Racing to Their Deaths (ONC 2024)

🌪️ 11. The Chase

"There's not much in the world that's not up my ass right now." —Amy

Minutes after flattening Quinton, the supercell recalibrated and strengthened. Churning up an ominous mix of energy, the storm built with explosive power. As the tornado tracked northeast, homes in its path exploded from inside out due to the pressure difference and were blown off their foundations.

"Did you get any footage from the rescue?" Amy lowered the chase music, a mix of classic rock and rhythm and blues.

"Only what Charlie Munson uploaded." Naseem shook his head." It was more important to rescue Maria."

Amy nodded and cranked up the pulsing music. Ahead of them, Halle and James drove at break neck speed to reach Lars ahead of the storm.

Naseem noted huge golden hay bails lying in the fields they flew past. A thin, deceptively fragile looking tornado descended from the darkened afternoon sky.

"Amy pull over, I want to get footage of this twister as it forms." She slowed the Nova, but didn't pull over. Overhead, the mesocyclone lowered. Ahead of them, the tornado transitioned from a rope to a wedge formation.

Two eerie funnels dropped down mimicking mammoth legs walking on the ground that signified the tornado's power.

"Dead man walking!" Amy shouted.

"Oh, man." Naseem leaned out the window. This is going to make a great shot."

Without warning, hay bails the size of prize-cattle jettisoned through the air and struck the ground near them. The speed of the airborne bowling ball debris boggled Naseem.

"Amy, let's go!" Zane leaned back into the car and rolled up the window as wooden slats from a demolished cattle feeder pummeled the Nova in a triad of spears.

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"This is a dangerous system. The storm's restructuring itself." Halle's voice was tight.

"What?" James glanced at her. "Half an hour ago, the system was weakening."

Meso analysis," Halle answered, "says the supercell still has a long way to go. This system has the strongest spin in the atmosphere I've ever seen. Just like the Super Outbreak in 2011." James swallowed hard. The Midwest Super Tornado outbreak lasted four days. With over three hundred and forty deaths and twelve billion dollars in damage, it was one of the deadliest tornado events ever recorded.

A large bale of hay bounced of  The Terminator's grill, hit the road in front of them and exploded.

"There goes our Doppler antennae," James said, grimly." In the rear view window, he saw his father's silver and white weather equipment tumble down the road in a broken heap of polyurethane piping. "Shit, that Doppler system was brand new. My father's going to be bullshit." He flipped on the wipers to clear the windshield. When his vision cleared, he gasped. A thousand yards to his right, inner suction vortices moved like giant legs and demolished anything in their path. The surreal effect made the tornado look like a terrifying monster walking across the field. Only the most powerful F4 and F5 tornado's formed side by side multi vortexes.

Behind them, the Nova caught up and was now trailed by a comet-tail stream of equipment-laden storm chasing vehicles.

"What a nightmare." He glanced at Halle. "Everyone's in on the chase. We have to plan our escape route before we're boxed in."

"What about the probe?"

He looked at the Dead Man Walking tornado that was eating up everything in its path. " I don't think we'll be able to deploy anything with that monster on the loose."

She wanted to argue, but remembering his help with Maria's rescue, she held her tongue and checked the road atlas software. "Once we pick up your father, we can head south to Sampson Road and drop out onto 1-40."

"Thanks." James picked up the mike. "Storm Riders, this is Weather Warriors, come in."

The radio squawked to life and Amy answered. "I copy, over."

"Glad you're still alive. Once we rescue my father, we'll use Sampson Road for our escape route."

"For the record, you drive like an old lady, over." The radio squawked and then cut out.

Halle grabbed James arm. "We have to deploy those probes. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The storm data we capture will be invaluable to weather research."

"You sound like my father," he said, bitterly. "His work is more important than my life."

Halle inwardly recoiled.

Am I like Lars?

Maybe, I am.

I want that probe deployed.

Even if it kills me.

Around them, the tornado was virtually invisible to the naked eye as heavy rain mixed with a pitch-black sky and obstructed it from view.

"Halle, if we get out of this alive, promise me we'll talk. This experience is giving me a new perspective on my job description."

She laughed, " James, it doesn't get any better than this. What do you want to do? Die stuck at a research desk?"

"Yes!"