PROLOGUE

AURORA BARNES GREW with her friends. When her family packed up and left, leaving her alone, she stayed with her close friend, Kate Carter. The two girls grew up side by side, fascinated with Twisters. Aurora had a sixth sense for those storms. She could always tell if the storms would grow into a tornado.

The girls grew up creating projects that circulated around tornados for their middle school science fairs. Both had different fascinations with the twisters. Kate wanted to learn how a tornado was caused, what happened as the funnel dropped. Aurora wanted to learn how to stop a tornado. How to tame it.

That's what led them to the open fields of Oklahoma. Their crew wasn't ordinary. Jeb was probably only here because he was in love with Kate. Addy actually had an interest in storms but she was a bit younger than the rest of the group. Praveen who has a fear of tornados deep down. And finally, Javi, who wanted to learn about the tornados to help protect the people. Together, they made an interesting group.

Aurora sat on the front of the white van that held Javi's equipment. Today, they planned on testing their formula that hopefully caused a tornado to break apart. Crazy, right?

She watched the storm that was rolling towards them. Kate was standing further in front of her, snapping pictures of the storm on her camera. The others were all asleep in the vehicles from being out here so early.

A weird feeling bubbled in her stomach as Aurora watched the storm grow towards being a supercell, perfect conditions for a tornado. The clouds expanded in every direction as the supercell grew and grew. Lightning flashed around followed by fainter cracks of thunder from how far away they were.

"I think this is it." Kate said, spinning around to look at Aurora. The girl smiled at her friend. She loved how enthusiastic Kate always was when there was a chance to test their experiments. Aurora slid off the front of the van, landing on solid ground.

"I think you're very right." Aurora responded. When both of them had the same feeling, they knew they were right. It was tornado season after all in Oklahoma so odds are it would be a light EF1 tornado like usual.

"Can you wake Javi? He always takes so long to get up." Kate complained as she made her way through the tall grass. Aurora nodded. Javi, as much as she loved the guy, was a pain in the ass to wake up. She walked around the side of the van to spot the boy lying on the grass, curled in a blanket.

"Javi, we gotta go." She nudged him with her shoe. There was no response from Javi who was still sleeping peacefully. Aurora knelt down beside him.

"Javi!" She yelled in his ear. Javi jolted awake with a yelp. She stood back up, looking down at him

"What the hell, Rory?" Javi groaned, rubbing his eyes.

"We got a supercell forming. I have a feeling this'll be it." Aurora said. A sudden honk from the car broke through the air. Kate was trying to hurry up the process of waking everyone up.

Addy and Praveen climbed out of the van, both in the process of waking up from their naps.

"You couldn't think of a more nice way to wake us up?" Addy asked as Kate and Jeb walked over to the tubs containing the formula.

"Sorry, but we need to get moving if we want to get this stuff in place." Kate apologized as she stood in front of the tubs. Jeb held up a camera and started to record.

The crew jumped into action. Javi was packing up the vans. Praveen and Aurora had to mix the polymers to guarantee a close to perfect mixture ratio. Addy had to make sure that the machine that held Javi's prototypes that tracked the movement of a tornado would open correctly.

"Today we are testing our formula that will be released into the tornado and hopefully soak up the raindrops and choke it out." Kate explained their project. She was really hoping to get a grant for it, well for everyone.

"Tell them that it's made from the stuff in diapers." Addy added from the back of the trailer: Javi appeared at her side, helping her with the machine.

"Yeah, it's nontoxic." Aurora chimes in, mixing the formula. Kate laughed at the duo before turning back to the camera and continuing the explanation.

"This stupid things isn't working, Javi." Addy said, continuously pressing the button to open the top of Dorothy, Javi's machine.

"Hey, be careful with that." Javi said, before slamming his fist into the side of it, "Okay now try it." Addy rolled her eyes at him before pressing the button several more times until it opened.

"Everything working?" Kate asked.

"Yep, everything is set and ready to go." Aurora answered.

