The Hurricane. (Angela and Radar)
As Radar drove on Angela was getting more and more afraid. She could see the worry in his eyes as he drove, maneuvering around the deeper areas of water on the road, driving slower and slower, and clenching the steering wheel with a lot of force. She found herself holding her breath and let out a loud gasp as she began breathing again. Radar didn't look over at her, his eyes were locked on the road in front of him; the road which was quickly turning into a river. She looked around frantically, wondering if maybe they should pull over. She wanted to ask him, but she wasn't sure if that was a good idea or not. She just didn't know what to do, part of her felt like crying, part of her felt like screaming, and part of her-the part that was in control at the moment urged her to stay calm for both of their sakes. She watched as Radar's hands got shakier on the wheel and the car seemed to skid over the road rather than drive on it. Angela was beginning to think that the promises of them getting back to school safely were only spoken to her in an attempt to keep her calm, something in Radar's face and wide open eyes told her that he was beginning to really doubt the journey they were on. How did this happen? They just wanted to go out on a date; they wanted to get away from the school and take her mind off the weather. They sure as hell didn't want to end up trying to drive through a river in the middle of a fucking hurricane. Angela locked her eyes on Radar, wanting to say something to him but worrying it would distract him and be the thing that might kill them both.
Radar clenched his teeth. The poorly-maintained road was turning into a well-maintained river before his eyes. Ironically though, he was more worried about Angela’s state of mind than the state of their route back to Culver Creek. He grasped the wheel tightly with both hands, not daring let go for even a second to comfort Ang the way he wanted to. It felt as though he was fighting a battle with everything around him-his girlfriend’s anxiety and his own, the wind, the water, the road, all were arrayed against him. Even as this thought crossed his mind, he realized just how irrational it was. That was when he felt himself lose it-not just his “cool”, but his control of the car. He felt his limbs start to shake. He knew Angela could see, but he couldn’t stop. The water was only getting higher. From where they were on the road, he could see the water ahead coursing across at a frightening speed.
Angela saw Radar’s hands and arms start to shake as he fought the current. She looked at the road and saw a place where the water had risen quite a bit higher than where they were driving now, she saw the water there swirling and rushing in all directions. Angela knew at some point between seeing that area and them reaching it that they weren’t going to make it through. Radar gasped and tried to pump the breaks as they hit the higher and harsher water. Angela felt the car lift up and skid across the top of the water, she grabbed the sides of her seat-attempting to brace herself. And then, all at once, they were spinning. Radar still holding onto the wheel and trying to maintain control was suddenly yelling. The car was being thrown in all different directions across the road. Angela turned her head just in time to see the building to their right; it seemed to be flying towards them. She knew what was really happening; they were flying towards it. She closed her eyes just before the impact. She felt the car hit the building and then fly in the other direction, flipping over. She felt the sensation of being upside-down for a second and then she was being thrown around again. The car came to a vicious halt all at once. Angela kept her eyes closed for a moment, allowing her brain to register what had just happened; it was then she felt the searing pain in her face and wrist.
Radar looked over at Angela as the car started spinning, he tried to maintain control but there was nothing he could do. Just before they crashed into the building he took his hands off the steering wheel, giving up the fight and allowing the wind and water to win. The world spun wildly around him. He saw rain, splashes of water, and tree limbs that were being carried around by the wind flying everywhere. The impact was tremendous, though it only lasted a second. As soon as the car hit the building the airbags deployed, Radar was thrown sideways, and everything went black. Less than a minute later he woke up to Angela sobbing quietly. He jumped and twisted his body towards her. He tried to look over at her but his vision was blurred by something. His head was throbbing. He reached up and wiped his face and eyes off, what came off on his hand was an immense amount of blood. He shrugged this off for the moment, desperately needing to see if Angela was okay. He looked over at her; she was hunched over cradling her left wrist in her lap. The window on her side was smashed in, and the windshield was cracked in over one hundred places. “Ang...” Radar’s voice was hoarse and it hurt to talk. “Are you ok?” he croaked at her.
Angela looked up at Radar and began to cry harder. It wasn’t her or her own pain that caused this, but the sight of Radar’s head and face-he was covered in blood. Her eyes darted over to his window, she could see just where his head hit it because it was marked with a large dark circle of his blood. She looked around the car; the outside was bent and mangled, all the windows were mostly broken or smashed entirely, and both airbags had deployed. She looked down at herself seeing blood streaking the front of her pink shirt she’d worn special for their date. She took her right hand and touched her face, she found her nose was swollen and bleeding, but the rest of her face seemed to be ok. She poked at her left wrist, this sent horrible burning pain shooting through it. “Fuck...” she murmered and then remembered that Radar was trying to talk to her. “I’m...I’m okay. My wrist...and my nose...but...” she wiggled her arms, legs, and torso, “the rest of me is fine.” She looked up at him. “Are...you...alright? Your head...the window...you’re bleeding...” she started crying again and looked away from him. In the meantime, the storm raged on; cold rain was coming in through the broken windows making them both shiver and slowly soaking their clothes.
Radar did just as Angela and assessed his injuries. He was pleased to find that the injury to his head seemed to be the only one he had. Some part of his head was split open, that’s what was causing the gushing blood. “It’s just my head.” he told her and tried to smile. “I don’t think it’s too bad...” He reached down and unbuckled his seatbelt and then did the same to Angela. He moved closer to her and gently put his arm around her and hugged her, being careful to avoid any broken glass there might be. “I’m so glad you’re okay.” He was near tears now himself. “We need to get out of here, we’ve got to get to shelter or back to school or something...”
Angela nodded at Radar and pulled away from his embrace to see if she could open her car door, but she couldn’t. “It’s stuck shut...I can’t...”
Radar nodded at her and ran his hand through her hair. He pulled on his own door handle and the driver’s side door swung open. He carefully stepped out of the car and into the storm. The rain stung his skin as it hit him, and it felt like knives when it hit the wound on his forehead. “Shit.” He looked at his car; it was smashed and mangled, definitely undriveable and probably not repairable either. He slowly made his way over to Angela’s door, having to wade through nearly knee deep water. The car had spun off the road, hit a building that sat about twenty feet off the street, flipped over a number of times, and then finally came to a rest-right about ten feet from where they’d spun out in the first place. He tried opening Angela’s door, but the impact with the building had bent it in such a way that it wouldn’t open. “You’re going to have to climb out my side.” he told her through the smashed in window. She nodded at him and slid over towards his open door.
Once outside the car, Angela looked the car over as well. She pulled her hood up around her head and cradled her arm to her chest. She joined Radar on the passenger side of the car where the two ducked down to try and find some cover from the wind and rain. Tree limbs whizzed past them and the wind howled in a way neither of them had ever heard before. Angela had stopped crying, but was starting to feel both sleepy and freezing cold. Radar put his arm around her as they crouched on the side of the car squinting at each other through the rain.
"We have to get out of here.” Radar told her. Angela only blinked at him and whined. “Ang, please. We have to get moving. Look, I’m going to try and find my cell phone in the car, if it’s not damaged I’ll call 911, okay? Just stay here, keep your hood up and your face pointing out of the rain.” He got up and hurried to his side of the car. He kneeled on his seat and rummaged around the debris in the car, trying to find the phone that had been in his coat pocket just minutes before. “Please God let it be here somewhere...please...”