Page 72 of Grumpy

“Is she okay?”

The SUV bounced and jostled over rough terrain. Kelly reached over again to help steady Maddie, but her strength was nothing compared to the force trying to push them from their seats.

“Kelly!” She jumped at her name, and her attention was wrenched off Maddie to the front seat. Grumpy had his head turned over his left shoulder, facing them in the back even though he wouldn’t be able to see them from that angle. “Is she okay?” he demanded again.

Kelly looked Maddie over, and while she didn’t see blood, she did see a wet patch between her thighs.

“I’m fine!” Maddie called forward when Kelly said nothing. She met Kelly’s eyes, new tears flooding her cheeks as she confessed in a horrified voice, “It’s pee. I peed.”

For some reason Maddie’s embarrassment over the fact that she’d peed her pants knocked Kelly back into herself. Here her mind was thinking of things that didn’t matter. The past and the future didn’t matter. Now mattered, and Kelly’s mind thinking only of what had been and what could have been solved nothing, helped no one.

Determination filled her. She was not going to die today. None of them were going to die today.

She took Maddie’s hand. “It’s okay,” she assured her.

“It’s turning!” Jackson shouted as he pulled them off the grassy shoulder and onto the road.

It was then that Kelly realized they’d sped under an overpass without slowing in the slightest. Why hadn’t they gotten off the highway? Or stopped? Weren’t overpasses supposed to be safe turning a tornado? That’s what the movies showed, anyway.

“And we’re about to,” Grumpy threw back at the younger man.

Kelly swiveled in her seat. Holy fuck… Her eyes widened as new terror took her. The funnel that had been so far away before was no longer far away. And it was huge. She had no idea how to even begin to judge the width of it, only that it seemed to span the entire highway. That was also when she realized they were no longer driving on the northbound side of the road. At some point, Jackson had taken them across the median and they were now driving north on the south side of the road. She wasn’t the greatest at judging distances, but she estimated they were, maybe, a mile or two ahead of it.

At least, she hoped they were. A mile or two sounded better than ten feet—though she would have preferred to have been states away.

True to Jackson’s prediction, the tornado’s path took it off the highway and into the trees on their right. But as Kelly faced forward again, she saw that Grumpy was also correct. The road curved ahead, and it would lead them directly into the tornado’s path.

* * *

Grumpy might not have grown up in Texas as Maddie had, but he’d lived there through his twenties and into his early thirties. He knew the signs of a tornado. Should have spotted them sooner. Between his depth perception and loss of his periphery, he wasn’t too trusting of his vision these days. Instincts he thought were chronic itching on his graft sites had tried to warn him sooner, but he hadn’t listened.

The stats were not on their side. While tornados were more common in the spring, they were not unheard of this time of year either. And since they were less common, they could be just as, if not more, deadly. People don’t plan for tornados when they’re prepping for snow.

To make matters worse, they were heading northbound on a rural highway with only trees surrounding them for miles. Good for the population living in the area, but not for them.

From the second man had taken their first steps up to now, there was one constant trait throughout humanity—people on a whole did not handle fear well. Be it cultural change, the loss of power, or a fucking tornado barreling down on them at over a hundred miles per hour. Fear turned people into utter morons.

But Grumpy had to hand it to the prospect. Jackson kept his cool. Even with people running through the roads, debris flying everywhere, and vehicles crashing into each other at every turn, the guy powered through, found an alternate route, and kept going.

Trees were not the protection in a storm like this that most thought they were. In this dense landscape, they created wind tunnels. That was the problem with overpasses, too. It was true that they could be used as protection, but it was also just as true that they could be used as a vacuum, sucking anyone underneath up and away.

Their options were few and far between—and unfortunately, their first option to try to outrun the monstrosity was not working. Grumpy tried to think. Shelter would be best, something concrete or underground. But there literally was nothing around. And even if there was, they’d have to have a clear road path to get to it. The highway was surrounded by deep drainage ditches and chicken wire fencing on either side of them.

This wasn’t a battle that could be won by strength or wits. Mother Nature was sending one of her most deadly assassins towards them, and luck was not on their side. The chances they would find reasonable shelter with a drivable path to it was slim to none.

He knew of people who had survived the odds. A man out for a run had clung to a tree when a tornado touched down near him; a little boy yanked from his father’s arms and landed safely miles away; a woman jumped into her swimming pool with her dog and held her breath underwater as her house was destroyed yards away… There were stories and tales. Incredible chances, twists of fate, miracles of God…whatever anyone wanted to call them.

They were not how-to survivor stories. They were not the rulebook. The reality of the situation in the SUV was so much more dire. All it would take would be one bad turn, one hit, one popped tire, and their escape vehicle would be useless to them. They’d have no choice but to run. But run to where? Kelly and Jackson had the highest chances of survival. They were the strongest, most fit. They would not be able to outrun a tornado, but they had higher chances of reaching shelter than Grumpy or Maddie could.

Even with the adrenaline pumping through his veins, Grumpy knew the truth of it. He couldn’t run. At best, a speedy walk. His strength, his core, was busy healing his body of extensive injuries. And Maddie? His little Mad Pie was six months pregnant with twins. She was neither fast nor graceful.

His mind knew the stats, but could not accept them. If leaving him behind gave the others their best chances of survival, then he would be pushing them out the doors right now. Leave him, save themselves. But it wasn’t just him. He couldn’t justify Kelly’s and Jackson’s survival at Maddie’s expense.

It fucking hurt. The reality of what they were facing and Grumpy’s uselessness. He was the weak link, the liability—and that weighed heavier on him than an anvil tied around his neck.

Between himself and Maddie, there was no choice. If Jackson could get to one of them, he had to get to Maddie. Kelly wasn’t strong enough to carry Maddie or Grumpy, and trying would only slow her down. But Jackson could. Jackson could take Maddie and run. Grumpy didn’t wonder if Jackson would. The younger man might only be a prospect for the club, but the club didn’t just take on any random prospects. Jackson had proved himself to be honorable long before he’d put on his blank cut. It wasn’t a matter of if Jackson would, but if he should. Carrying Maddie to safety implied there was somewhere safe to go. And if Jackson had Maddie, he couldn’t have Kelly.

This wasn’t Sophie’s Choice. This wasn’t some catch-22 where one decision was only slightly better than the other. This was one impossible choice after another with the fates themselves working against you.