The Tempest

by A. J. Scudiere

  Cage glanced over his shoulder again. That was not comforting information and it didn’t help with his ongoing effort to relax. As each day passed without another tornado, he’d grown a little calmer. He’d believed a little bit more that it would be okay. But he wasn’t there yet, and he was now figuring that it would only be time that really made the nerves disappear.

  “They usually come preceded by weird weather, and you can't spend every sunny day petrified that a tornado is going to appear out of nowhere!” Leah shot back. The two were having the argument into the air around him. Cage felt as if he was absorbing their words, but Leah continued. “Honestly, it's just as likely that a hellhound would show up to drag you to fire and brimstone.”

  That made his eyes flick directly to her, wondering if she had any idea what the odds of that were. He did. And he sure as shit didn’t want to add the night hunters to this mix.

  Though he and Joule had remained jumpy for days after the storm, Sarah had been her usual, calm self. But she was a local and Cage wasn't using her as a barometer. It was these other transplants—others who hadn't been in ‘Bama before—that he thought were getting over it far too quickly. Had they somehow easily survived the disasters that seemed to hit everyone sooner or later? Or was he standing between two incredibly lucky people?

  In college, one of his friends had been through an avalanche and a blizzard. Another had lost a good portion of his family to a mudslide. Most of his group had developed a keen awareness of nature and its ability to take away human life in the snap of a finger. They’d been through a lot together. But the weather had been going haywire for quite a few years now. Floods, storms, landslides, and more.

  And now, a tornado. It seemed the next thing on his checklist.

  “I’ll just count myself lucky that the county repaired the gravel,” Cage muttered. He and his roommates had been able to drive up to the house last night as the work crew had finally made it out to their house and machined the gravel back into the driveway. They'd finagled Sarah's car out of the driveway instead of Joule’s, simply because the undercarriage was slightly higher. Neither of them had the kind of vehicle made for four-wheeling.

  Even though it had only hit the end of their long driveway, the “tiny F-1” tornado had come too close to the house, plowing a ten-foot-wide ditch through the gravel. It had even left a trail where it had danced along the edge of the property.

  The first trip over the damaged section had been slow, rough going. Sarah had carefully picked her way around through the damage, the car bouncing as it dipped into unseen holes. They’d been worried it would get stuck, and Sarah had quickly declared she and her car wouldn’t do that again.

  So the four of them had been walking the length of the driveway and leaving Sarah's car parked at the end of it for most of the week. There hadn’t been much choice, unless they found someone willing to pick up all four of them and drive them into work every day.

  “Why did they fix the gravel?” Leah broke into his thoughts.

  “Because the tornado ate it. The edges were creepy, super clean cuts—as if made by a machine,” Cage told them.

  “Holy shit!” Micah responded. “I didn’t know it hit so close to you. It didn't get your house, did it?”

  This time, Cage shook his head. The storm had hit his driveway, and that was close enough.

  “You, Leah? Did it get close to you?” Micah leaned forward to see her face across Cage, who still walked in the middle as they approached the tent.

  “No. I mean, we went to our safe room and listened to the radio, like everyone else, but I didn't even see it.” She shifted her attention to Cage. “Did you see it?”

  “Hell, yes. It chased us down the road. We were on the street when it first hit.”

  “Why were you out?” She sounded as if he’d been asking for trouble.

  “Because we needed dinner?” he replied, as though it might be obvious. Had everyone else around the area figured out that a tornado was coming? Well, everyone except Sarah, who seemed to otherwise know everything about Alabama life and dangers.

  As he thought about it, he realized that maybe he’d been unaware because of the late evening. Or maybe Sarah hadn’t thought anything of the weird weather—maybe Alabama got enough of it that she wasn’t worried. But it sure worried him now.

  The three of them reached the tent, handing off the samples to Izzy and Melinda. They all knew by now to help sort the specimens and wait while everything was properly checked in. Though Cage often liked to be quiet and focus on his work, Melinda seemed more than capable of multitasking. “Everybody good today?”

  “Sure,” he replied, as did the others, though he felt his shoulder shrug as if to ask, Why today?

  “Did you see the protesters on the way in? They’re back.” So Melinda had caught that he didn't understand why she was asking.

  “I saw them, but they didn't block the road or anything. They sure seemed extra angry,” he added.

  They'd come back with a vengeance, three days after the tornado. Maybe they needed to get their houses repaired or their insurance claims filed, he didn't know. But they had returned in record numbers. Though they stayed on their side of the property line, this time the signs suggested that the tornado was the wrath of God rather than just a weather system. The protesters also seemed to think that God was emphatically anti-solar energy and emphatically pro-strip mining.

  Cage wasn't sure if he was right with God or not, but he had a hard time finding a belief in his heart that could match the signs.

  Itching to turn around and leave because Chithra had given them a full load today, he looked to Melinda. “Are we good to go?”

  “Yeah,” she said, not looking at them as she pulled the first samples from their containers. But even as he stepped from the shade of the tent into the full sun, he heard her behind him saying, “Well, this is weird.”

