A World of Another Kind

Chapter 10 The Cyclone

        Narrated by Aubrey

      "Wake up!" Grumpy frantically shouted, startling Kaylee and me out of our sleep. "A cyclone is coming! I repeat, A CYCLONE IS COMING!"

     We, now wide awake, jumped to our feet, very alarmed. I was certainly not expecting a cyclone, and because we never experienced one before, we were very panicked.

     "Get to cover now!" ordered Grumpy. "Follow me! This way!"

     We followed Grumpy outside where the strong wind howled like a piercing scream, blowing dust and debris everywhere, and we arrived at an underground cellar where Snow and the dwarfs were already safely hidden inside. I quickly glanced at the horrifying tornado in the distance, which destroyed everything in its path; it was a terrifying sight. We followed Grumpy down the ladder to the bottom of the cellar, and he quickly slammed the door shut. The only light down there was lanterns. We saw all the terrified dwarfs trembling, huddled in a corner, and Snow counted all them to make sure everybody was there. "Where's Sleepy?" she suddenly questioned with panic in her voice.

     The five dwarfs glanced at one another, shrugging questionably as if none of them knew.

     "How did any of you not know he was not with you!" Grumpy roared fiercely at them.

     "Sleepy could still be in the house!" Snow cried out with much concern. "I need to go find him right away!"

     "No, I'll go find him!" I exclaimed, climbing up the ladder with Kaylee following.

     "No, it's too dangerous!" objected Grumpy.

     We ignored him and left the cellar. "Be careful!" I heard Snow holler as we were shutting the door. The wind was so strong that it resisted us as we tried to run forward. Dust and debris flew toward us which made it even more difficult. Finally, we managed to reach the cottage. "Sleepy!" I called out. "Where are you!"

     We hastily searched every room, calling for him, but there was no reply nor any sight of him. "I don't think he's here!" Kaylee exclaimed. "He might have gone somewhere else. We have to go before it's too late. There's nothing more we can do but to hope and pray he's okay! Come on, hurry!"

     Opening the door, to our great horror, the tornado was a lot closer to us than we had realized, and it kept advancing toward our direction. "Oh no!" I frantically shrieked. The wind was now twice as powerful and resistant which made it near impossible to even step foot outside. Even with the two of us holding the door open was a great challenge. We screamed, starting to have a panic attack. Desperately, we fled to the very back of the cottage where we thought it was safer and easier to escape through a window. But as we were about to leave through a window, suddenly, a large branch crashed into it, causing the glass to shatter in a million shards right at us. We felt backwards and were knocked out.

     I woke up, discombobulated, and my head throbbing terribly. It took me a moment to remember what had happened prior. I nudged Kaylee, relieved that she woke up. She had a dazed look on her face, and like me, it took her a few minutes to recover. "Are you okay?" I asked with concern.

     "My back is killing me," she replied, wincing in pain while slowly sitting up.

     "Same," I replied, still feeling light headed and dizzy. "Especially my head. We must had blacked out from hitting our heads. Thank goodness we didn't lose our sight."

     Kaylee returned a nod of relief then said, "Huh, I don't hear any wind anymore. Look!" She pointed toward the broken window. "The sun is shining, and it appears that the storm has stopped! And thank God that the house is in one piece. That storm was so scary!"