Holding Lily tightly against her chest with one hand, she grabbed the rail with the other. She could feel her daughter’s heart racing as fast as hers was. Lily’s little arms wrapped so tightly around her mother’s neck that she could barely breathe. She struggled to regain her calm for her daughters’ sake as she rushed down the steps into the dark basement below. It wasn’t easy to do; Kathy’s greatest fear was coming true.
Somehow, they made it down those steps in time. The men led the way to a corner of the basement, and the five of them huddled under a table. At least Kathy thought it was a table, but she really didn’t think too much about it. She was sandwiched between the two men. Kathy felt the man who had risked his life to save them wrap his hand around hers. He was whispering to Melanie, trying to calm her down. She was still in her car seat, but he held her as close as he could. Lily was huddled underneath Kathy, her arms wrapped around her mom, while Kathy's free arm was still holding tightly to her daughter's tiny waist.
The sound of destruction above them was deafening. This was worse than Kathy’s greatest fear. She wanted to be home now more than ever. ‘*Why did I have to take this stupid vacation?* *What the hell was I thinking? Why did I want to come here anyway?*’ They huddled together under that table for what seemed like an eternity, though in reality it was only a couple of minutes—maybe less. The walls shook as the tornado roared above them, destroying everything these two men held dear.
In some parts of the basement, the roof collapsed. In the flashes of light brought on by lightning, she could see that a bed had come crashing down about a foot from where they were, and the refrigerator crashed down across the room. A television set dangled above and was just barely visible from under the table, its cord still plugged into an outlet in a now collapsed wall. Kathy wondered how it could still be attached like that without the wall coming down.
As the house above them became no more, their shelter became full of splintered furniture, broken pieces of glass, scattered debris from outside, and parts of the men’s home. Kathy heard what was left of the structure above them crash the rest of the way down and knew it had closed up the holes in the ceiling made by the falling debris. With the holes now completely closed up, the basement became pitch black. She realized it was going to be almost impossible to get out now. She felt the floor shaking. An arm came up around her shoulder, and she realized that she was the one shaking and not the floor. She closed her eyes and tried to pray.
Finally, the noise began to quiet down. The tornado was either moving on or dissipating, but she couldn’t be sure which. It was over, and that’s all that mattered—for now. Slowly, the small group began to climb out from their shelter under the table in silence. Kathy was the last to climb out as she was reluctant to leave the protection it offered, and only gave in to be near her girls.
She clung to Lily, wishing Melanie were in her arms as well. The only sound coming from the basement was the girls’ and Kathy’s crying. Above them, the thunder began to roll again, and the wind made a frightening howl that completely stopped Kathy’s heart for several beats.
“What the hell is going on? I researched this place, and I could have sworn it said tornadoes were rare here!” She was shaking almost violently now, and her voice was pitched high. The adrenaline and fear were finally overwhelming her.
“Rare doesn’t mean they never happen!” one of the men answered from somewhere in the dark.
In the back of her mind, she knew he was right. Unfortunately, it didn’t help to ease her mind much. “I know. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to lose it like that,” she said, trying to regain her control by taking long, deep breaths and letting them out slowly, but she couldn’t quite stop the sobs from escaping. Her chest hurt from how hard her heart was beating.
“It’s okay.” She heard the other man respond as he moved farther away in the dark basement.
And it was definitely dark, too dark to see anything, though she could hear the men moving around. Out of the darkness came a light. The second man had turned on a flashlight and was shining it around at the walls and ceiling, surveying the damage. The man with Melanie had finally gotten her out of her car seat and was reaching out for Kathy to take her. How he’d managed to do that so quickly in the dark was a mystery that Kathy would probably never solve. Repositioning herself on the floor, Kathy set Melanie on her lap beside her sister, vowing she would never let go.
With both of her children finally in her arms, she was able to rein in her sobs a little; however, a few tears continued to escape and run down her cheeks. No one had spoken a word since Kathy fell apart. For her part, she was afraid they would be stuck in her throat or that she would lose it again. She was still in shock over what was happening. This was definitely the worst situation she’d ever been in and it validated all of her fears.
“Momma, is it over?” Lily’s tiny voice was the first to break the silence. She looked up at her mommy with her big blue eyes full of tears and fear.
Kathy looked down to where her daughter was sitting in her lap, trying to find the words to reassure her, but nothing came out. On the verge of a full-fledged panic attack, she had to keep fighting to calm her breathing and slow her racing heart. Is it over, or is the worst yet to come? Please God let it be over now.
