Before the Storm

We were about five minutes outside of the city now, the multiple tall buildings growing in size the closer we got to them. I had been mindlessly chewing on my bottom lip on and off the entire drive over here. Neither of us had said a word to each other and the silence was beginning to make me even more uncomfortable than what I had previously been.

There was a question that had been burning on my mind ever since it was mentioned on the news of the military being brought in as back up. I could no longer keep silent about it anymore and I cleared my throat to grab Zack's attention. "What gonna happen if you get called back in?"

I knew that he knew what I was talking about, and I saw him looking everywhere else aside from me as he thought about what to say to me in response. "If that happens, you're gonna keep your ass in that shelter. You do not go out for anything, do you understand me?"

"But what if ya need help?"

"Do you understand me?"

All I did was nod, even though I didn't even know if I would be able to listen to him. If he needed my help, or if I found our parents and they needed my help, I was going to leave to help them no matter what the situation was.

We sped into the heart of Atlanta, slowing down slightly from the sudden wall of cars that we faced. It was a full on grid lock. I had no idea how long it was going to take for us to get through all of this mess. But it wasn't just the way into the city that was crowded, it was also the other side leaving the city. A lot of people were heading in to get into the refugee center, I had guessed. Others were leaving because they most likely didn't want anything to do with what was going on.

Zack smacked the side of his hand against the steering wheel and honked the horn a couple of times, as if that would make the cars move any faster than they were. We were barely moving at 2 mph, and even then we would have to come to a complete stop for a few seconds at times.

I brought my cell phone out of my pocket and dialed my mom's number again for probably the 50th time, having little to no hope of her picking up or even returning one of my calls. It was the same with my dad. My anxiety grew with each and every ring that passed and I didn't get an answer. I wanted to throw my damn phone out the window in frustration.

After about fifteen more minutes of stopping and going, we finally made it into the city. Fires had started in random spots around on the sidewalks, cars were over turned and people were running around in every which direction, making it that much harder for Zack to maneuver through the streets without running someone over. This couldn't have possibly been the same city that Madisen and I were in just yesterday. It looked like something out of a war movie.

During the trip over here, I had also tried calling Madisen to see if I could get into contact with her. She picked up the phone once, but I couldn't hear anything aside from screaming people in the background, along with a bunch of static before the line completely went dead. Any time that I tried calling her after that I was instantly sent to voice mail.

I looked out the window in horror, my hand covering my gaping mouth from so much shock. There were people, who looked exactly like the guy that had attacked us at my house, chasing after other people. I wanted to burst out screaming when I saw members from S.W.A.T and Atlanta police shooting at the people, attempting to take them down but to no avail. What kind of sickness was this that made people impenetrable to bullets?

I turned my gaze forward and tried my hardest not to look to either side of me where all the chaos was ensuing. I didn't want to see it and have even more horror burned into my brain. My heart was pounding within my chest and I fidgeted my fingers around as we got closer and closer to the refugee center. I was so sure that our parents would be there. They had to be! They just had to.

We weaved in and out of people and over turned cars, following the signs hung up on the street lights by the police to direct people to where it was that they needed to go. As we reached a large rectangular building that they had set up for refuge, I saw that the entire outside line of it was being heavily guarded by at least ten to fifteen S.W.A.T members and military men. I knew that they were here to help, but to be honest, I was terrified of them. Mainly of how they looked.

They were armed to the teeth with weapons and riot gear. Each and every one of them had the same stone cold look on their faces and they were yelling at everybody who entered to get inside quickly. Any time one of the sick even dared to come within a hundred feet of the building was instantly gunned down without hesitation.

Zack sloppily pulled the SUV over onto the side of the road and reached back to grab the bags that we had brought with us from home. He looked over at me to make sure that I was ready to make a run for it among the chaos to the building. I nodded my head, taking a deep breath in through my nose before thrusting the car door open and jumping out onto the side walk.

