Blister in the Wind

Chapter 1: The New Situation

When a wedge size tornado is on the ground and not moving left or right you know its either moving away from you or coming straight for you. Cowan knew this from years of wrecked equipment, totaled cars and lost hats. Sitting in the front seat of his Holden commodore he could feel the ground rumbling with fear as the thick funnel cloud ripped up the ground on the hillside only a few hundred yards in front of him. Even though he was viewing the dark green clouds through the windshield, it never felt more real than now. Cowan could see the tree's being ripped from their roots and spun around like toothpicks falling from their packet, the roar of the ghostly like ballerina cloud of destruction was deafening. However, the crackle of the radio was still audible.

"We have a visual of the dryline Cowan, the storm is stationary for now, but she could shift at any time. Can you deploy the potato cannon?" the crackly interfered voice of Moss, the right-hand man and best friend to Cowan came through. Moss was distanced from the storm, two or three streets to the north of the shelf cloud of the supercell. Safe.

Cowan reached out for his radio, clambering for it with shaky hands as he does, not taking his eyes off the storm.

"Affirmative, we have pulled up downwind of the funnel, Reece is trying to deploy now, thirty seconds to departure. Copy?" Cowan said into the radio whilst letting his window down in the car. The button of the electric windows was jiggery, due to past incidents from nasty weather and the window slid down in increments. 

The roar of the storm could be heard like a freight train storming through the station of a domestic railway terminal. Cowan could see his work colleague Reece by the edge of the road near a field and long fence of barbed wire. His hands going around the post of the fence, trying in desperation to set up the potato canon by attaching it with a roll of black duct tape.

"We have thirty seconds to departure Reece, she could shift track anytime. We have no side bending and the vortices are unstable!" Cowan tried to yell over the top of the tyrant of noise. 

Reece didn't respond. Cowan could assume this was due to the violence of the storm smashing every inch of the men's eardrums, but Reece had been known to mishear Cowan in the past. Lightning forks smashed down in the distance with what Cowan could only assume was followed by a deep bass-filled rumble of thunder. The rain hadn't caught them yet and it was unclear if this was due to their location within the storm or because of the sheer volume and velocity of the wind.

"Shiftage Cowan! We have immense shiftage! Radar pictures tell us she is building to move west! Deploy now or abandon!" the voice of Moss came to life on the radio.

"We are close to deployment" Cowan screamed back his words cracking with his voice.

"Pull the plug!" Moss cried.

This was enough incentive for Cowan, he had limitless amounts of trust in his best mate Moss from past experiences. Cowan uttered "shit" to himself and leaped out of the squeaky hinged door of the commodore onto the soggy mud river of a road.

That is when the wind hit, hard. Visualizing the beauty of mother nature behind the desk in an office on screens is one thing, behind the wheel of a car and the protection of a vehicle is another. You feel a little sense of self-security and safety. Being in the elements, was nothing more than scary. The most terrifying part was the impact of truth when he looked up at the funnel. Moss was correct, of course he was. The wedge was getting bigger and beginning to eat the trees at the top of the hill now. Slowly coming over and down like a herd of sheep on the green banks of a hill on a farm. Cowan could see that Reece had almost managed to attach the potato canon to the post of the barbed wire fence. The reason they called it the potato canon was due to the look and purpose of the piece of technology. A long PVC pipe attached to a small projectile thruster. Working for years at the meteorology bureau gave both Cowan and Reece the idea to shoot a probe from a safe distance via a remote control into storms in order to collect data and insightful information instead of getting into the path of danger. In this instance, it had failed. Now they were both face to face with the strongest force mother nature had to offer. Plus they had no idea what to expect next, no one did.