⋆.˚ ᡣ𐭩 ASKING FOR IT ╱ Eye Of The Storm.𖥔˚
chapter ELEVEN

"Yeah, that's my radio," Tyler rumbles, reaching for Carmen's hand and pulling it away when the music coming from the speakers aligns with a song he seems to enjoy. She doesn't know what it is but knows it fits him. It's enough for her to turn to the next piece of the truck she can examine. Secretly, she wants to find the pieces of him that he keeps in here and learn them, as well as everything he's already offered her in morning and night light. Maybe it makes her selfish. She keeps digging anyway.

In the back seat, Kate seems just as prepared to delve into the truck's interior as Carmen is. She doesn't know if it's in support or sheer curiosity.

"What's all this for?" The blonde asks, hands rifling through and poking at gadgets she's never seen before. Her body is half between the front seats, leaning over the machinery between Carmen and Tyler. The former joins her in looking, the latter bats their hands away lightly. "Wait, what are you touching? Stop."

Slapping his hand lightly in retaliation, she smiles at him brightly. His in return is soft and almost indulgent, and she revels in it before he has to turn his eyes back to the path in front of them.

Kate pays them no mind, continuing her investigation of the truck. "You have a lot of stuff in here," she declares with a hint of amusement. Nodding in agreement, Carmen pulls down the passenger's seat mirror in front of her.

It's not that she's expecting anything but a mirror, but she kind of is. There was a kid she used to know, a few too many pitstops ago, who kept notes from and pictures of his family members pinned to the passenger's seat's mirror with paperclips. Said it was that every time he was riding, chasing a storm that was truly chasing him, he'd have them right there with him no matter what. That, if God made it so, at least they'd be with him in the end, somehow.

"Yeah, that..." Tyler raises an eyebrow at her, and she shrugs, "That's a mirror." She smiles at his confusion, shaking her head at him. Maybe that would be a story she shares later down the line, but for now, he could continue to believe it was nothing but her unneeded inspection of his truck.

Her hand finds the clasp of his glove box, and she pulls it open with her eyes still locked on his. She watches as they open a fraction too wide, and when something hits the back of her hand and she sees what it is, she knows why. "Oh, my God." Spilling over her fingers and into her lap are shiny headshots, all pre-signed. Because somehow, that's the man she and Kate have decided they're running into a tornado with.

"Kate, look at this." Snatching one up, she passes it to her friend in the backseat, narrowly avoiding having Tyler take it from her.

"No," he protests futilely, a chuckle stuck in his chest as the blonde guffaws at the picture.

"Ooh."

Turning away from the two women giggling, he looks out the front windshield again. "Have you ever been in a car before?" He asks with amusement in his tone. The truck jolts as he passes off the road in favor of leading them right into the middle of a field. It's one he and Kate had picked out for the day's experiment, with cells surrounding it at all angles in the forecast.

"You got a lot of gadgets." Leaning between them again, Kate tilts her head as she fidgets with the buttons on the control panel built in to replace the center console.

As she lifts a barrier to flip a switch, Tyler protests. "Yeah, yeah, don't touch." Eying her warily, he flips the guard back into its place. "There's... there's guards there for a reason."

"What?" Carmen asks, finger drawing circles around the rim of a button. The bright sun hits it perfectly through the window, and the red is too tempting. She would start the end of the world, it seems. "What does this do?" She asks, her finger already pressing the button into the gauge as the words leave her lips.

"That's a..." The rest of his sentence, if he was still attempting it, was drowned out by the whoosh of a rocket speeding out of its chute and toward the sky. Next to it, with the window down and the world already at the tips of their fingers, it's a lot louder than she would have imagined.

She doesn't like to admit that she's watched Tyler's videos in the past. That there was a time in her life when she wasn't chasing the wind and the rain but instead was stuck at home chasing the next best thing━━━the illusion of it.

It had been a few years ago. She'd been a little more reckless than she'd ever been before, and ever would be again, because not only was it the anniversary of losing her dad, but Kate had stopped answering her for what had been weeks at that point.

She'd later learn it was because Jeb's mom had reached out to the other in hopes of getting some of Kate's photos of the lost boy. 

At the time, however, all she knew was that Kate was pulling away again, and none of her normal tricks were keeping her there. It made her skin feel tighter, her muscles tenser, and the world a duller shade than normal. It led her to the only thing she knew, and that was running toward something that gave her those same feelings but with a meaning past dread.

So, she'd gone out with a group she'd been running with for the previous six months. Chasers who always knew each other best and used her last name as a protective shield against attachment, but adored her natural instinct.

It hadn't been anything extraordinary. Just another run-of-the-mill EF2, but that's what made it worse. There was nothing about it that held risk, nothing that sent her so close to the edge that she wanted to step back on her own accord━━━nothing that she knew she needed.

