Free Runaway Twin by Peg Kehret Page B

should have spent some of my money on a cell phone. When I planned this journey, I didn’t think I would want to call anyone. Who would I call? Now I wished I had considered the possibility of an emergency. I could have used a phone to call for help.
    I’m coming, Snickers, I thought. Stay where you are. I’m coming!
    I ran, even though my knees felt as if they would buckle at any moment. My breath came in short gasps, and a persistent pain jabbed my side, but I kept running. I ran toward Snickers, and away from the devastation I had seen. I wanted to run until I was miles away from this place. I wanted to run and run, until Snickers and I were safe.
    Eventually I saw the boards that I had used to make my X beside the road. When I reached them, I turned to the right, to where I had left Snickers.
    I saw only the empty field.
    Snickers was gone.

11
    M y eyes scanned the field, searching for a black and tan dog. Instead I saw battered rows of corn and debris from the tornado.
    Snickers must have awakened and gone to look for me.
    Fear rose in my throat. Sometimes when an animal is sick or injured, it will crawl away and hide somewhere, and wait to die. What if Snickers had done that?
    â€œSnickers!” I shouted. “Here, Snickers! Come, boy!”
    Wouldn’t he have smelled me and followed my scent? But if he had gone after me toward town, we would have found each other. Did the rain-soaked ground dilute my odor, making it harder for him to track me?
    Perhaps he had gone back to the tree where we had waited out the tornado. That’s where I had been when he panicked and ran. That’s where he had last seen me.
    I ran toward the tree.
    Paw prints circled the base of the tree, and my hopes soared, even though I knew they could have been made before the tornado hit.
    â€œSnickers!” I yelled again. “Here I am! Snickers!”
    I heard him before I saw him—a soft whimper coming from a patch of corn that was still standing.
    â€œSnickers!” I called, and then he emerged, walking slowly toward me as if it hurt him to move.
    I ran to him, and threw my arms around him. Relief flooded through me as he licked my cheek.
    I had told Randy I’d find help for him, but it was clear that Snickers was in no condition to travel and I couldn’t leave him alone again.
    Knowing I was as likely to find help by waiting here for it to arrive as I was by walking any farther with an injured dog, I decided to stay with Snickers until we were rescued, and then I’d direct the rescuers to Randy. Maybe he’d be found first. Search teams would look in the remains of a town before they’d hunt in a cornfield. I should have told him where I would be so that he could send help my direction if he got found before I did.
    I sat on the ground, and Snickers lay beside me. The wound on his head had formed a scab, and there was a lump the size of an egg. I didn’t touch it. I wished I still had my backpack so that I could give Snickers a drink of water and a dog biscuit. All I could offer him were words of comfort.
    â€œSomeone will find us,” I told him. “There are probably people searching already, looking for survivors of the tornado. They’ll find us before long. They’ll help us.”
    I knew that I spoke the truth, and my heart filled with gratitude for these strangers who would come to our aid. There may be mean people like Zooman and Hunker in the world, but there are also good people who leave their comfortable homes and rush to help in times of trouble.
    I stroked Snickers’s fur. He put his head on my leg, closed his eyes, and sighed.
    We sat like that for about an hour before I heard the helicopter. I stood and looked up, shielding my eyes from the sun. The helicopter approached from the west, flying low. It appeared to be following the road that Snickers and I had walked on. I could see two people inside it.
    I waved my arms over my head, trying to signal