Nano '09 – Nov. 1, 1667 words

01 Nov 2009 14 Comments

by Nikkiin writing Tags: nanowrimo 2009

(Aside: Yes, I managed exactly 1667 words on my first day and ended with a paragraph.  I took that as a sign and stopped writing.)

It was 7:05 PM on a Friday evening and Katryn had 55 minutes left of her shift.  It was a long shift.  A very long and painful shift and her current customer wasn’t making the time go any shorter.  The items had to be bagged just so, the weight had to be distributed absolutely perfectly and the milk?  Triple bagged.

When Katryn bagged the last item and finally hit the total button she took it as a sign.  A sign, quite possibly, from God.  Unless, of course, it was the Devil who gave those kinds of signs.

The total?

Six hundred and sixty six dollars even.

“Six six six!” Katryn smiled her first real smile in hours to the customer.

“Uh,” the woman said, “Could I have a package of gum?”

Katryn sighed.  Of course, the woman wouldn’t be able to handle having a total come up to $666.00.  Of course not.  She’d have to be one of those customers.

The next few customers looked no better – a giant scary man, a guy who looked scrawny (or maybe it was only in comparison to the 6’4 behemoth) who was clutching a copy of season 4.5 of Battlestar Galatica and edging away from the old drunk guy behind him.

‘Oh,’ Katryn thought, ‘It’s the drunk paint thinner guy again.  This day just keeps getting better.’

“Any particular choice of flavours or brands?” Katryn snarked to the perfectionist woman.

“Why yes.  Trident.  Spearmint.”

“Mom, I don’t think she was serious.  She can’t even reach the gum from where she was standing.” The woman’s teenage daughter rolled her eyes dramatically and swished her hair out of her eyes.  “To save you the trip, you could always just put my CD through with the groceries.”

“Cassandra, I am not paying for your damned vampire soundtrack,” the woman snapped.  Suddenly Katryn liked her a little more than she did 30 seconds ago.

“It’s not just a vampire soundtrack, Mom, it’s the Twi-“

At that moment an interdimesional portal opened right in front of the line at Till Six and, sadly, Cassandra’s rebuttal would never be heard on Earth because, well, Cassandra was no longer on Earth.  Fortunately, her mother didn’t have long to panic as she was dragged into the portal.  In just as rapid of a sequence, the next three customers in Katryn’s line were sucked in as well.

For the first time in Katryn’s knowledge, the entire front end of the supermarket was dead silent.  Well, except for that ever present cry of a small child but apparently nothing could shut up children.  Not even the apocalypse.

Whilst her customers were mute with horror, Katryn was almost bursting with excitement.

“It almost looks like a black hole!” she exclaimed, “Well, as much as a black hole, which light cannot bounce off of, could ‘look’ like.  But it isn’t sucking in matter… or light… or anything other than those five people.  Curious.”  Katryn couldn’t resist hopping over her till and getting a closer look.

“If you get close enough, it does appear that light is travelling through it,” Katryn leaned closer still, “I wonder if matter gets close enough I will get sucked thro- “

It turns out that Katryn’s words would not be heard on Earth either.

Chapter One

“Do you think they will come?”  A man in a very large and ornate hat asked.

“They have to come.  It is Prophesized.”  A second man in an even larger and more ornate hat glared at the disbeliever.

“Yes, but nobody is co-”

“-light sound – huh?”  Cassandra’s eyes widened in fright as they quickly darted around.  This most certainly wasn’t the super market.  The ceiling, for one, was too high, the room way too large and, the last Cassandra had checked, they generally did not look like cathedrals.

Also, she had never seen as few as five people in a super market before.

“Um, wha?  Who?  How?!  What’s going on here?”

“Such curiosity,” the man in the smallest hat said, “She must be the sorcerer.  All hail the sorcerer!”

“ALL HAIL THE SORCERER!” The other four men echoed as Cassandra’s mother tumbled into the room.

“Cassandra!  What did you do?” She snapped.

“I didn’t do anything mom, god!  Why do you think that everything is always my fault?!”  Cassandra snapped back.

“I don’t know, probably because it usually is!”  Cassandra’s mother grabbed her child and shook her.

“Such passion!  Such anger!  All hail the warrior!”  The man in the small hat, who was also the largest man in the room, proclaimed as an even bigger man stumbled through the portal.

“ALL HAIL THE WARRIOR!”

Cassandra’s mother paused and looked at the five men in hats.  “Cassandra,” she asked, “Who are these men?”

“Fuck if I know mom!”  Cassandra rolled her eyes again.

“Don’t speak to your mother that way!”  Her mother snapped back then turned to the strangers.  “Hullo.  I’m Lillian LastName and who might you be?”

“Ma’am, my name is Rainier,” The big man nodded gravely at her.  Lillian smiled up at him, smitten.

