Tornado

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  COVER

  TITLE PAGE

  CHAPTER 1: THE TOWER

  CHAPTER 2: OLD ROAD

  CHAPTER 3: ANGRY SKIES

  CHAPTER 4: GO! GO! GO!

  CHAPTER 5: TOWN DOWN

  CHAPTER 6: MAD DASH

  CHAPTER 7: LAST DITCH

  CHAPTER 8: BLOWN AWAY

  SURVIVING A TORNADO

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR

  GLOSSARY

  WRITING PROMPTS

  DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  COPYRIGHT

  BACK COVER

  CHAPTER 1

  THE TOWER

  Tony Shermer and his twin sister, Andie, stared intently at their cabin’s picnic table. They studied the map their dad had spread out like they were planning a ground assault that would save the world from an alien attack.

  Dad pointed at the map. “I’m pretty sure the tower is a few miles out this way,” he said. “There was a lot of flooding back in the day. There’s quite a few abandoned places out there.”

  Sweet, Tony thought. Exploring an abandoned ranger tower sounds pretty great.

  Andie snapped her gum and itched a mosquito bite on her shoulder. “Can we go look for it?” she asked. “We could take the four-wheelers out there.”

  Tony watched his dad glance up at the sky. Clouds blotted out the sun. “Looks like there’s a storm coming.”

  “We’ll head there and come right back!” Andie pleaded. “Besides, a little rain never hurt anyone.”

  Dad smirked. “Yeah, that should be fine,” he said. “Stick to the trails. You should be able to find it without too much trouble. Just be back in time for dinner. Joey wants us all to go see the fireworks in town tonight.”

  Tony rolled his eyes. “Sure thing,” he said. “We wouldn’t want to miss that.”

  Tony had forgotten it was the Fourth of July. Summer had that effect on him. The hot days up at the family cabin seemed to blend together. He and Andie had kind of gotten bored with fireworks a few years back. But his little five-year-old brother, Joey, still loved to see them.

  “Oh, one last thing,” Dad said, folding up the map. “The tower has to be pretty old and beat up. Don’t try to climb it. Okay?”

  “You hear that, Andie?” Tony said, smirking at his sister. “No daredevil stuff.”

  Andie snapped her gum at Tony. “Don’t be such a chicken.”

  “Andrea,” Dad said, his eyebrows furrowed.

  “Okay, okay,” Andie said. “I was just kidding.” Then she winked at Tony.

  Tony sighed.

  * * *

  Ten minutes later, Tony and Andie had gassed up their four-wheelers, strapped their helmets on, and took off down the dirt trails. The wind rippled Tony’s shirt and wafted the fishy smell of Lake Borden into his face. His legs shook as he bounded over little pits in the road.

  Andie, as usual, was up ahead of him, racing just a little faster than Tony was willing to go.

  Always pushing the pace, Tony thought. My sister, the adrenaline junkie.

  To be fair, they were still on a familiar section of the trails that looped back toward the cabins. And Andie was no slouch on the four-wheeler, either. But it didn’t take much to get thrown.

  From what Tony saw on the map, there was supposed to be an old overgrown road just past the upcoming bend. He wasn’t sure if Andie was looking for it, though. The way she was racing, she’d probably blast right past it.

  Tony smirked inside his helmet. “Good,” he said to himself.

  Even though they never officially called their four-wheeling runs “races,” Andie always won them. Every single time. As suspected, she reached the curve in the road and gunned it, letting the fat tires slide left as she rounded the bend.

  Tony slowed down near a patch of grass that grew a little differently. It’s the old road! He realized.

  Without slowing down, Andie looked back to see why Tony had stopped. He gave her a quick salute and revved off in the new direction. “Come and catch me, speedy,” he whispered to himself.

  Tony glanced up at the sky. The clouds were definitely darker, but he didn’t hear thunder yet. Not over the sound of his engine anyway.

  Tony looked down just in time to duck his head. A few low-hanging branches scratched his helmet. The road barely resembled a path anymore. If it weren’t for the twin tire grooves worn into the soil, it’d be easy to get lost.

