Happy Monday everyone. I hope you had a fabulous one that gave you everything you need to set you up for a good week. So as we are starting a new week let’s start it off right with the morning prompt. Timers set for fifteen minutes and off we go.
Probably not the most cheerful prompt I’ve ever done…
Monday, October 20th: The wind tore the streamer loose.
The wind tore the streamer loose. Cali watched it wave as it was taken across the empty field and into the woods. It looked happy to be free.
‘Probably end up snagged on a tree,’ she thought. She turned away from the disappearing streamer to look at the rest. Some poles still had their streamers attached. The wind was whipping them about as though to tug them all free and send them skipping after the newly departed one.
Tents, still vibrantly colored lay in heaps on the ground. Some were torn and many had footprints smearing mud onto them proving they fell before the stampede and not after. There were mixed reports about what happened, no two accounts actually the same.
It wasn’t surprising. From what she gleaned, it had been chaos. Those on one end of the carnival experienced something different from those on the other. It was a huge affair stretching out nearly an acre. Standing on the hill overlooking the carnage, she could almost see the pattern.
‘At least everything is flattened in one direction,’ she thought If she followed the trail she could see the flow of traffic and trace it backwards to the start. No one was clear what started the stampede. Most just saw others racing towards them terrified and joined the exodus if for no other reason than to avoid being trampled.
Many had been trampled.
Cali wasn’t certain what the death count was. It was high and while injuries were being tended to, the death count was still climbing.
The last of the bodies had been removed from the scene but no one was any wiser as to what started it. It was why she was here. As she stood on the hill overlooking the sad remnants, she realized she didn’t want to go in. She knew it wasn’t the danger. She faced all sorts of dangers before, many of which would cause others to cut and run without a thought. No, it was the carnival.
She hated the carnival. She attended one carnival once in her life. It was fun until her best friend disappeared. Three other girls disappeared that night as well. A week later all were found dead. Even though she saw carnage, that first moment where fear and death touched her remained linked to carnivals, circuse and other amusement parks. She avoided them all.
‘Not today,’ she thought. She forced herself to walk forward, stepping into the crumpled gaiety. This was the job and she would do it. Having identified the trail of exodus, Cali now walked it, heading back towards the beginning. Her eyes scanned the ground, the fallen tents, the destroyed booths. It smelled like burnt fryer oil, rotten meat and soured milk. The wind kept the scents blowing away from her.
After the stampede power was cut. That was three days ago and the sun and heat had been as merciless as the wind. Food spoiled and stank. Much of the equipment would need to be replaced as well. She proceeded deeper into the fairgrounds.
Ten til Midnight 