“Whatever.” Lando rolled her eyes and found her shoes, shoving her feet into them while Violet did whatever she needed in the bathroom.
Sure enough, in a few minutes they were all piled into the Hummer, Diane driving wherever Violet told her to go. The sun was rising, painting the horizon beautiful hues of red and crimson. They drove for an hour west. Boredom was the only thing Lando could think about. There was nothing for her to do unless they stopped for a storm. Then her job was to get out, grab the odd-shaped little white devices from the cardboard box in the back, and put them exactly where Violet told her to.
She honestly wasn’t even sure they needed three people for this, but if Diane wasn’t willing to step into the path of an oncoming tornado to get data, she supposed they did. She still couldn’t really figure out what Diane did other than drive.
Finally, they approached the storm. The sky was dark, rumbling even though the sun was almost fully over the horizon behind them. Lando had to squint to see where the clouds started and ended. Violet muttered something, but Lando didn’t hear it from the back. Instead, she was mystified by the beauty of the night storm where the only thing they could see was lightning as it struck down. Diane powered forward right into the center of it.
“There’s already one touching down,” Violet nearly shouted.
“Where?” Diane questioned.
“Take the next right. It’s going to be hard to see in the dark.”
Lando’s stomach clenched tightly. This was going to be her moment—when she really became part of the team, when she could do something that would be helpful rather than feel like a total leech.
Violet sounded so confident as they drove through what felt like fields. It was so dark it was hard to see, nothing other than the headlights and the flashes of lightning to guide them.
“Pull off here.” Violet’s voice lowered, and Lando barely heard it over the storm outside.
Lando’s heart raced, but she grabbed the box and started turning on the small devices so they would connect up with the computer sitting in Violet’s lap. They worked without speaking as Diane ignored Violet’s plea of where to stop and drove deeper into the heart of the storm. The second device lit up with life. Violet clicked on her computer, cursing as the vehicle jerked sharply and she mistyped.
Lando’s shoulder crashed into the door, and it took her a second to get resituated and turn on the third device. They were limited in how many they had. Diane told her no more than five each time. If a tornado took it up, then that was perfect. If not, she didn’t want to lose them to other damage if they could avoid it. Focusing on her task, Lando listened as Violet muttered to herself as the devices connected to the computer.
“Stop!” Violet shouted.
Lando froze, her hand hovering over the fifth device. Diane stomped on the brake, the car skidding to a halt in the middle of whatever backwoods road they were on.
“It’s just west of us.”
The window was dark, and it was so hard to see. Lando squinted, and it took her longer than she wanted to admit to find the funnel, but she couldn’t see where it touched down.
“Is it on the ground?” Diane asked, thankfully.
“I don’t know,” Violet murmured. “Lando, are you ready?”
“Yeah.” Grabbing the cardboard box, Lando shifted toward the door of the vehicle. She pushed her way outside, wind whipping across her face. Cold air slapped her, goosebumps rising on her arms and her neck.
Violet rounded the front of the Hummer and took Lando by the elbow. “Do you see it?”
“Not where it’s touching down.”
Holding her hair back with her hand, Violet surveyed the field before them. It was so dark outside. Night storms were different than any other storm Lando had experienced. She was thrown into the pitch black, unable to confidently make out anything. Rain pelted down, sometimes digging into her skin like sharp little points, it hit so hard.
“I’ll help you over the fence.”
Violet held onto her arm as they walked, trudging through the small ditch to the wooden and barb-wired fence. Lando’s stomach twisted at the thought of trespassing, but she did as she was told, climbing as carefully as she possibly could—although the slice on the back of her forearm told her she hadn’t been successful. The box was thrust across the fence line, and she gripped it firmly.
“Go about a hundred feet west, drop the box, and run. It’s all up to luck now.”
“Right.” Lando gritted her teeth as she trotted off to where she thought the tornado might be. Violet stayed put behind her. She’d never felt so alone before. Wind whipped the wheat around her ankles and her knees, and she was glad she’d chosen jeans instead of sweats. They offered far more protection.
Fifty feet seemed like a mile in the middle of a storm before the sun was good and truly up. If she faced east, she could see the light trying to peek through the clouds, but it was so dark, it was next to impossible. The temperature dropped, and the sound of rushing wind filled her ears. She couldn’t hear anything else.
Walking another twenty feet, Lando looked around to see if she could find the funnel she’d lost track of, but it was nowhere in sight. She stumbled, her foot catching on a rock or something, she wasn’t sure. She only had another thirty feet to go, or so she thought. Lando straightened her shoulders and kept her eyes peeled for the funnel. Her ears hurt so badly from the drop in pressure that if her hands were free she would have reached up to grab them.
The sound got louder. She had to be close. At some point, Lando could hear nothing, not even her own breathing or heartbeat. She dropped the box on the ground and spun on her toes to head to the Hummer, but she couldn’t see it. Nothing but darkness surrounded her.
Panic welled in her chest. She screamed out for Violet’s name but couldn’t even hear her own voice. Stumbling again, Lando stepped forward in the only direction she could think to go. She lost count of how many steps she took, but the roaring eased up a bit. Prying her chin up, Lando looked ahead of her, seeing light in the distance and following its path. She had to be going east, which meant she was going toward the Hummer.