“Peter’s not going to pull them out while they are in a firefight, he’s got too much to lose,” Spencer said angrily.
“What can we do?” Rebecca asked.
“Hope he wins quickly and gets the hell out of there,” Spencer said, resignedly.
Rebecca turned back to the map. The cloud mass was being represented on it now and it was growing at a massive rate. An orange box suddenly appeared in its path along the ground, covering parts of four counties.
“A Severe Thunderstorm Warning,” Spencer said. “What are the parameters?”
“Golf ball sized hail and sixty miles an hour wind gusts,” Victoria replied. “There’s no rotation yet, otherwise they would’ve just issued a Tornado Warning,”
Spencer nodded. “That’s good at least.”
“Do we have a shelter here?” Rebecca asked.
“See that hatch on the ground over there?” Spencer asked, pointing.
Rebecca glanced over at it and said, “Yes.”
“There’s a cellar under it,” Spencer explained. “It’s not very big and I suspect it was made for hiding illegal stuff for whoever used to own this building, but we’ll be able to fit in there if worse comes to worse.”
Spencer turned back to Hanna and Valerie and asked, “What’s going on?”
“There’s too much noise, the fighting is really intense,” Hanna explained. “We’re advancing though, we just aren’t able to take prisoners like we normally do.”
“Have we lost anyone?” Rebecca asked.
“We have men down, but Anne and Georgia are fine. They’re with Peter and they’re flanking along the highway,” Hanna said, knowing who Rebecca would’ve been asking about.
“Thanks,” Rebecca said, turning back to the map, looking for where they would be on it. It was hard to focus on that though, as the storm was taking more prominence in the map display as it began to move towards the city in earnest.
Spencer moved around the side of the map and looked at the back of the storm. “Shit, you see where there is no rain here and the clouds are lower in this part of the storm?”
“Yeah,” Rebecca said slowly.
“That’s where it will try to produce a tornado,” Spencer said. “Victoria, I’m going to change it back to the wind display real quick.”
Spencer did so and the arrows showed a broad rotation stretching up through the storm in the area that he had just pointed out. Victoria looked at it with a deadened look in her eyes and sighed. “That’s…that’s not good, Spencer.”
“Get me Peter back on now,” Spencer said.
“I’m going to try, but it won’t be easy,” Hanna said, as she began plugging away at the radio. “Knowing where he is at is easy, but getting him to talk to us is a bitch.”
As Hanna worked frantically to reestablish communications, Rebecca watched as the rotating column slowly began to tighten and spin faster. The orange box suddenly changed to red and covered their location and where the fighting was occurring.
“A Tornado Warning,” Spencer said in a low voice.
“The tornado is only radar indicated right now, but the storm is up to baseball sized hail now,” Victoria explained.
“They will have storm spotters in that area where the tornado would most likely be looking for it,” Spencer explained, adding a rotating disk on the map near Baldwin City. “What’s the motion?”
“North-northeast at 35 miles per hour,” Victoria said.
Spencer typed this parameter into the map and it made the rotating disk move in the direction prescribed. “This thing is going to be on top of them soon,” he said in a low voice. “Hanna!”
“I’m working on it! Peter this is base report in immediately, this is an emergency, Peter, report in immediately,” Hanna was saying frantically.
“They’ve got to hear the sirens,” Rebecca said.
“Yeah, but they don’t know the exact location,” Spencer said. “Peter is going to ignore it unless he knows the threat is directed right at him.”
Rebecca felt her phone vibrate. She pulled it out to see that an emergency alert about the Tornado Warning was making her phone go off. While she had it out, she decided to call Anne. It was unlikely that she would be able to pick up, but she was going to try anyway.
After thirty seconds, the ringing gave way to a voicemail. She was about to try Georgia instead when Ed suddenly called her. She answered it saying, “I’m fine, Ed. I have a shelter to go to,”
“Oh. I’m glad that you are aware of what I was calling about without me having to say it,” Ed replied, audibly relieved. “Are Anne and Georgia with you?”
