Surviving the Tornado

Tears

20 minutes pass by in the blink an eye. I definitely can't squish the tornado now. Even though it's about 15 minutes from reaching us, it feels like just a few seconds from eating us whole.

I don't even have time to cry. That would take up too much energy.

"Come on adrenaline! Don't fail me now!" I scream hysterically. What a sight we would be right now. Three teenagers running from a tornado, screaming. I almost laugh, but decide against it.

We've tried running to the side, but it seems just to follow us. It's completely unreal.

I look to the right and gasp in shock. Charlie isn't there.

The panic starts to kick in. Did he stop running and get swallowed by the storm? I whip my head around and spot him way behind us. He probably ran to the side.

Just the thought of it makes my blood boil. What a traitor! He left us just to save himself!

"Mia!" I yell. I can barely hear myself over the winds. She turns to me, eyes full of fear. I point over at Charlie and she growls in anger. "I know right!" I shriek.

"Nothing we can do now!"

And just like that we forget everything, except the storm. I'm guessing it'll reach us in 5 minutes. 5 miles away too. So that means it's going at 60 miles per hour.

I definitely can't run that fast.

A minute passes. I grab Mia's hand in mine.

Another minute goes by. I try to focus on the forest ahead of me.

We're down to about two minutes. We both scream and look back. It's so close to catching us.

One minute. One minute to either die or survive. "Sky! I can feel it pulling me! HELP!" Mia screams. I use all my force and pull her forward. The winds are too strong.

I feel her come to a stop. "Sky." she whispers and looks me straight in the eye, "I love you."

I scream no but she pushes me and runs in the opposite direction. The tornado follows her. When Mia is far enough away from me, she halts and looks at me with pure love written all over her face.

As the tornado engulfs her, and a rock comes hurling my way.

It bangs into my head and all goes dark.

The sound of Stairway to Heaven replays in my head as I drift away.

++++++++++

I jolt upright. I must've had one of those stupid tornado nightmares again. Then why is my head pounding?

"Sky!" exclaims Charlie from nearby.

"Hey! I had another stupid nightmare again. This time it felt different though. You ditched us. Seriously, not cool." I grumble.

"What are you talking about?" Charlie asks as he comes around a corner. His face is red and puffy.

I cringe, "What happened to your face?"

Charlie sighs and looks me straight in the eye. "Do you remember anything that happened yesterday?"

"Yeah. Why?"

Charlie's eyes well up with tears and he looks away.

"Charlie! What the heck is up with you? I need to ask Mia about this." I stand up and yell her name.

I get no reply.

"Skyler stop. She isn't here." Charlie sniffles. "She's really far away."

A burst of pain erupts on the back of my head. "What! Charlie what's going on? Where is Mia? Why is my head pounding? Why are you crying?"