The Tempest by A.J. Scudiere (best books to read in your 20s .txt) 📕

“Toto’s good?” she asked.

“He's a sweetheart,” the big man said, as if he could know that from just touching the fur.

She grinned, although her heart was still racing. Though she was still under threat, she at least was confident that Boomer and Bob would go for the Larkins if they had to shoot someone.

“Well, boys,” she started, acting a little bolder than she actually felt. “Jerry and I found shelter from one of the other twisters—wait, let me go back further. I got picked up by the first twister. When I came to, I walked through the woods, and I only found several empty houses. Then I found Jerry.”

She motioned with her hand, still keeping it high in the air. “Jerry and I got a tractor—” she didn’t mention that they’d basically stolen it, “—and went tooling down the road until the next twisters hit. At that point, we aimed for the nearest house, but the cellar was the only thing we could get into.”

The brothers nodded at her, and she kept going, telling about getting stuck, then finding the cocaine when they tried to get into the crawlspace—this revelation made everyone except the Larkins gasp—and how the Larkins had returned home just as they'd come up through the floor.

The one brother’s eyebrows were raising higher and higher as she kept talking. But she didn’t miss that his gaze would occasionally flick over to Jerry, who must have been motioning to confirm the whole story.

“I'm assuming these two are the Larkins.” Joule pointed to Laura and Levi.

Beside her, Jerry, Paul, Brenda, Boomer, and Bob all nodded along. “Well, they came into the barn earlier, looking for us. I guess to kill us. And then Paul came in, and then apparently they got Brenda here...” She didn’t really understand all the nuances of this part.

“Maybe you should explain,” she said, handing the story off to Paul. It took a while to round robin the whole thing. The brothers continued to loosely command the situation with their guns held up and the barn continued to burn brightly into the night.

She would have thought the hay would have wooshed up in a big blaze reaching into the night sky and then died out already. The fire still roaring along showed her how little she knew. “Why isn’t the fire department here?”

“They’re at least thirty minutes away. No local stations out here,” Bob explained. “Just the volunteer unit.”

Joule was stunned by that. She’d never lived anywhere that didn’t have a local, city-funded fire station just around the corner.

But the story was still unfolding, bringing everyone up to speed, until Boomer and Bob were caught up. Dr. Murasawa and Izzy both had their mouths hanging open by the time Brenda finally finished the part about them breaking out of the barn and finding Laura and Levi threatening to murder them. Again.

The brothers then turned to Chithra and Izzy, who told about the truck and the gun rack in it. When they finally petered out, Boomer and Bob both appeared to have had enough. Slowly, while everyone had talked, their guns had shifted aim toward the Larkins. The two had stood quietly, not allowed to tell their side of the story. Joule figured they’d have time to explain their story to the sheriff, if there was one around here. She was grateful that everyone understood who was on what side here. Meanwhile, the Larkins wore sour looks on their faces about the whole thing.

At last, the brother in the blue plaid turned toward them with a blank look on his face. “I knew your family had too much money. You were in rough straights after your farming got run under. I know it. But you can’t run coke and you can’t murder your neighbors!”

His voice was booming by the time he finished, and Laura and Levi were squinting, as though the force of the accusation was literally aiming at them. They didn’t deny any of it.

“All right.” The other brother stayed calmer and motioned with his gun. “You two, down on the ground. Face down.”

The Larkins didn't seem to want to comply, and Joule found herself bending her knees, getting ready for anything. She could run away or rush one of these idiots if she had to.

It was then that Izzy, who seemed to be paying attention to everything, looked up. She glanced left then right, and then left again, and Joule didn't have any idea why until Izzy said, “Why is the sky getting so dark?”

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Joule looked up. Sure enough, dark clouds were sweeping in, cutting the moonlight out.

The blaze from the barn had made everything so bright that only Izzy had noticed.

“Crap,” the blue plaid brother muttered, seemingly to himself. Then, louder, he added, “That's funnel weather.”

“Is it always like this?” Dr. Murasawa asked, incredulous.

Joule understood. They’d been told the area was relatively tornado-free. They knew storms might happen, but this was epic.

“No, we don't get it, not like this. Not two straight days of funnels touching down,” the other brother answered her, as the first added, “We've already had seven in the area.”

All ten of them turned their faces skyward, the conflicts on the ground paling in comparison to the one threatening from the sky.

They jolted as a unit when the burning barn cracked loudly next to them, but when nothing else seemed to happen, they all looked up again and watched as the sky seem to roll in on itself. The orange of the blaze reflected off of the thick clouds above, illuminating clearly the way the clouds began to fold.

“Crap,” the brother said again, and the second added quickly, “We need shelter. Now.”

The barn wasn't going to be any help, Joule thought, looking first to the nearest structure. It was already ablaze and it wouldn't have been good even if it was untouched and sturdy.

The second brother apparently had different concerns. “If a storm or a funnel catches this barn, there’s two options for what can happen.”

They all