The Tempest

by A. J. Scudiere

  They were nose down and needed a moment to gather their thoughts and get oriented, but they could hear the storm getting closer. The sky was growing darker as he took two breaths, but it was two breaths too many.

  Why wasn’t it already on them?

  Was it further back than he’d thought?

  “Get out! Get out!” Joule yelled, and he could hear his sister reiterating Radnor's instructions from earlier… was it only twenty minutes ago?

  “Find a pipe. Find a tree root. Find something you can hold on to. Strap yourself to it, if you can!”

  She was already scrambling to get out.

  25

  Cage felt the car move as he watched Izzy and Joule pushing the buttons on their seatbelts and dropping forward. They were all trying to get out before the car became a casualty of the tornado bearing down on them.

  There was no time for pleasantries as he pushed on his door, hoping it would open. It didn’t give, and he wondered if it was dented in from the ride down into the deep ditch.

  Joule managed to get hers open, the sickly groan of angry hinges signaling her quick success. With it open, it was now parallel to the ground, and she was testing it to see if it would hold her weight as she climbed out onto it. Her hair whipped in the high wind and Cage still couldn’t open his eyes fully against the stinging grains of Alabama dirt or cotton or anything else the storm had picked up.

  “This way!” She motioned back to them. She must have been six to eight feet off of the ground, but the car was wedged tightly against the side of the ditch pitching up behind them. Joule began maneuvering to reach back for Izzy who in turn reached back for Cage, once again forming a human chain. That was probably a bad idea. But he wasn't willing to let go of the only people he could hold on to.

  Deveron was out the front door on his side, already climbing down and around the front, possibly a precarious position. If the tornado slammed the car around, or if gravity changed its mind and it tipped forward, Deveron might get caught underneath it. But he didn't seem to notice as he also motioned for them all to get away from the vehicle as fast as they could.

  It was probably the smartest decision and it was worth the risk as Cage saw no other options. He was climbing out onto Joule’s still open door as he heard Sarah below him banging on the window.

  She was stuck.

  Cage motioned Izzy and Joule away and turned back to help. Beside him, Deveron pressed his face to Sarah's window and tried to yell. “Do you have a tool?”

  It took a moment for her to understand, but when she did her face lit up. Scrambling within the confines of the seatbelt, she reached around in the space, but came up with a silver “car accident tool” as Cage had always called them.

  She quickly lined up the point and smashed out the window. Next, she tried and failed to climb out, discovering she was stuck. But she figured it out and twisted around again, slicing at her seat belt with the back of the tool.

  “The seat belts!” he called to her. “Get the seat belts!”

  Sarah frowned at him for a moment and didn’t understand. So as she climbed out the jagged window, bumping glass pebbles into the wind, he snagged the tool from her and rolled back into the interior.

  Five passengers. Five seat belts, though Izzy’s center back belt just went across the lap, coming out very short. He scrambled through the car, slashing and trying to pull out the longest strips of webbing he could. But the car didn't want to yield the belts. They’d locked into place with the accident and he was left with only short chunks.

  He didn't know how long it took before he crawled back out, but when he did, he was slapped by the ends of the straps he now clenched tightly in his fist. The wind had no respect for any of them and they moved along, buffeted by trash and parts of things the storm had already destroyed.

  “Duck!” he yelled as he saw a piece of a roof fly overhead.

  They all complied, though it had been too far above them to do anything.

  But this was no longer arm- or leg-sized pieces flying by. That had been a recognizable chunk of someone’s home. He wanted to look back up, but kept his head ducked low. The only reason they weren’t getting thrown about like straw was because they were down in the deep ditch.

  While that was clearly saving their lives right now, they were stuck without trees. No pipes. Even the exposed roots were small and flimsy. But when the storm rolled over them—and it would be a miracle if it didn’t—the pressure changes would suck them right out of their hiding spot.

  What Radnor had said was right: People always thought it was safer to climb under a bridge or into a large pipe, but it was actually worse.

  Deveron grabbed onto Cage’s free hand, taking the tool and reaching out to Sarah, who was now linking up with Izzy and Joule. The five of them picked their way along as quickly as it could. In his mind, the time stretched for ages. The storm would catch them faster than he could think about it.

  But they moved forward, not ripped from where they stood.

  Not yet.

  The ditch already had some standing water, though as he looked down, he saw that it rippled in the high winds. Nothing was still, not even down here.

  They moved as quickly as possibl, but it was slow going. They couldn’t outrun the storm, and it sounded as if the winds had targeted them again. He couldn’t see beyond the edge of the ditch to be sure. He only knew that the day was getting darker and the air getting louder. It didn’t bode well at all.

  “We have to find something to hold on to!” he called as loud as he could, but he wasn’t sure he was heard at the front of the line.

  It might not matter. There wasn't much of anything down here to hold onto except each other.

  It was a balancing act full of bad choices, and what they decided would determine if they lived or died. Small trees, which they could wrap themselves around and hold on to, would likely be easily pulled out by the storm. Bigger trees that might withstand the wind, they wouldn’t be able to hold on to.

