The Unknown Heroes(Manuscript)

Chapter 16

It was colossal. It was as if some outside force extracted a piece of the planet. Leaving only a hole at least one mile cubed in size. Someone was going to find out about the city now that it was in ruins and could be easily seen from above ground.
News would get out about it soon, one way or another. It made me think about how the outside world was doing. A dragon-made terrorist attack. A robot who could hover and shoot pure dark energy out of its hands.
It didn't matter at this point though.
I turned to Colin, who was standing to my right only a few feet away trying to catch his breath.
"You said that Shade had Taylor. We need to get him now before something bad happens to him."
I felt no need to question him about what had happened, or how he knew Shade had Taylor, I just cared about finding him.
"We can't, I already told you that we can't just barge into DarkMatter's lair. Whatever it was they wanted him for, it's already too late to stop"
'Seriously?" Jacob spoke, "Me and Taylor never really got along, but seriously? I thought you were his friend."
"Since when has there ever been no sacrifice in life? You think I want to just let my friend be brainwashed or executed? No! But we risk the entirety of life on earth if we go and try to save him."

I sat down on the hard rock. He was right. I could make any argument against him, and he would still be right. Taylor, one of my friends, who despite his stupid personality, I still cared about was gone. Sure I could try to save him, but Colin wasn't mistaken, the world was at stakes. It should be easy to deal with. One person over the world. But it's not.

I stood back up after having a minute to calm down and looked up at the sky. It was ominous looking. The clouds had a weird greenish tint to them. It gave me chills.
"How do we get back to the treehouse?" Jacob asked, breaking the silence held between the three of us. "The Jeep's totaled. It can't be driven."

"We walk," Colin responded, speaking with no emotion.
He turned around and walked past me and back the way we came. Jake did the same, and I turned to follow, but before I did, I felt a raindrop hit me. It didn't surprise me or anything, it just caused me to acknowledge it. I looked up at the sky again. It was both beautiful and ominous at the same time. The clouds were huge, and still glowing with the greenish tint.
Then I remembered something that caused me to freeze still. Tornadoes.
"H-hey... guys, wait up," I called out to Colin and Jacob. "I don't like the way the sky looks."
A while ago, back when I still watched television, I show about weather came on. One of the subjects of that particular episode was tornadoes, how they form, and how to spot them. It explained that sometimes before a tornado, the clouds would give off a greenish appearance.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Jacob asked.
"I mean something doesn't sit right with me. It looks like a tornado."
And suddenly, in only a few seconds the rain went from a slight shower to a downpour.
Immediately we all ran towards the city to get sheltered from the rain, knowing that the treehouse was too far away to reach.

By the time we finally got into a building we were already soaked, dripping wet in the lobby of some random apartment building. Outside was already a gigantic storm, and I knew what was most likely going to happen next. If I was correct, I needed to do something. Sure, it wasn't our, no, Colin's goal to protect people from disasters and other things, but only to defend against Darkmatter. I didn't care though. The city was well populated, and hundreds, maybe even thousands of lives were at risk. I wasn't going to just let people die without at least trying to help. I needed to do something. But what exactly could I do? Most people are probably inside because of the conditions, and when the tornado strikes down, most people will already be evacuating to their basements. I guess I just needed to wait it out along with everyone else.

I sighed. I must've been insane. It was like I wanted to get myself killed by the tornado. I was constantly looking to endanger myself. I really was stupid. I looked out the window to check up on the storm, and without any warning, a humongous chunk of hail crashed through the window and almost hit me directly in the face. I jumped a bit in surprise, and the wind poured through the now opened window. I shivered from the cold air swirling the room. I took a few steps away from the window as more hail came crashing through the entire entrance. The hail was coming down with too much force that there was no way anyone that was outside and exposed to the hail could survive. Whether it was a tornado or not, the storm was dangerous and deadly. Mother Nature at her worst.

The entrance door broke from its lock and began flapping from the hinges in the wind. I began to get a bit nervous and took a step up the stairs to get away from the window. Jacob was up at the top of the stairs, leaning against the wall, and Colin was sitting on the second to last stair, staring straight out the window.

Things had gone downhill quite fast. I turned back toward the window, feeling extremely uneasy from it. Something about the current situation, but in a different way then I thought it would. All of a sudden, snapping me out of my trance, a pickup truck burst the opening of the building.

I jumped backward in surprise and fell onto the stairs. Chunks of brick and glass flew everywhere. I was lucky not to be hit by any of it. There were a few shocked screams coming from above, most likely from the upper floors of the building. The wind blew into the room, and rain soaked the marble floor. I looked back at Colin and Jacob, giving a look of "we need to go", even though we technically had nowhere to go. I stood up and hastily looked around for shelter somewhere within the lobby of the building, but I couldn't spot anything, and the room was too small for me to have missed something.
The apartment building had no safe place for its residents to go in the event of a tornado. To me, it just seemed messed up.

I cautiously made my way over to the truck, and the giant hole it had made in the wall and tried my best to see through the insane amount of rain flying through the air. Then I noticed it. Across the street was an old wooden house. It looked new enough that people could still live inside but old enough to still have an exterior bulkhead basement door. I looked back towards Jacob and Colin, and they were already on their way to see what I was up to.
"Come on!" I shouted so they that they could hear me over the wind. "There's a bulkhead for shelter over there!"
I pointed to the bulkhead and turned to see what they thought.
"Are you stupid? It's a freaking tornado! We can't go out there!" Jacob shouted back.
"Well it's just as dangerous in here, anything could come crashing through the building at us, just like the truck."
I looked back outside making sure nothing large was nearby.
"Well, I am going to go with or without ya," I said at a moderate volume. I could barely hear myself so I doubted they heard what I had said, but I didn't care.
I ran out, moving at as quick of a pace as I could manage in the weather, which wasn't fast at all. Before I knew it, I realized my dumb mistake, but I kept going anyway.
How stupid can you be?
Shut up.
You'll be lucky if you don't get yourself killed one of these days.
I said, SHUT UP.
Suddenly, I noticed an object in my peripheral vision moving quickly towards me. Before I could react, it was already slamming into my side. All I could feel was pain as my vision darkened.