A loud rumbling noise echoed through the air. My immediate thought was that it was the roar of The Storm, but I realized that it was more akin to the sound the jets had made when they flew overhead.

I glanced out of the windshield, confirming my suspicions. A lone black jet was flying towards the city. Why would it be alone? All the others had come in groups, and after the continual failure of the military to fight against The Storm... why would they only send one? It hurtled through the air over the car, speeding on towards the city. Wait, according to the radio transmission we had heard, the military had abandoned the city and there was an urgent evacuation warning, so why would... My stomach started to feel sick as I realized just what that jet was bringing into the city.

I got out of the car, and stood by the door. The rain had lessened a bit, so although it pattered onto my face, I could see the jet as it started to fly over the city. I needed to see this. I heard movement in the car, and then moments later Jared came out and stood on the other side.

"What's wrong, Markus? Why did you get out?" Jared asked.

I didn't reply. My finger slowly pointed towards the solitary jet as it flew through the blackened sky, like a fallen angel heralding the end of the world.

Jared just stared for a moment, probably wondering what was so special about that particular jet, but then recognition flashed into his eyes.

"Oh. Oh God, no. They wouldn't dare..." he uttered.

"But they would. And they are," I said with a shaking voice as my eyes started to tear up. Words could not describe the revulsion and despair I felt. How could... How could humans do something like this?

The jet flew further above the city until it was only a tiny dot in my vision and once it reached the centre I could just barely make out something dropping from it onto the streets below.

"No!" I muttered feebly.

A magnificent flash of light momentarily blanketed the sky as a distant rumbling sound resonated all the way to where we stood. A blast of wind nearly knocked me off my feet as the blinding light slowly started to fade, revealing... a mushroom cloud ascending past the height of the skyscrapers that had once been there in its place, painting spots of the black sky with a bright fiery orange. From what I could see, everything close to the blast had been completely obliterated in the instant that it had hit, and even at the very edge of the city I could see a few buildings toppled over. Dust and debris were thrown into the air, partly obscuring my view.

I almost broke down crying then. The city I had grown up in had just been completely obliterated in front of my own eyes. I had watched it slowly degrade over the years, the older I grew the worse the city became. It was a shell of its former self, an absolute shithole. But it was still home. It was the only place I really knew other than the oil rig. I heard the door to the car close as Jared went back in without uttering a word. I didn't turn away though; I kept my eyes locked on the absolute destruction mere miles in front of me. I burned the image of my destroyed home into my mind, so that I'd remember it for eternity. The orange mushroom cloud was slowly tugged at and torn apart by the wind, helping me see a bit more.

The entire city was now cloaked in flames that rose like pillars towards the sky.

Before this storm started, I thought the human race was going to destroy itself. Whether it was with pollution, our absolute apathy towards anything outside of our own little bubble, our tendency to follow the herd no matter the consequences to our lives and freedom, or whether we'd tear ourselves apart with our weapons.

Then when the storm came, I thought that it would bring about the end. I had naively thought that, if anything, we would at least stand together as one race to try and stop these monsters until the very end. But as I looked off at the nearly flattened city that had once been my home, I came to the conclusion that my first conjecture had been correct.

Nothing had changed.

Nothing.

We were still going to tear ourselves apart.

Though humanity faced an outside threat, one that we should all face together... it would self-cannibalize its already lifeless corpse until not a drop of blood remained.

I opened the door to the car. Jared was in the passenger seat. He half muttered, "Hey, could you drive for a little bit?"

I grunted, and sat in the driver seat. Aaron was looking down at his hands. Jared was just staring off into empty space.

I pressed on the gas, but I was hardly paying any attention to the road. All I could see was the bomb going off in my head, replaying again and again. How many thousands of people had died in that blast? I wondered if the nuclear bomb had even managed to scratch that monstrosity that was the storm.

I didn't believe it for a second, and as we drove on the constant stream of rain showed no signs of letting off.

It just kept coming down, at the exact same rhythm.