Death Wind by William Bell

Death Wind by William Bell

Author:William Bell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUV000000
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Published: 2000-12-31T16:00:00+00:00


Chapter Six

Razz had to shake Allie to get her to stop screaming. He slumped back into his seat, talking as if he was in a daze. “I guess… I guess we should go see if Slammer is… alive…”

Allie squeezed her eyes shut, trying to get her head straight. Was it a nightmare? Had she really seen a tornado snatch Slammer up into the sky and then rip the houses on the hill to bits? When she opened her eyes, the smear of blood on the windshield gave her the answer.

Razz kept trying to start the van. The motor groaned and coughed, but that was all. So they climbed out and walked slowly around to the back of the van. There was no wind now, and the sun seemed to smile from the clear sky as if everything had been a joke. It was dead quiet.

Razz pulled himself up onto the bumper of the van, then to the roof. He peered into the distance, turning slowly as he scanned the fields beside the highway. Slammer was nowhere to be seen. Razz lowered himself to the ground again.

“He’s gone,” said Razz, his voice quiet. “How could he just disappear?”

Allie shuddered when she thought of it. Slammer’s broken body falling out of the whirlwind, landing in a field—or maybe someone’s yard.

Then her mind began to wake up. “Razz! Our parents!”

Razz looked at her. “No way, Brainy. My place is miles from here, in the other direction. But—”

Allie felt her heart pounding with fear. “We’ve got to get to my house, to see if it’s… Let’s go!”

They began to run down the exit ramp to Essa Road. They soon reached the intersection. There were several overturned cars scattered around. Smoke poured from a pickup truck. A man with his shirt torn to ribbons stood watching it, shaking his head. A few people wandered around as if they were lost. An old man knelt in the middle of the road beside a woman in a pink dress. “Sara,” he was saying as he shook her. “Sara, Sara.”

“Maybe we should stop and help,” Razz suggested.

“No, please,” Allie answered. “Let’s keep going.”

At the corner of Fairview they stopped and looked up the hill at the blasted houses. The most direct route to Allie’s house was up the hill and through the yards. But Razz and Allie turned and followed the road. They turned left onto Little Avenue, stepping over huge branches and chunks of debris.

When they got to the top of the hill, near their school, it was as if they had stepped into a science-fiction movie. All around them were the remains of smashed houses. Allie could see into living rooms and bedrooms because walls had blown away. Front lawns were strewn with chunks of wood, fallen trees, broken furniture.

In a daze, they walked down Marshall Street. Around them, voices called kids’ names that Allie recognized. People wandered around their yards, staring at places where houses once had been.

“Looks like a war zone,” whispered Razz. “Like the city was bombed.



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