Chapter 7: Gone With the Wind

Sierra woke to the sound of her cell ringing. "H'lo?" she asked sleepily.

"Sierra, I need you to come down to the restaurant." Mark said. He hung up before she could get an explanation. She looked at her cell in confusion before throwing off the covers and getting dressed. The drive down was uneventful, except for the thoughts tumbling around in her head. Perhaps there were problems with the new girls Yuko had recruited, or maybe the tills had been off, or maybe somebody had driven a truck through the front of the restaurant to get at the ATM or the change machine. All manner of possibilities scrolled through her mind, but it was nothing like what she found when she walked in.

"Surprise!" shouted a motley assemblage of friends, relatives and coworkers. The crowd launched into a spirited (if somewhat off-key) rendition of "Happy Birthday To You" as her parents wheeled a giant cake into view.

"Make a wish and blow out the candles, Sierra!" her mother said, holding up a digital camcorder. Sierra closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Just as she was about to blow them out, the top of the cake exploded.

"Booyah!" Mark shouted from inside, waving a pair of lit sparklers. Sierra burst out laughing as Ricky Martin's "She Bangs" began to play over the speakers and Mark began to dance. Regrettably, he had to keep his clothes on for the sake of the younger guests, but she found herself having fun anyway. After the presents were opened and the real cake was cut and eaten, Hsu and Hua took her to the mall to get a full glamour-job, complete with manicure and pedicure, a facial and a new outfit. They treated her to lunch before her parents took her to the DMV to get her new driver's license--the first where she was able to have her picture taken facing forward.

From there, it was a forty-mile road trip in a vast convoy to a theater Hua had rented out for them. There, they watched one of Sierra's favorite movies, and then they ate dinner at Red Lobster. Despite her mother's insistence, or perhaps because of it, Sierra decided to forego lobster in favor of grilled swordfish, with fried calimari rings and a spicy dip for an appetizer.

The family called it a night when they got back home, but for Sierra, the night was still young. Mark picked her up, still wearing her new outfit, and they took her out clubbing. It was Sierra's first time in an over-18 club. She danced with Mark, Hsu, Hua, Fiona, Connie and Traci until her legs wouldn't support her anymore.

They helped her out to the car as the first sprinkles of rain started to come down. Mark drove her out to his place. She hadn't been here in weeks--not since Mark had started having crews working three shifts, day and night. He said it was finished, and he wanted to show it to her. She couldn't see it at first. It looked like she was looking at a bare hill until she noticed the steps leading down. An underground house? she thought. He opened the doors and led her inside.

The furnishings were nice and plush, and the decor was soothing, with soft mood lighting, and blues and greens. Thunder rumbled outside as the rain began to come down harder. Hsu pointed out the drains at the bottom of the stairs before she closed and locked the door, which was built to keep water from flowing inside even if the drains should become clogged. With Mark's help, Sierra managed to make it downstairs to the lower level, where the bedrooms were. The master suite had a huge bathroom with a ten-person shower and a big Jacuzzi-style tub. In the bedroom, the bed was a huge custom unit, with what looked like four king-sized mattresses surrounded by a canopy that was almost an indoor gazebo. The walk-in closet was just gravy.

"What do you think?" he asked.

"It's wonderful." she replied.

"A cozy little warren for my happy little love-bunnies." he said, caressing one of her personal erogenous zones so that she moaned in desire. Someone else put something on her head, and then she was shown her reflection in the full-length mirror as Traci closed the closet door.

The thing on her head was a pair of costume bunny-ears. She could see everyone else putting them on. She was passed from one bunny-eared woman to another as they helped her remove her clothes one item at a time, until she was naked except for the ears and her ever-present necklace. She crawled up onto the bed and lay face-down, her ass in the air. Mark smiled and caressed her slit until her moans of pleasure turned into whimpers of desire. The others helped him undress, and then he was behind her, and sliding inside. Her pussy welcomed its familiar friend with the usual enthusiasm. She quivered in anticipation as Mark moved inside her, stimulating her the way only someone who knew her so well could.

"Ah! Yes! There!" she cried as he began to strike her G-spot with each thrust. She howled in joy as the first orgasm washed over her senses, sending her body into convulsions. He turned her over without pulling out, and held her legs up over her head until her breasts were almost mashed against her knees. This was new, and she was finding that she liked it a lot. She let him know vocally with lots of encouraging noises. She came again, and felt him ejaculate inside her. Fatigue finally caught up with her, and she dozed off before the afterglow was even barely begun.

