June 2nd 3:00pm 20XX

I waited outside the apartment for the rest of the two hours. The bright sunshine helped to ease my mind a little bit.

Before I knew it, a rusted school bus pulled up to the apartment's parking lot, the doors opened and out stepped Aaron. He almost seemed almost like a stranger to me, like someone else's child. It looked as if he had grown a foot since the last time I saw him and his dark hair was much longer than it had been before, almost reaching his shoulders.

As he made his way to the apartment, I felt myself longing for the time before, where I didn't have to be away working all the time just so we could survive. I could have actually had time to see him grow if we had him in the time before. I counted myself blessed that I was given a chance to spend some time with him now.

A raindrop hit my foot. No, not rain, the sky was clear. It was a single teardrop.

"A-Aaron?" I called out, my voice shaking.

He looked up, and his eyes scanned over me. He seemed confused for a moment, almost as if he didn't recognize me at first, then he smiled.

"Dad?" he said as he came rushing over to me, "What are you doing here?"

"There's a big storm coming, a really big one. I don't have to work this week."

"That's great!" he said as he reached me, hugging me.

"And do you know what that means? We get to spend some time together, we're going camping tonight and maybe tomorrow if the storm isn't here by then."

His eyes lit up, "It's been so long since we got to do something like that! I'm going to go pack my bags right away!"

We both walked into the apartment building and started climbing the stairs to our apartment, "So, what should we do after camping, dad?" Aaron asked me.

I paused, I didn't want to ruin the moment, "Well, I'll have to find a temporary job after that"

Aaron's smile faded, he sighed, "Oh"

"But hey, we'll make these two days something that we'll remember years from now!"

He smiled again, but I could still see in his eyes that he was sad.

Once we made it back into our apartment, I helped Aaron prepare his bag for camping. We didn't pack much, just the necessities. We didn't really have much to pack anyway. I asked him a lot of questions.

"So, how was school?"

"Alright I guess"

"Did you learn anything new?"

"Not really"

I could tell he was having a bit of trouble talking to me, he barely saw me after all. But I could also tell that he was very excited to finally spend some time with me for the first time in a long while.

I continued to ask him more questions. Things were going pretty well at school; he had some friends and had good grades. We talked together for a few more hours, asking about what happened in between the time that we had met last. After a while, we were chatting away like we used to. I told him about work, about the trouble we had a little while ago. He talked about his friends, and the things they did together.

I wish that every day could be like this. I wish that we could talk as if everything was normal.

I always found it pretty impressive how fervently people try to normalize everything, how hard they try to make it seem like everything is going alright, even in the face of obvious adversity and inequities. "School" had essentially become government mandated propaganda stations, where your children were forced from you and programmed to behave in a way that would benefit the government and nothing else. I honestly think it had always been that way, but now it was more obvious than ever. Even if Aaron finished school, which was required for even the most simple jobs, I really didn't know if there was even a future waiting for him. Even though I was aware of all this, I still couldn't help myself from falling into the flow of "normal" life and essentially pretending like nothing was wrong.

As soon as we finished packing, I prepared us supper. Canned food, as usual. We didn't even know what exactly the meat actually was, but it was "ham" flavored. After a deadly virus had supposedly rendered most meat dangerous for human consumption a few years ago, we had been forced to use other means for food. Real meat was incredibly scarce. Many people ate bugs, as they were very easy to produce, but most people preferred to eat a familiar tasting food.

Immediately after supper was prepared, there was a knock at the door. I opened it and smiled. Jessica walked in, and we embraced each other.

"How did you make out with Aaron?"

Aaron came at the sound of her voice and the three of us hugged together, for the first time in a long time. Jessica laughed with joy, "It's been forever since all three of us have been together!"

We sat together for what felt like forever, in each other's arms. Moments like these were hard to come by, few and far in between. We savored the moment while it lasted. Then, finally, we let go reluctantly.

"Let's have supper together!" Aaron exclaimed.

We gathered around the dinner table together. Something we almost never had the time for. Canned mystery meat and stale crackers wasn't the best get together meal, but none of us cared. We were together and that's all that mattered to us.

As I was about to eat my last bite, Jessica told me something that sent my mind into a spiral. "Markus..." she seemed downcast as she started, "...did you hear? The storm's gone."

A chill ran down my spine. "What do you mean, gone?"

"It just stopped once it passed into Connecticut. They say that it instantly vanished" she looked down, "That means they might send you to the Oil Rig early..."

Aaron looked at me, his eyes looked like they were about to start watering.

Several thoughts rushed through me at once. For one, I was extremely disappointed that I might only have tonight to spend with Aaron. But then there was the storm. That damned storm that had been driving me insane over the course of the entire day. How could it have just disappeared with no warning? I didn't know whether to feel relieved, or frustrated. Now I didn't have to worry about it damaging the city and our home, or about those God forsaken screams. But on the other hand, I wanted answers.

There was something wrong with this storm, I don't know how to explain it.

It just felt so unnatural and surreal. The fog that persisted in the wind, the strange sounds, the earthquake that followed it, the bodies... the screams. And now it just vanished?! That only served to further set my paranoia off.

What the hell was this storm?