  Tony scanned the area for landmarks. Now where’s this abandoned tower . . .

  CHAPTER 2

  OLD ROAD

  Tony decelerated a little and glanced behind him. Andie was right on his tail, ducking and dodging the obstacles the old path threw at her. He knew she was aching to catch up to him, which made him just a little happy.

  Nothing wrong with second place once in a while, sis, Tony thought. She always gave him a hard time for going slower, but he preferred to take his time and enjoy the rides. Not Andie, though. She even loved to remind him that she was born twelve minutes before he was.

  They zipped through the overgrown trail until Tony had to stop abruptly. Andie revved her engine behind him in annoyance. He didn’t want to imagine what she’d be like on the road once she got her driver’s license.

  Tony cut the engine and climbed off his four-wheeler. “Knock it off,” he yelled. “The road’s blocked.”

  Andie hesitated, then cut her engine. “What is it?” she asked.

  Tony knew it was torture for Andie to stay still for even a second. “Come see for yourself,” he said over his shoulder.

  Andie groaned. “Fine,” she said.

  The twins stood in front of an old, rotten tree that lay across the twin ruts in the overgrown road. It looked like it had fallen decades ago. He kicked it with his tennis shoe, leaving a sizeable hole in the soggy bark.

  Andie snapped her gum. “Can we move it?”

  “We can try,” Tony said. “But it’ll probably take awhile.”

  Andie tilted her head at him. “You don’t want to, do you?”

  “What do you mean?” Tony asked.

  Andie pointed. “You think it’ll be too much work to move this thing.”

  “Well, it is a tree,” Tony said.

  “Yeah, but it’s mostly rotted out,” Andie said. “It can’t be that heavy. Even if it is, we can just clear a path wide enough for us to pass through.”

  Tony frowned. “Maybe,” he said. “There might be a storm coming, you know.”

  “You just want an excuse to go back,” Andie said. “Don’t you want to see that tower?” She grinned at her twin. “Seriously, Tony. Live a little.”

  Tony grinned back. She always knew just what to say to egg him on. “Fine,” he said. “Let’s get to work.”

  Andie nudged past Tony and crouched down. She yanked on a giant chunk of rotten tree. It came away easier than she’d expected, sending squirmy bugs flying every which way.

  “Ah!” Andie yelped, brushing them off her pants.

  “Relax, sis,” Tony said. “They’re just bugs. Live a little.”

  Andie grunted. “Oh, be quiet.”

  Together, with minimal sibling rivalry, the two of them cleared away enough of the tree to continue their journey.

  As they hopped back onto their rides, Tony thought he heard a distant rumble of thunder. He didn’t dare say anything to Andie, though. She’d just tease him about being afraid of loud noises.

  We’ll just find the tower, take a quick look, and head back, he told himself. Hopefully before the storm . . .

  CHAPTER 3

  ANGRY SKIES

  They raced past a number of old, abandoned cabins on the old road. Some of them were completely overrun with plants. Some were missing windows and looked like they would be great s
ets for horror films. Tony wondered how long ago there had been families like his living there, enjoying a barbecue and swimming in the lake.

  Twenty minutes later, he forgot all about the cabins. Ahead of them — like an ancient, wooden finger reaching toward the sky — was the abandoned ranger tower.

  “Punch it, Anthony!” Andie yelled from behind him. “We’re almost there!”

  Tony wanted to ignore her, which he’d learned over time was usually the smart move. But instead he zipped down another turn, bounded over a downed, weatherworn fence, and made a bee-line to the base of the tower. He came to a stop just beneath the tower and killed the engine.

  Tony took off his helmet and climbed off his four-wheeler. “Sweet,” he whispered.

  Andie pulled up alongside him.

  “For the record,” Tony said without taking his eyes off the tower, “I won.”

  “Oh, whatever,” Andie said. “We weren’t even racing, little brother.”