The storm was growing worse. Yuko was boiling water for noodles when she heard hail hitting the windows. She looked outside and saw the tree--a scawny, potted thing surrounded by a fence to keep dogs from peeing on it--waving like mad in the strong winds. As the hail pounded all the harder, she decided the smartest thing to do was to get away from the windows. She poured the hot water over her noodles and waited. Lightning flashed rapidly outside, reminding Yuko of the strobing lights from her captivity in the mall. The TV beeped. Yuko walked to the television and turned up the volume knob to make it audible over the noise outside.

" ... severe thunderstorm with a lot of potential for tornadic activity. As you can see, a rather extensive Tornado Watch has been put into effect for these counties..." Yuko watched, transfixed as a list of nearby counties was read off, and simultaneously scrolled along the bottom of the screen. She felt herself grow cold as the name of her new home county appeared.

She remembered a cyclone she'd once experienced firsthand. It had appeared out of nowhere while she and a friend were riding their bikes--a swirling column of dirt and debris that had blown them to the ground and sucked up their bikes, throwing them in a lake. In America, those were called "dirt devils," and considered minor compared to the smallest actual tornado, but it had been terrifying enough for her.

She watched the screen like a rabbit staring at a snake.

The hail woke Angel up with its loud rapping against her window and the roof. Knowing she wouldn't be getting back to sleep with that racket, she went downstairs for a drink and turned on the TV. Instead of the usual late-night talk shows, most of the local stations were in "severe weather alert" mode. She saw the tornado watch and felt a cold knot settle into the pit of her stomach. She ran upstairs to her parents' room.

"Mom, dad, wake up!" she cried, shaking her father's shoulder.

"Uh, what is it, Angel?" her mother asked sleepily. "Did the hail wake you?"

"Well, yeah, but there's a tornado watch on for every county within fifty miles."

"Okay, I'm up, I'm up." her father said, putting his feet on the floor and wiping his face. "You're right, tornado's nothin' to make light of, even if it is just a watch. Get your brother up, we'll go to the college and get in the basement of the library. I'll call Mort and have him open it up for us." Angel nodded, and left her parents' room, grabbing her cell on her way to her brother's. She was writing a text-message with one hand as she shook her brother awake.

"Five more minutes." he groaned.

"Hey, dingus, you wanna see the tornado?"

"What?!" he asked, sitting up. The power went out suddenly, and the room was lit only by the strobing lightning. "Come on, there's a tornado watch on, we're going to the college library to hide in the basement."

"Don't scare me like that." the preteen boy said with a frown. Using the meager light from her cell phone's screen, Angel searched her brother's drawer for the glowsticks left over from Halloween. She handed an unopened one to her brother, cracked one for herself and put its string around her own neck before taking two more to her parents' room. The light was weak at best, but they kept putting off buying batteries for the flashlights and now were paying the price. Her hands shook, but she tried to look calm. She continued to send text-messages to everyone she knew throughout the short drive to the college. Her father's fellow professor, Dr. Mortimer Pepper, was waiting for them at the entrance to the library.

"Is it okay if some friends of mine come, too?" she asked the professor.

"Of course." Dr. Pepper responded. "Go on downstairs now, I've contacted some others." Angel sat on the top step of the stairwell and continued to text her friends and coworkers. Her cell was a cheap model, so she had to stay above ground to get any decent signal.

"I'll ask a few people to bring mattresses and food and stuff." she said. Her father nodded, and she kept an eye on Dr. Pepper at the predominantly glass front of the building.

Hua and Traci were taking a breather by the side of the bed when their Master's cell chimed the familiar noise of a received text-message. Hua opened it and read what it said. "Master, there's a tornado watch. Angel is taking shelter in the library basement with her family, and texting anyone else she knows who doesn't have a basement."

"Good girl. Tell her not to worry about us, we're all just fine. The whole house is a basement."

"Yes, Master." Hua said, and began to type the message. Mark grabbed some pajama bottoms and headed upstairs in case someone should come knocking in need of shelter. The others put on some loose-fitting pajamas they found in the closet, except for Sierra, who was still asleep. Hsu stayed with her in case she should awaken, and the others went upstairs to join their Master.