"Perfect, let's get going." Kate exclaimed. She climbed into the passenger seat of the car that carried the trailer of tubs.

The teams were the same most of the time. Jeb, Kate, Addy, and Praveen were in the car while Aurora and Javi stayed in the van collecting data. However this time, Aurora wanted to be in the car when they released their formula.

They said bye to Javi as they climbed into the car, Aurora squeezed in between Praveen and Addy in the back seat with Jeb driving the car.

"Rory, you good with me calling the shots from up here?" Kate asked. Aurora nodded.

"Yeah, I'll say something if I see something though." Jeb pressed on the gas and started driving them towards the storm. As they got closer to the storm, Addy rolled down the window and climbed halfway out the window, snapping pictures of the supercell as it grew. Aurora held on to her legs to keep the girl from falling out.

They drove down several country roads without getting hit by a wave of rain. Aurora could tell the Jeb was starting to doubt the idea of a tornado happening.

"Guys, I don't think we're going to get anything. We haven't even been hit with the rain yet." Jeb spoke up finally.

"Just wait a sec, Jeb." Aurora said, helping Addy get buckled into the car again. And as if her word was magic, rain began pouring across the sky, pelting the car as it drove towards the storm. She gave him a I told you so look to annoy him.

"Alright, looks like there's some better tornado conditions southeast of you." Javi informed them over the radio. Kate picked up to respond.

"Copy that, headed that way." She said. "Okay, turn right up here." Kate pointed to a dirt road, taking them off of the nicer main roads.

"You seeing any vortex?" Praveen asked.

"Wait, go that way." Aurora leaned forward and pointed to another offside road. The prairie grass had started to change direction of which they were flowing.

Jeb reluctantly followed her directions. The wind started to pick up and so did the rain. They drove down the dirt road.

"Where's the vortex?" Jeb asked. Aurora looked behind the vehicle. Something about the way the wind was blowing.

"It's behind us! Jeb, pull over." Kate had spotted something, probably the same thing that Aurora had.

"But it hasn't touched down yet." Addy pointed out.

"It will by the time we pull over and we need to release it in the path of the tornado." Jeb slowed the car down and pulled the car around so they could make a quick get away. Everyone climbed out of the car and moved to do their jobs. Aurora stood to the side and watched the tornado touch down. By the looks of it, it was coming straight towards them. Perfect.

"Alright, let's get these things open." Kate yelled over the loud wind. Aurora snapped out of her trance and went to help them take the lids off. Addy was working on getting Dorothy open.

"Hurry, we got to get going." Praveen yelled as he detached the trailer from the car. Aurora pulled the lid off the last tub as Addy got the machine to open.

"Let's go." Aurora grabbed the girl and dragged her to the car, pushing her in before she climbed in after her. Praveen was already there and buckled before Kate and Jeb both climbed into their previous spots.

Jeb slammed his foot down on the gas pedal and pulled the car back onto the road.

"Did you get it?" Javi asked over the radio.

"Yeah, it's set and ready to be picked up. Looks like she's about to take the bait." Kate said, peering in the rear view mirror and watching the trailer as the tornado grew closer.

"Does it look like it's catching up?" Addy asked. A chill ran down Aurora's spine. She forced herself to turn in her seat and look out the back of car. The trailer had already disappeared into the winds. But the tornado, something had changed about it.

"Jeb, drive a little faster. Just in case it picked up speed."

"Jeez, it just shot 20,000 feet into the air." Javi yelled. Good, that meant it was working.

"Javi, we're headed back to you." Kate said into the radio. They waited for another update as Jeb continued to drive, avoided trees that had started to be picked up by the tornado.

"Guys. Get out of there! They just shot up 70,000 feet. There's something big in there."That meant the wind speed had picked up dramatically.

"That means the wind speed is at what, 200 mph?"

"Fuck! It's an EF5. You guys need to move."

EF5 was the worst type of tornado. The damage that it would cause was the most of any of the tornado sizes.

