is something I hope to never have to do again!” exclaimed Sarah.
“Agreed!” I replied, as I walked to the barn doors and pushed them open. Our group walked out into the clearing and surveyed the damage. What we saw, none of us were prepared for. The storm had ripped the campground apart. Trees were down all over the place. Many of them lay on top of cabins. In all, only one or two of the cabins were totally untouched. Most had lost roofs or were flattened by large trees. I shuddered to think about the people who had chosen to run to their cabins like I had initially attempted to do. Chances were that they had not survived.
Our band of survivors dispersed in different directions, picking through the wreckage and searching for anyone who may have lived. The camp was eerily quiet, and even though none of us spoke it out loud, we all knew what the stillness meant. No one other than us was alive. After some time rummaging through the battered cabins I made my way over to Pete and began to talk to him.
“Hey Pete,” I began. “I think it's time we started figuring out our route out of here.”
Pete nodded his head. “You're right. There's nothing more for us here, and we need to alert the authorities to what happened. This place is seriously dangerous!”
“Do you think this was an isolated event?” I asked.
“I'm not sure,” he replied. “I've never seen anything like that storm in my entire life! I feel like if it had happened before people would have known about it.”
Pete was probably right. I pondered the storm in my head. I had seen a lot of strange things on different Roblox servers, and those experiences had led me to be very suspicious of events such as these. Surely there was a cause for such a catastrophic natural disaster!
“Hey, guys!” I heard Sarah yell out to us. “I think you should take a look at this!”
Pete and I sensed an urgency in her voice. The others must have heard the same thing because we all ran to where she stood as quickly as possible. We found Sarah standing at the edge of the clearing where our cabins were situated.
“What is it Sarah?” asked one of our group, a man named Mike.
Sarah only pointed out into the woods at something perhaps a mile in the distance. In the growing darkness of the oncoming night, an orange glow could be seen dancing in the trees. I knew instinctively what it was.
“Forest fire!!” I cried.