Vortex

Part One Chapter Three

Iris sat in the driver's seat of her car, watching the radar with Abie. The storms were initiating over the Nashville dryline just as Iris had expected. And they were speeding out to the east. "Hey Marcus," Iris called out over the radio, "We're gonna want to pick a storm to target so we can get into position." Iris knew what storm she wanted to chase. There was a storm moving into the Knoxville area that was moving in an unusual direction. Normally storms moved from the Southwest to the Northeast, but this storm was moving from the Northwest to the Southeast. "I like the look of the Knoxville storm." Iris radioed to Markus. "That sounds good." Markus replied. "It's got good movement so people might not be prepared. Let's go team. We are moving North." As soon as Markus gave the go ahead, the team was on the move. As they started to get closer to the storm, it was already showing signs of rotation. The team started to move into the town of Seymore, with the storm almost right overhead. "Alright. It's time to enact our battle plan." Markus radioed. "Iris, you and Abie keep on 441 and try to watch for a touchdown. Drew, Velvette, you guys stay here in town with me and Jack. I don't want to keep pushing if we don't know what this thing is hiding." Iris kept on, into the storm. Abie watched radar on her computer. "Hey Iris? It looks like this couplet is tightening to our Left!" Iris looked out into the rain. A couplet was a radar indication that the storm was rotating, and when it tightened, it was a sign that there was a tornado. "I can't see anything in this rain. Is there a turn off that we can use to get closer?" Iris questioned. "Right up here! Turn left!" Abie replied. Iris swerved the car to the left, almost hydroplaning off the road in the rain, and there they saw it. In front of them was a beautiful stovepipe tornado shrouded in the rain. "Get Markus on the phone!" Iris yelled. Abie quickly called up Markus and relayed the info. "We have a confirmed tornado on the ground heading for the south side of town." Abie called to Markus. She knew that he would get the rest of the team into position. Iris kept driving towards the tornado. They were close enough now to see the debris getting lofted into the sky. Iris picked up the radio. "Markus! If you are hearing this, do not have Drew and Velvette deploy on this tornado. There is too much debris. The pod will get shredded." Markus crackled over the radio but neither Iris nor Abie could make out what he was saying and figured that he couldn't understand them either. As the tornado moved to the Southwest, Iris criss crossed through the suburban streets of Seymore following the tornado. As they chased it, the tornado started to shrink and rope out until just as quick as it appeared, it dissipated. The radio crackled with Markus's voice. "Iris? Abie? Where are you? This storm is cycling! Get back on 441 and get ahead of it!" Iris took a sharp left and sped towards the road. When a storm cycled, it meant that the rotation was reforming and would most likely drop a new tornado to the north of where the previous tornado dissipated. Finally they would be able to put their plan into action. Iris and Abie sped ahead of the storm and Markus led the rest of the team into position for a pod deployment. "Hey Ris?" Abie asked. "This storm is heading straight into Pigeon Forge.