Free Tornado Warning by J.R. Tate Page B

positive, and he had to hold onto the small bit of hope to keep strong for Ty. If he lost his cool now, they didn’t stand a chance.
     
     
     

Chapter Eight
     
    Darryl checked his watch. He had only been walking a little over an hour and he felt like he had barely gotten anywhere. The temperature was growing due to the clouds finally burning off, and walking on the asphalt probably didn’t help. He was happy to see the sun, and it was good and bad – with the heat rising, it meant storms could organize due to daytime heating. He’d guess that it was at least ninety-five degrees, and it wasn’t even nine AM yet.
    With the emergency situation, what if they had record breaking heat? What would stop it from going from one extreme to the other, from nasty tornadoes to a blazing inferno that would bake anyone who was out in it?
    He adjusted his baseball cap and swiped the hair from his forehead. It was plastered to his skin, and when he licked his lips, there was minimal moisture on his tongue. He was afraid to drink too much water. All he had on him was the canteen, and the more he opened it, the warmer it’d get. The Fox River that fed into Fox Lake was coming up in a few miles. He could refill then, but with all of the damage and debris, the sanitation of the water would possibly be compromised.
    Shaking his head, he laughed to himself. He had looked at some water purification tablets at a camping store not long ago and wondered what the hell he’d do with something like that. The irony of the situation was so bad that Darryl fought the urge to cry. On a normal day, no one would ever think to buy a package. Now, it was a necessity he thought he’d never need.
    Not a single car had come down the highway, which lent an eerie feel to Darryl’s surroundings. It wasn’t a busy interstate to begin with, but cars came and went at all hours of the day. He’d passed by a few abandoned ones, and with no one around, he searched each one, hoping to find anything that might help him, but came up short.
    A small rain shower would be great. Nothing severe, just enough to knock the temperature down and cool him off. Instead, the sun beat down on him, it’s large rays making him feel like he was on the surface of it.
    He saw another abandoned car about two hundred yards ahead. Quickening his pace, he fought his aching body. It was a Toyota, much like what Cecilia drove. His heart sank. Was this her car? It looked a lot like it, and when he saw the booster seat in the back, it confirmed that it was. There was no sign of her or Ty. Where were they going? Was Ryan with them, and if so, why did they take the car not his truck, which would prove to be sturdier?
    Opening the door, he reached for the keys, but they were gone too. He searched the console and under each visor, and an insurance card fell to the seat. Skimming it, he saw Ryan and her name as primary drivers, and the sense of dread heightened.
    Were people just vanishing into thin air? The fact that the car was in one piece made him feel better. It meant that they didn’t get tossed inside, but stranger things could happen. Tornadoes were known for skipping one house and then completely demolishing the next.
    Darryl ran out into the field, yelling out each of their names. The trees swayed in the breeze and no one answered back. It was the first time he noticed that there weren’t even any birds flying or chirping like they usually did on an early spring morning. Life as he knew it was gone, and he felt like the only man left on a planet that was destroying itself.
    “Ryan!”
    He went off course, hoping they were held up somewhere, taking cover outside of the car, but there was nothing. No footprints, nothing ever giving a hint that they were there – only Cecilia’s car, abandoned, leaving no trace of anything behind.
    When Darryl calmed down, he figured out he was on Farmer Johnson’s land. Due north of the mileage marker was where his house once stood, so he hurried