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A train?
I blinked in confusion. There weren’t any trains or tracks near the ranch.
How far had we gone? Had I blacked out?
I struggled to hold onto consciousness. I fought my way to the surface and blinked my eyes open, holding them even though my right eye was just a slit against the swelling.
A car, I was in a car.
Jeff was in the front seat. He swerved the wheel and my body jostled, almost falling off the seat. My hand shot out to brace myself and I came more into awareness. My head pounded and my shoulders and ribs hurt, they hurt bad, but I sat up, and looked through the window, and—
My eyes widened in spite of the pain.
It wasn’t a train.
Not a train, no, not a train.
The ground beside the tiny dirt road Jeff was speeding down was being ripped apart by a funnel that reached from the dark sky above to the ground, so wide I couldn’t see the other side of it.
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.