“Kind of,” Rebecca replied. “I’m getting them to shelter too.”
“Thank you, Rebecca. Once this storm passes, I want all three of you home immediately, do you understand?” Ed asked.
“It’ll be a while, but we will, Ed,” Rebecca said. “I’ve got to let you go now,”
“I love you, Rebecca. Please be safe.”
Rebecca was taken aback slightly, but replied, “I love you too, Ed.”
The line went dead and Rebecca tried to call Georgia quickly. There was no contact there either, but before she could try either Anne or Georgia again, Victoria suddenly shouted in a higher than normal voice, “It’s a confirmed tornado now! ‘A tornado was reported on the ground by trained spotters five miles northwest of Gardner, moving north-northeast at 30 mph’.”
“Is there anything other than that?” Spencer asked.
“No, other than the baseball sized hail,” Victoria said.
“That heaviest part of the hail core is about to get to K-10,” Spencer said, looking at the map and adjusting the disk to reflect the location of the actual tornado. “From there it is about fifteen minutes until it gets to Edwardsville.”
During all of this, Rebecca was still unable to get a hold of Anne or Georgia. She decided to text to the two of them quickly and hoped they saw it before too much time had passed. “There’s a tornado on the ground headed to where you are. Please find shelter.”
Neither of the girls responded to her. By now, Rebecca could hear hail bouncing off of the roof of the warehouse, along with the sound of heavy rainfall. “Spencer, how long before we need to get in the cellar?” she asked.
Spencer looked at the map and dragged his finger along the path of the tornado. “Right now, we actually don’t have to. We are several miles east of where this thing’s path. If it changes course, then we might have to.”
Spencer brought up the wind field again, which showed a violent rotation now where the tornado was located. “This is going to be bad,” he said, his voice shaking.
Rebecca looked at her phone again. There was still no message from Anne or Rebecca. She turned to Hanna and asked, “Is there anything?”
“They’re breaking up. But from what I can tell, they are splitting up and finding shelter on their own, without Peter’s say so. I’ve lost contact with half of the platoons at this point though. We are just going to have to ride this out.”
“Fuck!” Rebecca shouted, frustrated. She could not stand to look at the map any longer, as there was nothing good on there that would make her feel better at the moment. She went to sit down in the corner while the others frantically tried to warn the fighters of the immediate danger.
Hanna waved Spencer over and said quietly so Rebecca would not hear. “I’ve lost coms altogether with them.”
Spencer sighed heavily, trying to mask the extreme fear that was building inside him. “Thank you for trying. When this passes, we will need to go up there after them.”
“What about the gangs?” Hanna asked.
“It sounded like we were winning so hopefully they broke and fled,” Spencer replied. “But we need to be ready to go as quickly as possible.”
Hanna nodded, packing up a few items in preparation. Valerie and Victoria did likewise, until the latter suddenly said, her voice choking, “They’ve updated the Tornado Warning…it’s a Tornado Emergency
now. ‘A large and destructive tornado was located over De Soto, moving north-northeast at 30 mph’.”
Spencer turned to see Rebecca still sitting away from the rest of them. “Keep getting ready to go. Valerie, watch the storm track on the map and let me know if anything changes.”
“Okay,” Valerie said, getting up.
Spencer strode over to Rebecca, who looked up and said, “Is there any news?”
“No, we’ve lost all communication. But as soon as the tornado moves out of the way, we’re going to go after them,” Spencer said.
“Can we go now?” Rebecca said urgently. “You said we’d be well out of the path here, so we could get a little closer.”
Every instinct in Spencer was screaming to deny her request. But the look of panic on her face matched his own feeling and he decided against all logic to say, “Okay. But we are going to go slow and backtrack a little bit until we are way behind the tornado.”
“Where is at now?” Rebecca asked urgently, getting up.
