You can't avoid the "devil wind," but you can prepare. —Grant Edwards

On the side of the road, a somber monument appeared out of place in the hazy morning light. The wind wrapped around the austere black granite slab and gently caressed the faces etched into tomb-like rock. Underneath, short bios of the three legendary storm chasers who had been killed two months earlier were carved into the stone.

Halle rubbed her eyes. "We've been driving all night?"

"That's right." Amy handed her a styrofoam cup of lukewarm takeout coffee. "Wake up, Sleeping Beauty."

Halle winced at a sharp pain in her neck when she turned her head to look out her window. In the sea of lush, green pairie grass, three, white eight-foot crosses rose in memoriam indicating where the crushed Chevy Nova that contained the TWISTEX TEAM leader's body had been found. The two other chaser's broken bodies had been blown a mile and a half down the field and discovered near a stream.

"Those crosses are eerie. I feel like they're watching me." Naseem took a picture of the life-sized sentinels, surrounded by bouquets of flowers, small gifts and heartfelt notes left by heartbroken fans.

"I'm glad they placed the crucifixes all together and not in separate memorials." Halle rubbed the stiffness out of her neck.

The three legendary weather scientists who perished were among the victims killed by the infamous El Reno, Oklahoma tornado. A monstrous storm that had doubled in size within sixty seconds and caught hundreds of people off guard in a nearly invisible rain wrapped wedge tornado 2.6 miles wide. Radar had measured the tornadic winds that struck their white Chevy Cobalt had reached over 300mph.

"It make me feel sad. How lonely it is out here." Amy ran her fingertip over the smooth surface and traced each of the vibrant men's etched names. She lowered her voice. "They never stood a chance in that tin-can-of-a-vehicle." She lifted her face and tears glimmered in her eyes. "I can't imagine how their loved ones coped with their deaths."

Halle didn't respond. A had lump formed in her throat as she stared at the flowers and small tributary gifts left for the deceased tornado chasers.

"This flat landscape is what makes the area the perfect place to see tornados." Naseem circled the memorial as he filmed it with a digital camcorder.

Amy glanced at him and drew her brows together. "Do you always behave like a cold, unemotional Vulcan? The only difference between you and Mr. Spock is that you always have a perpetual five-day growth of facial hair.

Nasseem chuckled as he stroked the stubble on his chin. "It's a good thing you girls will be in front of the camera and not me." He reviewed the video and edited it a few seconds. "Honestly, it's not because I don't want to shave. When I get involved in work, I don't have time.. or I forget."

"I do that too." Amy pivoted on her boot heel. Six years of ballet and jazz dancing imbued her with a dazzling, otherworldly grace.

"What?" Naseem looked at her. "Forget to shave?"

She smirked and glanced at her nail-bitten fingernails. "No smart-ass, I forget to groom after I've been elbow deep in the guts of an engine for six hours."

Nasseem took a few pictures of the TWISTEX memorial and uploaded them to Halle and Amy's new website, STORM RUNNERS, then showed the girls the finished product. "What do you think of the name?" He began to hum The Door's operatic Riders of the Storm in a slightly off-tune tenor.

The bronze-haired storm chaser nodded. "My mother loved that song. Look over there." She pointed to a small bird with a bright, yellow breast and black v across the neck that had landed on the middle cross which was elevated above the other two. "Seeing a Meadow Lark is a good omen."

"Ooh, we'll have to come up with with a cool logo for baseball hats." Amy grinned as chaotic lightning lit up the site's header. "If we earn enough from this website then I can finish the intercept vehicle I designed. The one that will crush Weather Warrior's steampunk-ass."

"Halle, what do you think?" Naseem tensed until he saw a warm smile light up her face and then breathed a sigh of relief.

"The website's wonderful, Naseem. It's more professional than anything I've ever done." She glanced over at the memorial. "This was the perfect place to start documenting today's chase. I worshipped the research Tim Samaras and his TWISTEX team did. I wanted to work for him one day."

"Excellent." The blogger flushed under the unexpected praise as he handed her his phone. "Here's the summary for today's chase. I'll be posting an update every hour—blitzing the social media platforms."

Halle scrutinized the agenda he had painstakingly laid out. "These locations will change as we navigate and get in front of the storm system?"

Naseem nodded. "Don't worry, I've linked GPS software to ensure our locations will automatically update our position." He put his hands together in front of his chest like a genie. "Now, with your blessing masters, may we go live?"

"Sounds good," Halle laughed.

"Unleash that bad boy." Amy gave him a thumbs up.

They all froze as a PDS bulletin materialized on the iPhone screen.

THIS IS A WEATHER ALERT FOR WESTERN OKLAHOMA ...A SQUALL LINE IS FORMING ALONG KANSAS... MERGING COLD FRONT/ DRY LINE...DESTRUCTIVE TORNADOS...3 INCH DIAMETER HAIL...THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS UP TO 100MPH DANGEROUS LIGHTNING ...THIS IS A PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS STORM

"Hot Damn! You were right, Halle." Amy grinned like the Cheshire Cat as she ran back to the car and scanned the radar. Naseem used the weather map to update their itinerary. "There's your rotation." She pointed to the screen.

"Nice." Naseem announced. "We've got our first followers." We are now unofficially running for our lives, he pretended to type.

"Seriously?" Amy crossed her arms over her chest. "We haven't started chasing anything."

He raised both his hands. "Sorry, I couldn't resist."

Amy checked the comments. "Wait, those aren't followers. "That's lame-ass James and Zane. They're the competition."

Halle hugged her shoulders as she strode back to the Nova. "Who cares what shenanigans Weather Warriors are up to. If we're going to take care of business, we've got to get moving."

Amy hopped into the driver's seat. "You got it, babe. This front's not forming for a couple of hours. Let's fuel the Nova and get something to eat. It's going to be a long day." Experienced storm chasers always kept their gas tanks topped off. Downed power lines would stop station pumps miles from a tornado's destruction zone.

Five miles down the road from the I-40 turnoff, they had to pull over with a flat tire. "Ugh! We're losing time." Amy grabbed a jack out of the trunk. She and Halle jumped out and went to work changing the tire with the efficiency of a crack Indy-500 pit stop team. She froze when she looked up at Naseem. "What're you doing?"

Overhead, he expertly recorded them. "This is excellent drama."

"Stop. I'm all grubby. Do you think I want Zane Howard seeing me look like a sow in a trough."

"You look bad-ass, Pig-Pen." Naseem kept filming. "Keep pumping that jack. We're picking up followers."

"Wait...cut that part out about Zane. Ugh, I hate him. Don't film me."Amy exhaled and rubbed her sweaty face. A look of horror crossed her face as she realized she had left a broad smear of dirt on her cheek. "I am not Pig-Pen!"

🌪️🌪️🌪️🌪️🌪️🌪️🌪️🌪️🌪️🌪️🌪️🌪️🌪️🌪️🌪️🌪️
This chapter is dedicated to the TWISTEX team members who lost their lives in the 2013 El Reno, Oklahoma tornado.

The three storm researchers, Tim Samaras (56), his 25-year-old son Paul Samaras and their 45-year-old colleague Carl Young, were caught in the tornado's path when it made the sudden and unexpected shift in track. It would be the first tornado to claim the lives of storm chasers. —Fox Weather

* Tornado Weather Map is from 'The Weather Channel'.

**Naseem Model in banner is actor/comedian Ramy Youssef from Deadline.com article.