From The Wreckage (4 page)

The sky is almost pure black, and with all the city lights out, they are barely able to see anything as they run. West grabbed her hand when they first started running, and his strong fingers squeeze hers until they are almost numb. Her left hand feels empty and she realizes Katie let go.

"Katie!" she screams and looks to her right, which causes her to stumble when her foot hits a hole in the ground. Immediately West yanks at her arm and keeps her on her feet.

"I've got her, Jules! Keep running!" shouts Ruben from behind them. She sees Katie reach out her arm for Jules and she pulls back from West, just a little, to grasp her best friend.

"Don't you dare let go, Buffy! We need to run!" West warns and pulls her back and into his side.

"I can't leave Katie!"

"We're not leaving her; she's with Ruben. Now come on!" His arm wraps around her waist, but he slows for a moment. It is enough to allow Ruben and Katie to catch up. West grabs Katie's hand and they pick up speed again.

The white house comes into view and they run towards the front porch.

"This way!" West shouts over her head. She can tell he yelled, but over the noise behind them it sounds almost like a whisper. She looks around to see shadows of people continuing to run past the house and others following after them.

All of the glass is boarded up on the first floor, and Jules watches as several guys run up and start banging on the plywood; trying to break it down.

"What are we doing?" Jules asks when West loosens his hold on her and starts kicking the front door with his heavy boot.

"There's a basement here," he informs her. He grabs her arm as she spins around and watches everyone try to find a way into the farmhouse. "Stay by my side! Don't leave!" he shouts at her.

"How do you know there's a basement?" cries Katie; hugging Jules with both arms now.

"I just do! Ruben, help me!" He punches Ruben's arm.

Debris begins to rain from the sky and Jules finally remembers all of those tornado documentaries she's watched. She looks back to where they ran from, only to see a mass of swirling black dust, clouds and debris. Around her, people shout and fists and bodies are thrown into the wood blocking the windows. Ruben and West ram their shoulders into the front door time and time again, with no results.

"We're gonna die." She didn't mean to say it out loud; it escapes from her lips accidentally and Katie moans.

She hears someone call out for help. "Help me! I've got it loose!"

West and Ruben push past the few others and rush forward with Jules and Katie on their heels. Someone has managed to pull the corner of the large piece of plywood on the corner window back enough so they can get their fingers under it. Working together, hands go around the edges of the board and start to yank. Several people join in and try to pull and break the wood or wrench the nails free from the window casing.

"Watch the nails!"

They work together forming a human crowbar as they get their hands under the wood and pry it back, pulling until several nails squeal and loosen. Finally they peel back a hole large enough for some of the smaller people in the crowd to crawl through.

"Katie! Jules!" Ruben shouts. "Get in there. Any other girls?"

A guy Jules recognizes from her science class smiles weakly at her as he pushes her towards the window. A girl she's seen around campus but knows is younger than her steps up with them.

"Hurry up!" demands a guy who pushes on them from behind. Jules feels the panic growing within the small crowd on the porch. The wind picks up and the howling sound comes closer and closer.

"What's your name?" Jules asks the younger girl next to her.

"Lola."

"Okay, Lola. Crawl through there. There's a basement somewhere. You need to find it and go downstairs."

"It's in the back, in the kitchen. There's a door; you won't miss it," West offers and Lola nods.

Jules wonders how West knows exactly where the basement is, but lets it slide as she pushes Lola forward.

Lola slides through the gap the guys made easily, and Jules sighs in relief.

"Your turn," West shouts at her.

"No! Katie you go!" She pushes at a crying Katie. "Go! Help Lola," she orders when Katie shakes her head in fear.

"Jules!"

Jules hears her name and turns to find Jeff rushing up, followed by more people. Katie is halfway through the hole when she hears his voice and flips out.

"Jeff! Jeff!" The fear and shock in her voice breaks Jules.

"I'm here, K. Get in there. Go to the basement."

"Let me go in and I'll punch at the boards from the other side. We can't all fit through this hole," a guy offers, and knocks into Jules from behind.

"Hey!" she barks as she is crushed up against West. Shouts ring out and Ruben and West lose their grip on the wood. Jules hears Katie pound on the wood from the inside; her voice shrill but drowned out by the commotion.

Behind them, the sound of the Ice Shack splintering into matchsticks jerks the crowd to a standstill.

"Oh. My..." Jules whispers; her voice dying out. She clutches West's shirt.

Shouts of panic sound behind her. "It's here!" "Open the windows!"

Fists, bodies and feet pound and work on the windows and door again.

Ruben leans his back against the house, lifts his arms above his head and helps push the plywood away from the window as West, on the opposite side, pulls and they both shout for her to go in. Taking the cue, Jeff immediately pulls Jules away from West and pushes her to go under Ruben’s arms and through the broken window.

"Tell Katie I'll be right there," he whispers in her ear.

Jules looks back at West and their eyes meet for a brief moment; a silent connection forming between them before she climbs through. She stumbles to the floor of the pitch black house and breathes in the hot, stale air. The smell, a cross between a boy’s bathroom and a keg, makes her want to gag.

Behind her, another leg comes through and she quickly shifts out of the owner’s way, kicking some sort of can as she moves.

"I can't see anything!" she shouts into the darkness; her eyes slowly adjusting to her surroundings. "Katie, Lola?" Her hand goes to her waist as she remembers the cell phone she stuck there earlier, but it is gone.

"Jules!" a sniffling Katie answers her. "Jules! We're over here."

Not a lot of help in a pitch black house, thinks Jules as she gropes blindly towards the person coming through the window to help them. He pulls his other leg through, grunting, and she grabs at him blindly.

