Reese was funny, he was full of odd questions.
He asked, “What is this place like?”
“It’s a bunker,” I told him. “A huge underground city.”
Lane laughed.
“What?”
“It’s not an underground city,” he scoffed and laughed. “If ... if this Julius really has access to this place, it’s far from an underground city.”
“How do you know?” I asked.
“I looked it up. Didn’t you? Pictures are online.”
I half shrugged. “Not really.”
“What is it like then?” Carlie asked.
“You guys remember two years ago when we went to Galveston and went on the submarine tour?” Lane asked.
“Yeah,” Carlie answered.
“A lot like that,” Lane replied. “Same feel only a lot more roomie. With slot machines.”
“Slot machines?” Reese laughed. “They needed slot machines? Is it to keep people busy?”
“No,” Lane replied. “The bunker was built during a time when people worried the world was going to end by bombs, right? Well, that threat is over, so they made it into a cool casino.”
“Can I play the slots?” asked Carlie. “I play them on my phone.”
“I don’t see why not.” Lane shrugged.
“Eyes on the sky,” Martin announced on the radio. “I don’t like the looks of this.”
“Roger that,” Skip replied.
“If anyone sees something, call it,” Martin said. “You’ll see if forming.”
My heart started racing, if Martin was worried, so was I.
Idle conversation went out the window.
“Kids, keep an eye out the windows,” I told them.
Lane looked over at me. “Where are we near? What’s your map say?”
Shaking my head, I looked at my map. “My nearest U is a hundred miles away.”
“A hundred?”
“Well, there’s a town eight miles ahead, I’m sure they have storm cellars at the businesses, but if it hits, we’ll lose the vehicles.”
“Jesus.” Lane leaned into the wheel as he drove.
I peered closer to the windshield, looking at the sky and left to right. To the fast moving clouds that didn’t go in circles but rolled in overhead. They were thick and wide and seemed to sink lower to the ground.
If it formed ahead, I knew the chances of it coming our way were slim. If we saw it, there’s enough time to stop before we ran into it.
I don’t know why I thought it would be in front of us. Perhaps I was confident our luck would hold out.
It didn’t.
Walter’s panicked voice called out on the radio. “We see it. It’s behind us!”
For some reason, hearing that made me jump up.
“Where are you going?” Lane blasted. “Jana, sit down.”
I had to see. Radio in hand, I raced to the back of the RV. My balance was off as the RV swayed. Lane kept calling for me to sit down. I made it to the back of the RV and leaned over all the stuff I had there to peek out the small, rear oval window.
I couldn’t see, Alice’s truck was right behind us, blocking my view. Roaring, loud and thunderous.
Martin called out. “Ninety degrees. Go right, ninety degrees from it. Keep going.”
What did that mean?
Then I saw Martin in the pickup truck, towing the horse trailer as he veered off the road and went straight to the fields. He was the first one to go.
“He’s going right!” I yelled. “He’s going out of the path!”
I didn’t think Lane could hear me. It was so loud from the funnel.
Martin hauled ass. The trailer bouncing and started tilting. I worried about the horses, but Martin knew what was best for them.
As soon as Alice turned, it cleared my view. I saw it. It was wider than the road, reminding me of some sort of atomic mushroom cloud. It moved faster our way than we were going.
We couldn’t outrun it.
The bus turned from the road as well.
Walter’s car was still in the road, like we were, still separated from us by the distance of the convoy.
I leapt to the doorway of the back room and screamed as loud as I could. “Lane! Turn right! Get off the road!”
Spinning around, I looked back out the window. I could feel the pull of the massive beast, then I watched as it snatched up Walter’s car.
It lifted into the air and turned along with everything else the funnel had swallowed.
A scream barely escaped me as Lane turned the RV hard, sending me flying across the back room. After falling to the floor, I crawled my way to a half stand and charged toward the front, holding on as I did, jolting with every bump from the side of the road.
I made it to the front seat and sat, grabbing for the belt.
“Where’s the radio?” Lane asked.
“Shit, it’s in the back.” I started to stand.
“Leave it. Buckle in. Kids, you okay?”
Both of them answered, “Yeah.”
My hands shook as I blindly tried to latch in. We were moving fast, too fast for the terrain. Martin was far ahead of us. Alice and the bus weren’t too far behind him.
“Do we need to catch up?” I asked, panicked.
“Buckle in.”
“Do you think we’re safe?”
“Buckle that!”
I gave in and looked down. After I latched it, the second I looked up, Lane jerked the wheel hard and to the right when Walter’s car just dropped from the sky in front of us.
It smashed down hard on the roof and I swore the RV tipped on two wheels.
Carlie and Reese both screamed in the back.
“Lane, we have to help him.”
“Not now.” Lane held the wheel, it went back and forth as he remained calm, trying to keep the RV steady.
I turned in my seat, Reese was looking out the side window.
“What do you see?” I asked.
“The car is spinning,” Reese said. “It’s gone.”
“What’s gone?” I questioned.
Carlie replied. “It looks like it’s losing speed. It’s kind of just hovering and falling apart.”
“What is?” I undid my belt and stood.
“Jana!” Lane yelled at me.
I hurriedly plopped down next to Reese. It was hard to see anything, but the noise level subsided some outside and I could hear Martin’s voice on the radio, stating, “We’re safe. We can stop.”
“Did you hear that?” I hollered to Lane. “Martin
