Natures Fury

by Michael Lodico

  The head police chief of Long Beach, named Ed, knew there would be a full investigation the next morning when he showed up later at this scene of carnage. Ed was a portly man of short height,who was getting lethargic in his old age. He was 55 ready for retirement soon. He’d never seen anything like this in his job. “ Damn,” he said, “ what a mess this is.” He knew that it looked like to him that these animals just went nuts. That’s probably what he was going to put in his report. He was going to be on the phone with the government, the FBI, and every animal specialist in the country.

  December 19, 2012 Crystal Lake, Illinois 8:00 A.M.

  In Crystal Lake Illinois, Mike was waking up to this very news story on the television while he was eating breakfast. “ I knew it,” He exclaimed, as he heard his three cats pace, growling at him through the bathroom door. He had to keep them in there until he had enough time to take them to the vet or back to the shelter. They were attacking him occasionally, biting him and scratching him when they had the chance. There was food and water in there and a litter box. They weren’t attacking each other, they charged him when he looked in the door. He didn’t want to hurt them so he isolated them. They had that killer look in their eyes. It was scary to him!!!He looked out his window sighing,” What’s going on God?” As he continued looking out his cold, winter, window, he noticed hundreds of sparrows mobbing people trying to get to their cars. He was glad he was on Christmas break.Other people were trying to go to work.

  December 20, 2012, Serengeti Plain Reserve Tanzania Africa 9 A.M.

  Don and Julie Loding were on their first safari on the Serengeti plains. They were very excited. They were away from their families this Christmas, which is what they wanted. Don and Julie had been married for ten years to each other. They were in their 50’s and they felt like new born newlyweds. It took them a couple of days to reach their destination in Africa, but when they made it, it was worth it. They had never seen anything like this being from a tiny town in Indiana. It was gorgeous to them, and they started taking pictures right away when they got out of their bungalow. They were staying in a small bungalow right outside the park. That’s what they paid for and it was a bargain to them being so close to nature. They could hear the wildlife from where they were. “ It’s breathtaking,”Julie exclaimed.

  The guide today to go out to the park told them that they were going to be part of a safari with five other jeeps. They didn’t mind, it was going to be fun in their minds. Their guides name was Moobumba. He was a typical guide who spoke Swahili and English. He was a tall, lanky man with plenty of experience for safaris. Each guide for each jeep was operated with two other guides and everyone had guns for protection. All the guides had the same build as Moobumba. The big jeeps held ten people total, three guides and seven tourists. The total party number on this particular safari was 40 people. The drivers were considered guides also. Moobumba and the other guides were giving the tourists some instructions for the adventure that was about to take place. Then they were on the way. As they were leaving the compound, they saw a few giraffes and zebras on their way to wherever they were going. The jeeps went about five miles to their destination which was near a herd of elephants. They parked and absorbed the scenery. All the tourists agreed that it was beautiful. Moobamba explained,” The best way to view wildlife is to be quiet and unmoving.” Don and Julie knew this from their nephew Mike in Algonquin, Illinois. It’s something he told them a long time ago, being the expert he was on animals. “ We have a nephew that would just love this,” Don was explaining to the rest of the group in their jeep. So, they sat a waited until the herd of elephants got closer. They also noticed a pride of lions in the distance about 300 yards away. The Serengeti was alive this day, and it was about to get better. The lions started to get closer to them. There was about 100 in the pride.

  “ Aren’t the lions getting too close to the elephants?”, whispered Julie. The guide was quite calm in answering,and said, “No, they will keep their distance.” Moobumba was confident in his answer. He did wonder why both animals seemed to be getting close to them, though. The elephants were used to them very occasionally. He’d taken hundreds of safaris and had similar experiences. He and the other guides knew just where to take the tourists to gain the experience of lifetime. The animals would usually keep their distance because of the firearms. Occasionally, you would get elephants or rhinos that would charge the jeeps and all they would have to do is take off. The elephant herd looked like it was about 100 strong, as many as the lions. The tourists in all jeeps were snapping their photos quietly. The jeep with Choteu as the guide was getting closer. He was always somewhat of a daredevil in these matters. Moobumba still thought they were at a safe distance. He signaled to back off a little to Choteu. He was relieved that he took his advice. “ Damn daredevil going to get us killed one day,” Moobamba uttered. Thereau the other guide on the third jeep signaled to move on. They were at this spot for about 30 minutes. They usually stay at a place for that amount of time or longer depending on what there is to see. The elephants were about 50 yards away.

