“Well, I do, so guide me, oh great one. Drop me in her path.”
Roe swung the camera around, aiming it at my face as I was about to comment. I clamped my teeth and slid lower in the seat, but Roe rolled a hand, insisting I give him something.
Jazz elbowed my ribs and whispered, “Stop being a pussy.”
My cheeks burned. I wanted to shout,What am I supposed to say?
I glanced at the laptop and the Doppler radar. The cell had developed a prominent hook echo, and we were almost directly inside it. A horseshoe in the clouds guided us.
“Gale,” my sister prompted. “Say something.”
“Um… so, u-using Mesoscale Detection Algorithms, we can analyze supercells and measure rotation patterns. When a rotation pattern meets specific requirements for size, strength, vertical depth, and—”
“Oh my god, save us the scientific lecture and tell us where to go, for fuck’s sake,” Jazz snapped.
“We’re amid a mesocyclone, but the hook is miles wide, and a tornado could produce anywhere within it. Your best bet is to be within it. Even with a Tornado Vortex Signature, I could only speculate. Read the sky. Watch the clouds. That’s the best you can do. If we could predict tornado touchdowns with the kind of accuracy you’re asking for, don’t you think we would? It would save lives.”
The chilling look in Jazz’s eyes made me squirm.
Olivia wasn’t happy. “Then look at the sky and give us the best you can. Come on, Gale. This is your thing. We have to land closer than Ozrik and his crew. You know they’re going to be out here.”
Maggie nudged my arm. I passed her the laptop and shuffled forward to see better out the windshield. The horizon bellowed its anger. The sky heaved and churned. I studied the clouds and their movement. Trees in the distance bent under the assault of the wind. I’d watched hundreds of videos in school, studied mountains of textbooks, butthiswas a phenomenon of unbound proportions.
This was real, and we were within it.
“I’m going to die,” I whispered. Thank goodness no one seemed to hear.
Roe faced forward again, filming the daunting sky looming ahead.
Goose bumps tickled the hairs on the back of my neck, radiating over my scalp. I shivered as a release of adrenaline flooded my system, warning me to run screaming in the opposite direction. It wasn’t a good feeling. It didn’t fill me with excitement like I imagined it did everyone else.
Jazz seemed to have forgotten his anger in exchange for the view. He sat forward, arms wrapped around Roe’s headrest as he peered out the window. “Fucking brutal. Take the next road west. You see that. There. That’s a definite wall cloud.” He pointed.
We were amid a strong mesocyclone in what seemed to be the early stages of tornadogenesis.
“Gale?” my sister hollered. The Subaru jolted and bounced over the uneven dirt road. “Give me your input. You’re the expert.”
“He doesn’t have a clue. We should have left him at the house,” Jazz said. “Go west at the next turn. Trust me.”
“Shut up, Jazz,” Roe said.
Shame mixed with nerves, creating a nauseating concoction. Jazz was right. I was a fraud. “Go west,” I confirmed.
Olivia took the next left. All eyes were focused on the churning sky. We were within the hook echo.
“You’re looking at a beautiful wall cloud, ladies and gents,” Roe narrated for the future viewers. “Everybody, cross your fingers and pray she produces.”
The road ahead was empty. We were deep in scarcely populated countryside. A few farmhouses were situated a distance from the road and separated from their neighbors by several acres of crops. The people living in those houses had likely taken shelter. I couldn’t hear the air raid sirens, but the wind battering the Subaru mixed with the jackhammering of my heart likely drowned them out.
Again, I wondered at the absurdity of what we were doing, taking on the elements like we were any match for Mother Nature. We were all certifiable if we were willing to go head-to-head with one of God’s most vicious environmental hazards.
The bright afternoon had been replaced by a shadowy illusion of dusk. A sense of ominous doom hung over Lipscomb County. It was alive and angry. The air itself was thick with anticipation, and fine dust particles swirled and danced on the blowing currents. I scanned the horizon, picking out signs of flying debris farther away. Tree branches and garbage among them.
We were driving directly toward the wall cloud Roe had mentioned a second ago. It was humbling. Terrifying. I absorbed every detail with awe and wonder and a mountain of trepidation.
Motion caught my eye, and I squinted at a particular part of the sky that stirred and roiled. I smacked the back of Olivia’s seat. “Stop. Pull over. Stop, stop, stop.”
“Okay, okay.” Olivia slammed the brakes.