That's what compelled her to jump out of the cab of the moving car too soon, too harshly. The need to make it into something more, no matter what it meant.

She did.

She also gave herself a broken ankle in two different places, setting herself up for basic house arrest for two months.

She'd been chasing freedom and gotten herself locked up.

The feelings only went on to fester then, in some twisted version of karma. As if the universe and Mother Nature knew what she was trying to push, and were teaching her she didn't have the right.

In the later weeks of her self-made house arrest, she felt herself going stir-crazy. There was nothing she wanted more than to go be with the sky and storms again and nothing she knew she should do less. Didn't want to risk it further, when she was shown what her consequence was the first time.

So, she settled for the virtual form. Had taken to watching Chasers online like a dog to a bone. It was easy to pick them apart initially, those who were truly doing it and those who thought they could get away with faking it with the right technology and a Photoshop subscription.

It was the latter category that truly pissed her off the most━━━but none of them were particularly her favorite. She just didn't like watching others sitting there and glorifying it, an act that was deadly enough to take her father's life and gamble with hers every day. And it didn't matter if the videos were fake or not, as they always felt like they were doing just that. Tyler's included.

Still, at a time when she most needed them, they were able to provide her with something. An ability to keep to the world she was sidelined from due to her own stupidity. It made her feel like she wasn't so doomed, after all.

Which meant she watched the videos, despite her annoyance. And in them, the rockets never quite seemed as loud as they are shooting up into the sky right next to her ear canal. "Damn!"

"Oh!" Kate laughs, ducking back into her seat at the sudden noise. "God."

As the last of them explodes, in the distant sky above, Carmen can't help but chuckle. "Sorry." Glancing over at Tyler, she's thankful to see fond exasperation, versus the true anger that could have been in its place due to tampering with his stuff.

"That's a rocket," he tells her needlessly with a shake of his head. "All right," he points at the monitor in front of them all, casually moving the conversation along. "What about these two little ones? Just west of Enid."

Leaning forward again, Kate smiles as her eyes find a direction selection on the map. "Yeah, but this one to the east has the sky all to herself." Her words are a familiar echo, and Carmen stifles a chuckle into her fist.

"Yeah, I'm not falling for that again." Looking at the woman to the right of him, he smiles knowingly for a moment. Then, as he continues to look at them, his eyebrow lifts and his expression drops into something thoughtful. "You serious?"

Shoulder pressing into Carmen's, like passing a secret message, Kate shrugs. "Tell you later." Her brown eyes sparkle in the afternoon sun and are flamed by something Carmen acts to see forever.

She holds that look, and the feeling she knows it's fueled by and has missed seeing on her friend's face, close to her chest as they continue deeper into the field. They're headed toward the cell in the east because Tyler is starting to trust Kate in a way that he doesn't need to say.

As they do, she can only hope that the experiment works this time around. There's no telling how hard it'll hit Kate if, once again, it doesn't. Its aftermath is one she doesn't want to face but is also all too prepared to deal with.

Parking the truck for a moment, a few dozen feet away from the start of something, the three jump out. In Kate's hands, she holds a tablet, eyes flickering between it and the sky in front of them in excitement.

"Dew point is steady! Wind shear is good!" Kate calls to them, and Carmen steps past her to look into the sky. From behind her, Kate continues. "Holy shit! Oh, my God, the whole updraft is rotating!"

She wouldn't know that from the machine in Kate's hands, has never been good at deciphering whatever it was they were trying to tell her, but she could see it from the motion of the wind alone. That's her expertise, just as the science behind it is her best friend's. "Goddamn," she mutters, leaning forward like she can get closer to the endless sky. There in front of them, it molds into something else as well, something beautiful and bloodthirsty. Her heart pounds in her ears, and she giggles something manic.

"I mean, look at those striations!" Tyler's call isn't too far behind them, and it's filled with wonder, like a child in a candy store. It sends Carmen back to the story he shared with them—of his first tornado as a child, and the feeling that surrounded it. Part of which, she can assume, has never left him. "It's low precip! You can see everything!"

"She's perfect, y'all!" Turning around she makes eye contact with Tyler while donning a smile too big for her face that only grows because he's already there looking at her, before Kate━━━who lifts her camera to capture the beauty in front of them.

"She's gorgeous," Kate agrees, camera shutter clicking away under her fingers. It makes Carmen turn back around, wanting to try and see what the image Kate was taking would like, and causes her to miss the way Tyler's eyes never leave her━━━even as he says, "Yeah, she is."

The woman beside her laughs, and Carmen does the same in response. As the sky continues to shift, she bounces on her feet excitedly. She knows what's coming. "We got to go!" She tells Kate, who's already on the same page. Turning around, she grabs her wrist lightly and pulls her toward the truck.