The first knock came around two in the morning. The wind was blowing the rain at an acute angle to the ground. Two college-age sisters and their parents told them that their basement was already flooded. Mark let them in and had Traci fetch towels and a hairdryer. Connie brought some extra clothes for them to change into.

Yuko's eyes widened as the news broke:

"This just in: Channel 25 storm-chasers have sighted a tornado on the ground, repeat, there is a tornado on the ground. We're going to try to make the precise location appear on the map here with our live Doppler radar..." She was shaking as the red-and-blue hook appeared on the screen, especially when the weatherman said it was heading south-southeast at an estimated sixty miles per hour--on a collision course for town. She frantically called her Master.

"Master! Danger! T-t-t..." she stammered when he picked up.

"Calm down, Yuko."

"Master, there's a t-t-t ... a tornado on the ground." she said in a little-girl voice. "M-moving fast and heading right for us!"

"Grab something to wear quickly and head for the laundry room in the basement." he said. "I'm safely underground, and I want to be able to say the same for you."

"Yes, Master." she said, calming significantly at the news that he was safe. When he hung up, she grabbed an oversized T-shirt and her mattress, dragging that out into the hall.

"Good idea!" said another young woman, from the next floor up. She grabbed the back end and started helping her carry it downstairs. "We'll put this over us when we get down to the basement. I'm Jane, by the way."

"Yuko." Yuko responded.

"I hardly ever see you outside your room."

"I'm supposed to be keeping a low profile." Yuko replied.

"Are you like, a spy or something?"

"I work in acquisitions." she said simply. "My employer calls me when he needs me, and I have a lot of free time when I'm not on assignment, but it can be pretty dangerous."

"Especially when people don't wanna be 'acquired, ' right?"

"Right."

"But I bet it pays way better than being a cashier at the grocery store."

"I'm never wanting, if that's what you mean." Yuko said. They had arrived in the basement, and there were other people, men and women, taking shelter there.

"Yes!" exclaimed one of the others. "Bring that over here, would ya?" They all crowded together between the washer and the wall. With the door closed and a mattress over them, they were as safe as they were going to be. The landlord came in and started yelling in Spanish.

"What did he say?" Yuko asked.

"He wants to know what we're doing." said a Hispanic youth who was probably around twenty-one if that.

"Does he know about the tornado?" Yuko asked. "I was in a dirt devil once, and that was plenty for me."

"He says God will protect us, and we should go back to our apartments and get some sleep."

"I believe the saying 'Trust in God but lock your doors anyway, ' applies in this case." Yuko said. The boy relayed that for the landlord, who said something and then went back upstairs. "What did he say?"

"I'm sorry, I can't repeat that in mixed company." he responded.

Mark could see why Yuko had been so terrified. The storm was moving fast. If it kept going, it would be at or near his new home in three minutes. He hoped there was no one out on the road in the path of this thing. This was going to be bad.

"Mark? What's going on?" Sierra asked sleepily. Luckily she had the presence of mind not to call him "Master," since they had guests.

"Nothing to worry about, baby, just some new friends riding out the tornado with us."

"The what?" she asked, shocked. She ran to his side and riveted her eyes to the television screen. She started to shake. He wrapped his arms around her.

"Relax, we're safely underground. I've been getting text-messages all night that everybody's taking shelter in basements, cellars and strong structures. I've called your parents, they're in the bathtub with a mattress on top of them."

The storm arrived, snapping powerlines in its ferocity and plunging everyone into darkness. He led the group downstairs as the exit began to rattle. Sierra's skin was as white as alabaster, and she held onto Mark's arm as if the twister was sucking her into its swirling maw even now. He held her close and whispered soothingly to her, and took her with him when he went to start up the generator.

As soon as the watch became a warning, Angel and Dr. Pepper headed down into the basement. Half of the employees from the restaurant were down here with their families, having come from houses without basements, many of them from the trailer park. Angel was glad the rest had found shelter as well. The power was out, but somebody had a battery-operated television so they could watch the storm coverage. It was rated a bad one, F3 to F4. They split up, some going into the computer lab, some going into the microfilm room, some going into the librarians' lounge, but everyone hunched under tables and desks. The children made a game of it, building a fort out of one table with walls of cushions.

