Snow

Little Jimmy was a happy young man, the heavy snow meant that all the schools in town were closed. He could spend all day playing with his neighbourhood friends and building a snowman.

The snow had been falling all week, until finally it was at the point of overwhelming road maintenance and general safety. Jimmy's mum Heather wasn't quite so impressed. She too was stuck at home, the motorway leading to work being closed. Her husband was away on business for the week in the next town, where the weather was a little better. She resolved to tidy up some loose ends around the house and keep an eye on Jimmy from the kitchen window. She stood in the kitchen watching Jimmy and his friends throwing snowballs at each other as kids liked to do, thinking that there'd be a lot of washing this week.

By the evening, Jimmy's friends had all made their way back down the street and he came inside where Heather had prepared fresh vegetable soup. The two sat down together to the meal when Jimmy told his mum that the snow started to smell 'funny' a couple of hours ago. Heather looked at her son and laughed, blaming his imagination. After watching some TV, the two retired to their beds, hoping that the snow would ease overnight so things could go on as usual. They woke the next morning to a clear sky, filled with a blazing sun. Through the glare, the snow could be seen melting away.

Heather felt a strange tingling in her face, but dismissed it as she may have slept on one side for too long. Jimmy came running down the stairs with excitement, hoping to miss another day of school due to the snow. When he saw the warm sun and receding snow, he stomped over to the kitchen and poured some cornflakes. Now he would have to go to school after all. He looked up at his mum and noticed she was frowning heavily.

'It's not that bad mum, maybe you can still have the day off work', he told her.

'What are you talking about, love?', she replied

'You're frowning like you just drank some yucky milk'

Heather walked to the living room mirror and examined her face. She gasped in surprise, an awfully un-natural expression had forced its way onto her usually calm face.

Jimmy came over and laughed at her funny expression. Until he noticed his own. The left side of his mouth was drooping downwards, and the skin underneath his chin was hanging down. Heather turned to him when he'd stopped laughing so abruptly. She took one look at his mess of a face and screamed.

'Get your coat, love, we're going to the hospital right now!', Heather cried out as she fumbled through the drawer for her keys.

They were ready in two minutes and headed towards the car through the slushy snow, which did indeed have a bizarre smell, similar to bleach. They stopped beside the car, and realised they weren't going anywhere fast. The tyres had melted into a disgusting black mess below the car. Just then they heard somebody else scream and the sound of breaking glass. A couple of dogs could be heard whining in confusion.

Heather was panicking, unsure what to do next. She looked at her son, and held back another scream. His right ear had come away at the top and was hanging like a bad Christmas tree decoration. She caught her own reflection in the window of the car and almost fell over. Now her bottom lip was hanging down almost past her chin and the tip of her nose was in front of her mouth.

Heather held Jimmy by the hand and led him towards the neighbour's house. She knocked on the door, but there was no answer. They went around to the back gate and went through. The owner of the house was rocking back and forth in his swing seat with his hands covering his face. Heather approached the man and called his name.

'Richard, are you ok?', she asked, except her voice was unrecognisable and the name sounded more like 'Rissssha'

Richard stopped rocking and slowly pulled his hands from his face. There was no flesh, only tendons holding his jaw in place.

Little Jimmy couldn't cope with this, he ran out of the yard back onto the street. He kept running as far as his legs would carry him. Heather's cries after him faded into the distance. He'd made it as far as the playground in the next block when he spotted some people gathered near the slide. Stopping a second to catch his breath, Jimmy cried out to the figures as best he could with his disfigured face.

'Help, help, everyone is melting and I'm scared!' cried Jimmy.

The nearest figure turned to face him. He was wearing some kind of breathing mask and dark blue overalls. Jimmy heard muffled conversation, and the man beckoned him over. Heather came jogging up behind Jimmy and caught him by the arm.

'Whasth going on?', she demanded.

The beckoning man simply shook his head and took several steps towards mother and son. As he came within several feet of them, Jimmy recognised the eyes, it was his father, Michael.

'Dad!' exclaimed Jimmy, and jumped into his arms.

'Whath on earsh ish haaening', Heather asked.

Michael's voice came out low and muffled through the breathing mask.

'Follow me', he replied, ignoring the question.

He lead them to the centre of the park where a sealed tent was set up. One they got inside and Michael had resealed the entrance, he removed his mask. His face was completely fine.

'They will begin the decontamination any minute now', said Michael calmly.

'What is this, what's going on dad? Is it the snow?', Jimmy asked, sobbing.

Michael nodded solemnly. His colleague began to speak.

'Up at Mountain Ridge, the DuMarn corporation have been experimenting with weather control. They illegally released a large amount of top secret chemical into the atmosphere after this week's heavy snowfall was predicted. It was supposed to dissipate the snow into rain, making it much more manageable. Unfortunately, not only did this experiment fail to melt the snow, it has caused the snow to release an airbourne toxin as it naturally melts, causing extremely aggressive tissue deformation around the facial area of humans.'

Heather was laying against the side of the tent, tears streaming over her disfigured face. Jimmy was leaning against her, burrowed into her side.

'We've managed to secure a sample of the chemical used, and synthesised a spray with a neutralising effect.'

As the man spoke, the drone of aircraft engines could be heard overhead. A sound like rain soon started.

'The neutralising spray should eliminate any ongoing effects of the chemical snow, making it harmless.'

'Harmlesssth!?', Heather screamed.

'My fasth isth desthroyed, stho is my sthon's and our neighboursth sthkull is sthowing!'

Michael's colleague turned to him with a questioning look on his face. Michael nodded slowly and drew something from his pocket. It resembled a tazer, but it had a different purpose.

'Sorry, but this is for your own good', He whispered.

He approached his wife and child and fired the device into the neck of each of them briefly. They lay unconscious on the floor of the tent.

Michael's colleague could be heard on the phone.

'We've got everything under control, Mr DuMarn. Yes, all the survivors have had the same treatment. The neutralising spray is down, and there's no link to us.'

Jimmy awoke with a headache, eyes straining in bright lights. He could make out his father's face beside him.

'Dad! What's happened to me?' he asked.

'You've been in an accident son, there was a fire and you've had some surgery on your face to fix up some burns'

Jimmy reached up to his face and could feel bandages. He rolled over to his right and saw his mother in a similar state, but she was still unconscious.

A week later, the family were ready to go home. Heather could vaguely remember that there was some snow, but there was no sign of it now, just wet ground from some rain. She was a little unsure about the accident, but had to trust her husband since she had no recollection of it.

They got out of the car and walked towards the house. There were four black stains on the driveway, Heather didn't recall them being there before, but didn't think any more of it as she just wanted to lay in her own bed.