Clouds gather overhead.

Theo is ready to run. Exams: kinda shit. They passed by. He probably did not do as badly as it feels he has.

He said he'd run. It would've been too late to back out.

He looks up, sees the clouds, and it dampens his mood a bit further, but he tries to keep focused, looking like he can do it, warming himself up.

Freaking Britain.

It's possibly the fifteen hundredth time Maya has looked up from her phone in the past half hour, trying to feign interest in the match.

She's just doing it to be a good friend.

Much more interesting than staring at the mediocre, slow crowds, or talking to the boring, tiresome people around her is to read some Wikipedia articles on her phone. She doubts she'll ever need to know about hyperreal numbers, but someone decided to mention they exist and she got a little hooked.

As the runners take off, there's a rumble of thunder, and large hailstones begin to fall from the sky.

"Ugh." Maya starts fumbling in her bag – she put a coat in here before she came out, probably, she thinks; she was a bit distracted at the time.

Theo frowns and ducks his head a little.

It's a bit hard to duck the ones that come near them; they're approximately the size of cats.

Cora keeps running. 

Theo looks around for some sort of shelter, noticing the size of the hail and covering his head with his arms.

… The fuck?

Atheltes and spectators alike run for cover.

Lightning flashes, striking various places on the field. 

Including some of the people.

Theo blinks at the sudden brightness, shivers and starts scratching at his arms, still trying to get out of the way of the storm –

Maya ducks under a seat in the stands, realizing the probable futility in trying to run across the open space to some sort of shelter.

Cora starts running in a more productive direction, but it's too late. 

A stray lightning bolt hits her. It's not even painful, which is the kind of thing you probably think when you're dying. 

It could have at least waited for her to finish. 

And then the area around Maya is struck, her covering her face and head with her arms but shivering at the approximate time she's hit –

A few other places – and people – on the field are hit.

People are screaming, in shock and in pain. A few are bleeding from their injuries, and the rest are panicking on account of the storm- and the man in the stands whose body is lighting up in bright sparks of red and green and pink.

Cora doesn't think. She goes for the stands and grabs Jackson's arm. 

"My car is closer. I can fit three more."

"Maya. We can't leave her."

He looks for her.

She's in the stands, hiding half-covered under a seat, but on seeing Sparky decides that actually she can make a run for it – towards Jackson; sticking together is a good idea.

"We have a car. Grab one person you like."

She looks around – thinks of grabbing Jackson as a joke but it doesn't feel the time for jokes –

Theo is near the stands, bleeding from a small cut on his forehead, hand to it and trying to navigate his way – somewhere –

"Theo!" she shouts, seeing him. "Theo! Come on –"

She tries to make her way over to him to pull him along with.

She shouldn't have any trouble with that. The hail has stopped falling, and the sky is quiet.