The Refreshing, Post 2...

2.

We first thought it was some kind of massive terrorist act. Well, what else would you think going outside to find the densest, lowest cloud covering on record? It looked like the whole city was on fire and smoking, or like those dramatic shots of how bad the smog has gotten over L.A or London. But when the sun rose, it was pure white cloud. There were absolutely no gaps in the cloud, which was unusual enough as it was, even without the incredibly low height of it. The weirdness was further exacerbated by the sunrise. The sun came up as normal, and as I said, as it came up the density, height and color of the cloud were revealed. This was perhaps the least peculiar part of it; of course daylight makes it easier to see things. The part that was really peculiar was what happened when the sun rose above the cloud. When the sun normally goes behind a cloud, its brightness is dulled slightly, but occasionally rays of brilliant light will break through (something I personally believe to be one of the most beautiful natural sights) and shine down. This cloud was so dense that there were not even any of these rays. However, and I am no scientist or anything so I can only assume it was to do with the whiteness of the cloud, as it was not like a grey rain cloud, the sun seemed to react with the cloud in a way that illuminated the whole mass of it, and made the entire covering positively glow, bathing the city in the most incredible light. It was stunning, but at the same time it was scary…what was it, why was it there, what did it all mean? The entire news network (TV, radio, internet) was buzzing with it by mid-morning, and by the afternoon the scale of this strange occurrence became clear. What had seemed like no more than a localised weather anomaly in the early hours had quickly proved to be across the nation when the first breaking news bulletin interrupted breakfast television, and was shown to be worldwide by the time the prime-time shows were pulled from the air to make way for the continued breaking news. The news had long broken, but kept getting bigger, and the bulletins continued into the evening, when the sun had set (when the cloud covering was awash with a red glow that made it look as though the sky was bleeding), and the eerie day had made way for an equally eerie night.