  The elephants started to get really restless. They were thrashing violently towards the jeeps, This happened all of a sudden.Bushes and trees were starting to fall before the jeeps.The jeeps started to move.The fourth jeep lead by Carbone, was having trouble starting. The elephants started charging the fourth jeep. The tourists started getting very scared. Carbone fired a warning shot, it didn’t work. The front elephants, which there were about five of them kept coming. They were all males. The rest of the herd was behind the front five and they shifted into frenzied instead of restless as far as their demeanor. It didn’t look to Moobumba like they were defensive, it looked like intent to kill. This was odd to him in his startled state, the fourth jeep was still there. The tourists jumped out and ran. The other three jeeps started to circle back and also fired warning shots, to no avail. The elephants were still charging. They reached the fourth jeep by now and completely turned it over. The completely stomped and crushed it underfoot.

  “ This is serious,” Don said, and Julie agreed. They were fearful now and tried to think safety as much as possible. The elephants were catching up to the tourists from the fourth jeep. They were running for their lives. The lions were waiting in the bushes just beyond the incident. The guides were firing at the elephants. That didn’t stop them either, and they just got increasingly mad! People started getting trampled to death by the elephants. By this time the other three jeeps figured it was pointless to try to save everyone on the fourth jeep. They had to save themselves. The people that didn’t get trampled by elephants were about 20 yards from the original fourth jeep that got destroyed by the elephants. The first jeep captained by Moobumba and the second by Choteu kept moving. The third jeep guided by Thereau, attempted to track back, but there were too many elephants. The whole herd of 100 was frenzied and thrashing all around. They were too close. The survivors got blind sided by the lions waiting in the bushes. They all perished, even Carbone and the rest of the guides. As they were trying to leave in a haste, Moobumba noticed the lions didn’t feed, they just killed the people.

  The third jeep was now in jeopardy from the elephants. They made the mistake of trying to save the fourth jeep. The elephants were charging that jeep and getting too close. The third jeep would have made plenty of ground but they tried to circle back. The elephants caught up to them and smashed the jeep and crushed the people under their feet. There were screams and gunshots, again to no avail.They were either dead or dying when the elephants passed them up. Whatever the elephants didn’t do after they passed them, the lions took care of after the elephants left. Again, Moobumba noticed the lions were not feasting, just killing. This was disturbing as the other two jeeps were pulling away from the scene.

  The first two jeeps had enough space were they were a safe distance from the elephant herd. They were all looking back in awe and shock at what they just had noticed. Their looks were all focused on what happened behind them
, even the drivers. All of a sudden in the first jeep the driver scream,”SHIT!” The jeep swerved to the right. The other jeep was about ten yards from them and they almost swerved into them. The second jeep was also swerving all over the place. A herd of rhinos was trying to run into them. Both jeeps got hit there were about 50 rhinos. They came out of nowhere. There was no warning, the drivers were good drivers. Not this day. They all were looking back at the damage to the other two jeeps that they got blind sided by the rhinos. The rhinos doubled back as the jeeps were down. Any survivors were on foot. They didn’t stand a chance with any animals on the plains of Africa. The rhinos overtook them and trampled most of them to death. Both jeeps were destroyed. There were only three people that survived this herd of rhinos, Don, Julie, and Moobumba. They started to get up and the rhinos were all gone. They knew they weren’t safe yet. They had the rest of the Serengeti to deal with.