  17

  “We’re off for the next three days. I’m not unhappy about it,” Joule said as she passed the bowl of broccoli to Deveron.

  “That's what I heard, too.”

  “It’s official. Radnor emailed everyone.” Cage let some of the bowls pass him by as he dug into what was already on his plate.

  Three days off work meant five days in a row completely off, Joule thought.

  “Yeah, but it's not vacation,” Sarah interrupted her happy thoughts.

  Joule looked around the table to see if any of the others were having the same response. “I'm off off. I don't have any assignments.”

  This wasn't a work-from-home job. Radnor had simply said, stay in and stay safe.

  “But we likely won't have power for part of it,” Sarah said, only this time Joule understood, and she was prepared.

  The days off were because a storm system was coming through. Between the field and the local infrastructure, it wasn't going to be safe to be driving into work most days—if it was as bad as predicted.

  This time, they all knew where the candles were. They knew where the radio was and where the hand crank flashlights were. There were now energy bars waiting in the bathroom closet.

  One of the baskets in the closet held toilet paper while a second held laundry detergent and supplies. But the third now contained all their emergency backups, including the radio.

  “Are there fresh batteries in the radio?” Sarah asked around a bite of broccoli. The radio had a hand crank backup, just like the lights, but batteries were the preferred option.

  “Already done,” Joule said. Her lesson had been learned. Despite the coming storm and the predicted high levels of rain, she found she was feeling better. She always felt better once she had a plan in place.

  This wouldn't be like Stanford. She repeated that to herself enough times to calm down, and she reminded herself that the jitters were from the high of the tornado. She was still coming down from it.

  Last night had been the first night this week that the train hadn't awakened her or driven her to tornado-like nightmares.
So she could handle the power going out and the incessant sound of rain. It had been a number of years, and she'd weathered a number of storms since the Stanford disaster.

  The next morning, she woke late to the pattering on the roof and a growling stomach. Grateful the stove was gas, which would still work even if the power went out, Joule made breakfast.

  They’d checked and double-checked the gas lines and outlets. They’d walked the property and looked for failure points. She and Dev were engineers, after all. Everything tested fine and she had a plan.

  She had hot food, a good book, and a full fridge. So she told herself not to worry that the rain was picking up steam. Though it took a little bit of conscious effort, she managed to get lost in a mystery novel. When her eggs were gone, she transferred herself to the couch and watched an action flick on one of the cable channels.

  By the time the movie ended, Sarah and then Deveron had rolled out. Her brother had the ability to sleep all day when given the opportunity. It would be at least noon before he was up.

  Sure enough, Sarah had made them all grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup from a can by the time Cage appeared in the main area, his hair sticking up on one side.

  “Oh, thanks!” He grabbed his plate from the breakfast bar as he headed to the table. While the rest of them were lazing about, he was alert and chattering. “So, Melinda found this bizarre plant yesterday.”

  Across the table, Joule felt her eyes narrow. “What was it?”

  “We're still trying to figure it out. She's pretty impressive. She can identify most of the animals, down to specific species, just with a glance.” He dipped the sandwich into the soup and took a bite.

  “But she couldn't identify this one?” Sarah asked. Sarah was also part of the environmental team, and Joule wondered if maybe this strange plant wasn't a big enough deal for the news to travel yet.

  “No, she couldn't identify it at all.” He paused a moment. “It might be invasive, or lone, or endangered. We don't know.”

  “Damn. Invasive or endangered may very well change the configuration of the array,” Joule hopped into the conversation. They’d done numerous calculations accounting for the possibility of the treeline getting higher nearby and casting longer shadows. They'd calculated for winter days and lower sun.

  But the clipping her brother had brought to the lead environmentalist might just change all of it.

  18

  Joule clinked her glass to Sarah's. Almost eighteen of her Helio Systems teammates sat around the long table. Plates of fragrant Indian food sat decimated in the middle.

  Their three days off had been met with a storm that managed to only knock out the power for a few hours Thursday afternoon. Friday had bloomed bright and humid, but it was too late to call the employees back.

  They’d set to work with a renewed vengeance the following Monday, and now the corner pylons that formed the base of the array were finally set. Though this wasn’t an official work dinner, that was the reason for the celebration tonight.

  Joule was glad to be having a night out with friends. More work graced the horizon, but the team had achieved a major breakthrough. The pylons should be able to withstand high winds, hail, and twisting forces—like tornadoes. They would hold up even under the high pressure of flood water, should the creeks rise. They'd even tested for blizzards and mudslides, though neither was expected to occur here.

  While everyone was laughing and having a good time, Joule felt something tugging at the back of her brain. She was still thinking about the protesters showing up every morning. Sometimes they harassed Helio Systems team members at dinner or if they ran into the workers on the street.

  That might be one of the reasons that this had been the suggested celebration place. The owners were pleasant and welcoming of the solar team. The town itself was becoming more divided. Some of the bigger landowners—with larger power bills—were grateful for them. But still, there was always Jerry leading his band of protesters. They seemed to no longer be mad about pollution, but now were angry about God, despite the fact that there had not been another tornado.