As they pass Tyler, they find him laughing as well, more than happy to sit back and let them have the moment they just did. "She's gonna give us something! Come on!"

Limbs moving too fast, heartbeats in their ears, and stomachs in their throats, the three jump back into the truck in a mess of body parts of a lack of coordination. The radio is still blaring, something about the Mississippi and the sunset, and part of Carmen wants to turn it up.

She wants to feel like she did half a decade ago. Music up and the wind in her hair from the window Addy inevitably left down━━━despite Praveen's warnings━━━without a care in the world. Wanted to feel the bass of the music beat alongside her heartbeat as she raced into something that didn't feel like it had the weight of the world attached to it━━━like Kate's experiment used to feel and suddenly is again.

She'd never regret joining Kate in her work, or tell her friend to let it go, but she knew it wasn't selfish of her to want that again. It couldn't be.

As it is, she doesn't turn the music up, and she doesn't roll the window down.

"All right," Tyler grunts, pulling straps from behind his seat and threading his arms through them. "Let's harness up."

"Uh," Kate bulks a little, leaning forward between the seats. Her eyes flicker between the driver and the passenger, and when they connect with Carmen's, she raises an eyebrow as if to say Really?

The brunette shrugs in response, unsure how to convey with just a look that nothing about this should be shocking to her friend. Not only should she not be shocked that Carmen is ready and willing to drive into the storm, but she should know that she wants to.

It wasn't possible to pretend that she didn't know why Kate was scared━━━anyone who went through what the blonde did have every right to be scared, would be stupid not to be━━━but she also knew there was no way her friend was going to get over that fear if she kept letting it win. And this, an easy EF1, was a perfect way to start.

It's something she had thought Kate might be prepared to do━━━what with getting in this truck and doing this with Tyler and her, and the look on her face when photographing the same tornado they're riding toward━━━but the woman turns back to Tyler and asks, "We're just gonna drop the trailer in its path, right?"

Looking at and winking, he teases, "I'll tell you later."

"Shit." Throwing herself back into her seat, Kate finds the straps in a manner that can only be described as hectic. With a chuckle, Carmen looks over to Tyler, just to do it. Part of her wants to touch him, take his hand in hers, and keep in there just to feel his skin touching hers again, but she holds back. Knows he'll probably need both hands for what's about to happen.

"Girl, you stole my heart," the radio croons, bleeding back into the moment between none of them talking and joining the storm they're running toward. She smiles at the words, fooling herself into thinking maybe, just maybe, the man next to her is hearing them too. When he looks over and makes eye contact with her, ever so briefly, it doesn't feel as foolish. "Steal my thunder..."

They both laugh, eyes disconnecting but the feeling lingering. In the back, Kate, who is oblivious, starts again. "Well, you don't have to drive into it. It's really dangerous."

"Exactly," she says at the same time that Tyler says, "Oh, that's why we have to drive into it. Can't miss from in there."

Yes, she thinks, a piece of her absolutely glowing at knowing that part of Tyler understands her in a way so many wouldn't. All without trying, but just by being who he is.

"Oh, shit," Kate grunts, knowing there's fighting the two people in front of her anymore. Especially not as they get closer, time running out to back out. Not that any of them would.

"Now, look, this thing's rated for EF1s, okay?" Tyler reminds them with a smile, running through everything they need to keep in mind. Even as Kate kept mumbling 'Oh, shit' in the backseat. "We got extra weight on the chassis. We got anchoring down two feet. Don't worry. I'm a professional."

He managed to keep a steady voice the whole time he was talking, even as the storm continued to loom closer to them and looked ready to consume them whole. Half because he was overconfident, and half because he was trying to keep Kate calm.

"You're an asshole," she mumbles in response, holding on tight.

"Hold on. Hold on!" Tyler calls back, hitting the gas and taking the closer━━━ready to take them as close as they needed to be. Carmen's stomach swooped, but that didn't stop her from leaning forward and laughing as she took in the funnel shape finally connecting in front of them.

"Oh, Tyler, this is dumb!" Kate hollered, panic seeping into her tone as the words rushed out━━━as if the punch from entering the twister expelled them. Twisting in her seat, no matter how dangerous it might have been, Carmen grabbed Kate's hand and squeezed three times. The blonde looked at her friend, shaking her head. "This is really dumb. This is really dumb."

"But it's what we do," she countered with a small smile on her face and the truth leaking from her words.

Tyler nods. "We got this, Kate." Around them, the sky was so dark it felt like it was cornering them in the truck, but Carmen had never felt more free. The entire truck rocked with the wind and she loved that she felt in down to her bones.

"Sweetheart," Tyler tells her, arm wrapping around her middle and shifting her again, concern slipping through in the way he holds her. "You need to sit down for this part. Here comes the kick." Maneuvering her back into her seat, he lets go after a squeeze to her waist, pulling away only to have two hands on the wheel.

