A short Story of mine - Marsha's Island

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This is a kind of creepy sci/fi paranormal story I wrote recently. Please leave your thoughts?

Black outs across America - the main news on CNN.

The reports were sketchy and nobody knew the cause. Marsha clicked around the rest of the page, reading other news until she became bored. With the house to herself for the first time in weeks she already felt isolated, and it was only mid-morning. Dwayne, her husband, had gone to the mainland with the hotel staff and wouldn’t be back until evening. With no guests on the island today she was alone with Guido.

She grabbed her crutches and pushed up from the chair, then aimed herself across the room towards the windows. It was a calm day and Guido was pottering along the beach, sniffing around the seaweed while his black floppy ears fluffed up in the soft breeze.

Turning back into the sitting room she gazed at the framed pictures they’d taken from a dive last year. She stared at the one in the middle – a clear head shot of the dolphin responsible for her current state. Usually the creature was graceful when she swam, but last week she had smacked Marsha’s leg with her tail and broke a bone. Marsha had given up trying to figure out this “accident”, and was only thankful this hadn’t happened to one of the guests.

She rested on the sofa until midday then went back to the computer and checked emails. Nothing of interest had arrived so she went to Divers.com and searched the forums.

Casting her eyes along the threads nothing grabbed her until she spotted a question: “Do Seals Attack?” Clicking on it, she read a curious report of a capsized yacht rescued off the Canadian coast. The rescued couple claimed their boat was overturned by a group of determined seals. Unlikely, she thought. Most replies dismissed the story as false.

Guido pushed the door open and came pattering across the carpet with an eager set of eyes and a wagging tail. After pushing herself up, hobbling to the kitchen and giving him his canned meat she made some coffee and went back to the news.

It seemed the black outs were the result of faulty connections underground. No further explanations were given, but the article thought it mysterious how this happened in New York, Washington, and Dallas. The energy firms would get it fixed by the end of the day.

After browsing around the web for the rest of the afternoon she went to CNN.

Her heart skipped a beat - “Tanker grounded on the coast of Florida”.

She stared at the picture of a three hundred foot tanker slanted along a beach. She couldn’t bear to read about oil soaked Pelicans or blackened waters, not after the last spill in the gulf, but her anxiety eased when she read that not a single drop of oil had spilled. The article wondered how this had happened during a calm stretch of ocean outside the hurricane season.

At 17:10 she prepared the fish Dwayne had caught yesterday. He would be back any minute with the staff and they’d planned to have dinner on the patio. Two meaty Seatrout came out of the fridge while Guido sat nearby looking alert as she chopped their heads off.

“Nothing for you.”
She dumped the heads in the bin, knowing he’d only sniff them a few times before leaving them on the kitchen floor.

The oven baked fish smelt tempting by 18:00 as Marsha gazed out the front window. No sign of Dwayne on the horizon. The staff must be scrambling around getting last minute shopping like they usually did on their days off.

By 19:00 she was trying to forgive them, convincing herself they deserved it after waiting all month for a free day – bookings had been up over the last few weeks. The fish was cooling off in the kitchen, the salad had been prepared and the table set on the patio. So she had little else to do except feed Guido and wait by the window. The sun was setting behind the house and she’d seen no ships passing.

The fish was kept warm in the oven and she satisfied her hunger by nibbling on a few crackers. Back at her desk she read the news of two farmers attacked by a bull in Greece, then another story about Elephants killing a village of people in Kenya.

An email from her mother, due to visit next week, told of a problem with her travel plans, but she’d keep her posted. I’ll phone her tomorrow, she thought as she gave Dwayne a call. She left him a message after he failed to answer. She hated him coming back after dark.

At 20:00 she was outside the house, frowning across the dark sea. Something was amiss - often she saw drifting specks of light on the horizon, but tonight there were none. Her neck shivered in the cool air as she worked her way back inside. Guido was lying calmly under the coffee table.

By 21:00 she had eaten her share of the fish and left the rest in the oven. Now she was back online staring wide eyed at the news. An update on the beached tanker told that crew members on lookout saw several whales pushing the ship off course. Whales? Jesus!

Other reports from Europe said London had suffered from black outs, as had Paris, Amsterdam and Rome. Again the reports were imprecise. She left her desk and switched on the television but found only static. Going back to her computer she searched Divers.com and found a surge of threads with titles like: “What is going on?”, “It’s the End.”, and “Animal attack.”

A few silly remarks about the black outs claimed of rats chewing the lines beneath the cities. But there were many other posts that caught her attention. One, posted by Hugo55 from Alaska, spoke of wolves descending on his fishing village and killing twelve people. He’d posted snapshots of snow covered streets and wolves gathered in a pack while trails of red snaked over the road. She couldn’t tell if this was real and posted a response: Any confirmation of this?”

Within ten minutes a reply was posted from Hugo55: “I am stuck in my home, wolves are outside.” He sent a link to a video he shot from his bedroom window: it showed a pack of grey wolves around a building with smashed windows. More blood trails soaked the snow at their feet.

Another poster claimed the city of Bombay was overrun by rats attacking people. She shuddered as she went back to the news sites but found none had been updated since she last looked.

She called her husband again but was told the person she is calling is out of range.

Her heart began to thud and she sought information from the coastguard. The site was up but presented only a message advising people not to travel by sea. She went to the US Navy website and found a message stating the military had taken over the main sea routes.

Puzzled and worried she went back to the news sites; nothing updated.

Hugo55 sent her a message.

“I’ve shot all the wolves I think…pretty quiet here now, not found anyone alive.”

“How big is your town?” She asked.

“1342 people.” He said. “Have you heard about Europe?”

“The black outs?”

“No. Dogs are going wild attacking people; they think Rabies has broken out.”

“s**t!”

“No s**t!” He said. “Everywhere I look I find stories of animals attacking, and it seems to be only the mammals.”

“What about the black outs?”

“They think it’s the rats. I’m Ok. I’ve got power here; we’re not on the grid, have generators.”

“Me too, I’m on an island.”

“Do you have animals there?”

“Yeah, we get birds here and we’ve got a Spaniel.”

“How’s the Spaniel?”

Marsha checked; Guido was sleeping.
“Fine.”

“Watch him.”

As she watched him the dog’s ears suddenly pricked and his eyes opened. He then turned his head to the window in a way that told her someone was here. Then she heard it, or rather them. By the time she’d lifted herself up Guido was already out the door.

Outside the full moon sat over the sea like God’s torch. Its silver light cast down on a thousand cries coming from between the waves. Dolphin calls had filled the air, and everywhere she looked their heads peaked from the water. Countless heads, and countless calls, adding to the chorus layer upon layer. Never in her time on the island had Marsha heard such a deafening pitch.

Guido stood at the end of the short pier, his head held high as if listening to an incoming message. Then it stopped.

Guido turned back and looked at Marsha. His ears were down but his jowls were up. Even from this distance she could see his bared teeth.