"Drive faster, Jeb!" Addy yelled from beside Aurora. She felt herself getting pushed against the seat due to the speed of the car. Out of window, Aurora could see trees and buildings getting torn apart.

Before Aurora could say anything, a large tree was thrown into the side of the car. They were thrown sideways, into the fields. Aurora wrapped her arms around Addy to Lee her safe from any glass.

Jeb tried to get the car moving, but nothing happened.

"Shit, we're stuck." Praveen cried from the backseat.

"There, an overpass. Take cover under there." Jeb pointed at the concrete structure. Aurora could barely see it through the wind and rain the brûlée through the air.

"That is the worst place to take cover during a tornado." Kate yelled, starting to panic.

"I know, but this car is about to go sky high so we don't have any other choice." A second passed before they rapidly began climbing out of the car. Aurora helped Addy out of the car and ran beside her towards the overpass. She didn't need to see the tornado to know that it was right behind them.

Aurora almost lost her footing in a the ditch ad they got closer. There was a large gust of wind, grabbing at them. She heard a faint yell over the wind. She turned her head slightly to watch as Praveen disappeared into the tornado, picked up by the wind.

"Praveen, no!" Addy yelled, almost stopping entirely. Aurora grabbed the girl around the waist and almost carried her to the underpass.

"Climb. Get up to the bars." Jeb yelled. It was easy for him to say. He was taller and more muscular than everyone else. He made it to the top and turned to help the girls up. Kate reached her hand out before a piece of metal was flung at her by the wind. Aurora could barely see as her hair was blowing in every direction. She heard her friend yell out in pain, holding her leg that know sported a long scar.

"Rory!" Addy yelled from behind her. Aurora turned to see a large piece of brush wrap around the girl and lift her into the wind.

"Addy!" Aurora reached for the girl, but she fell short, watching yet another friend get taken but the tornado. She felt her heart drop. They were gone, both of them. She knew the odds of surviving being picked by a storm like this.

"Aurora, look out!" She spun to see a large branch hurtling towards her. There was nothing she could do. It felt like time had slowed. Aurora watched as Kate reached out for her as she had done for Addy. She watched as Jeb held her back, refusing to loose her. Aurora felt a feeling of almost acceptance as she felt the branch ran into her and force her feet to leave the ground.

That was the last thing that she remembered before everything went black.

PAIN. The only thing Aurora could feel was pain. Was this what death felt like? She always thought it would be painless with a white light at the end of the hall sort of thing.

She heard birds? Okay, that was a little weird. Maybe there were birds in heaven. She tried to open her eyes and was met with a bright light. But not the bright light at the end of the halls, it was the bright light of the cloudy sky.

It was birds that she was hearing. Birds that were alive. She was alive. Realization dawned on her. Addy and Praveen, what happened to them. Maybe if she made it, Aurora thought, they did too.

Aurora slowly moved to a sitting position, trying to ignore the pain she was in. She felt a thick liquid dripping down her face. She held up her hand when she pulled it away, it was covered in blood. Her blood.

Panic began setting in. She didn't know where she was. She looked around, trying to recognize something but everything was destroyed.

"Get up, Aurora." She told herself. Slowly, Aurora was able to get to her feet. She saw the bruises that spread across her lower leg. There was pain coming from her ankle, probably sprained.

Aurora began walking, looking for any sort of human life. She didn't how long she had been walked when the police car finally appeared.

The ride home was painful and long. She deducted that she was at least another town over from how long the ride was.

Relief washed over her when she walked into the police station and saw Kate sitting there. But what she said made her feel ill.

"They're gone, all of them are gone." Addy, Praveen, and Jeb had all been taken by the storm, along with so many others.

authors note

okay guys how do you like it so far? Since I don't have access to the movie when writing this chapter, it is obviously not exactly what happened during this part of the movie.
hopefully I'll be able to write more accurately when the movie comes out for me to watch while I write.