Wheels of Fate

Terror From the Skies!!

  It was an unseasonably warm early Spring day in Northeast Kansas when Charlie Gilmore and his wife, Callie were returning to their home outside of the small city of Charlestown, an industrial city built on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River.
  They were traveling highway K-136 in a 1969 Chevelle SS396 convertible that had been restored by Mo-Kan Rod and Restoration, a car repair business that Charlie had founded and built from an old car dealership on Baker Street in Charlestown.
  The couple, along with Charlie's General Manager and best friend, Todd Windmeyer, had attended a classic car auction in Trexler, Nebraska, ninety miles from Charlestown.
  They had hauled the Chevelle and several other shop restored cars to be sold there and maybe bid on some cars for future projects.
  Charlie was able to sell all of his cars except for the Chevelle; it didn't meet the reserve price he and Todd set for the car and Charlie refused to take off the reserve, opting to keep the convertible and try to sell it at a later time.
  He did, however, buy a couple of unrestored vehicles and once loaded onto the transporter, he and Callie decided to send Todd on to the shop with the project cars and they'd drive the Chevelle back to Charlestown.
  The beginning of the ninety mile trip started out perfect, weather-wise, for lowering the convertible top and enjoying the drive, but a storm front began building as they were crossing the Kansas border and when they were about five miles from home, Callie noticed the clouds had darkened noticeably and she was seeing a lot of lightning from the brewing storm.
  "Hey, Charlie," Callie said nervously, "I don't like the looks of that storm coming up behind us, maybe we should pull over and put the top up."
  "I agree with you, it looks a lot closer than it was a couple of miles back and appears to be getting worse." Charlie replied.
  Charlie spotted a field entrance where he could safely stop the car and while he raised and secured the convertible top, Callie began rolling up the windows, then they both stood at the back of the car to get a better look at the still building storm. Intense bolts of lightning could be seen beneath and through the rapidly approaching front, followed by thunderclaps that could be heard over the Chevelle's idling engine. The western sky looked as though it had been painted black with a line of an odd greenish color. Next, a strong, sudden wind gust hit them with enough force to push them back half a step and send Callie's brilliant red hair flying askew, then stopped as quickly as it started, leaving an eerie calm over the area.
  Charlie, who had attended severe weather spotter courses in the past said, "I don't like the looks of this."
  "See that?" Callie interrupted, "It looks like the cloud is trying to spin!"
  Yeah, you're right, dear, there's the beginnings of a rotation starting and, holy shit, look to the left side of the cloud base, there's an opening that's letting sunlight through!"
  "What does all that mean?" Callie asked, getting more than a little nervous.
  Becoming scared himself, Charlie said, "It means we need to get away from here, quick! That storm can drop a tornado at any moment, and I don't want us standing here when it does!"
  The couple dove back into their car, taking off with tires squealing and smoking, the Chevelle's 375 horsepower engine roaring them away from the danger zone just as a huge, ugly funnel lowered to the ground and began to move across the countryside...