“It was over De Soto a minute ago,” Spencer said, walking back towards the others. “Hey you guys, we’re going to go ahead now.”
“What?” Victoria asked, shocked.
“We can go behind the storm and follow it up to where the fighting was,” Spencer explained, pointing at the path he would take. “We’ll be safe enough.”
“I think I’m going to stay behind,” Victoria said. “I’ll keep you up to date on what is happening with the storm.”
“What is it doing?” Rebecca asked.
Victoria looked at the radar, puzzled. “It might be splitting up into two storms. This northern part will fall apart, but the main storm will hold together and move more east than north…right into downtown.”
Rebecca knew she should be worried about the storm lurching straight through the heart of the city, but she was too scared for Anne and Georgia to think about that. She was already heading towards the door before Spencer could ask Valerie or Hanna if they were coming. Rebecca tried to open the door to exit the warehouse, but it was jammed shut. She pushed and pushed until Spencer came over to help. With great effort, the two of them got the door open, which had been blocked by a very large branch.
There was still some rainfall in the area, but the storm had mostly passed them by at that point. There was a strong wind coming from the west, which was the direction the tornado would be. Spencer led the way to his car, which Rebecca clambered into quickly. They left the warehouse complex, heading southwest to get behind the storm.
Rebecca was peering out the window, looking in the direction that the tornado would be. She could not see it, as there were too many houses and trees in the way, but the wind was getting stronger as they travelled further along. Suddenly, they got out into open country and Rebecca looked north to see the tornado, but she couldn’t see it. The clouds were too thick in that direction to see anything.
Spencer turned to the north and travelled slowly. “Where is the tornado?’ Rebecca asked.
“That whole thing is the tornado,” Spencer said darkly.
“Where?” Rebecca said. “All I see are the clouds.”
“The cloud is the tornado. It’s so powerful that it’s dragged the whole wall cloud to the ground,” Spencer explained. “Somewhere in there, the tornado is going to be carving a canyon through the city.”
“We need to hurry!” Rebecca said.
“Rebecca, I know you are afraid for your friends, but we cannot get any closer to that thing. Look around you,” Spencer said.
Rebecca gazed out of the car and saw there was damage to a nearby house. The roof had been completely removed and its windows destroyed. “That’s EF2 damage,” Spencer said. “This would have been early in the tornado and it is much, much more powerful now. We can only follow at a safe distance.”
Rebecca knew that it was no use arguing the point. As they advanced further to the north, it was easier to find the damage from the tornado. Trees had been debarked, homes had been flattened, and even the road itself had been damaged, which some of the asphalt scoured from the surface.
“This is almost certainly an EF5,” Spencer said. “Only the strongest tornadoes can dig up the ground like that.”
“Okay, talking about the tornado really isn’t helping,” Rebecca said.
“I’m sorry,” Spencer said. He kept quiet for a while until he said, “We’re getting close. There’s Bonner Springs…I think.”
Rebecca knew what he meant. The terrain was unrecognizable, with debris strewn in all directions. It was partially covering the streets as well, which was making driving difficult. “Where would they be?”
“I don’t know,” Spencer said. “We need to go a little bit to the east towards Edwardsville. That’s where the fighting would have been.”
Spencer went that way, though it was agonizingly slow. At long last, they got to the location where they had had last contact with the fighters. There were a few people straggling around, clearly dazed, but none of them were anyone they recognized. At least, not as they were, covered with dirt and debris and in some cases, stripped of their clothing.
Rebecca suddenly saw Georgia sitting on the side of the road, staring off into space. Rebecca leapt out of the car without warning and rushed towards her, screaming, “Georgia! Georgia!”
Georgia looked up at her, stunned. “Rebecca? Is that you?”
“Where is Anne?” Rebecca asked.
“I…I don’t know. It happened so fast…we were fighting…and then the storm hit…the wind…the wind was unbelievable,” Georgia said, slowly.
Spencer looked at her closely and said, “She’s either in shock or has a concussion. She needs medical attention either way. We need to get her out of here.”
