Page 54 of Desperate Creed

He felt like he could breathe again. Up ahead the ridge of trees in the median would be ending soon. Now, between the trees he could see a few on-coming headlights on the southbound lanes. His foot even eased up on the accelerator.

“We should be able to see better pretty soon,” Creed told Jason and gestured to the empty median.

The tree line finally ended. Their view was, indeed, better.

“Oh my God! It’s right there!” Jason whispered.

Creed glanced over then did a double take. The trees had been hiding it. There was no mistaken the black swirling wedge emerging from the gray mass. He swore he could feel its energy. A bolt of lightning illuminated its core.

“You can see debris in the air. That thing is massive,” Jason said.

The radio started squawking the emergency broadcast system warning for a tornado on the ground.

Jason punched the volume down. “Yeah, no shit!”

Creed stepped on the accelerator.

“Ryder, what the hell are you doing?”

“Trying to outrun it.”

“It’s coming right at us. You need to speed up.”

“That’s what I’m doing.”

“You’re gonna have to go faster. Give it some gas.”

Creed glanced down. He was already going ninety-five.

“Oh my God, we’re not gonna make it.” Jason braced his hand against the dash. “You need to stop.”

“We can’t stop. We’ll be right in the middle of it.”

But even as the Jeep’s engine jolted to one hundred miles per hour Creed could already hear the roar of the storm. It was alive and churning and spewing and heading right for them. It was almost on top of them.

Another truck barreled around them. But Creed couldn’t see any other vehicles following.

“You’re not gonna make it,” Jason was yelling over the wind gusts that started to shake the Jeep.

The rain came again, but this time there were pieces of twigs and pine needles along with other debris hitting the windshield.

“We need to turn around,” Jason told him. “Turn the hell around.”

“I can’t turn around.” There were guardrails and the median still had trees and brush. No way he could drive over all that.

“It’s gonna hit us!”

Jason was yelling, again, and Creed could barely hear him over the rumble that now reverberated through the entire Jeep. Just then, his ears started popping and he knew they were already inside the storm.

Creed slammed on the brakes. The Jeep skidded on the wet asphalt. He tightened his grip on the steering wheel. This was not the time to roll it out of control.

“What the hell?” Jason said while he reached for the grab handle.

Creed didn’t allow the Jeep to come to a stop. It was still skidding on the slick asphalt when he jammed it into reverse. The vehicle bucked. Then he floored it.

His heart hammered against his chest. He kept his eyes forward as the Jeep flew in reverse. He couldn’t look away from the black mass that continued to spin toward them. Debris flew everywhere now. He watched the backup camera and didn’t ease up on the accelerator. There was one set of headlights in his lane, and he still didn’t slow down. The car pulled onto the shoulder and out of his way. There were no others.

The black wedge only seemed to grow. Pieces of debris pummeled the Jeep, thumping and smacking the roof and the hood.