"For those of you who've just joined us," said the TV, "we're speaking live to Storm Chaser Rick Randall on the road."

"Thanks Lyle, this is a very dangerous storm we're tracking. It's just passed through a neighborhood with some really old plantation houses, and it's making a beeline for a town ... what town is that, anyway?" Somebody off-camera said something. "Oh, okay." he said. "Yes, everyone in the area should definitely get indoors, underground if possible. I'm pretty sure I saw a Silverado in a tree just a minute ago. This is a high-ranking tornado travelling sixty miles per hour--that's a mile a minute, folks--and it's only getting meaner as it barrels down on the town like a charging bull."

Angel shivered. Someone put a blanket over her shoulders. She wrapped herself tightly, wishing her Master and Mistress were here to make her feel better. She comforted herself with the knowledge that they were at least as safe as she was, and managed to get back to sleep.

Liam MacLeod, father to young Mark, watched the news reports with a growing sense of worry. He had recognized the Silverado the storm-chasers had seen in a tree. Now, as the titanic whirlwind cut a swath through his son's hometown, he frantically dialed his son's number. One ring. Two rings. Three. Four.

"Hello?" asked a female voice.

"Is Mark there?" he asked.

"Hold on." Pause, footsteps.

"Hello?" Mark's voice asked.

"Oh, thank God." Liam said, feeling a cold knot dissolve in his throat.

"Dad?"

"When I saw the truck in a tree, I feared the worst." he said.

"I hardly sleep in it, Dad." Mark quipped.

"Where are you?"

"In my house. Oh, you haven't seen it, have you? It's a nice, cozy Hobbit-hole, with two underground floors, a generator, a drain to keep the entry from flooding, a really strong door..."

"My son is a bloody genius." Liam muttered, sitting down hard enough in his vibrating chair to jar his tailbone. It took him several minutes to catch his breath enough to tell Mark he hadn't broken anything. When he was able to, he stood up, and took a seat on the much softer couch. Well, one worry was off his mind. The storm-chasers' cameras continued to show scenes of carnage. They interspursed it with snippets from weather cameras in parts of town that still had power. One was just down the street from Mark's restaurant. "Aw, no!" Liam said as the tornado paused and made a sharp turn as if specifically targeting the business for annihilation. Windows exploded outward from both halves, and tables, chairs and arcade machines were sucked into the maelstrom to be flung about like bits of confetti at a party. The tornado's path was no longer straight and predictable, instead curling and twisting like a kid doing doughnuts in a mall parking lot. The storm stopped short of destroying Li Hua's house, instead choosing to throw debris at it in passing. Its path curled toward the poor side of town, where low-rent housing dominated. It tore the front half off an apartment building, chucking debris from there into the projects before going on a rampage in Wal-Mart. By this time, it was starting to peter out, becoming less massive and less powerful, so it only tore the roof off before continuing on. It completely ignored the trailer park and decided to spend its dying moments at the lake, shaking trees as it went. It didn't quite make it, twisting its last fully a mile away from the power plant.

From there, the newscasters moved on to other, less spectacular tornadoes in other counties and towns, but that one was a hard act to follow.

Liam decided to get some sleep.

Yuko thought she was going to die when she heard the crashing sound and the howl of wind, but death didn't come. The awful noise went away sooner than expected, moving on to more fertile killing fields, leaving the residents of the apartment complex alone.

Most of them, anyway.

Yuko crept cautiously out of hiding. The winds were still fierce, but not as fierce as before. Her search was cut short by debris blocking the way into the forward half of the building. She could see patches of sky through the broken boards. She backed away from the wreckage and returned to the others.

"What happened?" Jane asked.

"The front half of the building's gone." Yuko said flatly. Jane's eyes widened, as did everyone else whose apartment had been in the front half. Yuko crawled back under the mattress, curling into a fetal position, but felt no safer.

"Anybody down there?" Mark called into a pile of wreckage that used to be an expensive house. A muffled voice called back a reply. He nodded to the others, who started carrying off whatever they could by ones and twos. He and the father of the college girls handled the bigger pieces. The women carried off individual bricks to a pile off to the side. They found the entrance to the basement and began to help people out of their imprisonment. With the aid of a first-aid kit, minor injuries were cleaned and bandaged, and Sierra dispensed cups of soup, coffee and hot cocoa.