I didn't know what to say. "Thank you so much, Jared. It probably took a lot of guts to face those things." I said as I nudged Aaron.

"Thank you for saving me and my dad!"

"No need to thank me. Why wouldn't I help you? A police officer is supposed to help people... that's we're supposed to do, anyway. I couldn't just leave you there to die."

I was surprised. Most people in this new world only thought of themselves. The police had never really had the best reputation to begin with, but nowadays the police were basically entirely the self-interested thugs of the government. Jared gave the impression of having a strong sense of justice, something that was not only uncommon for police in this time, but generally uncommon among people in general.

"Jared, do you remember any specific details about the creatures you saved us from? I mean, did you get a good look at them?" I asked, hoping that the answer would lead to more.

"The one I killed with the car, I didn't see all too well. It was kind of human-like, but it had these really long arms that went down past its knees. Its skin looked really weird, almost like rubber... The second one, was human shaped too. It had that same rubbery skin, but it didn't have any arms at all. There were these weird sharp things jutting out from around its neck, no idea what they were... Both of their faces... they had tiny eyes, no nose and sharp teeth. The sharpest teeth I've ever seen, and it didn't really even look like teeth at all. The third one was really hunched over. It looked like something broke its back, it was so unnatural looking. It had these huge sharp claws, looked like frickin' machetes! Then its teeth, they jutted straight out of its mouth. That's as much as I remember about them..."

I shuddered as I realized that the third one, the one that escaped, was the one that I had stared at in the hallway. It was still out there somewhere. Maybe the others were too.

Jared gulped, "But hey man, just what in the hell are these things? Where did they come from? I mean, what the hell!" I could tell by the tone of his voice that he didn't expect an answer.

"I have absolutely no idea and I can't even begin to guess..." I sighed, "But they're definitely connected with this storm somehow. I'm sure of it."

We thought for a moment in silence. I didn't learn much more, but now I knew these creatures looked pretty different although they had some similarities. But were they the same species? Were they some sort of weird undiscovered animal? Something made in a lab? I couldn't even begin to guess their origins. It all seemed impossible. What made that one that ran away so special? The impression I got was that the two that had disappeared must have melted or something after they were killed. Why did the one that escape survive being shot in the head? A thought crossed my mind; what if they each specialized in something specific, similar to social insects like ants and termites? The thought seemed absurd at first, but not entirely impossible. What were they doing? It seemed so far that their only goal was to kill...

Stolen novel; please report.

Aaron spoke up, taking us out of our thoughts, "So... what are we going to do now? Where are we going?"

Good point. "Yeah, where were you taking us, Jared?" I asked.

His face turned red, "Uh... the thing is... I don't even know where I was headed... I wasn't paying any attention to where I was going, I was just driving." he sighed and then shrugged, "I must have still been in shock, I guess."

"Alright then. We need to figure out where we are. Then we need to decide where we're going to go," I opened the door, "I'll check, you two stay in the car."

When I stepped out, I was immediately bombarded by the heavy drops of rain. I noticed that it was much heavier than it was before, and the streets were starting to get flooded. The wind, on the other hand, was a lot less violent. I remember hearing once that the storm was calmer in the eye, so were the dying winds a sign that we were getting closer to the center? That didn't make sense though, since the rain was heavier. I decided not to ponder on it too much. I shut the door behind me, and took my surroundings in. My vision was limited to only about five yards ahead of me, all I could see beyond that was thick fog. Was it just me, or had the fog gotten darker?

I walked along the sidewalk, hoping to reach a street sign so I could find out where we were. It only took a few seconds to make it to an intersection and in turn a street sign. The sign read "Main Street". Jared had driven into the middle of the city. Great.

I was about to turn back to the car, but before I did I noticed the outline of a dog staring at me from the edge of the fog. I couldn't make out its features that well, but I could tell that it was staring at me. I whistled to it, causing it to run into the fog. I shrugged, then ran back to the car.

"We're on main street," I told them as I sat back in.

Jared cursed, "I must have been out of it for quite a while to get us this far."

"So what's your plan now?" I asked.

"I don't know, I had the radio on for a second and they said something about a huge roadblock near the south side of the city, where you came from. A few skyscrapers fell over and it's nearly impassable. The last order I got was to evacuate any civilians I found. I couldn't contact anyone else, all that comes from my radio is static now."

Damn it. A roadblock on the south side would mean we'd have to exit from the North or West. West was the fastest way out, but that's where the trail of destruction seemed to be heading. North would take quite a long time. I just wanted to get out of here as fast as possible.

"Take a left at the upcoming intersection, that's the quickest way out of the city," I told Jared.

He nodded, and then we were driving again. Aaron rested his head on my shoulder and I turned to look out the window at the falling rain and fog. I saw the outline of the face of the dog I had seen earlier, watching us silently as we drove by. Let's hope we make it out of here undisturbed.