  “More?” Chithra held the plate up for her.

  The tall and thin-to-the-point-of-willowy woman had managed to put away three plates of food tonight. Joule had made her best attempt to do the same, but now she held her hand up to stop. “I’m stuffed.”

  Still, she looked at the remaining plates and wondered who was going to get the joy of the leftovers. And who was going to get to do the math for the check. Probably the engineering team. But as she looked around the table, she realized that she was glad that the two teams had intermingled quite a bit. For the first time, it occurred to her that that might be why she and Cage had gotten these jobs.

  One of the things that had attracted her to the position was that the company was big on innovation. While Joule had found that most places like to say that, very few actually wanted to hear from their lowest-level employees. But the description of the intermingled teams had grabbed her.

  Now she wondered if the company was utilizing her twin-relationship to build the community between the enviro and engineering teams on site. Given the interlocking designs of the teams, Joule wouldn't have been surprised to find out it was a manipulation they'd done on purpose. But she realized these people were now her friends.

  She liked Mitch. He was fun and an excellent boss, always making sure everyone was getting what they needed. She liked Chithra; the woman's management style was not flowery in the slightest. She got shit done. And was more than willing to answer any question, no matter how big or small, or how stupid. And Radnor, for all of his bluster, seemed to understand that his employees needed to care about the project and each other.

  She wondered what would happen when the job was over. Would she and Cage be offered permanent positions with Helio Tech? What were the odds they'd wind up on the same project in the future? If they were permanent Helio employees, they might not get to decide where they were placed.

  She took another swallow of the pale ale in her glass. Not her favorite, but it went well with the spiciness of the food. It also quelled some of the concerns in her heart as the conversation rolled happily around her. Why couldn’t she just soak that in?

  “Okay,” Sarah called out so the whole table could hear her. “What’s the over/under that the new buckeye plant—the one lone bottlebrush buckeye—causes the array to be moved or delayed?”

  Others were shouting out options and timeframes and placing bets. Joule joined in.

  “How much do you want on that?” Sarah asked, pen poised over the napkin where she was copying bets down.

  “Oh please!” Joule chimed in, laughing. “I’m not betting money by way of a napkin with curry stains. Half of you are too drunk to even remember this—”

  “Y’all ain’t drunk, are you?” Sarah called down the table, her own southern accent creeping in. Her tone let Joule know that, yes, Sarah was at least tipsy enough to lose the napkin.

  “No!” came from all along the table.

  “Sorry, I want a real bookie and a receipt!” Joule smiled at them as though she’d ever done any of those things.

  They finished their drinks and Sarah pocketed the napkin. Joule wanted to bet on the likelihood that it went through the wash and the ink ran. But the unease sat just at the back of her brain through the remainder of the evening.

  Sure enough, the engineers had fought over who got to divide up the check. The managers volunteered to cover the appetizers. Joule wondered what would happen when they headed into work tomorrow. Would the protesters be there again, signs held aloft? Would it be more or fewer of them?

  But as they headed out to the car, the wind kicked up her hair again. The night had been still when they arrived, but now a roll of dark clouds was coming in from the south. And something in the air tasted off.

  19

  “Ready?”

  Cage wasn’t. “Almost.”

  He pulled the long, slim cylinder from the s
oil, leaving a three-inch-diameter hole and a few wriggling bodies in its wake.

  Cutting earthworms in half shouldn't make him feel bad, but it did. He felt bad when he cut roaches in half, too. And the roaches down here grew to an unusually large size. Cutting them in half seemed a cruel and unusual punishment.

  As he pulled the last bit of the long metal device loose—heavy with dirt and half-earthworms—he held it out toward Leah. “Here.”

  She stood with a tablet in one hand, waiting. It had taken the two of them almost twenty minutes to push through all the layers of dirt and embedded rock, and even small invertebrates. But it took less than twenty seconds to activate the plunger on the top and release the soil—along with anything that was trapped inside—into the clear, long container Leah had waiting on the ground.

  “Hold on,” Cage told her, grabbing his phone and getting ready, as she stepped back and let him take his pictures.

  “Got it?” she asked before slowly sliding the metal cylinder out from under the sample. As she did, the dirt fell apart, separating itself as Cage took a few more pictures and noted the measurements.

  Together, he and Leah started to poke at the dirt, using thin, pointed metal rods to see what layers would crumble with a little prodding and which simply held their shape.

  “We need light,” he commented, looking over toward Micah, who was working in the small tent their team had set up on the far side of the field.

  He and Leah each picked up one end of the now heavy container, leaving the tools in the grass. Preserving their sample was far more important than cleaning up.

  The red canvas top of the pop-up tent stood out against the landscape, looking as if they'd stolen it from somebody's back patio. But right now, the legs were tied and weighted with heavy-duty sandbags, and the top, though vented, still managed to flap noisily as the winds picked up.

  The two of them stood by, holding the sample between them. Just as they arrived at Izzy’s table and placed it under the light, Chithra blazed into the small tent and made a sharp motion that they were to take everything down.