We drove on again as fast I could drive without putting us at risk in the low visibility brought on by the downpour. We passed by more cars that were pulled to the side of the road or crashed, but I didn't dare stop to see if anybody was alive.

The woman's voice played over and over in my mind like a broken record. But even louder was my inner voice urging me to find Jessica: I had to find her before whatever was lurking in the storm found her first. I glanced down at my body, I was soaked and I wasn't sure if it was mostly from the rain water or my sweat brought on by panic.

It wasn't until ten minutes of anxious driving later that we actually started to see some traffic; cars driving away from the city. Most of them sped by us erratically and we never once saw anybody heading towards the city.

Five minutes later I heard honking and shouting up ahead, and I knew what we were in for.

As we turned the corner, I cursed at what I saw. A huge truck had fallen over in the middle of the road, blocking both sides from passing. There wasn't room to go around it because the sides of the road slanted down into a hill. A group of police officers were standing around the scene of the crash, as a tow truck was attempting to get into a position to move it. On the other side of the truck I could hear honking and people screaming for them to hurry up. A few people walked down the hill and around it, wearing backpacks overflowing full of stuff. Crap, this was bad. There was a lot of noise coming from the other side. Who knows how long those people had been waiting or how long it would still take to move the truck.

I brought the car to a stop. I decided to not waste any time and at least see if anyone in the vicinity knew what was going on.

"Aaron I'm going to ask one of the police officers some questions, see if he knows anything about what's happening in the city. I'll be right back" I turned to face him, he was pale and his eyes were wide.

He only nodded.

I opened the door to the car and was greeted by a huge rush of wind to the face. As I stepped out, the wind violently slammed the door shut behind me.

"I'll only be a minute or so, just stay there!" I tried to sound reassuring.

As I walked towards the nearest policeman, the heavy rain drenched me in a matter of seconds. With each step I took water splashed up from the flooded ground and onto my already soaked legs. I had to yell in order for the policeman to hear me. He turned towards me surprised. I could barely make out his features in the torrential rain.

"What's wrong?" he said as he approached me.

I paused for a second, thinking about how exactly to word my question. I simply settled for "What's going on in there?!" while gesturing towards the city.

He let out a grunt, "The thing is, we don't know what's going on. There was an earthquake just outside the city this morning, and then suddenly it's pouring down raining. One second the sky was clear, and poof! Instantly it started to rain! We're not from Arborline branch, we were sent here to keep the peace because they already have their hands full in there... That's all I can really tell you"

"Alright, thanks," I was about to walk away.

"Oh yeah, and another thing... I don't know if I believe it, but some people think they're seeing this bi-"

He was interrupted by a loud rumbling noise that began to fill the air around us. At first I thought it was the sound of more jets flying over us or an exceptionally loud car motor, but as the noise grew louder I realized that I recognized it from somewhere. It rumbled on at a low pitch and then suddenly rose in volume to the point where I could almost feel the air around me vibrating.

Oh God, oh God, oh God. It was the sound on the news! Now that I was hearing it in person I knew that there was no way in hell that was just an earthquake. The sound abruptly ended and for a moment all I could hear was the falling rain.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Then, everything plunged into chaos all at once.

The first thing I heard was a crash on the other side of the truck, followed by another series of three crashes and a few car alarms going off. I could only guess that someone on the other side had panicked when they heard the sound and pushed on the gas. Frantic screams of panic filled the air. I saw a car drive off the road, lose control and roll down the hill. More cars followed, most of them made it though a few joined the pile of wrecked cars. Dozens of people began running down the hill, abandoning their vehicles with no evident goal in mind.

My eyes widened. As more and more people came scrambling around and even over the truck to run away from the city, I stood there completely shocked. A sense of dread began to well up inside me. These people came from the city. They must have seen what was in there, or at least heard whispers about it from other people. And they were trying so desperately to escape. A few people were trampled by the mob, I didn't see if they got up or not.

I was the only person going in to the city. In my daze, I stared past the crowd at the thick fog veiling Arborline from my view. I had to go in there. I had to.

An ear piercing scream of terror from someone running past me brought me out of my shock. I turned and ran back to the car. As I got in, I saw that Aaron was completely pale.

"Dad, what was that sound? What's going on out there?"

I just shook my head, and sat down. I was going to drive around the truck, but thought better of it. A quick glance at the huge pile-up of cars on either side of the road convinced me otherwise. Some of the police were trying to control the crowd, but a few realized that the faster this truck was out of the way the faster the chaos would come to an end.

"Hurry up, come on, hurry up..." I muttered. They had just finished hooking it up to the tow trucks, when I saw a burst of flames on the other side. One of the cars had exploded. More screams rang through the air, and the people became even more frantic as they tried to run away. Dozens of people and cars sped past us, in complete and utter panic. Luckily, both sides of the road where we were stopped were separated by concrete, filtering out most people from heading our way. Two cars collided on the other side, prompting people to start climbing over the concrete to get around it. Damn it, please hurry up.

"Dad! What's going on?!" Aaron screamed. I turned back, he was crying.

I responded with exactly what I knew, "I don't know Aaron... I don't know. But we'll make it through this, I promise you."

I heard tires squealing ahead, and turned to look. The tow trucks were starting to pull the knocked over truck. As soon as there was even a tiny opening, a truck came speeding from the other side and crashed into one of the police cars. I was about to start driving towards the opening, but immediately changed my mind as a bunch of cars from the other side all went through at once, causing many of them to spill off the side of the road and go rolling down the side. Most made it through and sped past. The truck was about half way taken off the road, when its progress suddenly came to a halt. What the hell was the problem? I turned and saw someone open the door to one of the tow trucks, and drag the driver out. Oh God, he was hijacking it. The police rushed towards him but he sped off in a matter of seconds.

I cursed. I had to get to the other side now, or we'd be here for who know how long. I didn't want another second to go to waste. We had to get to Jessica. I saw no cars coming from space between the truck and the shoulder of the road, which had enough space to safely fit one car. It was still risky, who knows how many people were waiting to get around... Screw it. This was our only chance.

Without a moment's hesitation, I slammed my foot down on the gas, and the car sped forward. Aaron started to scream in the backseat, but I sped on. We had to do this, or we had no chance. I felt my heart stop as we passed between the truck and the drop off. I saw a pair of headlight approach us, but I veered onto the shoulder to the point where we almost tipped over. I heard the oncoming car honk at us, but we had made it across. There was a massive pileup on the other side of the road, preventing anyone else from going through. On our side, the road was clear.

I turned back to Aaron, "I'm sorry about that, but we would have been stuck there if I didn't do that"

"It's okay dad, just pay attention!" he said, pointing ahead of us.

I looked ahead, and gasped as I realized the full gravity of the situation. Cars, so many cars lined up for what must have been a mile ahead. That was as far as I could discern before the fog became too thick. None of them were moving anymore, even with the truck gone there were too many blocking the way, too many that had been abandoned or left too damaged to drive by a crash. Dozens of people came scrambling around and across the cars in order to escape the city. Many of them carried more luggage than they could carry, but most of them had nothing on them. It was clear most of them had no goal in mind, they just mindlessly wanted to escape. I gulped, then pushed down on the gas again.

"Dad, what was that sound? Why did everyone panic like that?" Aaron asked.

I thought for a moment about what to tell him, and then decided that maybe it would be best to tell him part of the truth, "Nobody knows what it is, but that noise has been happening every time the storm appears. Some people think it's from the earthquakes..." I should have stopped there, but I couldn't help myself from saying more under my breath, "...but there's no way, it can't just be an earthquake."