The Tempest A.J. Scudiere (books to read in a lifetime .TXT) 📖

as she climbed out onto it. Her hair whipped in the high wind and Cage still couldn’t open his eyes fully against the stinging grains of Alabama dirt or cotton or anything else the storm had picked up.

“This way!” She motioned back to them. She must have been six to eight feet off of the ground, but the car was wedged tightly against the side of the ditch pitching up behind them. Joule began maneuvering to reach back for Izzy who in turn reached back for Cage, once again forming a human chain. That was probably a bad idea. But he wasn't willing to let go of the only people he could hold on to.

Deveron was out the front door on his side, already climbing down and around the front, possibly a precarious position. If the tornado slammed the car around, or if gravity changed its mind and it tipped forward, Deveron might get caught underneath it. But he didn't seem to notice as he also motioned for them all to get away from the vehicle as fast as they could.

It was probably the smartest decision and it was worth the risk as Cage saw no other options. He was climbing out onto Joule’s still open door as he heard Sarah below him banging on the window.

She was stuck.

Cage motioned Izzy and Joule away and turned back to help. Beside him, Deveron pressed his face to Sarah's window and tried to yell. “Do you have a tool?”

It took a moment for her to understand, but when she did her face lit up. Scrambling within the confines of the seatbelt, she reached around in the space, but came up with a silver “car accident tool” as Cage had always called them.

She quickly lined up the point and smashed out the window. Next, she tried and failed to climb out, discovering she was stuck. But she figured it out and twisted around again, slicing at her seat belt with the back of the tool.

“The seat belts!” he called to her. “Get the seat belts!”

Sarah frowned at him for a moment and didn’t understand. So as she climbed out the jagged window, bumping glass pebbles into the wind, he snagged the tool from her and rolled back into the interior.

Five passengers. Five seat belts, though Izzy’s center back belt just went across the lap, coming out very short. He scrambled through the car, slashing and trying to pull out the longest strips of webbing he could. But the car didn't want to yield the belts. They’d locked into place with the accident and he was left with only short chunks.

He didn't know how long it took before he crawled back out, but when he did, he was slapped by the ends of the straps he now clenched tightly in his fist. The wind had no respect for any of them and they moved along, buffeted by trash and parts of things the storm had already destroyed.

“Duck!” he yelled as he saw a piece of a roof fly overhead.

They all complied, though it had been too far above them to do anything.

But this was no longer arm- or leg-sized pieces flying by. That had been a recognizable chunk of someone’s home. He wanted to look back up, but kept his head ducked low. The only reason they weren’t getting thrown about like straw was because they were down in the deep ditch.

While that was clearly saving their lives right now, they were stuck without trees. No pipes. Even the exposed roots were small and flimsy. But when the storm rolled over them—and it would be a miracle if it didn’t—the pressure changes would suck them right out of their hiding spot.

What Radnor had said was right: People always thought it was safer to climb under a bridge or into a large pipe, but it was actually worse.

Deveron grabbed onto Cage’s free hand, taking the tool and reaching out to Sarah, who was now linking up with Izzy and Joule. The five of them picked their way along as quickly as it could. In his mind, the time stretched for ages. The storm would catch them faster than he could think about it.

But they moved forward, not ripped from where they stood.

Not yet.

The ditch already had some standing water, though as he looked down, he saw that it rippled in the high winds. Nothing was still, not even down here.

They moved as quickly as possibl, but it was slow going. They couldn’t outrun the storm, and it sounded as if the winds had targeted them again. He couldn’t see beyond the edge of the ditch to be sure. He only knew that the day was getting darker and the air getting louder. It didn’t bode well at all.

“We have to find something to hold on to!” he called as loud as he could, but he wasn’t sure he was heard at the front of the line.

It might not matter. There wasn't much of anything down here to hold onto except each other.

It was a balancing act full of bad choices, and what they decided would determine if they lived or died. Small trees, which they could wrap themselves around and hold on to, would likely be easily pulled out by the storm. Bigger trees that might withstand the wind, they wouldn’t be able to hold on to.

“Are there roots? Anything strong?” He began trying to tie the ends of the seatbelts together, knowing they were running out of time.

Was there a house nearby?

It would have pipes and at least a more solid structure than anything in the ditch. Then again, he’d seen what happened the last time a house went up against this monster.

What they needed was a house with a basement, but they would have to leave the ditch to find one. And they couldn’t leave the ditch.

“There!” Izzy yelled as she bolted forward. Cage could feel her tugging even though he was at the end of the line. “A pipe! There's a pipe!”

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