• I couldn’t believe I survived but I wish I didn’t, because it scared me more then anything. The tornado whirled and cried around me. The screaming woman! It was the tornado. Then it sounded like one of those old trains but louder, piercing my ear drums. At some point, the wind picked up and lifted stuff off me. My face got uncovered, wind whipped my wet hair around my head.

    Maybe I was dreaming, I wasn’t sure. But what I saw amazed me. I was in the eye of the tornado. It pulsed like a human heart. It talked. It was beautiful. I could see blue sky up through the middle of it. Black clouds swirled around. The tornado was huge. Bigger then I had ever heard of. It gave out one more loud cry before it stopped moving. It slowed, then went back up to those dark, dark clouds. It had been one of the worst nights of my life. I couldn’t feel Ryder’s hand but I couldn’t move to find it. My eyes went shut again.

    “Their over here!” I heard the distant voice. It sounded male. I frowned. My fingers twitched. My body ached but I couldn’t feel my legs. I was numb from the waist down. I groaned. Sun shined down from a blue sky. “Ryder?” I mumbled.

    “I found her!” A man stood over me with bright green eyes. He had a uniform on. “Its okay Ms. we’re going to get you out,” he informed me.

    “I got him!” Another man cried, not to far away. I looked around frantically. Ryder! Was he alive?

    “Get two stretchers over here!” The guy said in front of me. “Hold on Ms. Adams, we’re going to get this off you.”

    The next few minutes were excruciating. They lifted the cement off my legs and the pain throbbed everywhere on my body. I couldn’t breathe it hurt so much. I screamed and cried as they lifted me onto the stretcher. I looked over and saw Ryder. They had him on the stretcher. His head turned toward me and his purple eyes glinted with relief. I gave a small pained smile. The smile faded as I looked beyond him. Rumble from houses and sky scarpers piled on the ground. Hundreds of houses and buildings were ruined and torn from the tornado.

    Ryder looked behind him as the doctors scanned his body to make sure he had no broken bones. He did. But he ignored them. I couldn’t see his face but I knew what was going through his mind. The same as what was going through mind. Scared. Scared for our families and our city. How much did the tornado do? Was my house untouched? Was Ryder’s? I couldn’t think straight, everything was getting cloudy.

    The doctor ran over to me. It was a woman. She smiled sadly at me and scanned my body. She started at my head and went down over my stomach and paused, then started back up again. She stopped again at my right leg and shook her head. “We got three broken bones over here!” my mind was getting unfocused. I could hardly breathe. I looked over at Ryder again and his eyes glistened. I tried to say it. It barely came out but I knew he knew what I was saying. I mouthed, I love you.

    *****************************************************

    I thought I was dead. The heart monitor and the water dripping woke me up from my falling dream. I jolted upright ripping my IV out. I cried out as pain exploded from my chest. The heart monitor beeped frantically. A nurse rushed in and saw me. Tears ran down my cheeks from the pain. The nurse ran to my side and made a soothing noise.

    “Lay back. You can’t be doing that. You’ll hurt your rips more,” the nurse told me as she placed the IV back into my hand. They were trembling.

    “What? What happened? Where’s Ryder? Why does my chest hurt?” I demanded. She hushed me.

    “You were stuck in the Wal-Mart when the tornado blew it to pieces, from what I heard. You broke two bones in your right leg and a rib bone. Were you really stuck in Wal-Mart for two weeks?” I frowned. Her gold eyes twinkled.

    “What…yeah. But where’s Ryder?” She covered me up with a blanket.

    “Oh, the boy you were stuck with? He’s fine! He’s a couple rooms down from you, better then you I have to say. He hasn’t pulled his IV out three times,” The nurse said with a scowl. I stared at her. Ryder was alive! Better then me.

    “They fixed your bones but your rip was a little hard. The Bone Healer couldn’t get that close to your heart without damaging it so it’ll be a little bruised.” She sighed and pulled back to look down at me. “How was it living in Wal-Mart? I can’t believe that! Stuck in there all this time while that bad storm was going on. Oh the cameras are loving it!” She gushed. I ignored her.

    “Can I go see Ryder?” I asked. She sighed.

    “That boy get to you in there?” She smirked. “He is a handsome one. No, but he can come see you. He’s been dying to see you too. Funny, what else did happen in there?” she winked. I looked at her with a glare.

    “Where are my parents?”

    “They were in here earlier but they had to leave because the cameras were getting on them.” I looked out the window at the cloudy sky.

    “You can go get him now,” I said annoyed. She walked out clearly mad that I didn’t give her answers. I was so worried and my chest hurt. I saw people standing outside of the hospital. I frowned. I sat up and slipped my legs out from under the blankets and touched my toes to the cold floor. I stared at my feet and could clearly see the metal bone going up my leg. I put my foot out and could see which bone I had broken. I moved it around. It felt okay. Odd. Like something cold was pressed up against my leg. Time to try it out. I stood up slowly and felt slight pain but it eased.

    I walked slowly to the window pulling the IV pump with me. I did not want to pull my IV out again. I looked out the window and saw TV vans pulling in after the other and wondered what they were here for. People were lined up to get inside the hospital with cameras. I frowned harder. One camera man looked up at me in the window. His eyes glinted with mischief and he took the camera up and pointed it at me. I glanced over to the table beside my bed and a newspaper laid on it with a big headline. The headline read: Two, stuck in Wal-Mart during worst storm of the decade! My eyes wide I looked back at the camera eye and he smirked and tipped an invisible hat. I jumped when I heard the door shut.