Boone spent the last hour having lunch with his mom. She was an amazing cook, always made his favorites but the fact that the food had been prepared the moment he walked in the back door, meant his brother called and tipped her off. They were scheming and he should have picked up on that right away.

“Did you have to send him to me?”

“Boone Anderson Michaels, I taught you better than that.”

“Sorry mama, but I can’t help it, I don’t think he learned any of what you taught me. He is a serious slob.”

“Well then, maybe he will learn a thing or two from his older brother, don't you think?”

How did she just flip that all around on me? This woman is wicked and its damned near impossible to ever pull one over on her.

She continued to look at him expectantly.

“Okay mama, I’ll do it for you but, I can’t guarantee for how long. He hasn’t been there twenty-four hours and he’s already managed to soak my upstairs bathroom and destroy my kitchen.”

“Why do you think I booted him out of here? I’m too old to deal with all that.”

Ha, so there it is, she played me well.

“Lovely, thanks a lot.”

This wonderful woman who birthed Boone rose from her porch swing and kissed him on the cheek.

“Thanks for visiting with me but you better get on home, there’s an intense storm coming this way. I can feel the wind picking up already.”

“Where’s dad?”

“Oh, he was out to the old Tucker place, they have a mare foaling. He should be home any time.” Boones’ dad was the town vet, but he mainly made house calls. There was no typical office that he worked out of. People with small animals just took them out to the farm.

“Alright, just didn’t want you to be here alone. Tell him I’ll stop over tomorrow and make sure everything's still in one piece.”

He hugged his mama and kissed her before running down the porch steps to his truck. The wind was starting to kick up some dust. He’d left all the windows open upstairs and that’d make a hell of a mess. He didn’t even assume Pearson would think to shut them. When he was done with his little brother though, he better be a whole new responsible person that could take care of himself because Boone wasn’t thrilled about babysitting a grown man, brother or not.

As Boone drove back through town to get to his own place, he noticed the thriving metropolis of Waylon Colorado was empty of people and the skies were getting dark. All the shops had closed signs posted. That wasn't a good thing, meant they were expecting a bad one. He needed to get the radio fixed in his truck so he could hear the weather updates. He didn’t have a TV in his house, no time to watch it anyway. His scanner had a weather channel so that’s where he heard most things.

“I don’t need the weather channel to tell me this is gonna be nasty, that’s an awful dark cloud. That’s gonna be a twister, I’m sure of it.”

With no one around, Boone could drive a little faster than normal. He wanted to make it home and take cover as quickly as possible. Getting through town was no problem even though he felt a little bad about speeding. Sheriff Jenkins would have his hide any other time but he was probably already home himself, or helping others get home.

As Boone pulled out of town onto the highway, he saw another car up ahead of him a bit.

“Sure, hope to hell those people know where they’re going.” Just as he said those words, he watched a tornado drop from the clouds and sweep across the road in front of that car, twirling them in a circle in the middle of the road.

* * *

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a town with no one in it.”

In New York, a person couldn’t get away from a crowd no matter where they went. This reminded her of one of those ghost towns that she’d read about the west having a lot of. It was weird because yesterday when she pulled into town, there were people everywhere. Maybe they were all scared of the weather reports? It was a menacing sky and the wind was horrible, pushing her car all over the road. The rain pelted her car so hard she thought it was going to leave dents. When she got to the edge of the town there was a sign thanking her for visiting Waylin Colorado.

“Oh crap, that’s the town the news channel was talking about earlier. I was there the whole time. Great.” She turned on her radio in the car and started scrolling for a station that would come in. She let go of the dial when she heard someone talking.

“Take shelter underground if possible. Repeat, the National Weather Service has issued a tornado warning for the area of Waylin, Colorado and its surroundings. A tornado has been spotted just southwest and headed toward Waylin. Take shelter underground if possible.”

“Oh, my god, what am I going to do? I’ve never been in a tornado or anywhere near one.” She looked around the highway but slowed down as she continued west. There were no tornadoes coming near her that she could see but she also saw no place she could pull over to take shelter.

Kelsey panicked and wondered if she should turn around and head back to town but had no clue where she would even go. She knew nobody there. There weren’t even any houses in sight. The rain suddenly stopped and the wind disappeared.

Out of nowhere, to the left of her car a massive cloud dropped from the sky and she had no time to react. She no longer had control of her car when it started to spin right in the middle of the road. She felt things hitting her as they flew around the inside of her car.

As quick as it started, her car jerked to a stop on the highway and she tried to steady herself. Her stomach was nauseous and her head unsteady. She heard her car door open and a voice talking but she couldn’t get her bearings. She sensed someone lifting her out of her car and placing her onto another seat then a door slammed. All was quiet around her for the time being as her mind drifted in and out of consciousness. Then an opening door startled her. She tried to focus on her surroundings; from the touch of her fingers it was a vehicle she was sitting in.

“Ma’am, can you hear me?”

She could but no words would form so she nodded her head.

“Just sit tight okay? I’m a Colorado wild fire fighter and I’m going to get us somewhere safe. That tornado disappeared pretty quickly and we need to get out of here before it comes back.” The seatbelt tightened around her waist as he fastened it then fingers touched her forehead and she winced. As they swerved around and the vehicle picked up speed quickly, her eyesight became a little clearer. She watched him digging through the glove box and lifted a napkin toward her face.

“Here, I’ll do it, you drive.” She gave a weak smile and placed the cloth where she could feel a splinter of pain.

“Looks like your head got cut. I’m going to head for my house since it’s the closest shelter I can think of, we’ll get you cleaned up when we get there.”

“Okay. Thanks for saving me. What happened?”