  They were close to some trees, and all seemed clear on the plains. There were no lions, elephants, or rhinos. So they stumbled over to the trees, which were about 20 yards away from where they were. They were slightly bruised and cut, but no major injuries. They were lucky. They seemed to be all right as they approached the trees. Survival was the first order of business, Moobumba thought. Don was always a person with a sense of humor. and said, “ I’m not paying for this fiasco.” “Don’t worry sir,”everything will be taken care of, “Moobumba reassured. They were lucky it was still early in the day. They could still see the jeeps smoking from the destruction. The vultures WERE feasting on the dead remains of the people killed. “ Do these animals usually have this kind of behavior?” asked Julie. Moobumba replied, “Never.” “ They usually respect the firearms or the jeep itself, “ Moobumba said in fear. They all knew they were still in trouble. They were tired and beat. The noon sun was tiring them even more with the ordeal they just experienced. They all fell asleep by the trees. Two hours had passed and Don was startled out of his sleep by a loud plane overhead. He waved his blue shirt in the hot sun, and woke up the others. The plane was too high, but still loud. Moobumba noticed a large black cloud close to the plane. He knew it could only be one thing, locusts. It flew towards the plane. It eventually overtook it in a couple of minutes. The plane crashed because the locusts got caught in the machinery, not letting the machinery move. The rest of the locusts moved on. That was a good chance of rescue, but not now. It was a good thing that the locusts were flying away from them, they could suffocate them to death. Usually other jeeps cruise around the park, but none were around. The threesome were too tired to worry about anything except sleep. Later on some leopards entered the vicinity and took them out of their misery. They strangled them in their sleep. They didn’t feel any pain in the death. The leopards just killed them, but didn’t eat them. Their bodies just were left by the trees.

  The locusts kept continuing to swarm across the country of Tanzania going west, suffocating any people that got in their way. The way people would suffocate is the locusts would fly in their mouths and suffocate them from no air to breath. Essentially suffocating the people from the inside out. There were billions swarming on this day. No guns or bombs could defend the people against these locusts. Thousands of people were dying from this in the small towns across Tanzania and in neighboring Congo.

  December 21, 2012, Mount Vernon New York 9:00 A.M.

  Stephen had the day off from working at the zoo. After the incident at the zoo four days ago he was relieved to have the day off. The zoo was having more problems with the animals being moody and aggressive towards all the workers. He needed a break. He was watching the morning news and there were starting to be isolated reports of animal incidents around the area. He decide to call his friend Mike in Illinois, because he knew his friend was on break. Stephen and Mike had been friends since college and they were the best of friends. Stephen was perplexed by the animal incidents, all of them on the TV. It was very odd to him and he was wondering what was going on.

  December 21, 2012 Crystal Lake Illinois 12:00 P.M.

  Meanwhile, Mike had just got back from returning his cats to the animal shelter in Woodstock Illinois, and it was full. Many people were returning their pets from too much aggression, and the shelter was more like a loony bin for psychotic animals. That’s the way it sounded to Mike, as he left the shelter. He hated returning his beloved cats, but there was something wrong with them. He had some intuition that something was wrong all over. He just couldn’t pin it down. He thought about the doomsday prophecy of the Mayans, but he didn’t believe that garbage. Still, something was odd.

  The phone rang, his Dad informed him that his uncle Don died in Africa. His Dad filled him in on the details and he said to his Dad that something was going on. He explained what had happened to him the last few days. His Dad also had some incidents around their house where animals were going nuts. Mike was surprised, but not that surprised. He talked to his Dad for about another 30 minutes and then went on his daily routine. He wasn’t coming home this Christmas, too risky. Too many incidents with the world, he didn’t want to chance it. Besides, there were more animal incidents by the moment. Every hour it seemed there was an update on some weird animal incident that happened around the Chicagoland area.

  The phone rang again, it was his friend Stephen from New York. They talked for two hours about everything, including the weird animal incidents that were happening around them.

