Page 98

I flinch.

“Shit.” I battle with the wheel, as I hydroplane toward a ditch.

My eyes widen.

If I fall into the ditch, then I’m dead.

I wrench the car away, teetering on the edge.

My teeth clack together, as I skirt back onto the track.

I’ve done it.

Then my breath catches, as the tornado pulls at the truck, threatening to drag me back into the vortex.

Adrenaline spikes through me. I am barely breathing.

Hyperfocused, I white-knuckle the steering wheel.

I squint through the cracked windshield at the blackness, which is filled with swirling debris.

Rhett, Angel, Paige…

I’m coming home…I’m coming home to you…

Winds knock the truck from the side.

It wildly rattles.

I let out a startled shout, as the truck is half-flipped. The engine screams, before the truck bounces back onto its spinning wheels.

Ahead, I can finally see the break in the trees.

It’s the road that leads out of Butterfly Creek.

Once out of the trees, I will be able to drive faster. Being in a forest during a tornado is the most dangerous place to be.

My muscles cord, as I push my foot even more firmly to the floor.

I am shaking, feeling the tornado attempting to drag me more violently back.

Work…please work…

Finally, I burst out of the tree line onto the open road.

I risk a glance behind me.

The tree line that I have just escaped is being snapped and sucked up into the sky. All that remains is a cloud of mud and broken trees chasing my truck.

The tornado is deafening.

The truck is vibrating, but I push it even faster, as the track transitions from dirt to gravel and then onto paved highway.

My heart is beating wildly.

Yet I am high on the thrill, the escape, and the beautiful danger of nature.

I have never experienced anything close to it…death…life…survival.