Fast Opening Practice

David had been staring out his office window for a long time when the phone rang. He looked down. Caller ID blocked. He answered anyway. Nothing else to do.

A female voice said, "David, you don't know me, but we need to meet right now, at the Rathskeller."

"Why? Who is this?"

"My name is Jamie, and it's about your sister. You have ten minutes."

David was not a man of action. He put down the phone and looked out the window again. His office was on the edge of campus. Cornfields stretched as far as he could see. It's not like he had anything at all to do. He started walking.

The Rathskeller was a faculty club, just a slightly better than average bar/restaurant in the basement of old Moore Hall.  The building was one of the first constructed on campus, with thick stone walls.

She wasn't hard to spot sitting in the corner booth, one of four humans in the place. Billy was tending the bar, and two science professors were nursing beers.

Jamie was lean and attractive, in a Run Lola Run sort of way. 

"Sit, David," she commanded. "We don't have much time."

David looked at his watch. 4:15. He had nineteen hours until his next class and nothing to do until then, except grade papers.

Jamie took a deep breath. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at him, carefully assessing his posture, mental state, and personality. 

"I thought we didn't have much time." David prompted.

"We don't, but you're not going to believe me if I start talking too soon."

"Why wouldn't I believe you? What's up with Susan? How do you know her?"

Susan looked at the science professors. Just unbelievably lucky, she thought. "I don't," she confessed.

"I don't," she confessed.

A low, hard rumbling began. It was sickening, like the Earth itself was groaning. 

The noise grew deeper. Bottles started to rattle behind the bar. There was a distant explosion, and then another.

On the TV above the bar, the baseball game went black. The TV was on, but the station was gone. The building shook violently, as though a hurricane was hitting it.

David sat there, confused. As you already know, he was not a man of action.

"This is why I came, David. To give you a way out of this disaster."

David leaned forward. "You know what's happening?"

She nodded. "The country has been attacked. This is the only place on campus that will still be standing ten minutes from now. We need to get under the table."

He glanced at the blank TV, then back at Jamie. She was gone. A second later, he felt a violent tug on his legs, and he, too, was under the table.

"David, that was the sound of Cleveland being destroyed. We are over 100 miles from the closest blast, but it will be days before we can go upstairs or outside. Right now, we are 30 feet underground in a building with stone walls that are two feet thick. We'll be okay."

David was trying to orient himself. "You knew," he said. "How could you know?"

He pushed himself up on one elbow. "And why would you use this time to find me?"

Jamie smiled for the first time. "That's simple, David. You got us into this, and you're the only one who can get us out."

**

Obviously, this is not a complete short story. It’s one of my attempts to practice writing a “fast opening” that could one day become a book.