A dark cloud rolled over the houses, row on row, swallowing them whole. I stood in the open doorway watching the tide roll slowly in, my eyes searching frantically until my mother’s car sped into the driveway.
400 metres and she’s in.

But the cloud kept coming.
“Mum!” I screamed. My yell seemed to last for centuries. She scrambled out of the car barefoot and whipped her head around to see the dark cloud begin to consume my neighbour’s house. She ran.

300…
I felt like running out and pulling her along. She wasn’t fast enough. The cloud dropped down over the neighbour’s front door and began to munch on his car.

200…
A tear fell down my cheek and onto my lips. I braced myself with the doorway as a cold wind was cast from the plague. “Come on, mum!” I screamed.

100…
She stopped slowly.
“Muuuum!”
“Close the door.”
The cloud crept across the threshold.
“No! No, mum, I need you!” I screamed, on my knees as the cloud came and took her and I slammed the door, crying against it as the lights went out.