[ WP ] Set in the American Dustbowl , You and your family are trapped in your house during a vicious dust-storm and you 're fairly certain there is something else lurking out there amidst the churning grey sand .

“ Alan, how long is this going to keep up? ” a thirtyish woman with dark hair in a tight knot on the top of her head said from a sofa. 
 
 “ I- I don ’ t know, ” an annoyed man said from a worn plush chair. The hair in the top of his head laid like a sweaty mop. He had just caught his breath. “ You know as well as I do. ” 
 
 “ Everything ’ s taken care of outside? ” 
 
 “ I ’ m fairly certain. I rushed as fast I could to get everything where it needed to be. ” 
 
 “ Mhmm, ” the young woman said. The two sat racking their brains for something they ’ d forgotten and left out for the dust storm. Whistling wind and pelting debris stood in for silence in the small, shabby dwelling. The young woman concluded her mental inventory and stood up. She made her way over to a pot of boiling water on a stove. 
 
 “ I ’ m not very hungry, ” the man said to his wife off behind him in his chair. 
 
 “ You ought to be, ” she responded and went from the pot to a table. 
 
 “ I ’ m too upset to be hungry. ” 
 
 “ Don ’ t be. You can ’ t do anything about this. ” 
 
 “ It doesn ’ t make me any less upset knowing I can ’ t do a damn thing to fix this situation I ’ m so upset about. ” 
 
 “ Well enough, ” she said in a sighing manner and began cutting carrots into little discs. The thunking contact of the knife on the hard wooden table now accompanied the whistling and pelting that replaced silence in the house. 
 
 “ God damn it, ” Alan looked up from the fray of thread sticking out of the button on his shirt that he was twiddling. “ Anne, ” he paused for a moment and clenched his jaw hoping his wife would have something to say. He needed time to think of how he should word what he had to share with his wife. “ You ’ re going to get very upset with me. ” He swallowed painfully and focused back on twiddling the fray of thread. “ First, I want to say I ’ m sorry, and it was a mistake. ” 
 
 The thunking of the knife on the table stopped. The whistling and pelting persisted. 
 
 “ I forgot about the dog, ” Alan confessed. “ I-I don ’ t know. I was busy with everything else. It slipped my mind- ” He figured he said all he could say that would be any use minimizing the hell to pay. 
 
 “ It ’ s just a dog. ” 
 
 Alan was terrified. He knew Anne loved the dog. She picked it out when it was a puppy. Seven years they had had the dog. They took the dog off Alan ’ s parent ’ s neighbor ’ s hands just before Alan and Anne moved to Oklahoma. 
 
 “ I forgot too, Alan. Don ’ t beat yourself up too much. ” 
 
 A crash thundered at the door. Alan rocketed up from his chair and froze, eyes locked with Anne ’ s. Another crash at the door. Someone or *something* trying to barge its way in. 
 
 “ Hold on! ” Alan yelled to the door. “ Let me let you in! ” 
 
 The crashes at the door were thunderous. Their dog Chester, a seventy pound German Shepherd, was far from capable of such force. Both Alan and Anne knew it was a physical impossibility for the clamor at the door to be Chester, but they very dearly believed it most certainly had to be their beautiful black and brown dog. 
 
 Alan unlocked and swung the door open and the whistling intensified and the pelting infiltrated into the interior of the home. A tall, wiry man stumbled in and yanked the door shut, the handle still in Alan ’ s hand. The wiry man dropped a sack from his shoulder to the ground. 
 
 “ Thank you! ” he yelled hoarsely and gasped in a breath, “ Thank you! ” He took a seat on the floor and caught his breath. His clothes and hair were saturated with dust. 
 
 “ Are you okay? ” Alan asked standing over the man. 
 
 “ I ’ m fine, ” the man said with his eyes closed as his breathing steadied. “ Holy hell. ” 
 
 “ Can I get you anything? ” Anne asked and approached. 
 
 “ Some water please, ” the man requested and Anne stopped approaching and spun around. 
 
 “ I might as well tell you now and get this out of the way, ” the man on the floor started. “ This bag here is filled with money. This was bound to come up and I apologize for putting this on you guys but you ’ ve just happened to have saved my life. I don ’ t know what kinda folks you are- ” he paused to catch his breath that was still steadying. 
 
 Anne handed him some water and he took a large, clumsy gulp. “ I don ’ t intend to let you know where the money came from, and I ’ m sure you don ’ t wan na know. ” He paused to meet the glares of the two standing over him. “ But I ’ m gon na give you some of it whether you want it or not and I ’ m gon na be gone once I can get back outside. ” 
 
 Whistling and pelting stood heavily over the air in the room. “ I suppose you ’ ll want some soup, ” Anne started. “ I ’ m making soup. Alan get this man some of your clothes and help him get ready for supper. ” Alan gave the man a hand up to his feet. 
 
 The door handle twisted and the unlocked door swung back open. The wiry man quickly got to his knees and fumbled with one of his arms in the bag on the floor. A fat man with a sheriff's star on his breast stumbled in. The wiry man pulled his arm out of the bag. The arm came out with a pistol clenched at the end of it. The pistol pointed at the sheriff's chest and put two bullets in it. Next, the pistol pointed at Alan's chest. The man pulled the trigger twice but no bullets came out. 
 
 Alan dove on top of the man as the man shoved his arm into the bag again. Anne seized a meat cleaver from a drawer and sprinted over. The wiry man grappled his way on top of Alan and sat on his chest with his hands around Alan's throat. Alan clamped his hands around the man's throat in response. The two grunted and spat, eyes locked in mad fury. 
 
 Anne came down with a mighty blow from behind into the man's back. Just off to the right of the man's spine, the cleaver stuck in. The man rolled off to his side. Alan remained on the floor sharing a moment of bewilderment with Anne. Anne shut the door and the intensity of the whistling and pelting diminished but still remained in place of silence. 

