Chapter Text
Kate stood triumphantly, hands on her hips as she proudly showed off the final drafts of her crew’s ‘Tornado Taming’ project. Addy and Javi stared at the presentation in awe, a mix of mischief and amazement in their eyes.
“Hell. Yes. It’s perfect Kate! Oooh this is gonna be so good, we’re gonna be tornado killers!” Addy cheered, earning laughs from the others.
Jeb reached over to wrap an arm around Kate’s shoulders, pulling her in a side hug. “That’s my girl, before we know it, our name's are gonna be in the news.”
“Well, hopefully, I’m going to quadruple check the statistics and everything but we should be good to go.” Praveen stated, typing away furiously at his laptop.
Javi nudged him playfully. “Relax, man. Your calculations are never off. If it’s you and Kate, the brains of this operation are unbreakable.”
“Hey, I’ve got the brains too.” Jeb quipped.
“More like just the brawn, sorry Jeb.” Addy commented back with a laugh. Jeb pretended to look offended, holding his free hand to his chest and clutching his heart.
Kate looked between her friends and boyfriend with a wide smile. “All we gotta do is put this in action! It’s the end of tornado season though, so we definitely gotta get a move on.”
“Our best luck will be up east. Lots of forming cells, just not sure how well they will develop.” Praveen stated.
Kate grinned. “Worth a shot. Javi?”
Javi saluted. “Yes Ma’am! I’ll get Dorothy set up!”
“Now let’s just hope Tyler Owens and his lil’ hillbilly crew stays off our asses for a bit.” Addy mumbled, sighing, “Those Arkansasians can be really irritating.”
Kate laughed, waving off the idea. “I’m not worried about that cowboy.”
Jeb let go of Kate and gently hit the table in front of them. “Alright, alright, enough talking about other storm chasers, they got nothing to do with us. As Kate said: Let’s get a move on!”
…
The end of tornado season meant less and less relevant activity within the atmosphere. The crew camped out for the weekend, eagerly awaiting a storm that truly caught Kate’s eye.
A cell with not enough cape, or a storm only able to produce something pathetic like an EF0. None were worth their time, or money, for that matter. There just wasn’t enough instability .
As the team rested out in the field, enjoying lunch with one another, their peace became interrupted by an obnoxiously loud, roaring red truck in the distance.
The truck slowly came to a stop near their camp, country music blasting through its roof’s speakers. Javi and Addy wrinkled their noses in distaste, Kate rolling her eyes as Jeb and Praveen chose to simply ignore the intruders’ existence.
A man with a tan cowboy hat and signature red flannel hopped out the drivers side, strutting over to the crew with a cocky smirk on his face: none other than Tyler Owens himself.
Owens tipped his hat towards the Oklahoma students in greeting. “What’s goes on, lil tornado killers?” He called out mockingly, shooting a glance at Kate as his smile widened, “Not finding much out here, huh?”
“Yup, quite bored out here Tyler, mind driving your ugly truck into a ditch to provide us some entertainment?” Addy barked back, returning his cocky smirk.
The cowboy’s eye twitched slightly before he looked away, laughing. “Some manners you got there. I ain’t even do anythin’ to you yet.”
“ Yet. ” Addy chirped.
Kate simply sighed. “What are you doing here, Owens?”
“Storm chasin’, obviously.”
“With what storm?”
“The one that’s gonna be riiight behind ya in ‘bout half an hour.”
At that, Praveen looked up from his laptop, a doubtful expression on his face. “The radar shows no activity like that all evening, what are you talking about man?”
Tyler laughed, “Chaser’s instinct, I’m tellin’ ya! It’ll be there, just you wait, and Imma snatch it before you even spot it.”
“Y’know it doesn’t work like that if ya literally tell ‘em our plans in advance idiot!” A voice shouted from inside the truck. Boone, Tyler’s close friend, who Kate deems as just as much of an idiot as Owens. If not more.
Kate pointed behind her with an eyebrow raised, a small smirk on her face as clouds began to form and darken in small specks. “Y’mean that one? One step ahead of you, cowboy, been watching that area all morning.”
At that, Tyler’s smirk faded. “Y’can’t be serious.”
“Always am.”
“That’s what's annoyin’ about you, y’know.”
“Aw, Tyler, you flatter me.”
Tyler rolled his eyes, spinning around and back to his truck with a dramatic twist on his boots. “Whatever, Sapulpa, have fun with yall’s little science project!”
He hopped back into the driver’s side, turning the engine on as his blasting music kicked back in. He took off, his crew’s laughter echoing through the fields as they disappeared into the distance.
Javi sat up suddenly. “Kate, we gotta go before they beat us there!”
Kate waved him off. “Nah, sit down. I was just messing with them, that storm’s not gonna give anyone anything either. Give it about an hour, we’ll have a good one to the west of us.”