"Oh, God!" The two girls say at the same time, one inflicted with joy and the other panic. At the edge of the twister, the group doesn't slow, and as Tyler hurtles them right into one of Mother Nature's creations of destruction, Kate's ramblings continue. "Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God!" Carmen does nothing but smile, heart light━━━no matter how crazy that makes her.

"Oh," Tyler breathes. "All right, slowing down." His words cut through the chaos happening both in the cab and outside of it, pulling them to a stop right in the path of the storm's eye. "Anchoring," he announces, pressing a button that leads to the jump of the truck as it digs its place into the ground.

"Barrels." Fingers hovering over the next button he's destined to press, he smiles at them both. They share it with him before both girls turn to look out the back windshield. Even through the dirt and grime sticking to the glass, the yellow barrels are on clear display.

Carmen holds her breath at the sight of them, remembering the last time she saw such a sight━━━and what came with it. When Tyler tells them to hold on, she is in more ways than one.

As his finger presses the button, the hatches release━━━the contents of the barrels immediately swept up into the storm by winds ready to carry them away.

"Oh! Here she comes." The brunette leans further forward, suddenly wishing she was in the backseat with Kate, for more than one reason. "Now!"

Still, from where she sits, she's still able to watch in amazement as the storm not only takes the contents of the barrels but spins around them in a show of strength and natural beauty. It's something that she'd never be able to replicate or explain to anyone but the other two in the truck with her. Something she can feel and hold in the marrow of her bones, and will continue to morph with her as she grows old. It makes her even more thankful for Tyler, for giving them this experience.

The wind continues to roar, even as the eye of the storm passes them and they're nothing more than left behind, and she laughs out of pure delight. "Oh, my God. That was..."

Out of the corner of her eye, she can see Kate nodding along until a soft laugh bubbles out of her chest as well. "Did you see that?" She asks, even if it's clear they all saw it.

"I saw it," Tyler confirms, the last to speak up but no less speechless. It makes her question if the wonder ever fades, as she knows this isn't the first time Tyler has done this. She hopes it never does. "Uh, did it work?"

"Oh, right. Uh... So many belts." Frantically, the reminder of what they just did━━━or at least, attempted to do━━━suddenly fresh in their minds again pushes them to rush out of the truck and toward the result, no matter what it was. Fumbling with their straps, they get themselves fully unbuckled before jumping down and into the suddenly wet dirt. The doors hang open on their hinges, but none of them worry about closing them, eyes and attention fully on the twister in front of them.

The twister that, disappointingly, was still flowing strong and in a solid pattern. Something that all of them knew meant it wasn't anywhere close to collapsing, and if the experiment was right, it would've by now.

"It's not working," the blonde murmurs, the obvious in front of them and hanging in the air━━━just like the lingering chill the storm left behind.

For a moment, none of them said anything, unsure what there was to say or do. Part of Carmen just wanted to turn to Kate and take her by the shoulders to tell her that no matter what just happened, she couldn't let this define her again. Needed her to know it wasn't the end. But that felt too big, and part of her didn't know if that would help or hurt when the wound was so fresh she could still smell blood.

Thankfully, Tyler saves her, even if he doesn't know it. "Hungry?"

It's a simple question, maybe even a stupid one at that moment depending on who you ask, but it gave them a purpose again━━━if even only for a short moment. It led them all to distract themselves with pre-packed sandwiches and water, and the motions of putting them together.

Together, they settled onto the edge of the truck bed, chewing quietly and minds heavy. Carmen wanted to have more to say and wanted to be able to add input to the conversation that mattered, but she knew nothing of the data that Kate and Tyler needed. Her instinct was no good at this moment, and she felt five years younger all over again.

Around them, the world had settled again, and she was ready to talk just to cut through the suffocating silence and the chirping of the bugs. Thankfully, her best friend beat her to it.

"What if it's the model that's the problem?" She muses, looking up at the sky as if traces of the tornado that failed her were still there, and were giving her the missing answers as to why it continued to live on past them.

Turning to her, she bumps her shoulder against Kate's playfully, knowing she was thinking more than she was saying. "Well then. How do we create a better one?"

It was the right thing to ask, she knew because she got a front-row seat to Kate's eyes lighting up. It was a look she knew meant that this time around, Kate wasn't knocked down. At least, not yet.

That was enough for her.

▬▬ mads speaks     ╱     okay this is so unedited
because i truthfully just wanted to get it out there, so i apologize for that!!
i always forget how much i love writing this story until
i am—that's on me, oh well
not much to say, honestly! just hope you enjoyed &
don't forget to check-in with your thoughts!! xoxo

+ the gif i'm using from now on & in other stories
was made by my love duable, so all credit to her!! i
know i've said this before but i haven't in this story
and she deserves all the credit and praise so i had to
make sure i gave her that <3