Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 59659 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 298(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59659 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 298(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
It terrified me then. My mom tried to make the best of it, convincing me that it was like a game. We had a propane camp stove and some beans and hotdogs. She cut up the hotdogs and threw them in a pan with the baked beans and cooked them until they were hot. From then on, that was a meal I wanted every time there was a storm. It was comforting.
There had been a bad one that year. It tore up a lot of the town and blew part of the high school to pieces. It had to be remodeled, which took forever. My freshman year was marked by the sounds of hammering and the smell of fresh paint as they tried to finish a year-long project of basically rebuilding the school from scratch while people were still in it.
I pulled open my phone and checked my messages. Still nothing from Melanie. I decided to text her again.
I texted, Melanie. Please call me as soon as possible. It’s about the store. There’s a tornado coming. I want to make sure you’re safe. I am going up there now to make sure that everyone is out. Please take shelter. We can talk about everything else later. Stay safe, please!
With that, I stuffed the phone into my pocket. I grabbed a jacket and my keys, thinking at the last second to grab the charger for my phone, just in case I got stuck somewhere and needed to charge it and didn’t want to go out to the truck to do so. Of course, I was about to ride toward a tornado. It was possible that wherever I ended up, my truck could end up somewhere very far away indeed.
I couldn’t stop and get anything else. I needed to get up to the store and make sure it got emptied and anyone who remained was safely sheltered. I ran out of the front door of my house, locking it behind me, and took off for the truck. The sky overhead had gone from a pale gray to dark, almost black with clouds. Lightning struck nearby and lit up the world for a moment, and thunder rolled behind it.
I just hoped I could be of some use. I tried to remember if there was a storm shelter at the store. There had to be one. It was the law in our town, I thought. After the storm that tore up the school, I thought everyone had to have one. I hoped they did, anyway.
If there was a shelter, I could go straight to it, open it up, and make sure any stragglers and employees got down there and we could wait out the storm. I just hoped that nothing happened to the building itself.
Pushing the engine start button, I pulled out onto the road and headed toward Brewer’s Grocery. Hail started to pelt the windows when I was only a block away.
The storm had come to Murdock.
16
MELANIE
The wind was already blowing little paper ads and trash around the parking lot when I pulled in. A quick glance to the trees that lined the median on the cross street showed that they were whipping back and forth, threatening to snap in half or come uprooted if it got much worse. And it most likely was going to.
I had the radio on the entire way listening to the alerts as they kept coming in. One after the other, the news was getting worse for Murdock. The storm was tearing through the next town over, and the mayor was pleading for people to seek shelter.
The roads were desolate, and it was creepy to be out on them by myself. When I reached a red light, I noticed that there was no one else around and ran it. There was literally no one on the roads.
As I reached the cross street where the store was, I saw that the lights were still on inside, but there were only a few cars left in the parking lot. The second my car was parked, the front door opened, and I could see Amy’s face, locked in an expression of stress and terror. She beckoned me as I ran through the rain that began the second that I opened my door. Thick, heavy drops felt like bullets crashing down from the heavens as I dove into the store.
“Everybody needs to get out,” I said. “Right now. Go home.”
“People are still shopping,” Amy said, shrilly. “I can’t make them stop!”
“I can,” I said, yanking down the mic on one of the registers. I pressed the button and heard the intercom system click on. “Attention. Anyone in the store in sixty seconds will not be rung up. You will be locked inside and left to deal with the storm. Bring your crap up and get the hell out. Now.”