Her crew broke into a fit giggles at that, and Jeb smiled down at her. “Knowing just how to get that guy all riled up. Now we really can beat him to the punch.”
Kate giggled and stood on her tiptoes to give Jeb a quick peck on the lips. “You know it.”
…
An hour passed, and the skies began to darken, the cell’s intensity catching the eyes of Kate and her crew, their adrenaline kicking in as they hopped into their respective vehicles.
Praveen punched away on his laptop, observing the radar ahead. “All numbers looking good, this storm will definitely give us something.”
“Something, but what, more than one of those pathetic EF0s, right? Like EF1? Or 2?” Addy questioned excitedly.
“Well, an EF2 would be pushing it.” Praveen stated.
Jeb clicked his tongue. “An EF1 would be perfect, right Kate?”
Kate shrugged. “Yeah, buuut an EF2 would give us a good challenge. I’m alright with either.”
The crew continued driving down the country roads, Javi staying behind in his van as the other’s approached the storm. Rain picked up, small nuggets of hail hitting the windshield, wind gusts slightly jerking the car every which way as they drove further in.
Kate’s heart pounded as she looked around and took in her surroundings. It was terrifying, yet beautiful.
“Man, I love Oklahoma.”
Addy cheered. “Heeeell yeah! Now where’s that tornado at?”
Praveen hums. “Based off activity, I’d say somewhere behind us.”
Jeb’s eyebrows furrowed. “So, should I like, speed up?”
“Nope, we gotta find the path first.” Kate stated, “Praveen, any visual?”
“Hard to say, what can you see Kate?”
Kate looked out the window, observing the direction of the wind as the blades of grass and wheat fields swayed every which way. Suddenly, her eyes widened, her hand taking a hold of Jeb’s arm. “Here, stop here! It’s the path!”
Jeb came to a sudden stop. “You sure??”
“Yes, get the barrels ready!”
…
“Guys, guys whatever is in there is big and it's moving fast , get out of there! Now !” Javi’s voice rang through the now abandoned walkie talkie.
Kate watched in absolute horror as Jeb’s car vanished into the black clouds behind them. She felt frozen in place, too terrified to move.
An EF2? Who was Kate kidding?
How could she not realize sooner, that they were fighting a fucking EF5 ?
Kate’s head was throbbing, her vision going blurry as the world began to spin around her. An overpass. That was their one and only hope. There weren’t even ditches around, or anything for that matter.
The tornado got closer with each second, its winds intensifying. Kate didn’t even process Praveen’s screams as he got sucked into the vortex of the storm, couldn’t even process the excruciating pain in her leg as a large piece of debris sliced a nasty gash down her left thigh. Addy’s screams disappearing in the distance were overpowered by the sound of a loud, loud jet engine as the tornado crept closer.
Kate was warm, as secure as she could be against the rails of the overpass, until suddenly that warmth was stripped away from her, and she was alone.
Jeb was there, saying, ‘ I’ve got you’ , until he wasn’t.
By the end of it all, it was just her.
…
Her ears rang, her head was spinning, and her leg throbbed from the overbearing pain as she hopelessly limped down the now destroyed country roads.
No life anywhere in sight, other than herself, who was barely holding on and in one piece.
Nothing felt real to her in that moment, so many emotions swimming inside of her that she couldn’t even properly process. She felt empty, disconnected from everything around her.
Crushed cars, crushed trees, no life.
She saw a red truck. It was silent, she could only hear the ringing in her ears that got louder, and louder.
Her vision was blurry, but she could see a figure hopping out of the red truck, followed by a few others. She heard yelling, fearful yelling. She heard her name.
“Kate!”
“Kate, holy shit, your leg.”
“You need medical attention-”
“Where’s your crew? Are they okay??”
She couldn’t answer, couldn’t comprehend what was being said to her. She only grew more and more dizzy, more and more tired, until suddenly, everything had gone black.
-
“Y’all, we’re stayin’ outta that one. It looks dangerous.” Tyler stated, with an abnormally serious tone.
Their last chase ended in failure, as the cell right before had formed absolutely nothing. The crew was itching for more, but this - this one was too much. Tyler could tell. And his crew trusted his instincts, so they held back. They knew their limits.
“We’ll go out once it passes t’ search for any injured or stranded.” Boone added, earning nods of agreement from the crew.
Lily hummed as she observed her drone’s visuals. “Yeah, good call, that funnel is absolutely huge. An EF4 at least. Luckily not headed to any towns though.”
Tyler felt a shiver crawl up his spine as a thought suddenly hit him. “Any sight of Kate and her crew out there?”
“Shit, hope not, or they'd be nothin’ but a meat kabob.” Dani commented.
So, when Lily suddenly mumbled an ‘Oh shit.’, Tyler felt his heart drop.
“They’re right in front of it!”