Into The Storm

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Prologue—The Twister

“I’ll be fine, Mom!” said Katherine Dalton into her cell phone. “I’ve seen the weather bulletins, and I still think I can make it home before the storm hits.”

“You’ll have to speed to do it, Kathy, and you’ll lose your license if you get another ticket!” answered her mother, Alice.

“I won’t get stopped,” said Kathy, slightly irritated. “And I know what to do if I see a rotating cell. Besides, I don’t want to stay in this dump another minute longer than I have to.”

“Kathy, please, just go to Caryn’s. The weather man just said that there’s heavy rotation headed for Highway 60.”

“I’m coming home, Mom. Caryn and I are still not technically speaking, and I’m not going to talk to you about it, so don’t ask. I’ll be home in about 45 minutes.”

“Alright,” said Alice with a sigh. “Just, please, be careful.”

“I will. Just keep a plate warm for me.”

Mother and daughter said their goodbyes and Kathy hit the end button on her cell phone. Shaking her head, she gathered up her purse and jacket then spared a glance at the clock hanging on the wall. Her boss would rage on Monday, but Kathy decided that she couldn’t wait another ten minutes to get the hell out of Dodge. Or Nowata, as it were.

Why the hell did I take that transfer?

The wind was blowing steadily across the parking lot as Kathy made her way to her car. The light breeze from the morning had turned into a steady gale. The sky was a pale green, too. Kathy turned her face into the breeze, enjoying the smell of spring it carried. The signs were all there. It was going to be a good storm.

As she drove, the wind whipped through the branches of the trees and bent over the tall grass along the sides of the road. Clouds swirled overhead, green mixing with gray as if in a huge kaleidoscope. Occasionally, a bolt of lightning would splinter the sky with electric blues and purples. The weather was one of the things that Kathy loved about living in Oklahoma. Every storm was its own work of art.

Kathy raced down the highway, tapping her fingers on the wheel to the rhythm of the song on the radio. Her mind was on her weekend: shopping with Alia, her best friend, and hopefully a date night with Alan, her live-in boyfriend. It was anywhere but on the road, until she saw the twister.

She saw it out of the corner of her eye, and then did a double take. It was moving across the pasture, cutting to the north and it looked like it was going to cross the highway. Kathy slowed down. It was still a fair stretch down the road, so she pulled over, hoping that she could just watch it cross. Her stomach sank like lead, however, when it appeared to stop moving altogether, and right as it came to the road.

Oh, shit! It’s coming straight for me…

Kathy scrambled to get out of the car, her shaking fingers finding it difficult to operate the door latch. When she finally got the door open, she ran to the ditch, hoping that it would be deep enough. She threw herself to the ground and covered her head with her hands.

A chill ran down Kathy’s spine as the wind began to roar around her. The sound became deafening as debris began to sting across the skin on the back of her neck. The twister bore down on her, causing the air to thicken and stealing the breath from her lungs. She couldn’t even scream as the ground seemed to fall away underneath her. Her eyes clamped tightly shut as the ground moved farther and farther away.

It felt like an eternity passed before the storm threw her to the ground again. Kathy’s head hit the hardened earth, causing stars to swim before her eyes. She barely registered the change in the scenery before she lost consciousness.

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