  “Are there roots? Anything strong?” He began trying to tie the ends of the seatbelts together, knowing they were running out of time.

  Was there a house nearby?

  It would have pipes and at least a more solid structure than anything in the ditch. Then again, he’d seen what happened the last time a house went up against this monster.

  What they needed was a house with a basement, but they would have to leave the ditch to find one. And they couldn’t leave the ditch.

  “There!” Izzy yelled as she bolted forward. Cage could feel her tugging even though he was at the end of the line. “A pipe! There's a pipe!”

  They all jostled toward it and he felt his ankle roll beneath him. Still he pushed on. A rolled ankle wasn’t going to stop him. The group clustered up as Deveron and Cage moved faster, climbing up the sides of the ditch so they didn’t run into the women in front of them.

  He aimed forward, running until the pipe came into view. Though cutting the seatbelts was his best move so far, they still needed to tie themselves to something. They needed time to tie the straps together, then more time to strap everyone to the pipe.

  Time they didn’t have.

  The noise was so loud, there was no way to even explain what he was doing or what the plan was. He managed to hand one or two of the strips to Joule, who seemed to understand what he intended.

  She crouched down next to the pipe and wrapped the belt around it, then she looped it around her waist and tied it in a square knot.

  Now, with her hands free, she moved to do the same for Sarah, who was already catching on. Cage tied himself onto the pipe as well, thinking that it was like an airplane in jeopardy: he couldn’t help anyone else if he didn’t get himself situated first.

  In order to get all of them tied to a small section of galvanized pipe sticking out of the ground, they would have to sit back to back. They were doing well, getting everyone tied in with shaky, terrified movements and fumbling fingers. But then, the last belt proved to
be too short, and Joule began to untie hers.

  It was a tricky proposition, and Cage wondered what she was doing. Was she going to simply give Izzy her strap and risk the winds herself?

  But she motioned for Izzy to sit next to her and he watched as his sister tied her belt to Izzy’s shorter—otherwise useless—piece in a firm square knot. Joule yanked on the knot, testing the now longer, joined one. Then she wrapped it around the both of them, her fingers working rapidly to make the last square knot and get them both anchored inside the loop.

  The wind would wrack the two of them against each other, there might be broken bones—but his sister had just risked her life to save Izzy’s. Despite his own near-certain death as the storm grew to painful noise levels overhead, he was proud of her.

  Leaning back, he felt Deveron behind him. He couldn’t see his friend—couldn’t see much of anything in the painfully gritty air—but he could feel that the other man and Sarah were behind him. On his left, Joule finished doubling down on the knot that held her and Izzy both to the pipe and Cage grabbed her hand, holding on tight. Probably too tight.

  As the wind hit, he shut his eyes completely against the debris. He heard only the clamor above and the voice in his head repeating that they’d survived worse… though he didn’t quite believe it.

  As the wind began to tug at him—at all of them—he felt the ground slip away.

  He hated having his back to the pipe and wished could have turned and wrapped himself around it. But, had he done that, there would only have been room for him. Trusting the pilfered seatbelt webbing to hold onto them was an exercise in faith.

  It seemed forever that the heavy-handed gusts whipped and buffeted them. Beside him, Joule squirmed. He was getting pulled hard, the seatbelt digging into his stomach as it held him back.

  The storm tried to yank him away—to yank all of them away. The wind tried to take his shirt, then his arm, then his head. But they all miraculously stayed attached. The pipe itself swayed in the ground, as if the storm knew it would have to take them as a unit.

  Small stings told him he was getting cut by flying debris, and the whiplash changes in wind pressure made him think the tornado was right on top of them. He couldn’t tell. Were they almost done? Or just beginning?

  His blood was getting pulled with the forces and he felt the dizziness creeping in. He fought back the fear that—for all that they had done—the pipe would give way. If it did, all of them would be lost.

  He couldn't see anything. Though he tried to open his eyes a crack, the barrage of tiny particles in the air battered his face and he squeezed them tightly back together for protection. He couldn’t hear anything but the deafening roar that yanked at him and then slammed him back against the pipe or against Deveron. At least that meant his friend was still there. Still, he must have groaned at the hard hit.

  Beside him, once again, Joule clutched his hand. But she was tugged and tugged until he realized their arms were outstretched.

  How could that be?

  She was tied in next to him on the pipe, they couldn’t reach out unless…

  A faint sound that poked at his brain and his heart tuned in—it was Joule, yelling, though he couldn't understand what she said. Once again, he fought to crack his eyes open. Though it hurt like hell, he realized that her seatbelt had come loose.

  He was the only thing holding on to her.

  Letting go of the pipe with his other hand, he risked reaching up and gripped her wrist with both hands, holding on for everything he was worth. The wind was tugging her upward, her feet flying over her head, hair whipping one way then another, her clothing flying like flags around her. Her open mouth yelled at him to HOLD ON. He thought he heard her, though he was confident he couldn’t actually hear anything.

  And Izzy?

  Cage couldn't see Izzy at all. For a moment, he flashed back to another time when rushing water had also tried to steal his sister away. In that moment, when he had held onto her hand, he had thought he would lose her. But he hadn't.