“I think it might be, darlin’, but we need to stay down here for just a bit longer. Okay?” the first man said, his voice dropping closer as he squatted in front of them.
She didn’t even know his name. She didn’t know either of their names. She owed them her life; she owed them her daughters’ lives. She had to say something. “Tha…thank…thank you,” she managed to choke out.
“You’re welcome, but it’s not necessary. There’s no way I could live with myself if I didn’t at least try to help. I knew I had to do something.”
“I don’t know many people that would have done it. It was so close; you could have been killed trying to help us. I don’t think I could have done it.”
“You don’t know that. You never know what you’re capable of until the moment you’re faced with a situation that requires you to do something you don’t think you’re capable of doing. The minute I saw you jump out of your car and open the back door, I knew I had to help you.”
“That’s right; you don’t know what you’re capable of until you face a certain situation. You almost always find strength you didn’t know you had,” the second man added in an equally southern accent. He was holding the flashlight up near his face now. He was tall, much taller than Kathy—not that being taller than Kathy was hard for anyone to do. His hair was brown just touching his shoulders, but he was too far away to determine his eye color.
“I’m Brian, by the way, an’ that’s Chris,” he continued as he gestured to his friend sitting on the floor in front of Kathy and her girls. He walked closer and handed Kathy and Chris flashlights. “I think we only have two packages of batteries left, so I hope they last until we get out of here.”
She looked at Chris as they turned their flashlights on. He was sitting close enough to her to get a good look at his face in the surrounding lights of the three beams. His eyes were blue-green, his hair was dark brown and cut short. He didn’t look nervous or upset at all. In fact, neither of them did, which made Kathy self-conscious and agitated.
He was looking at her with expectancy in his eyes. She hadn’t introduced the girls or herself yet. “I’m Kath…Kathleen,” she stuttered before pausing to clear her constricting throat. “You can call me Kathy. This is Lily. She’s four.” Kathy hugged her oldest daughter gently as she said her name. “And this is Melanie. She’s two and a half.” She hugged Melanie. Maybe it was just their warm smiles visible in the dark, but she was becoming calmer.
“It’s nice to meet you,” Chris said, adding with a smile, “Though, maybe not under these circumstances.” Kathy smiled back; his smile was too engaging not to.
Brian had walked back to the other side of the basement and was looking around again. “Chris, can I talk to you for a ’sec?” There was a tinge of something in his voice that put Kathy on alert and made her heart begin to race again.
“Sure. Be right back.” He winked at the girls in the light of his flashlight before he got up and walked to Brian’s side.
They stood in the corner of the basement talking for several minutes. From where Kathy and the girls sat on the floor, she couldn’t hear what the men were saying, but she had a good idea. The tornado had trapped them with debris from the house and who knew what else. They weren’t getting out—not anytime soon anyway.
Something brushed her hand and she almost shrieked. Turning her flashlight to see what had touched her, she saw a dog. She hadn’t noticed it before, but it must have been here the whole time. Maybe it was the one from outside that she had heard barking. It was a beautiful Husky with brown and white fur. Melanie cried out, causing Kathy to turn the flashlight in her direction. There was a second dog, a Golden Retriever, wagging its tail and licking Melanie on the cheek. Both dogs seemed very friendly.
“I see you met Sam and Kacie.” The second man, Brian, said as he and Chris walked back over to them.
“Um, yeah. Which one is which?” Kathy asked, trying hard to forget where they were and what was going on—but not succeeding very well. How could she?
“Sam is the Golden Retriever, an’ Kacie is the Husky. They’re Brian’s,” Chris said as he and Brian walked back over to where Kathy sat with her daughters.
“They seem friendly.”
“They are, an’ they love children.”
Lily giggled as Kacie licked her on the cheek. It was good to hear her giggling; it helped to calm Kathy down a little more.
“So what’s going on? Is it safe to go out yet? Can we even get out?” She had to ask, even if she didn’t really want to know the answers. She didn’t, but not knowing was worse—much worse.
They exchanged a look that told her she had guessed right. “Well … um … we’re not sure yet. We should probably wait down here until someone comes to get us, though. It could be dangerous for us to try to climb out without help, an’ we don’t want anyone to get hurt.”
“But—people climb out all the time in the movies,” she said, knowing that she must sound so naive to them right now. Her mom always said she had a habit of not thinking before she spoke; guess she was right.
“That’s the movies. This is real. We don’t wanna take any chances,” Brian said as he was looking above them again.