Page 13 of Cora

“You don’t see the zombies taking breaks, do you?” he retorted. “Or the rest of us, for that matter.”

I bit my tongue to keep from snapping back at him. Even in the apocalypse, he can’t stop being an annoying big brother, but I can try not to take his bait all the damn time. So, instead of escalating the bickering further, I ignored him and finished cutting the pile that had accumulated while I was scouting the area from above. When I finished cutting the logs down, weworked together to get the fence up. Luckily, the clearing the house was in wasn’t massive, so we were able to finish the project in one day. We didn’t place the fence across the driveway, so that was still a potential point of entry, but the fence wasn’t meant to keep out hordes of zombies so much as to keep out the random stragglers who might pop up out of nowhere.

As we cleaned up and put away the tools, I was actively ignoring the rapidly darkening sky. A storm was brewing. I fucking hated storms. The wind picked up just as we closed the workshop doors, followed by a clap of thunder that made me freeze momentarily in terror.

Eight years old.

I lay in the center of the trampoline, looking up at the dark sky. Thunder rolled in the distance, and the wind whipped around me. I loved the drama that hung in the air when it was about to storm.

“Trent!” Melissa, my five-year-old sister, yelled as she ran barefoot through the yard to the trampoline. “Mama said you have to come inside now; the storms gettin’ bad,” she said breathlessly as she climbed onto the trampoline and rolled to my side with a giggle, clutching her stuffed pink bunny.

“It’s not so bad yet, Melly,” I told her. “It hasn’t even started to rain yet.”

Melly snuggled closer to me. “Ok, Trent, but only another minute. Cotton Candy doesn’t like to get wet,” she replied, hugging the bunny tighter.

We lay there watching the sky for several more seconds until Mama came outside next.

“Melissa Grace and Trent Gabriel, get your butts in this house this minute!” Mama yelled. She had no sooner finished her sentence than the tornado sirens went off.

Fear seized me as I quickly moved my sister to the trampoline’s edge and dropped her over the side. “Run inside, Melly. Run to Mama. I’m right behind you!”

The wind picked up as I followed her over the side. When I looked at Mama, she was as white as a ghost and looking off into the distance. I chanced a look behind me, and my stomach dropped. There was a tornado on the ground, and it looked like it was coming straight for us.

“Hurry!” Mama shouted.

I was gaining on Melly and was about to scoop her up as I passed her when she suddenly spun around.

“Cotton Candy!” she screeched as she ran back toward the trampoline where her bunny had been left.

“Melly!” Mama screamed.

“Melly, no!” I shouted, turning to run after her.

I tackled her to the ground just as the wind picked up Cotton Candy and the trampoline and sent it flying into the neighbor’s yard.

Strong arms wrapped around me and my sister, lifting us both from the ground. Pop ran with us toward the house where Mama was standing with Isaac.

“Get downstairs!” Pop shouted.

Mama and Isaac turned and ran into the house. Pop wasn’t far behind them, still carrying me and Melly. The wind soundedlike a freight train was about to drive through the house. Pop didn’t set us down until we were safely in the basement.

As soon as he did, Mama pulled us into her arms and clung to us as we huddled on the floor. “Please, God, keep my family safe,” she prayed. “Keep my family safe. Keep my family safe.”

The house seemed to shake above our heads, and I could see debris blowing around outside the small basement window as the tornado grew closer. I closed my eyes tightly and buried my head in Mama’s neck. “Make it stop,” I repeated silently in my head.

What felt like an eternity later but was likely only a few minutes, the howling wind began to fade, and as I peeked at the window from the safety of my mom’s embrace, I could see that the sun had come back out.

“Wait here until I make sure it’s safe,” Pop ordered. I watched him disappear up the stairs and heard the door open. After a few minutes, he came back to the basement. “All clear,” he said, plucking Melly from Mama’s arms and carrying her back upstairs.

Isaac followed him, and Mama relaxed her arms to nudge me to follow, but I clung to her tighter. Pop said everything was ok, but terror still had a firm grip on me.

“Ok, bud,” Mama said softly. “Come here.”

She stood with me, carried me to the couch, and sat. Gently, she pried my arms from around her and turned me in her lap so that my back was against her chest. Mama splayed her hand across my chest and applied some pressure.

“Easy does it. Breathe with me, Trent,” She said calmly.

Until she said something, I hadn’t noticed that I was breathing fast.

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