“Not until we find Anne!” Rebecca said adamantly.
Spencer sighed. “I’ll get her into the car. You keep looking. With luck, she won’t be far.”
Rebecca moved away from the road while Spencer got Georgia into the car. She had not gone far when she found Peter, lying dead alongside the remains of a few trees. He had been impaled by a piece of debris and then lifted bodily against a tree. If he had not shaved his head bald two weeks prior, Rebecca would not have been able to recognize him.
If Georgia and Peter were in this area, then it stood to reason that Anne was as well. Rebecca walked closer to the river, looking through debris that had fallen through the trees and clogged the waterway. After several agonizing minutes, she had found nothing, other than two more bodies of Peter’s platoon.
Rebecca was growing steadily more frustrated. She thought that she should have found some sign of her by now. She was about to turn back when she saw another body buried under several wooden boards. Rebecca moved towards the debris slowly, her body tensing in fear before her mind caught up to what she was seeing. She moved the debris slowly, revealing who was buried under it.
It was Anne. She was not stirring. Rebecca shook her shoulder, but she still did not move. Rebecca drew closer, but she could not see if Anne was breathing or not. With great difficulty, Rebecca turned her over and saw that Anne was indeed dead.
The air went out of Rebecca’s lungs. It could not be true. Anne could not have died after all they had been through together. They had been friends for their entire lives and had been through much together, starting long before their move to Kansas City. Rebecca picked up her body and felt it becoming cold and stiff already. Despite the weight, Rebecca refused to leave her behind and carried her back away from the river to Spencer’s waiting car.
Spencer spotted her struggling with Anne and ran over to help her. He felt the stiffness of Anne’s body and did not say a word, knowing in that moment that she was dead. He helped Rebecca get Anne into the car and got back in, with Rebecca getting in the passenger seat. She looked back and saw that Georgia had fallen asleep, exhausted from what had occurred.
“We’re going to the hospital,” Spencer said.
Rebecca did not protest. She was numb with shock
, having trouble processing what had just happened. “Peter is dead too,” she managed to say.
Spencer sighed. “We’ll talk about it later.”
Later that evening, they were at the hospital. Georgia had been admitted and was receiving medical care, along with hundreds of other people both in the hospital and other hospitals around the city. The tornado had taken a turn to the right after passing through Bonner Springs and Edwardsville and made a beeline for downtown Kansas City. The tornado had weakened before getting that far, but still damaged the downtown area significantly before lifting.
Anne’s body had been taken down to the morgue for the time being and was being joined by other victims of the storm. Rebecca was sitting in the room with Georgia, who was still asleep. Spencer had left to see if any of the other fighters could be found. Though Rebecca could not care less at the moment, the fighters had taken a serious blow and the local Conspiracy had been decimated.
When Rebecca had gotten to the hospital, she had been forced to make a phone call via the landline there to Ed’s house. Cell service, though not entirely wiped out, had still been damaged severely in the city. Rebecca had told him the whole truth; that they had still been fighting the gangs and that Anne and Georgia had been caught in the storm as a result. She had not told him about Anne yet though; she could not bear to say it out loud. She had only said that they were at the hospital.
After what seemed like hours, Ed finally arrived in the room. He breathed a sigh of relief and dragged Rebecca up from her chair and hugged her hard. “I was so worried about you three,” he said shakily.
Rebecca did not say anything. Ed moved away slightly and said, “Is Georgia okay? Where is Anne?”
“Georgia is going to be okay,” Rebecca said, choking. “Anne…Anne is…”
In that moment, Ed knew what had happened and hugged Rebecca tight again before she could finish her sentence. In that moment, Rebecca finally broke. Her shock finally gave way to grief and she began to cry on Ed’s shoulder. “It’s my fault. I should have listened to you and told them not to get involved,” Rebecca said through the tears.
Autumn (Four Seasons Book 1) Page 20