"Next!" he shouts.

"Do you have your cell?"

"You need to get to the basement, Jules. Not make phone calls." She recognizes the voice as belonging to Mark Jones, another football player from Hillsdale.

"Mark, we need light. Do you have your phone? We can't find the basement."

"Oh! Yeah, sorry." The few seconds it takes for his hands to fumble for his phone feel comparable to hours. The space glows dimly as his phone turns on and relief washes over Jules when he clicks a few buttons and one of those bright flashlight apps turns on.

"Here!" he shouts and hands her the cell. "Go!"

She ignores his order to go and holds the light up for Katie to see, calling out, "K! Can you see the light? Where are you?"

She shines the light around the vacant house and surveys her surroundings. She stands in a large, empty room littered with beer cans and trash, thus the bar stench. There is a doorway straight back and another to her right. She can just make out the balustrade to the staircase and what must be the foyer that way. "Straight or right, Katie? Which way did you go?"

"Straight! We're...right here, oh thank the Lord. There you are!" she cries; running towards Jules with Lola behind her.

Grabbing at her best friend, she yells, "Take this — find the basement!" and pushes the phone into Katie's hand. Thousands of tiny clicks start to sound and she guesses it is hail hitting the roof. "Hurry up and go!"

"Not without you!"

Behind her, two more guys crawl through the window and, along with Mark, pound on the board that covers the window from the inside. Jules hears the nails popping out as they make progress opening a wider hole along the bottom and side of the window. The kid from her science class pulls out another cell phone and has it gripped in his mouth as they try to break the board out more.

"Jules, I'm not kidding you! Stu will have my head on a platter if I don't make you get to the basement."

It is Mark who yells at her, and she shakes her head and shouts back, "I can't! I can't leave people out there while I hide."

The plywood cracks and a loud snap sounds as it breaks in half. Jules hears shouts as those on the outside fall away from the window.

"Go, hurry!" yell multiple voices at once.

Someone grabs Lola and Katie, and then Jules as well, but she refuses to go; pulling back and fighting off the arms. Bodies dive through the window two at a time and Jules stands there frozen as she waits for the faces she is most worried about to show up.

Jeff jumps through the window and curses when he sees Jules. "What the hell? Basement, Jules! Where's Katie?"

"Someone grabbed her. Where's Ruben?" she cries, and barely recognizes her own voice.

"He's..."

"I'm here, baby girl," Ruben's deep voice calls as he hoists his body through the window and drops to the floor.

Jeff releases her arm and runs with the others who came in but don’t know where to go. Jules hears him giving directions. “This way!”

"Ruben!" Jules cries and hugs him gratefully. "Where's West?"

Booted feet hit the floor next to her. "Hey, Buffy. Miss me?"

She nearly drops to her knees as a rush of relief sweeps through her body at the sound of his voice. She doesn’t stop to think about what she is doing, she lets go of Ruben and flings herself into West's chest. His arms encircle her and she feels his lips press to the top of her head. "Basement," he whispers; practically carrying her with him.

"Is everyone in? Everyone who was out there?" Jules asks as they locate the kitchen and follow behind Ruben down a steep staircase to the basement.

"The porch was empty."

Jules thinks about that. She doesn’t think more than maybe twenty or so people climbed through the window. Only three girls. Where are the rest of the kids from the parking lot? Did they find a safe place? Did they run? Tanya, Candy, Tommy, Carter? Where is Stuart? Is her family safe? Her brain runs in circles and shock sets in as West pulls her into the dark basement.

There is a group huddled in one corner with their cell phones lit so they can see, and her eyes scan the crowd — science class guy, two guys from the football team, a face she doesn’t know. In another corner she spots Lola with Mark, a basketball player named Simon and a junior she knows from the Debate team. West pulls her into the back of the basement where she spots Katie, Jeff and Ruben. She thinks they are heading to sit with them, but he pulls her towards the left to the empty corner in the back. They are just about there when the train sound from outside becomes louder and the house above them starts to groan and creak. Snapping sounds fill the air and West practically throws Jules into the corner; landing on her as an ear-splitting crash sounds above them. Dust and debris fall into the basement and something heavy hits her leg. She curls up as tightly as she can with West on top of her, as the house over their heads begins to lift and fall and then shatter to pieces all around them.

Five

"There is no way to describe the sound of a building falling to pieces above your head. The snapping of wood, the shattering of glass
—
it can't be described. I could barely comprehend the terror around me."

A tear slides down her cheek as she closes her eyes to relive the moments; hearing the panic-filled screams in her memory. They rise through the air and join with the cacophony of sounds from the howling winds of the twister as it passes over them, to the sirens in the distance.

"West was laying half on top of me. He threw me down on the hard concrete floor and then threw himself on me for protection. It was all a blur, but when we balled up as the house began to come down, I remember our hands were still joined." She lifts her hand, as if to show it to the camera. "The good Lord knows I clutched his hand tighter than a life preserver."

"It gets a little crazy here. I remember using my free hand to cover my face as I tried to make myself as small as I possibly could. There was something heavy on my lower leg and in my position, with West on me and the way I was laying on my side, I couldn't seem to kick it off. Just as I was about to freak out about it, things changed...”

* * *

The house moans as an ear-splitting crack sounds, and suddenly dirt, debris and the house fall into the basement; landing on Jules and all of the other students seeking refuge there.

She has no idea what is happening, but she hears things flying around and crashing. The vociferous sounds of the twister die down and Jules realizes the tornado sirens are no longer going off. She hears car alarms in the distance and another blast, but she can’t hear the siren and that scares the hell out of her.