2 Calm before the storm

Two hours passed as they gradually continued their journey…

Mila was quietly observing the landscape as they drove past the green coniferous trees and rocky mountains in the far distance. She seemed full of life as she loved the sight of the clear blue skies above and the lush green life below.

The most mind-puzzling sight today was that there seemed to be more cars in the countryside than in the city. The number of cars they saw as they got farther from the city increased. It seemed that people were really scared of this so-called 'storm'.

"Honey, I'm gonna put the radio on, okay?" Aiden asked calmly as he held her hand with a sweet charming smile that could steal the hearts of girls in an instance. He had flirtatiously lifted her hand numerous times throughout the long extensive journey to lay a soft and tender kiss, once or twice. Alita returned a smile, a little more anxious than her usual affectionate grins. Aiden had always taken care of her, she and Mila were always his number one priority and seeing him kiss her hand, her face responded with a tinge of red as a beautiful blush bloomed like a rose on her goddess-like face. She couldn't help but feel happy, content, satisfied with her life.

"Sure dear," Alita replied as her body subconsciously tensed up and her hand closed to a dainty fist.

Hearing her reply, Aiden turned on the radio and went to channel 41.

"Viewers, we have just been informed that the storm has split up into two and one of them is coming for the U.S at rapid speed while the other is heading towards Asia. Currently, Japan is facing heavy rainfall and thunderstorms. The government has issued an evacuation plan for the citizens residing there. Meanwhile, for the US, we are heavily saddened to tell you that the storm will arrive faster than we thought. We urge everyone in California to quickly evacuate into a military shelter in the next 1 hour."

Suddenly, a panicked male voice came over the speaker:

"Everyone! Everyone who can hear me, please evacuate! There's no time. I'm Doctor Flemming from the geography department of the US. The storm is moving faster than we anticipated and it's very unpredictable. Please hurry!"

A deadly silence followed after that…no one uttered a word. The radio was static for a second and Mila's attention was now on her parents.

After a few seconds, the radio sounded:

"Ladies and gentlemen, we seem to have lost all contact from the weather department that was two hundred miles from the coast of California. We all heard what he said, this radio channel will not end. Stay safe, urgently evacuate everyone. God be with you…"

"Mommy, look behind us, I think it's going to rain soon," said Mila in a somewhat clueless voice.

Hearing this, Alita subconsciously looked back and saw that on the far horizon where the mountain ranges ended, there was a trail of grey clouds and no sun rays had managed to shine through. It was as if there was a thick carpet covering the horizon behind them.

Alita's hands pressed on her thighs but her voice did not deceive her true feelings. She calmly spoke to Aiden "I think you will have to drive a little faster."

Aiden saw deep fear and worry present in her eyes, he simply nodded and drove faster than before.

Aiden himself was now quite worried as his subconsciousness gave him a premonition of a very bad feeling. It was as if a tick-tock of a clock on a bomb ready to explode at any given time began to countdown, it was as if it could be heard deep within his mind.

Thirty minutes into the journey… as they sped through the landscape, the sky at the edge of the horizon was now darker and taller than before, the grey hint now became a bolder color as the clouds stretched higher appearing like thick balls of wool. What was more suspicious was that there was a slight purple glow that seemed to span across the top of all the clouds. It was surreal as if a bad dystopian movie was at play.

Because of this, the atmosphere inside the car was tense. Although Mila was nonchalantly looking outside the window and quietly singing 'rain rain go away, come again another day' in her childish voice, Alita and Aiden were worried, the initial warning in the morning was pretty much nothing special and no one could've predicted that the storm would cause this many problems.

"How much farther?" she questioned, her voice was much shakier than before. Aiden felt the cold seep in her palms as he lifted her hand yet again to lay a gentle kiss.

"About eighty miles away," he replied, his thumb caressing her forehand.

Aiden too had countless amounts of sweat protrude from his skin as he knew that this was the calm before the storm and that worse was to come.