Today was one of those days, but seeing the storm clouds rolling in from the South made Curtis quietly wonder if he'd made the wrong decision for the day. Curtis slowly raised up from his crouched position over the tractor's engine. He reached both hands into the sky and stretched as best he could, slowly letting both arms fall to his side, but not before completing a full on rainbow shaped arch. He reached into his back pocket with his right hand, pulled out a dirty brown oil cloth and slowly started rubbing the dirt and grunge off of his sturdy hands. As he did so, a loud cracking noise came from the line of trees directly behind his garage. A sound like this wasn't unusual, herds of Mule Deer regularly roamed through the thick pine and aspen foliage that ran along the back end of his property, but the magnitude of this particular crack sparked Curtis' attention. After a few more seconds of thorough rubbing, Curtis placed the oil rag back into his pocket, and slowly climbed down off the front of the John Deere. The clouds were moving fast today, and had now rolled in enough to block out the sun's rays, giving the woods behind his property an almost haunting and mysterious feel. Funny how a minor thing like weather can change the vibe of a whole viewpoint, isn't it? A loud crashing sound rang out from the forested area again, and slowly thereafter was followed by the first boom of rolling thunder, riding on the heels of the dark storm clouds. Curious as to what exactly was going on behind his property, Curtis closed the hood of the tractor, and began moseying on over to the tree line, anticipating a heard of Mule Deer or maybe some of the local kids just running through the back of his property, exploring the woods. No laughter or conversation followed the cracking noises, but in the distance a strange, almost metallic hum started echoing out of the forest. At first Curtis thought it was the thunder's echo, but as the sound grew louder he realized that this low rumbling was actually coming from under the ground. Another loud cracking noise rang out through the wooded area, and this time a handful of the thick foliage actually started breaking in half. A group of ten or twelve trees all collapsed together, their trunks splintering in hundreds of pieces and their canopies shaking violently. "The Hell?" Curis mumbled out loud, in a tone of disbelief. He slowly brought his right hand up to his forehead, looking like a ship's watch out trying to spy land, and surveyed the thickly wooded area. Another crash of thunder boomed, much closer now than before, and Curtis jumped nearly three feet in the air, his heart beating a mile a minute. A large crack began forming in the earth where the group of trees had just been destroyed and a fault line, three feet wide started snaking its way toward exactly where Curtis was standing.