“Oh, I know who you are.  I’m a big fan of football, you see,” Lillian dimpled.

“Say no more,” Rainier smiled slightly at her.  As Cassandra started gagging, a fourth person was spat out of the portal.

“Woah.  I wonder if that’s what travelling through the Stargate would be like!” He said with a grin as he looked around.  “This place is so cool – I mean, look at those hats!”

“He must by the scholar and Rainier must be the leader,” the man in the smallest hat said, completely overwhelmed, “All hail the leader!  All hail the scholar!”

“ALL HAIL THE LEADER!  ALL HAIL THE SCHOLAR!”

“Dude!  Awesome acoustics!” The shaggy haired man exclaimed as the old drunk rammed into him from behind.  “Whoa!  Watch out for the dvds!”  The old drunk just mumbled in reply and clutched onto his paint thinner.

“And that,” the man in the hat exclaimed, “Is the prophet!  All hail the prophet!”

“ALL HAIL THE PROPHET!”

“Hey, why does he get to be the prophet?  I’m the one named after one!  And Cassandra’s life bore a remarkable similarity to mine – nobody bloody well listens despite the fact that I’m always right!”

Lillian snorted, “Hardly.  Nobody listens to you because every other word out of your mouth is ‘eee Team Edward’!”

“Dude, mom, I so do not support Team Edward!  Jacob is so much better!” Cassandra snapped.

“What’s the difference?  They’re all sparkly ‘vampire’ pretty boys,” the messy haired man snircked.

“He’s a werewolf!”

“But still a pretty boy!”

“Are we sure these are the Prophesized ones?” The doubtful man in the hat asked.

“Hush, yes!  They came through the portal so they are the ones.” The man in the biggest hat hissed, “Close it down!”  And, at that, Katryn stepped through.

“-ough.  Oh.  Apparently it will.” Katryn blinked, nonplussed.  The men in hats stared.  The messy haired man beamed and whirled around.

“Hi Katryn!  I’m Carson!”

Katryn paused, stared at Carson, looked down and ripped off her name badge.  “I hate these things.”  She looked around, curious.  “Where are we?”

“Well, that is some sort of wormhole… or a blackhole.  So I’m thinking that we’re either on another planet, dimension or alternate timeline.” Carson grinned.

“The odds of a stable wormhole – or whatever that was – appearing on Earth, taking in a certain amount of matter and depositing all of us safely on another planet or an alternate Earth is, well…” Katryn trailed off.

“Astronomical?”

“I was trying not to be cliché.”

“She’s not supposed to be here!  It was not Prophesized!” The shortest man in a hat suddenly screeched and pointed at Katryn.

“Do you know what the odds of a prophecy being one hundred percent correct are?”  Katryn asked rhetorically.

“Astronomical?”  Carson grinned.  Katryn glared.

“Send her back through!” The five men in hats rushed forward and tried to grab Katryn who quickly ran away.

“Hey, whoa!  Don’t!  Matter can only go one way through a wormhole!” Carson grabbed at one of the men in hats.  Rainier had tackled one of the others, swiftly knocked him out and was chasing down a second.

“Wait, what?  Where on earth did you get that idea?  Total nonsense!”  Katryn yelled.

“Dude, haven’t you seen Stargate?” Carson exclaimed.

“No,” Katryn replied.

“It only ran for 10 seasons and produced two movies and two spin offs!  Seriously, how have you not seen the show?”

“I don’t watch sci-fi.”  Katryn yelped as the big man in a hat grabbed her arm and started dragging her towards the portal.

“Hey!  Get your hands off of her!” Carson grabbed onto Katryn and tried pulling her away from the big man.  He had absolutely no success.  “So why don’t you watch sci-fi?”

“They get the math wrong.”  Katryn stomped on the big man’s foot whilst Rainier started to pull her away from him.

“But it is not about the math!” Carson gasped as Katryn was flung back into him after Rainier got her free.  He promptly twisted Katryn’s assailant into a headlock.

“Care to tell us what is going on here?” He asked softly.

“That was… amazing,” Lillian sighed.

“Ew, mom!”

“Well, you see… one thousand years ago a Great and Ancient Evil befell our lands.  A Dark Lord spread his Army of Evil across country and shadowed the sky with Dark Cumulus Clouds of Ominous Evil.” The short man started.

“Is he seriously talking in capitals,” Carson murmured into Katryn’s ear.  Katryn leaned away from him and wrinkled her nose.

“And So It Was Prophesised that Five Great Heroes would Come From Another World And Save Us All by Fulfilling Their Destinies,” the short man finished.

“That’s it?”  Cassandra asked, “Usually these prophecies are a bit… longer.”

“Well, it did say that the Heroes were supposed to be a bit… younger.” The disbelieving man added.

“Shhh!  The Prophecy must have been interoperated wrong!” The short man hushed as Lillian squawked in outrage.

“What does that mean?!”

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