Dark Compulsion

INTRODUCTION

After having spent the day and a great deal of money shopping in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Justin and Shannah Merchand decided to take the long scenic route back to Albuquerque.  The Jemez Mountains were breathtakingly beautiful at this time of year, and well worth the extra travel-time.  An unusually wet spring had left a profusion of wildflowers and clover covering the mountainside.  Gigantic mushrooms sprouted in the moist dark crevasses of the trees and rocks.  The grass in the meadows had a lush damp look atypical of this part of the country.

Thickening, swirling clouds were rapidly making their way down the mountainside.  Distant thunder reverberated and echoed against rock walls as it advanced inexorably toward them.  The continual rumble sounded like an army of legions marching into battle.  Lightning cleaved the heavens above them, spilling torrents of water from jagged wounds.

Shannah usually enjoyed the prospect of such a powerful display.  The atmospheric violence inevitable in an alpine storm elicited a wonderful exhilaration within her breast.  She reveled in wildly churning skies and the awesome power of a mountain cloudburst.  Her only regret was that there wasn’t a place where they could pull over to wait out the storm.  She wanted to experience it without the distraction of their trying to negotiate the hairpin curves of the narrow road, shimmering like a glossy ribbon before them.

Normally, Justin would have been elated at being given the opportunity to listen to the deafening roar of hundreds of gallons of water, beating rhythmically upon the earth and metal roof of the Explorer, but he found no pleasure in this downpour.  Visibility was nonexistent, and their descent into the flooding valley far below was extremely dangerous.

The only available place to stop was well behind them by now, so he pressed onward in the deluge.  White-knuckled and tense, he tried to maintain traction on the rain darkened road.

Afraid of braking too much lest they slide off the pavement into the gaping maw of the gorge on the left, Justin worried they were gathering too much speed as they plunged down the hill.  Barely maintaining control of his vehicle, his hammering heart threatened to leap from his chest, and he struggled to take in enough oxygen to stay alert.

An unearthly twilight fell upon them, as the sun concealed herself behind leaden skies.  Justin glanced at Shannah in the SUV’s dusky interior.  The impish twinkle that often danced in his eyes was extinguished; replaced by fear, and could it be the awareness of impending doom?

Twelve years her senior, Justin was always like the rock of Gibraltar to Shannah.  His easygoing personality, as well as an engineering background, though making him somewhat stodgy and predictable, provided him with a solid and usually unshakable calm.  He was completely rattled now.  It wasn’t the fury of the tempest outside, nor the care with which he must negotiate the dangerous highway which caused his apprehension.  Shannah knew he too felt an eerie sense of foreboding, whirling and pulsating around them.  The almost palpable warning of disaster sent electricity crawling across Shannah’s skin.  Was this what it was like to experience premonition?

Then they heard it.  ...A deep rumbling way off in the distance.  Distinctly different from the cannonade which had assailed their ears earlier, it sounded like a jet approaching at mach speed.  The ominous growl turned into a loud whine, and then quickly ascended to an ear-splitting scream as the plane passed so low overhead that Justin and Shannah were able to see flames shooting from the engines.  The Explorer shimmied as if caught in the wake of an F-4 tornado.

“My God, it’s one of those Stealth Jets, and it’s going down!” Justin yelled over the roar.

“Watch and see if you can spot the pilot when he bails out!” he yelled again, as he accelerated to an even more perilous speed.

They rounded the bend just as the aircraft exploded.  The report echoed through the canyon, and when the percussion hit their automobile, it shuddered, and stopped.  Instead of the mushroom of hot gases they expected to see from such a blast, a huge pillar of fire seemed to rend the firmament, leaving a jagged tear that spilled forth in a burning cataract.