Storm of the End: Book One

Chapter X.I: Humans

About twenty minutes of surprisingly calm driving later, I asked Jared to try the radio.

He flicked it on, immediately sending static through the speakers. He quickly scrolled through the channels until to both of our surprise, he found one that actually worked. What we heard was occasionally interrupted by bursts of static and high pitched squeaks.

A raspy, fast talking male voice echoed through the speakers. He sounded like he was injured, and his words came out panicked, like he was expecting to be cut off at any second:

"This is a w...ning to all citizens of Arb...ine. Evacuate the city im...tely. The military... The military has abandoned Arborline city. I repeat. Leave the city immediately, for your own safety..." He stopped speaking for a moment, and I could vaguely make out something that sounded like banging in the background. It sounded like someone was slamming on a door or something. "This is a... recorded mes.... Just please get away, there's so many... Not safe... The military is going to send in a..." There was a high pitched muffled squeal, and then the slamming started to get much louder, this blocked out most of what he had just said. I heard something cracking, and all I managed to make out was:

"...omb. Just..." I heard a loud crack, followed by a series of squeals and fast footsteps; "Hurry." There was a sick cracking sound, static for a moment, and then the message restarted.

The engine roared as Jared pushed down on the gas.

Another twenty minutes passed. We were getting close to the bridge that led over Arborline Bay and out of the city. I prayed that it was still intact.

There was one thing that kept crossing my mind: how many of those creatures were there? Judging by the number of attacks when the storm was in other places, there was definitely a fair amount. But did they always stick close to the storm, or did they spread out? I just hoped that we could find refuge somewhere, at least for a little while. If we could just find somewhere secure to stay for a few days, or weeks, if we could just find out how things were going elsewhere, we could decide our next course of action. Neither Jared or I had a device that could connect to the internet, let alone a place to get an internet connection. Maybe if we found a computer or smartphone, we could get a clue as to what was going on. But right now, we were completely in the dark. I wondered how far the storm had spread out. All we had to go off of was the radio, and that wasn't much help. Jared fiddled with it some more, but the only station that ever worked was the recorded message. We listened to it again and again, trying to decipher exactly what it was trying to warn us about. The news of the creatures and the giant must have reached the radio station as he was so urgently saying that everyone should evacuate, but that couldn't be the only thing. He had said the military had given up on the city, but the message was too interrupted for us to make out exactly what it was they were going to do. He said they were sending something into the city, but what? If they were abandoning it, why would they send something in? The sound of the door breaking at the end of the recording gave me chills every time. The man had obviously sacrificed himself to send the message, something had gotten to him. Either the creatures we had run into earlier, or something else. But what was so urgent that he would risk his life like that? What was the military going to do?

Finally, we reached the bridge that would take us across Arborline Bay. The oil rig I worked on was in the bay, so you could see the lights coming from it whenever you crossed the bridge at night or in a storm. That is, usually that was the case. But as I gazed across the bay, I didn't see those lights I was so accustomed to seeing every time I crossed the bridge. Well, that wasn't too much of a surprise, chances are they had abandoned the rig and shut everything down as soon as the storm hit, right? I strained my eyes. Now that the fog was gone, it actually wasn't that hard to see through the rain. Surprisingly, I could see all the way to the horizon. So then... why didn't I see the oil rig?

"It's gone..." I muttered.

Jared looked back, "Huh? What did you say Markus?"

"The oil rig I work at... It's gone."

I didn't notice it at first, but the bay that was usually always full of ships... was completely empty. There was not a single trace that there had ever been ships or oil rigs in the bay.

"What do you mean it's gone?" Jared asked.

"All the ships are gone. Everything. Where did they all go? They couldn't have left, not in this weather? Something must have... destroyed them? Could it have been the massive creature, or...? Something else maybe...?" I was shaking and muttering under my breath.

For the place I had worked at for years to completely vanish like that... for the scenery that had been so familiar to me to vanish without a trace... to say that it was jarring was an understatement. I was laser focused on Jessica the entire time, so it didn't really hit me until that moment but... seeing the place you had lived most of your life become utterly desolate and destroyed like that... was unbelievable.

We were finally out of the City. Just as we made it across, Aaron woke up next to me. He yawned and stretched out his arms, bringing me out of my daze.

"Hey bud, how was your sleep?" I asked.

His voice was quiet in reply; I could tell he was still tired, "Good," his stomach growled, "But I guess I'm a little hungry."

I suddenly realized that I was famished. The panic, unease and intrigue had been so much that I hadn't even noticed.

"I'll stop the car. You had some food with your bags right?" Jared said as he brought the car to a stop and looked back at me.

I nodded. "Alright, I'll go get it." he said as he stepped out of the car and went to the trunk.

Just then, I happened to notice something moving in the reflection of the rear-view mirror. A humanoid figure was right behind Jared. Before I could warn him, its arms wrapped around his neck.