Page 9 of The Fragile Ones

A heavy roll of thunder shook the ground. She slowed down to let the film crew catch up with them.

Ty looked up from his laptop. “What’s up?”

Katie surveyed what she could tell were layers of worse incoming weather. “There’s a storm ahead.”

“So…it’s just a storm, right? It’ll pass?”

“Yes and no. Those clouds,” she gestured through the windshield, “those are cumulonimbus clouds, and they’re very heavy with frozen water. See how they are vertical in areas? Looks strange, right?”

“Yeah.”

“They’re holding large pellets of frozen rain.”

“Hail?” he said.

“Bighail. I’ve never seen such dense clouds and so many of them. We need to get to shelter if we don’t want to do serious damage to our vehicles.”

Ty fidgeted in his seat, eyes glued to the clouds. “Well, where’s that?”

“Can you get Matt on the phone?” she said.

Ty hit a memory button on his cell and. Matt answered immediately.

“Hey, Matt,” said Katie. “We’ve got some serious weather coming our way. We need to find shelter and wait it out.”

“What do you suggest?”

“There’s a ranger sub-station not far from here and they have a covered area where they keep some of their all-terrain vehicles.”

“How far?”

“It’s close, about a quarter of a mile, but we have to access it from an old fire trail off this road. It’s a little dicey. You up for it?”

“Do we have a choice?” he said, with slight cynicism.

“I would say no,” she laughed. “Okay, keep your steering steady, and try to keep up.”

“Copy that,” he said and ended the call.

Katie pressed the accelerator and the Jeep lurched forward, bouncing side to side. “Sorry, Ty, hang on.”

Cisco had been standing up behind Katie ever since the thunder started. Now he gave a low-pitched whine, pacing back and forth in the seat. Eventually he settled down and braced himself, with his back against the rear door.

Ty closed his laptop down and grabbed on to the armrest. His eyes were wide as he stared at the road ahead. Katie glanced in the mirror as Matt kept up with the pace in the large SUV.

Then the rain began to pour at such a velocity the wipers were barely able to keep up. Katie gripped the wheel tighter and felt the temperature drop—even inside the vehicle. She kept glancing at the sky as the charcoal vertical peaks grew denser and attached themselves to the thunderheads. She hoped that they would make it to the small station in time.

Turning the Jeep sharply, she heaved the car onto the path, not knowing whether or not it would be washed out already. Thunder hammered above their heads, rattling the car. The accompanying wind burst through the trees, bending branches to breaking point.

“Is this normal?” said Ty, trying to keep his voice even.

“Does this happen? Yes. Is it anormaloccurrence? Not really,” she said, steadying her voice. Katie had seen some severe storms growing up, but she had never been in the middle of one, or been responsible for the safety of others during one. She glanced again in the rearview and was relieved to see that Matt was handling the terrain well.

Cisco let out a whine.

“It’s okay, boy, we’ve been through worse.”

Ty glanced at her and he seemed, from his expression, to remember that she had been in the military and no doubt seen much worse than a storm.