He aimed forward, running until the pipe came into view. Though cutting the seatbelts was his best move so far, they still needed to tie themselves to something. They needed time to tie the straps together, then more time to strap everyone to the pipe.
Time they didn’t have.
The noise was so loud, there was no way to even explain what he was doing or what the plan was. He managed to hand one or two of the strips to Joule, who seemed to understand what he intended.
She crouched down next to the pipe and wrapped the belt around it, then she looped it around her waist and tied it in a square knot.
Now, with her hands free, she moved to do the same for Sarah, who was already catching on. Cage tied himself onto the pipe as well, thinking that it was like an airplane in jeopardy: he couldn’t help anyone else if he didn’t get himself situated first.
In order to get all of them tied to a small section of galvanized pipe sticking out of the ground, they would have to sit back to back. They were doing well, getting everyone tied in with shaky, terrified movements and fumbling fingers. But then, the last belt proved to be too short, and Joule began to untie hers.
It was a tricky proposition, and Cage wondered what she was doing. Was she going to simply give Izzy her strap and risk the winds herself?
But she motioned for Izzy to sit next to her and he watched as his sister tied her belt to Izzy’s shorter—otherwise useless—piece in a firm square knot. Joule yanked on the knot, testing the now longer, joined one. Then she wrapped it around the both of them, her fingers working rapidly to make the last square knot and get them both anchored inside the loop.
The wind would wrack the two of them against each other, there might be broken bones—but his sister had just risked her life to save Izzy’s. Despite his own near-certain death as the storm grew to painful noise levels overhead, he was proud of her.
Leaning back, he felt Deveron behind him. He couldn’t see his friend—couldn’t see much of anything in the painfully gritty air—but he could feel that the other man and Sarah were behind him. On his left, Joule finished doubling down on the knot that held her and Izzy both to the pipe and Cage grabbed her hand, holding on tight. Probably too tight.
As the wind hit, he shut his eyes completely against the debris. He heard only the clamor above and the voice in his head repeating that they’d survived worse… though he didn’t quite believe it.
As the wind began to tug at him—at all of them—he felt the ground slip away.
He hated having his back to the pipe and wished could have turned and wrapped himself around it. But, had he done that, there would only have been room for him. Trusting the pilfered seatbelt webbing to hold onto them was an exercise in faith.
It seemed forever that the heavy-handed gusts whipped and buffeted them. Beside him, Joule squirmed. He was getting pulled hard, the seatbelt digging into his stomach as it held him back.
The storm tried to yank him away—to yank all of them away. The wind tried to take his shirt, then his arm, then his head. But they all miraculously stayed attached. The pipe itself swayed in the ground, as if the storm knew it would have to take them as a unit.
Small stings told him he was getting cut by flying debris, and the whiplash changes in wind pressure made him think the tornado was right on top of them. He couldn’t tell. Were they almost done? Or just beginning?
His blood was getting pulled with the forces and he felt the dizziness creeping in. He fought back the fear that—for all that they had done—the pipe would give way. If it did, all of them would be lost.
He couldn't see anything. Though he tried to open his eyes a crack, the barrage of tiny particles in the air battered his face and he squeezed them tightly back together for protection. He couldn’t hear anything but the deafening roar that yanked at him and then slammed him back against the pipe or against Deveron. At least that meant his friend was still there. Still, he must have groaned at the hard hit.
Beside him, once again, Joule clutched his hand. But she was tugged and tugged until he realized their arms were outstretched.
How could that be?
She was tied in next to him on the pipe, they couldn’t reach out unless…
A faint sound that poked at his brain and his heart tuned in—it was Joule, yelling, though he couldn't understand what she said. Once again, he fought to crack his eyes open. Though it hurt like hell, he realized that her seatbelt had come loose.
He was the only thing holding on to her.
Letting go of the pipe with his other hand, he risked reaching up and gripped her wrist with both hands, holding on for everything he was worth. The wind was tugging her upward, her feet flying over her head, hair whipping one way then another, her clothing flying like flags around her. Her open mouth yelled at him to HOLD ON. He thought he heard her, though he was confident he couldn’t actually hear anything.
And Izzy?
Cage couldn't see Izzy at all. For a moment, he flashed back to another time when rushing water had also tried to steal his sister away. In that moment, when he had held onto her hand, he had thought he would lose her. But he hadn't.
And he wouldn’t lose her
