And Jeff was still just driving, even though the twister was barely half a field away and swerving back and forth.
“Jeff, get off the road!” I screamed.
He looked back at me, swerving the car again dangerously as he did. “Shut the fuck up!” he screamed. “I know what I’m doing.”
No, no he didn’t. He had no clue. I didn’t know much about tornados but I knew that thing was huge and could cross the road in front of us at any moment.
Terror suddenly pumped fresh adrenaline that had me more awake than I would have thought possible.
Jeff wouldn’t stop. He’d never listen to me. He wouldn’t stop.
I reached for the back door of the car to push it open, but it was locked. The bastard had put on the child safety locks. Of course he had.
I turned to look in horror at the huge tornado. Only Jeff thought he could fight a tornado and win.
And I wasn’t laughing, even though I was again looking at my death.
It was ridiculous, and stupid, and useless, and still I wanted to live. I wanted to fucking live, goddammit, and see a thousand more sunsets.
So I didn’t think. For once, I didn’t think, I didn’t plan.
I reached forward with my right hand, ignoring the wrenching pain in my shoulder, and found the release lever to let the front seat lean back. I got hold of it, pulled, then yanked on the top of the chair.
Jeff screamed at me, he reached for me, of course he did.
But I was single minded.
Get the fuck OUT of the car.
No hesitation or he’d have me again. So I scrambled over the seat, reached for the side passenger seat door, opened it, and threw myself out.
The ground hit me hard. Or I hit it. And rolled, my body tumbling end over end.
The train was louder than ever and I looked up, the funnel twisting towards the road. I dragged myself to standing even as the car came to a stop fifty feet ahead.
I screamed as I stood, my right arm lancing with a pain that I knew meant it was broken. Wind lashed all around me.
Debris flew in the radius of the funnel cloud and I fought against the wind, clutching my broken arm to my side with the other as I stumbled toward the open pasture on the opposite side of the twister. Futile, probably, to try to outrun an act of God. But I was done giving in. I’d fight till my last breath.
I fought the wind, leaning my head and then my whole body against the furious gusts pulling me backwards.
I lost my footing and rolled backwards, pulled by the wind, until I was crawling against it. I scrabbled on the ground like an animal, clutching at roots with my good hand, grass, anything.
And losing the battle.
I was being dragged backwards. I dug my feet in and kept trying, finally managing to make it to a slight divot in the ground, a ditch beside the road that was full of water. I didn’t care. I thought I’d heard someone talk once about ditches being a last resort if you found yourself caught in a tornado, so I laid my body out and tried to dig my good hand into the mud and muck as deeply as I could to hold on.
The train howl continued and I closed my eyes and prayed to a God I wasn’t sure I believed in and thought—if this was my last moment on this earth, at least I’d gone my way. It wouldn’t be at his hands.
God take my soul and let me be as free in death as I found in these brief last months of my life.
I squeezed my eyes shut and I prayed. I prayed for myself and I prayed Reece and Jeremiah and Ruth were safe.
I screamed my prayers into the wind and spit out water and clutched onto mud for life.
And the train roared on as God reached down from the sky and spent his rage upon the earth.
19
Reece sped back down the dirt road towards the ranch house faster than was wise. The roads were mud, but Christ, the funnel cloud had been huge, and it had torn straight down the middle of the ranch.
He and Jer had watched in horror from the cab of his truck after he’d pulled his brother off the road and inside to tell him about the tornado warning right as the funnel cloud had touched down about a mile off.
Right on the ranch.
There wasn’t much to do at that point except drive in the opposite direction and then stop the truck and watch on in horror from a safe distance a few more miles off.
When everything in him had wanted to drive straight back.
Charlotte.
He’d left her there. He’d just left her there. What the fuck had he been thinking?