Chapter Text
Two steps into the chaos of the theater Tyler felt that something was missing. He turned around and immediately noticed that Kate was no longer behind him. Icy tendrils of fear took hold of him as he realized what she was doing. She had once lost everything to a storm, she wouldn’t sit and watch it happen again. Not if there was even the tiniest chance to stop it.
Without thinking, Tyler turned around and sprinted out of the theater in the direction of his truck, ignoring the angry protest from his injured leg. He watched as she wrenched the door open against the strong winds and made a mad dash in front of the hood towards the passenger door, climbing in as she turned the key in the ignition.
She looked over at him, eyes blazing in mad determination, daring him to try to stop her, but he just returned her gaze in the same intensity. A brief nod, and she hit the gas, propelling them forward towards one of the largest tornados either of them had ever seen.
“Tyler -” There was hesitation and a pang of fear in her voice.
“Hey, I’m not here to stop you. Just making sure you’re not doing it alone.” He smiled at her and hoped that it would hide how terrified he really was. Because now that he’d had a minute to contemplate his position, he knew that what she was planning was insane. No one had ever disrupted a tornado, let alone a massive monster like the one in front of them. The silver iodide and polymer had been calculated for an EF1, maybe EF 2, but this was way, way beyond that. Even if the science and their calculations worked out, there were so many factors at play here that they couldn’t control. This was a heck of field test for her experiment.
“You ever tested this truck in a tornado this size?”
“Nope,” he responded tightly. “Never felt that kind of crazy death wish.”
“I don’t have a….”
“You’re driving headfirst into what will probably be rated an EF5 tornado and you’re telling me you expect to survive this?” He asked incredulously, knowing that realistically, their chances were slim to none to make it out of this in one piece.
“YES!” He glanced at her and saw the storm reflected in her eyes. Then her face softened, and she continued, “…no.” Her head turned and he was surprised by the sadness and vulnerability. “But now you’re here and I…” She didn’t finish the sentence. Didn’t need to.
“How about we both survive this? For each other?” he dared her, following an instinct that this girl couldn’t resist a challenge. Her brief nod was all the confirmation he needed. Tyler had no idea where he got the confidence from, but somehow this little pact released some of the tension inside.
They were getting really close now and he watched the massive, swirling wall in front of them in a terrified awe. Tyler had never seen a storm this size up this close. The scientist part of him analyzed the cloud patterns and different wind velocities with almost giddy excitement, while the more rational cowboy part braced for impact.
“That’s close enough!” he yelled over the roar of the storm, as she swerved to avoid a fireball that used to be a silo. “Deploy the augers!” To his surprise Kate didn’t argue and stepped on the brakes. Augers deployed without problems, and she was preparing to fire the rockets.
The storm was right in front of them now and covered the entire horizon. The speed and ferocity of the swirling clouds was like nothing Tyler had ever seen, and he was certain that they were indeed eye-to-eye with an EF 5.
He watched intently once the rockets were released and followed the path of the silver iodide as it swirled around the updraft. It worked perfectly, within seconds of shooting the rockets the truck was battered by heavy raindrops. This was it; he turned and saw Kate’s finger hover over the barrel release button, waiting for the tornado to fully engulf them.
“Now!” he yelled a few seconds later. Kate pressed the button, but nothing happened. She pressed again, harder, but the barrels remained shut. She looked at him, a frizzled panic in her eyes. Tyler, knowing his temperamental electronics, hit the console hard with his fist. That did the trick, this time the mechanism worked as Kate slammed her finger on the button. They watched in awe as the sodium polyacrylate ascended into the dark clouds.
“Please work.” He muttered to himself, as he felt the violent forces that shook the truck despite the augers.
A loud bang from the rear brought them back to reality.
He looked behind. “Shit, there goes the trailer!” He exclaimed, and then, realizing that the entire truck was slowly moving backwards, he added. “The anchors won’t hold much longer, and without the extra weight of the trailer…” Tyler trailed off, putting it into words would make it too real, but he knew that Kate knew the forces at play here, probably better than him, and she understood what would happen as soon as the augers failed.
“Oh my god!” Kate exclaimed, while the truck was pushed even further back. He could see the panic in her face, the tremors that shook her entire body. He realized she was on the verge of slipping into a flash back to her last close-up experience with an EF 5 and he immediately knew that he needed to ground her in reality before she fully slipped away.
“Kate, tighten your harness, as tight as it gets.” He instructed, watching her shakingly fiddling with the straps as he adjusted his own harness. He reached over the console to grab her hand, holding it securely in his own. This was the only part of her he could reach, and it wasn’t enough. He wanted to hold her, protect her, keep her safe from what he knew was about to come, but he couldn’t. The helplessness crashed over him, and he squeezed her hand tighter, not sure if it was to comfort her or to reassure himself that she was ok. She turned to him, and he looked her straight in the eyes, conveying silently what he hadn’t had the time or courage yet to put into words. The truck lurched again, sideways this time and he felt the left auger give.
“Hold on, Kate!” He shouted over the roaring wind.
And the truck went flying.
Tyler didn’t know if it was because Kate’s experiment worked and the storm was weakening or if they were just lucky to be on the outskirts of the vortex, but they were lifted only about 40ft in the air before the updraft released them and he felt a short period of weightlessness before he was pressed back into the harness when the truck accelerated to the ground.
They impacted with the rear first, which knocked the air out of him, but was probably the best-case scenario in terms of damage. The truck didn’t stop once it hit the ground, it was pushed over to the side and started to roll. Everything inside went flying, glass shattered, and he could feel some of the shards embedding themselves into his skin. He felt like inside a giant washing machine, utterly helpless against the forces at play. With the windows broken, gushes of wind drove debris and dust into the cab. The dust made it hard to breathe while the debris was acting like a million little (and some not so little) projectiles. He used his free arm to protect his face as good as he could, but he was powerless against the onslaught. He glanced over at Kate and saw her holding onto the harness with one hand, the other one still had a dead grip on his own.
Still alive, he told himself, we are still alive. He began to think that they may just make it out of this as the truck crashed into something solid and everything turned black.