{2019}
The thunder rumbles softly outside of our 'basecamp' "storms here guys! Let's go!" Kate shouts, I jump up from my mattress.
"God I went way to hard last night" Javi groans. "Javi get up cmon!" Kate shouts. I walk over to where Jeb and Kate were about to record a video.
"Jeb are you sure your recording?, I don't see a red light" Kate asks gazing curiously at the camera in front of her.
"Oh, yeah recording" Jeb replies.
"Okay, Blah!" Kate giggles, me and Jeb laugh as well. "Don't make me laugh stop it" Kate replies.
"Okay, Today our science team from the tornado Tamer project is out in the field about to chase a storm southwest of us, Our experiment is designed to decrease the moisture inside of a tornado to see if we can make it collapse"
Kate explains.
"Tell the folks how you do that Kate" Jeb adds.
"Well, first, we got to find a tornado to suck up our super absorbent polymers in these barrels.." Kate explains.
"Diapers" Addy whispers. "Tell them it's the same stuff they use in diapers"
"Oh yeah" Kate replies. "It's nontoxic" I add witch makes everyone laugh.
"Uh, the Doppler doesn't show a storm until the afternoon" Addy explains.
"The data doesn't see what Kate and Hailey see remember?" Javi adds.
"Ready y'all? You know what today is?" I ask.
"The day we tame a tornado!" We all shout excitedly. We all hop in and start to drive as we monitor the storm.
"Okay we should get the mixture ready" Kate suggests.
"Don't you wanna wait for the rain to hit first?" Jeb questions. The rain starts to hit our windshield and me and Kate look at eachother.
"Okay we should umm... we should get the mixture ready" Jeb laughs. "Yes, we should" I add. We all hop out and Me, Jeb and Kate head towards the barrels mixing the polymer while Javi and Addy set up Dorothy.
"No matter what we gotta get these barrels in the air" I add as we hop in. "Uh, I got a CAPE of 4,000" Praveen explains.
"100 Knots gate-to-gate wind shear aloft"
"Give us a nice respectable EF1, I mean EF2 we'll take it" I add. "EF2 would be too big" Praveen mentions.
"You have no faith Praveen" I add.
"Javi hows Dorothy's gps?" I ask staring at the sky attempting to read the clouds. "Dorothy's coming in loud and clear" Javi replies.
As we drive the turn we took completely flipped out trailer. "The trailer!" I shout. Our tires screech against the road and we all jump out.
"Guys hurry it's spilling!" Kate shouts. "We need leverage to lift it!" Jeb shouts. He runs towards a long object and positions it under the trailer, we all put weight on it successfully lifting the trailer.
We all cheer and hop back in starting to drive. "Okay, we dropped the trailer Javi" Kate speaks over the radio.
"All right, let's see if it takes the bait"
"What if it's not a tornado, what if it's just a dense wave of hail" I fret. As the hail pounds on the windows we drive away from the trailer.
The wind sweeps against our window as a funnel forms in the distance. "We just shot up 10,000 feet!" Javi shouts over the radio.
"Okay, that's not just hail" I laugh. "We did it kate!" Jeb exclaims. "Wait, wait, it's getting closer" Kate explains.
"Sensors rising, 30,000 feet" Javi explains over the radio.
"The... the polyacrylate should be active now, are the winds weakening Javi?" I ask.
"Dorothy can't tell you that, Lagrangian mechanics, a moving sensor can't give you the exact measurement of wind speed but, ah yeah! 40,000 feet"
Kate looks around in shock at the somehow growing tornado behind us. "Your tornado isn't shrinking Kate, 50,000 feet"
"Holy shit" Kate mumbles.
"Nah, nah, nah this can't be right" I add. "Javi talk to us.... Javi talk to us.... Talk to us!" Addy shouts.
"Sensors just shot up 70,000 feet"
"What?"
"Uh, the... NEXRAD velocity is 200 miles per hour" Javi explains. "That's impossible..." Kate mumbles.
"Unless it's an EF5..." I add.
"Guys whatever's in there it's big, it's big and it's moving fast drive! You gotta get the hell out of there!"
We all breathe hard as Jeb throws us into drive and speeds off. "It's getting closer!" Praveen shouts.
"Oh! Look out!" Kate shouts as our vehicle gets hit. "Everybody okay?" I ask.
"We can't stay here, There!" Jeb suggests pointing towards the giant overpass in the distance.
"Overpasses are the worst in tornadoes!" Kate shouts.
"What do we do?" Addy asks in fear. Our truck creaks and I look around in fear. "This cars gonna fly! Come on!" I shout as we all hop out and run towards the overpass.
As we run Praveen is sucked into the funnel. "Praveen!!" I scream in horror as addy runs ahead of me. I continue running until I reach the overpass.
"Kate!" Addy screams reaching for Kates hand. I get hit by a flying stop sign and it slices my leg open. I whimper as I lay on the ground crawling towards Kate and Jeb.
Addy was blacked out next to me and I held her as I cried. "Addy! Wake up addy!" I scream desperately.
I watch in horror as Jeb is the next Victim to the funnel.
"Jeb!" Kate screams in horror. We scream over and over until Addy wakes up. "Addy!" I shout. "I, I- I'm not okay Hailey..." Addy stutters.
Her face was turning pale as I stared at her. "Addy hold on for me, please don't go" I whimper. Kate lays lifelessly on the overpass.
"Addy, just look at the light everything is okay" I say as I cry on her motionless body. "I love you Hailey, tame one for me..." Addy mumbles.
She was gone.
"Addy, no, please" I whimpered as I bawled. All I could do was hug her lifeless body hoping she'd come back along with Praveen, and Jeb.
Kate wakes up from blacking out and gasps falling down the overpass. "She's gone kate..." I stutter.
Me and Kate hugged as tight as we could as our friend laid lifeless in front of us.
"I- im sorry Hailey, I would've never brought us out here" Kate whimpers. "Don't blame yourself Kate, I wanted this too" I reply.
"Hailey, you- your leg..." She says in shock. "It's fine, im fine" I mumble. "It's not Hailey" Kate mumbles applying pressure to the gaping slice in my leg.
I wince and fall back on the pavement. We hear fire trucks in the distance so Kate ran out waving her hands to hopefully catch the attention of the trucks.
Why do I keep putting myself in this position, Losing people I love, hurting myself. Storms are my comfort and I always run back to them.
It's odd but it's me.
