Tornado Warning

As I’m sitting inside, with my dog Charlie, enjoying my Saturday off from school. My brother, Justin, is outside with my parents learning how to ride a bike. Ever since he could hold conversations as a kid, he’s always wanted his own bike. As they’re outside, being social and talking to our neighbors while also keeping a close eye on my brother, I’m inside eating my own kind, potato chips, scarfing them down. While feasting on my chips, a loud red banner comes across the top of the tv. Usually the only time this happens is when it’s just a test, but this one isn’t a test, it's the real thing. Sometimes these come up this time of year for towns close to ours, seeing as how we live on the plains, lots of heavy storms and an occasional tornado warning pops up. Never really bothers us, we’ve never been hit by a tornado before. I’ve lived here for fifteen years and never even seen a tornado with my own eyes. As the banner continues to interrupt my show, I see our town listed for a high chance of a tornado, I don't really think about it much but I might as well tell my parents. I stand up, lean my bag of chips on the couch, and head over to the door. As i'm about to yell to my family that we’re in a tornado warning, I hear this noise. It’s loud, something you would hear in an old war time movie for when cities are about to be bombed. A sound that could only mean one thing. Me and my dad lock eye contact, he also knows what this noise means. Tornado.

He looks at my brother and then at me and with a slightly higher voice because of the siren, “Stay calm and get in the basement, now.” Everyone but me does as he says,. I would normally listen to him, but I had to see it. I had to see this force than man can never stop. A thing that destroys everything in front of it. I look above and around me, but see nothing. I then run behind the house my father shouting at me, “Thomas it’s not safe!”. I know it's not but I keep going. I get behind the house and I see it. Behind the row of trees that are almost leafless, in the huge flat field with only brown dead grass to cover it, a tall column of cloud, coming straight towards us.

The next thing I know is my dad grabbing me with an angry and mad face,“What the hell do you think this is?!” “A drill?!” I looked into his eyes to see he was scared “I’m sorry dad, I just wanted to see it..”

He started to then drag me into the house. We get into the basement and he turns me, Looks me dead in the eye and say, “I don't want your curiosity to kill you.” What he say’s hit me hard, what i just did could have well killed me.

I’ve never liked the basement. It’s cold, damp, and smells funny. There’s shelves around all the walls and all of our holiday things are stacked in one of the corners. I remember all the times my parents would have to come down here, but I would never follow them. Why would someone want to come down here when most horror movies are based because of some creepy thing that lives down here? As i'm remembering all this, I realize, where's Charlie??

“Dad.” I say, “Where’s Charlie?”

He frantically looks around, “I thought he was with you?!”

With a scared expression I say, “He’s still upstairs!”

Before he can even tell me no, I’m bolting up the stairs. I get to the top and open the door, It’s loud up here. I call his name but I don’t see him. He must be scared to have us leave him up here. I run past the dining room window and it’s close. So close. I run to my parents bedroom and look under the bed but I don't see him. I run to the bathroom, the house is shaking now. I can hear my dad yelling something but I can’t hear him over this roar. I get in the bathroom and he’s here. I hear the windows breaking and I realize, I won’t make it back to the basement in time. I grab Charlie and I jump into the bathtub with him in my arms. It’s so loud that I now have to cover what I can of my ears and his. The house starts shaking and i'm screaming, Charlie is whining and trying to jump out of the tub. But I have him by the collar. It's so loud. Everything is shaking, the walls start to move. I see cracks beginning on the wall next to me.

The ceiling starts to move and next thing i know i can see the sky. The roof is gone, the wall next to me is gone. The tub starts to move. Charlie is digging his claws into me trying to run, He’s just as scared as me. We start moving.The tub, the tub isn’t touching the ground anymore! It feels like we’re flying forever but we land, hard. I think it might have broken my arm. I feel a sharp pain coarse from my elbow to my fingertips, but that's the least of my worries. The tub flips over and it's dark, I can’t see a thing. My arms and shirt are wet (the tub must not have been dry when I jumped in?). I hear things hitting the bottom of the tub and hope nothing heavy hits it. The sounds die off, Minutes pass and I start to hear sirens.

As I'm laying under the tub hoping I’m not under a car, I hear voices. I shout but for some reason I get winded so nothing really comes out. I start pounding on the side of the tub, hoping someone will hear it. I can feel Charlie moving she whining so I know he's okay, just still scared. As I’m pounding on the tub I stop and listen to hear if anyone notices, I think someone did! I hear someone shout, “Hey, I think there’s someone under that tub!” relief flows through me. I hear three maybe four guys run over and throw things off the top of the tub, say, “Okay, one-two-THREE” and the tub flips over. I see the faces of the men and it’s a scared look. I can finally see what shape I am in and it's not pretty. The arm that I felt the sharp pain in is clearly broken, bent at a weird angle. And that wetness I was feeling? Blood. A lot of it, all over me and Charlie. I look at my thighs and arms and all I see are cuts and gashes. Charlies paws were red as a cherry, he must have gouged my arms and legs while he was scared. I’m in a lot of pain, now that I see the damage. Just before one of them helps me up, I hear someone behind all them. I can’t make out what they’re saying or who they are. Everything is blurry and my hearing is muffled (maybe from the noise of the tornado?). They run closer and I can see who it is, Dad! I go to stand up and, Black. Everything goes black, and I feel my body hit the ground.

I wake up and see lights and people around me, I think I might be at a hospital? I look over to my left and see my dad talking to a doctor, he’s crying. I try my hardest to put out the faintest “dad..” He doesn't hear me, I try again, this time he turns his head to see my eye open. He runs over,

“Thomas are you okay? Why did you do that? Do you hurt? Do i need to get the doctor?”

“Dad” I say “Where am I?”

“You passed out from losing all that blood and you’re at the hospital now” He looked worried, “I’m just glad you’re alive”

I look him in the eyes and ask, “Are mom and Justin okay?”

He gives me a nod and says, “Yes, they’re alright. They stayed back..” The look on his face is grim. “They stayed back where the house used to be..”

I knew we lost the house. I was almost lost with it.

I look at him and say, “Well I'm glad they’re all okay. How about Charlie?”

“Yes” he says, “he’s okay too, thanks to you. We’ve lost everything. But we’re all still together, and that’s all I need for a home.”