  Tony ignored the teasing and let his eyes wander up the length of the tower. It’d been built with dark, stained wood, and stood at least a hundred feet tall. Staircases zigzagged back and forth all the way up to the hatch in the tower’s floor.

  Tony noticed that more than a few of the wooden steps were missing, rotten, or broken.

  “Why did they even build this thing?” Andie asked. She walked underneath the tower, kicking through the tall grass. Tony hoped Andie was just getting a closer look, but he knew better.

  Tony followed her. “They build them so park rangers can spot fires and stuff from a distance, I think,” he said. He noticed for the first time how dark the sky had grown. The clouds were puffy and gray. As if on cue, a quick flash of lightning lit up the sky.

  “We have to climb this thing,” Andie said, ignoring the brewing storm. “Seriously.”

  “No way,” Tony said. “I know you just saw the lightning. We gotta get back, and fast.”

  “A little rain never hurt anyone,” Andie said with a dismissive wave. “Besides, we just got here.”

  Not even twenty seconds later, the rain came pouring down.

  The two of them were soaked in seconds. They ran beneath the wooden tower supports for shelter.

  It didn’t help much.

  “This stinks,” Tony said, raindrops slapping at his skull. “We’re like a forty-minute ride from our cabin. There’s nowhere to go.”

  “Town can’t be too far away,” Andie said, shielding her eyes from the rain. “Besides, it’ll probably blow over any minute.”

  Tony groaned. It was going to be miserable trying to get back to their cabin through the overgrown road with all the wet branches and mud. As interesting as the tower was, he really wished he was back inside their cabin where it was dry.

  Almost as soon as it had started, the rain stopped. The sky had turned pale green. Random drops fell from the soaked wooden structure towering above them. The air around them was calm. Eerily calm.

  “Told ya it would blow over,” Andie said. She cracked her knuckles. “Time to scale this monster.”

  “Are you insane?” Tony said. “The stairs are falling apart!”

  “Just a little,” Andie admitted. “But it’s sturdy enough. I’ll be fine.”

  Tony knew there was no stopping her. He stood in the wet grass and watched his sister make her way to the first set of steps.

  That was when Tony heard a train approaching in the distance.

  CHAPTER 4

  GO! GO! GO!

  Tony hadn’t seen any train tracks this far north, and he’d never heard trains in his previous visits to the family cabin. What’s making that noise, then? he thought.

  Tony’s eyes went wide and his heart skipped a beat. “Andie!” he shouted. “We gotta go! NOW!”

  “Wow, settle down,” Andie said. She was already two flights up. Tony saw the rotten wood bend a little beneath her foot. A moment later, she took a big step over a missing wooden plank. “I said I’d be fine, and I am. Relax.”

  Tony looked up at the sky. The clouds were moving with alarming quickness, and the train-like sound was getting louder. He strapped his helmet back on as the wind whipped against his face. He hopped onto his four-wheeler, anxious to go.

  “Andie, seriously!” Tony shouted. “You need to get down! I think there’s a —”

  “TORNADO!” Andie cried. For the first time in his life, Tony saw fear on his sister’s freckled face.

  Andie began stomping down the steps. As she got to the last flight of stairs, a rotten plank snapped in half. She tumbled forward and landed hard on her back in the tall grass beneath the tower.

  Tony ran over to her. He started to ask if she was okay, but Andie leapt back to her feet like falling had all been part of her plan.

  “I’m fine,” she muttered. There was a little blood trailing from a long scrape on her leg, but nothing his rugged sister hadn’t experienced before. She scrambled over to her four-wheeler and casually threw her leg over to climb on.

  “You forgot your helmet,” Tony said.

  The wind was howling like crazy. Tony looked up at the sky. Leaves rippled in the trees, filling the air with a chittering sound. He glanced at his sister. “Did you really see a tornado?” he asked.

  “Oh, yeah,” Andie said quickly. She pulled the helmet onto her wet hair. “A big one.”

  Without another word, they fired up their engines and accelerated down the overgrown trail.

  “Where are we gonna go?” Andie shouted.