The rapid gunfire that was going on all through out the city was almost deafening. I ran around the back of the car and met back up with Zack, who was waiting with his hand outstretched to me to take. The screaming, the yelling, the sound of death was all around us. I ran as fast as I could to try and keep up with Zack, who was a great deal faster than I was.

We arrived at the front door and one of the S.W.A.T members yelled at the two of us to get inside and gave a hard shove on my back, as if trying to propel me towards the door even faster so that I wouldn't get attacked.

Once the both of us were inside, I was able to take a breath from the short run that I had to make and leaned against the wall. There were so many people in here it was ridiculous. I don't know how many more people would be able to fit in here before they just flat out started turning people away because of no more room. It made me thankful that we had gotten here before that happened.

I looked over to see Zack standing up on a chair, getting himself higher up than everybody else to be able to get a better look at who all was here.

"Do you see 'em?" I asked breathlessly.

He looked around for a few more seconds before shaking his head. "No. There's too many damn people in here, it's hard to make anybody out." He stepped down from the chair, his heavy boots making a loud thud on the linoleum below.

He then came over to be and grabbed my wrist as we began to push and shove our way through the dense crowd of loudly chattering people. It was a complete mad house as everyone was talking all at once, trying to find their loved ones and reunite. People were shoving and bumping into us and at one point I thought I was going to completely get separated from Zack.

A few minutes had passed and we had made it over to the other side of the large room. There was a large counter built into the wall, my guess being that this was the cafeteria part of the room, and there were even more people scrambling around on the other side trying to make food and drinks for everyone here. Although, in my opinion, it was probably a waste of time. Who could honestly even think of eating anything at a time like this?

There was a man in a United States Army uniform standing directly next to the door that led into the kitchen area and Zack dropped my hand and made a B line directly towards him, me following closely behind him.

"Excuse me, sir, do you know anything about Whiskey Company? Do you know if they're recalling their soldiers?" He asked, referring to the company that he was in. He hadn't received a call or anything from his Sargent, which we both thought was a bit weird.

"Who are you?" The man asked him. His uniform tag said Vaith. I didn't know a whole lot about telling the difference between ranks in the Army, but I did notice that a certain pin on his cap signified that he was a Sargent, himself.

Zack immediately stood to attention in the presence of this superior. "Sir, Private Zachary Schmidt of Whiskey Company under Sargent Collins."

I looked over at Sargent Vaith and saw his face fall slightly, if only for a split second, before returning to the cold, hard stare that he had before. "I'm sorry, Private, but we received word from base that Whiskey Company has been overrun."

"What?" Zack asked in confusion. "Do - Do you know what happened?"

"No Sir, just that they were overrun within the previous hours and there's nothing we can do about it." He said stiffly.

"What do you mean there's nothing you can do about it?" Zack asked, his voice becoming very aggressive now. "You send some people out there to help out, that's what you do!"

"Private, I will ask you now to stand down." Sargent Vaith said, his voice beginning to rise. "If you haven't noticed, we're barely surviving here as it is. We need all able hands here to help defend Atlanta, not separating and making ourselves weaker."

"But you can't-"

"Stand down, Private!" Sargent Vaith yelled, cutting Zack off mid sentence.

I saw him falter before quickly regaining his composure. "Yes, Sargent. I apologize for my outburst, Sir." He apologized respectfully.

The Sargent then nodded his head, dismissing Zack from the conversation and he then turned around to face me.

"I can't believe this." He said so quietly that I could barely understand him over the noise. He leaned himself against the wall and rested his head to the side. "They're all gone."

I reached out and rubbed my hand up and down on his shoulder. "I'm so sorry."

I could tell that he was very upset about this, just having lost twenty of his comrades that he had worked with over seas multiple times for the past four years. They were his friends, and there was nothing he could do to bring them back.

I could have sworn that I saw a tear beginning to escape from the corner of his eye, but he quickly wiped it away with the back of his hand and shook his head to clear his thoughts back up. "We're gonna find mom and dad and get the hell outta here. I'm not stayin' here any longer than I have to."

"But where will we go?"

He shrugged his shoulders and looked back around at the sea of people. "Wherever we can to stay safe."