  And he wouldn’t lose her now.

  Their grip held.

  So he clenched his fingers tighter around his twin’s. She was his only remaining family member, and he was going to hold on with everything he had.

  But everything wasn't enough.

  In a moment of dark roaring noise, whipping wind, and shuddering ground, he found his hand was empty.

  26

  “Wake up, man.”

  Cage moaned as he was jostled about. He heard Deveron's voice through the ringing in his ears, but everything else was strangely, disturbingly silent.

  “Whah?”

  He didn't finish the word, couldn’t—his mouth didn’t work. As he lifted his hand to the side of his head he felt the groan and ache of sore limbs.

  “Is it over?” he asked, but as he heard the sound reverberate through his thick skull, he knew he hadn't formed them correctly. Cage tried again, “Is the tornado gone?”

  “That one is,” Deveron told him, the words clear and crisp in the empty air.

  “Come on, Cage.” Sarah’s words came at him from the other side, and he turned his head, still not seeing her. “You’ve been out for a little bit.”

  He felt her hand on the side of his face, tapping gently. He jerked back to get away, but the movement made so many things hurt. Then Cage realized he'd seen nothing because he hadn't yet opened his eyes. As he blinked himself slowly into the bright, clear light of day, he remembered getting jostled back and forth by the winds and debris bashing at them.

  He’d felt as if he was drowning, unable to even breathe in the high winds. They’d grabbed and tugged and thrown them all every direction, as if by an unseen hand or a riptide. The last thing he remembered was his head smashing backward against Deveron’s. This time when he reached up to his skull, Cage felt the lump.

  “I got one, too,” Deveron said. “Sarah thinks her arm is broken.”

  That made Cage twist his head quickly and look. Though the light burned his retinas, he saw his friend was holding her right arm across her body as though it was in a sling, but there was nothing holding it there.

  “Here,” Cage told her, reaching for the knot at his waist, trying to undo the seatbelt. Every time he'd been thrashed, it had ratcheted the knot down tighter—exactly as he’d hoped. That was what had kept him safe. But now it kept him stuck.

  He felt Sarah and Deveron's hands join him, and the trio spent several minutes working on it, finally managing to get him free. Apparently, they'd both worked themselves loose before he’d come to.

  Standing slowly, Cage felt aching muscles protest as if they'd gone unused for a hundred years. Bruises made themselves known as he rolled his shoulders and put weight on each foot, but none of that was surprising. He thought about stretching his arms above his head, as if he could simply yawn and welcome a new day.

  But even as he thought about it, he realized— “Joule? Izzy?”

  The names jumped from his lips, harsh and accusing, as Sarah and Deveron shook their heads at him.

  “It got them,” was all Sarah said.

  “But I had Joule!” he protested, remembering holding onto his sister's hand. He clearly remembered reaching up and locking her wrist in his firm grip.

  But Sarah simply shrugged her one good shoulder. “And I had Izzy… but they're not here now.”

  She’d said it almost casually, as though they were missing samples on the job site. Cage was curious if maybe she was still in shock.

  He'd seen enough trauma in his life to know that that was more a probability than a possibility, and he didn't fault her lack of emotion. In fact, it was probably the better course. Emotional people did crazy things.

  As he quickly shut down the worry and fear blooming in his chest, he thought once again of his father. It had been bad enough when his mother died, but his father… Hell, Cage still wondered if Nate might show up one day and say, “Here I am. I did it!” But the fact was, the twins had presumed their f
ather dead a long time ago. And that was harder than knowing their mother had died and how.

  Looking around at the ditch that now held broken tree branches, debris, another car, and even an intact section of brick from someone’s house, he braced for the horrifying thought that he might have to deal with his sister going missing, too. Never finding her might be harder than knowing she was gone.

  Was he the only one left?

  No, he told himself, putting a vise around the feeling and twisting it hard until it cut off. Emotion wiped clean and determination now pushed to the forefront of his thoughts, he told the others, “Let's go find them.”

  “How?” Deveron asked.

  “I don't know,” he admitted, but he wouldn’t let it stop his forward momentum. He couldn’t afford to think about it; he had to act. “So, let's figure out how to find them.”

  “We need to find everyone we can,” Sarah pointed out. “We have no idea who else is missing. And then we'll get all the Helio Systems people together—”

  All the remaining Helio Systems people, he added mentally, but kept his mouth shut.

  “—and we’ll get a big search party.”

  He wanted to say no, to tell her she was wrong, that he could close his eyes and psychically find his twin. But none of that was true. He didn't have that feeling in the pit of his stomach that he did with his father, the one that said she was gone. That, at least, was a benefit, but he didn’t know if that was a true connection or just pure logic. Because for all that Nate had wandered off in an emotional tizzy, Joule, just like Cage, had learned to shut it down.

  If there was any chance she was alive, Joule would make logical decisions and get herself found. Their dad had wanted to get lost. Cage ignored the sharp stab that stole his breath every time he had to think about that.

  But the others were already working, and he needed to join in.

  “First, we have to get out of this ditch.” Deveron looked up at the side. Even as tall as he was, the top of the ditch was still over his head.