  December 22,2012, London England 6 P.M.

  London Palladium, London England--“Barnum and Baileys Circus” is in town!

  John and Cathy Hubmer were in London on vacation. They were headed to the circus this night on the last night of their vacation before they headed home to their families for the holidays. People back home thought they were crazy to take a vacation to London this time of year, but it was quite nice. It rarely does anything but rain in London. They had witnessed that. They thought it would be the perfect way to end their vacation before they went home for Christmas. They were headed to the event and were about ten minutes from the Palladium venue. They were excited. Cathy had read about abuse dealing with circus events and was skeptical. John had convinced her that there was nothing to worry about. They noticed blackbirds all over the place. They weren’t impressed and kept going to the event. They had heard stories about animal incidents around the area. They weren’t worried, it didn’t effect them.

  Meanwhile at the Palladium behind the scenes, Gustav was getting the elephants cleaned up for the event at the Palladium. He was washing them like normal. They seemed a little edgy while he was cleaning them up. Dave the ringmaster, was making his rounds before the people started coming into the circus. He noticed the animals, all of them a little rowdy. They were a bit more restless than usual. He thought it might be their nerves. He ignored it like he’s done before all the other shows. The animals were a lot more restless than ever, more than any other show. People started entering the ring of the Palladium. It was spectacular. All the glitter, and glory of the circus. Dave loved his job, making people happy and entertaining them.

  The parade of the circus entered the arena. It was erratic, Cathy though to herself, as the ringmaster tried to get the animals organized. They were not cooperating at all. The elephants were fighting the most. John said,” I don’t think that’s too normal for them to do that.” “I know,”Cathy exclaimed. “ It seems like they are really restless or nervous,” she added.

  “Well, “John interjected, “ They’ll settle down and the show will be fun.” Little did they know the nightmare was just starting. Dave corralled the parade back behind the curtains were the parade started. He was a bit more nervous. “ Damn animals are going to ruin the show,” he madly stated, as he stared down the big cats as the were growling at him behind their cages. Marko was standing close to Dave when he said that. Marko was in charge of the big cats. He trained them for this for 10 years. “They are pissed about something,” he yelled. He had to yell, the cats were noisy along with the rest of the animals. “ I doubt
they can perform tonight,”Marko said in disgust. “They will perform, if I have to drag them out there myself and stick MY head in their mouths!”, Dave exclaimed with complete authority. “Fine it’s your funeral if I get injured,” Marko replied with intent loudness. Dave made alterations and had the acts without animals go first. Now everyone was pissed. They had a routine. Usually the owners made these decisions, but Dave was pressed for time and the owners agreed. “ On with the animal portion of the show,” Dave bellowed. Meanwhile outside, blackbirds,crows,ravens, and other birds were swarming around the whole city in masses of millions. Most of them were in the downtown area, especially outside the circus!

  The horses and zebras came out first.Cathy was amazed, they looked so lovely to her. John was glad. The rest of the fans were clapping wildly. All the other animals back behind the curtains were at a deafening noise level. The fans weren’t rattled at all, they kept clapping for more animals. They liked chaos, and it seemed normal for the circus. There were 10 horses and zebras parading around the arena. Alexo a stout, fit, woman was on the lead horse. She started toward the center ring for tricks. The lead horse was all white, it’s name was Nova. Nova bucked Alexo right off into the first row of the stands. Alexo landed right on her head and was killed instantly. There was blood all over the people in the first row by the center ring. The crowd gasped! Dave ran over to the spot were she was,she was already dead. The other horses and zebras started bucking off their riders. Some ended up in the stands, others were on the center ring floor. If they didn’t get up right away the horses and zebras stomped on their owners. Most of them were dead or fatally wounded. The crowd was stunned, but stayed in their seats. Then the elephants started to stampede the circus clowns that were already out close to center ring. They were hitting them wildly catapulting them into the stands. This was happening around all rings! Cathy yelled, “We have to get out of here, NOW!” John agreed.