CHAPTER FIVE

AURORA OPENED HER eyes. The wind had calmed down, no longer whistling in her ears.

"Ty?" She asked, looking up at him. Tyler looked at her with relief in his eyes. Aurora looked over the mom who still held tightly to her daughter. She nudged Tyler's leg for him to move, which he did. Aurora got to her feet beside Tyler.

"Is it over?" The little girl  asked, barely louder than an a whisper. Together, Tyler and Aurora walked to the shallow end of the pool so they could see out.

Almost every inch of the area was covered in debris. Aurora gasped at the sight of the damage. Everything that had been there, the motel and the rodeo had been ripped from the ground.

"Let's get them to a safer spot to get checked out." Tyler said, referring to the mom and daughter.

"Okay." Was all Aurora could muster. They all made their way in town, or what was left of it. Houses were destroyed and people picked through the rubble of it all. By the time they had gotten there, ambulances and first responders had already arrived.

Aurora wanted to go out and help the people that had lost things, completely forgetting about the cut on her arm.

"Listen. You need to get that arm checked out." Tyler said, stopping her by grabbing her shoulders.

"But the people." Aurora argued, trying to shake loose from his grip.

"They'll be alright long enough for you to get the cut checked. There are paramedics right here." Tyler pointed out. "Please, Rory." The nickname stopped her. It sounded different coming from him, not the same way it did when Javi called her by it.

"Fine, but only if you promise let me to help out." Aurora said. Tyler agreed. He led her over to an open ambulance with a pair of paramedics inside.

"She's got a nasty cut on her arm, was wondering if you could check her out." Tyler asked the paramedics.

"Yeah just have a seat here." The paramedics pointed to the edge of the ambulance. "So what happened?"

"It was a piece of glass, no big deal."Aurora shrugged, holding her arm out as the paramedic looked over the cut. Now that she wasn't running on adrenaline, she could see the full extent of the injury. It was several inches long, seeping blood.

"No big deal? Rory, come on." Tyler sighed.

"What? It's not the worst injury a tornado had caused me." Aurora said. She used her free hand to point at the scar on her forehead. "Got this nasty scar a couple years back. It comes with the job."

"Wait, how long have you been chasing tornados?" Tyler asked. Aurora opted not to answer, realizing she had said more than she had wanted to.

The paramedic said that the scar wasn't too deep so it didn't need stitches, but it would have to be bandaged for a week. He wrapped it tightly and instructed her on how to change it.

"Thank you." Aurora said before she turned to Tyler, "come on. We've got people to help." They got to work sifting through the rubble, looking for missing people, pets, and things. Aurora's hair had fallen out of the braids, leaving it a wild mess.

After about an hour of looking around, Tyler's crew showed up for support. Lily forced her to take a break and help hand out water with her.

"You don't know how to take a break, do you?" Lilly asked as they sat on the steps of the camper. They were taking a short break.

"I took a break for almost five years. Now that I'm back in the game, I don't know hot to stop." Aurora said, taking a sip of water. "Tell me how your drone works, it's super cool."

Lily eagerly jumped into an explanation of her drone. Aurora had to admit, it was a beautiful piece of work. Something like that would have helped her back in the day. Javi would have loved to fly that thing while watching from a van. Tyler walked up over to the two girls.

"Hey Aurora, we could use your help looking for a girl." Tyler said, "the mom says she's blonde, maybe about 5'4, and she's got a pair of glasses." Aurora nodded and got to her feet.

They, along with Boone, set off in one direction, spread out widely. Tyler hadn't given her a name, so Aurora resorted to looking through the rubble.

The pain in her arm had started to fade into the back of her mind as she pushed aside pieces of concrete and wood. Aurora was about to walk away from an area and move on when she saw a pair of glasses, the glass cracked in one lens.

Glasses. Just like Addy's. The wire frames stood out to her as she grabbed them off the ground. The girl had to be here somewhere.

"Tyler, Boone! Over here!" Aurora called out as she dropped to her knees. She started desperately moving rubble out of the way, searching through the destroyed house.

