Storm Runners

Dr. Krupp places Chase in all of Nicole’s classes except PE. At 8:45 a.m., the hurricane offshore begins to move again. Students watch the TV weather news, which foretells Emily making landfall near St. Petersburg, as predicted by Chase’s dad. Chase focuses on the view outside the window, where the sky has turned gray and the wind has kicked up. He gets a “strange feeling” about it, a sense that the forecasters are wrong, and wonders if this is how his dad guesses the weather.

One of the TV announcers looks familiar; Chase realizes it’s Dr. Krupp’s husband, Richard. He’s in his element, enjoying the thrill of big weather, “trying to look concerned, but his shining blue eyes gave him away” (51). The station cuts to their reporter in St. Petersburg, where people are preparing to evacuate. Chase sees in the background his dad leaning against his truck. Nicole points him out to the class. One of the other girls remarks that Chase’s dad is sexy. Chase wants to hide.

The journalist interviews John, who explains that he’s caught in St. Pete because of “bad timing.” Chase rolls his eyes. John explains how he helps prepare buildings for a hurricane by boarding up windows and moving items upstairs in case of downstairs flooding. Chase is surprised at how comfortable his dad behaves onscreen because he thought his dad was shy.

Chase phones his father, who picks up, saying, “Twelve fifteen.” Chase says that’s correct and that he saw him on TV. He adds that it looks as if the hurricane will hit Palm Breeze instead of St. Petersburg and that parents are picking up their children from school. John reminds Chase that he already knows more about storms than most people and should listen to his gut and stick to his training.

During a class break, Nicole tells Chase she admires his dad’s confidence on TV and his official-looking truck with “MD” in the company name printed on the truck body. Chase comes clean and explains everything—from the deaths of his mom and sister and his dad getting hit by lightning to the sale of the family business and the road tour of storm sites where his dad charges exorbitant fees to help people in need.

Nicole asks if the lightning strike changed Chase’s dad’s personality; Chase replies that his father got his ear pierced. Laughing, Nicole says, “That sounds more like a midlife crisis” (59). Chase points out that his dad had his wedding band melted into an earring shaped like a lightning bolt, and Nicole admits that’s a bit “strange.”

By the end of the school day, nearly all the students have been picked up by their parents. Only a few dozen remain to be driven home on nine buses. Chase looks at the rapidly darkening sky and suggests to Dr. Krupp that the remaining students are safer in the reinforced-concrete school buildings than on buses. Dr. Krupp turns him down curtly, saying that he knows nothing of hurricanes, permission to hunker down would take hours, and he’s going home on a bus. A few students snicker at Chase as if he’s a coward. Quietly, Nicole tells Chase she seconds Krupp’s opinion and walks away.

Chase decides he can’t leave Nicole to her fate on the bus. Breaking all his emergency training rules, he follows her and boards the bus.

In the middle of the afternoon, the skies outside the bus are as dark as night. None of the students can get a signal on their cell phones. The bus, caught in a traffic jam, gets slammed continuously by the harsh storm. At each stop, a few kids exit while wind and rain waft through the open door. The kids think it’s an adventure, but Chase, sitting in the back next to the emergency exit, knows better. He once did a report on school bus safety and learned they’re not very safe and can’t function at all when winds exceed 50 miles an hour.

When just a few students remain, Nicole goes back to Chase and apologizes for calling him paranoid. Chase smiles and says he calls it “heightened awareness.” Nicole asks why he’s in the back, and he points to the emergency exit. Nicole brings back the only other student, Rashawn, to sit with them. She’s wet and shivering from sitting near the front door.

Chase pulls a GPS device from his go bag and switches it on. He hands Rashawn a thin Mylar blanket. She says she thinks the driver is lost, and Chase hopes the GPS will help.

A wind gust picks up the bus, and it pitches over. Chase shouts for the girls to get on the floor. With one hand, he grabs someone’s arm, and with the other, holds onto a seat rod. The bus rolls three or four times; windows shatter; everyone screams. Then the vehicle slides downhill, lands in the water, and begins to sink.

Chase has a broken tooth, but Nicole and Rashawn are okay. Nicole is holding on to Chase’s go bag, and Chase pulls from it a headlamp that he switches on and places on his head. He gives a second headlamp to Nicole and tells her to take Rashawn through the emergency exit and swim for safety while he checks on the driver. Nicole objects, saying she’s a better swimmer and should be the one to check on the driver, but Chase insists that she bring Rashawn to shore.

Chase makes his way down the sinking bus to the driver, who’s unconscious with a gash in his forehead. He shakes the driver, who moans. The front of the bus lurches underwater sideways. Chase grabs a gulp of air and searches for the driver’s seatbelt release; finally, he uses his pocketknife to cut the driver free. The driver floats up and blocks the front door. Chase prepares to kick out the windshield, but something large swims past, frightening him. He calms himself, kicks at the windshield, and on the fourth try, it breaks free. Chase grabs the driver and, lungs aching for air, pulls them both out of the bus.

Nicole gets Rashawn ashore, then dives back down and meets Chase as he emerges with the driver. She helps pull them to the surface. Shouting in the howling wind, she asks if Chase can swim; he nods. Together, they swim the driver to shore and drag him up the bank to where Rashawn sits under the Mylar blanket.

Chase turns the driver onto his stomach and begins pushing on his back.

Chase tries to resuscitate the driver, but blood pours from his mouth, his pupils are dilated, and there’s no pulse. Chase reasons that the driver was already dead before being released from the seatbelt. He thanks Nicole for bringing them to the surface, saying he probably wouldn’t have made it without her help.

Rashawn says they’re sitting on a levee in a wildlife refuge next to the Rossi circus headquarters. Rashawn lives there, and her father manages the refuge. She says there are thousands of alligators nearby, confirming Chase’s sighting from inside the bus, but she says gators usually aren’t very aggressive. She figures the one Chase saw was riding out the storm underwater and was disturbed by the sudden arrival of the bus.

The road is 20 feet above them. The levee protects them from the wind, but it’s filling rapidly with water. Chase pulls out the GPS and switches it on; despite the soaking, it works, and he hands it to Nicole to search for a nearby house. He wants to dive back down to the bus to search for his go bag, but Rashawn says that’s asking a lot of restraint from the alligators. Chase could use the first aid kit, but the satellite phone isn’t waterproof, and they have the headlamps, blanket, and GPS.

Chase climbs to the top of the levee and discovers it’s been cut by erosion from the hurricane and the lake; they’ll have to move soon or be stranded. He estimates their chances of rescue at 10%. Climbing back down, he learns from Nicole that they’re five miles from her house and 10 miles from Rashawn’s, with no other houses nearby.

Grinning, Nicole hands Chase his go bag; she dove down to the bus and retrieved it while he was up top. Chase opens it and pulls out the satellite phone; it doesn’t work. He retrieves energy bars and bottles of water and hands them out. Then he hands each girl a poncho to keep the wind off her wet clothes. He puts go bag items in his pockets and wears the nylon blanket like a poncho. They pull the driver’s body up to the top of the levee, away from the alligators; it’s the best they can do for him.