Читать книгу Shattered Skies - Alice Henderson - Страница 13

Chapter 6

H124 stepped into the space between the cargo car and its neighbor. At once her hair pulled upward, whipping around in the wind. Her ears popped. Raven emerged, his long hair instantly drenched, wet tendrils lashing out. She peered up at the ladder leading to the cargo platform. “What do we do?” she yelled over the roar of the tornadoes.

“We have to check on it,” Raven called back.

Behind them Byron and Dirk stood in the doorway, rain soaking their faces. Raven gripped the ladder on the cargo car and climbed, his shirt buffeting his back as the wind tore at it. Once his boots cleared the ladder, H124 climbed up. As soon as her head crested the top of the car, she gasped. The debris cloud of the funnel was too close. She could see it churning just a few feet from the train, jagged pieces of metal whipping around at tremendous velocity, along with rocks and rusted debris. One of the securing chains had snapped off the A14 and now whipped around in the wind, lashing out. The A14 clattered on the platform, the strength of the tornado exerting tremendous force on it, trying to draw it near the edge of the train.

The funnel cloud angled away from them, but a second tornado had touched down, moving on a collision course with the train.

“If we could just get that chain refastened!” Raven called out in the wind. A brilliant flash of lightning lit up the dark afternoon, and a second later an ear-splitting crack of thunder rent the sky. Between the jarring motion of the train and the wind, H124 could barely stay standing. She went down on one knee to steady herself as Byron and Dirk climbed over the top of the ladder and joined them. She pointed out the broken securing chain just as a second one tore loose.

Now the A14 rattled on the platform, its wings tipping back and forth, and with a jarring rend of metal, it moved a foot toward the tornado, sliding on the platform.

Raven studied the flapping motion of the chain, and with a decisive strike lashed out his hand and grabbed it midair. He held onto it, pulling it taut. As he scanned the platform for the ring to attach it to, H124 saw that it had been snapped off at its base. Only the broken stem of the bolt remained.

“We’ll have to replace it!” she yelled over the din.

“This one, too!” Byron shouted, pointing at another snapped off connector ring. He stood in front of a second whipping chain, waiting to seize it when he saw the opportunity. But it flapped around violently, and more than a few times it almost slashed him across the torso.

“I’ll get more rings!” Dirk shouted, returning to the ladder and climbing down out of sight.