"What is it?" Tyler asked, appearing beside her with Boone.

"She's here. I found her glasses." Aurora said, stopping only to point at the glasses as she moved the rubble. She didn't see the look of confusion that Boone and Tyler shared.

"Aurora." She froze, seeing blonde pieces of hair sticking out from under the rubble. "We just got told, they found her."

"What? No. I can see her." Aurora ignored the two as she tried climbing under the rubble to reach the girl. She got close and brushed pieces of wood out of the way to get a look at the girls face.

"Addy?" Aurora mumbled. Her mind started to panic, she had to save her friend. She started frantically pulling the rubble away. The collapsed building started to shake as it became insecure.

"Aurora, get out of there." Tyler yelled, reaching for her.

"No! I can't lose Addy. Not again." Aurora continued to claw at the wood before she was dragged out. "Let me go!" She kicked out, trying to shake herself from Tyler's grasp.

"It's not her! Whoever you're seeing it's not her. They found the girl a couple blocks away."

"I lost her again. I was supposed to keep her safe. I promised her parents she'd be safe." Aurora broke down into tears, no longer fighting Tyler. She could only see Addy being swept away. Sweet Addy. The girl that just wanted to help.

"It's okay. Just breathe." Tyler whispered in her ear. Boone was sitting a distance away to give them space. After several minutes, Aurora calmed down to a trance like state. She felt like her head was a thousand miles away. Boone walked over to them after Tyler got her to her feet, but he had an arm wrapped around her to keep her steady.

"Hey man. What the hell was that?" Boone asked.

"I don't know. Seemed like some sort of flashback. She kept saying the name Addy." Tyler said, starting to lead her back to where the paramedics were sitting. He wanted to make sure she was safe.

Aurora was sitting in the front seat of Tyler's truck, the door wide open and her feet dangling out. Her head was resting against the door frame.

She knew what had just happened. It happened a lot in the beginning. She could be doing anything, and the next she was thrown back to that day. Anything that reminded her of them. Addy seemed to be the worst of it. The girls had been close.

Tyler stood a bit away, talking to an officer while keeping an eye on her. It was embarrassing, having that happen in front of him. Aurora wanted to go back to Chicago. She wished she had never came back.

"Rory!" Javi yelled, running up to her in the truck. Aurora could see the other StormPar vehicles scattered around. She took one step out of the truck before Javi ran into her, engulfing her in a hug.

"I saw it on the radar and it was headed your way. I'm sorry." Javi said, letting her go after a moment. She saw the fear in his eyes.

"I'm okay, Javi. Really." She elected to not tell him about her total meltdown over their dead friend. She could see that Tyler had moved on to talk to Ben.

"Were you with Owens the whole time?" Javi asked, starting to sound defensive.

"Yeah, why?"

"Javi! Apparently this place was family owned so I'm going to work on some numbers for Riggs." Scott interrupted. Javi turned and gave him a small nod before turning back to Aurora.

"Javi, what is Riggs getting from all your data collection?"

"Why does it matter?" Javi asked.

"Sorry, let me rephrase. Is profiting off of peoples' tragedies part of your business plan?"

"Hold on now Rory. Riggs is helping them move on with their lives." He defended.

"Yeah, by swooping in and taking advantage after they just lost everything. You don't know what that's like." Aurora argued.

"I don't know what that's like? How about when I lost three of my friends because you wanted to land a big fat grant for your little science project." Aurora froze. They'd both lost people that day.

"You wanted the grant too." Aurora muttered, "Anything for a little cash money, isn't that what you used to say?" Javi's face dropped, realizing what he had said. She turned away from Javi, walking towards her truck.

"Aurora, wait!" Javi called after her. "Don't leave like this." Aurora ignored him as she climbed into the truck. She didn't know where she was driving to, but she needed to get away from everything. So she started driving.

authors note

I'm hoping to update every two days, right now I'm on a writing spree so I'm flying through it. I'm working on adding scenarios that didn't happen in the movie to add more detail and length to this book
Hope you guys enjoyed!