Just Another Test by Ross Dyter, espresso machiato

My phone blasts out the emergency alarm as it has done most days this week. Just another test. Haven’t they ever heard of crying wolf? Another reminder to run out and take cover in our new, improved, urban bomb shelter. Despite all the claims on the glossy leaflet, it’s still like something from World War Two; cold, damp and muddy.

 

I’m glad Dad’s out tonight. We’d be in there already, kettle on. Instead of, kicking back, in the warm, watching TV, which is currently being drowned out by the alarm. That’s what stuffing things down the back of the sofa was invented for. Eight minutes left, I’ll risk it. Dad will go nuts if he finds me slobbing out in front of Netflix with the alarm blaring. Doubly nuts because I’m supposed to be revising.

 

It’s odd the alarm hasn’t stopped yet, must’ve been an update. Even muffled by the sofa, it’s bloody irritating. Episode finished, Netflix off. Fish out my phone, still shaking and shouting at me. Our shelter has everything we need, except Doritos. Snagging a bag from the kitchen, I head out to the mud-covered hump that is our shelter. I don’t know what it’s supposed to do, a drone, yeah maybe, but a nuke, that’s just instant suntan, then adios muchachos.

 

It’s odd no one else is hanging around. The Carltons, next door, normally sit on their shelter with a cuppa. Maybe they’re out tonight. But I can hear their phones blasting out the alarm.

 

A roaring whoosh drowns out my screaming phone. The air defence battery in the Naval base three streets over. Three streaks of white, spear into the sky, trailing smoke in their wake. Three fireballs split the evening sky, turning the garden orange.

 

Oh God, this isn’t, just another test.

About the author 

 

Ross Dyter has done many things in life from marine engineering, to building houses, but he has always wanted to write. He is currently working on a YA urban fantasy trilogy. 

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