  Tony considered their options. He had no idea if the tornado was coming their way, but he also knew it would take a little under an hour to get back to their cabin. They were much closer to Branson, the nearby small town where they bought their groceries and gas.

  “How far away was the tornado?” Tony shouted.

  “A ways off — but it seemed to be heading toward us,” Andie shouted back. “Shouldn’t we just head in the other direction?”

  Tony wasn’t sure. He knew it’d be dumb to stay out in the open during a storm. Beyond that, he thought he remembered hearing that the best thing to do was lie down in a field or a ditch, and wait out the storm. But there was nothing like that anywhere nearby.

  “I’m not sure,” Tony yelled. “Maybe we —”

  CRACK! The sound of snapping timber came from behind them. With a quick glance over his shoulder, Tony saw the ranger tower begin to lean. Less than two seconds later, the entire structure had toppled over. It fell into the woods about fifty yards behind them, stripping branches from trees and landing with a crash on the overgrown trail they’d just left.

  “Forget that!” Andie cried out. “Let’s head for Branson!”

  Tony nodded, lowered his head, and gunned the four-wheeler. He blasted along the trail, kicking up mud and grass behind him.

  CHAPTER 5

  TOWN DOWN

  The wind was picking up. Tony wondered if they’d get snatched off the ground and up into the sky. He couldn’t see the twister through all the trees, but Tony figured that was a good thing. If they saw it, then it’d already be too late.

  We’ll make it to town before then, he thought.

  He and Andie emerged from the overgrown road back onto the main trail. Tony took a sharp left and ripped his way up the hill. His wheels struggled through the mud a little. Andie’s four-wheeler caught up, and she rode alongside him.

  “I think it’s gone, Tony,” Andie said, looking off toward where the tower had been. “I don’t see it anymore.”

  “I don’t know,” Tony said. His heart was still pounding in his chest like a piston. Something in the air just didn’t feel right. They still had a little way to go before they’d reach Branson. To be safe, they needed to get to a basement. Otherwise they were just rolling the dice.

  “Tony?” Andie said, waving her hand in his face. “Earth to Tony, snap out of it!”

  Tony shook his head to clear it. He nodded toward the road. “Either way, we should keep heading toward Branson,” he said.
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br />   They raced down the trail, eventually passing the long-abandoned site of Camp Ludwig. With all the empty swimming pools and abandoned cabins, the property looked like a tiny ghost town. Some buildings looked about ready to collapse.

  “Almost to Branson,” Tony shouted. His sister nodded.

  As they finally reached the top of the ascent, Tony mashed down on the brakes. A second later, Andie skidded to a stop next to him.

  “No way,” Andie whispered.

  Both of them stared wide-eyed at the town. The tornado had beaten them to Branson.

  * * *

  Tony slumped into the seat of his idling four-wheeler. The tornado had been enormous — at least half a block wide based on the path of destruction it had left in its wake.

  At the far edge of town, Tony watched the tornado spin and snake its way along a wavy path through the outer edge of Branson. Trees were uprooted and flung like a toddler playing with vegetables. Shingles flew off of the roofs of houses. House siding was stripped away and flung skyward.

  A large pick-up rolled end over end, a red blur of crunching glass and crumpling metal, until it smashed into the side of the VFW building.

  A moment later, the sheeting from the building’s roof came off like the lid off a can. Bicycles, lawn chairs, a bird bath, garbage cans — too many things to count were tossing about in the air.

  Most of the town’s houses were decimated, along with the neighboring shops and stores. Tony shuddered, wondering if the people had gotten to safety in time.

  A minivan with its alarm blaring caught Tony’s attention. It flew through the sky like an invisible hand was lifting it up. A half-second later, the car disappeared into a fenced-in backyard.

  Andie pointed down the road. “Oh, no!” she cried.

  Tony followed her finger. A golden retriever was running back and forth across the street, clearly terrified. All sorts of junk rained down around the dog. It zigged and zagged, heading one direction, then another.

  “He’s got the right idea,” Tony said. “We have to get out of here.”