Chapter 25

Randy held the hand of his mother, a body finally at rest after a lifetime of pain and struggles. In the cold drawer beside her, his son slept for eternity, too young to know the pain and the joys of the world, on the other, his little sister who had only just begun to explore. Slowly he inhaled his breath and he released it even slower. He wanted to blame himself for their deaths, but this time he couldn't. If he had been released when he was supposed to be, there was no way to know if they would have been in a different place. He wished he had been killed with them. But he was still alive. Alive with nothing to live for.

A soft hand touched his shoulder. He looked down at his lap. Nurses, case workers, cops. They were all trying to be sympathetic, but they really didn't know what he was going through. What he needed was the embrace of someone who loved him, but everyone who did, was gone.

Then a pair of arms enclosed around his neck.

"I've been standing in the doorway for a while. I didn't know what to say …"

"I know … I don't either. Everyone keeps asking me if I'm okay. I tell them I am … but I'm not Taylor. "

He turned and pulled her closer and finally let his tears fall freely. He cried for his family and cried for the only person he loved that he had left and thought about how unfair the world was to him, taking away all he had and teasing him with a woman who was all he had ever dreamed of loving only to lock her away for eternity.

"I remember how it felt," Taylor spoke softly. "When my mother died. I felt like my own heart had stopped beating. It still feels that way. And then my stepfather … I trusted him and he … I've never wanted to let anyone else that close to me."

"I understand." Randy swallowed hard, wanting desperately to hear her words pronounce her love for him, he needed to be reassured that he still had someone to continue breathing for, but accepting that she was unable to.

"No, you don't." She whispered. "I never wanted this."

"I know."

"But yet when this happened to you, I came running to you. I snuck away, ran away to be by your side the first moment …" He searched her eyes. "I did the worse thing imaginable to you. I let you close to me and I tried so hard …"

"I love you, Taylor. I know you tried to push me away. I know that. I know that's why you stuck so close to John. I know your fate and that you will never be my wife, but I don't care. I love you and I will never give up on you. Not now that you're all I have. I will find a way …"

"There is no way, Randy." Taylor screamed at him. "Don't you get that? I am cursed. I will spend my life in cold walls with cold bars and cement floors and I will hold my pillow close to me at night for warmth and fall asleep pretending I am lying next to you. That is my future. Don't waste yours waiting for me when I will never be your wife."

"You're all I have left." He moaned, holding her tightly. Placing his forehead to her chest.

"All of this just happened. You will feel differently … in time. You'll see that I am right. You'll find someone new. Fall in love and you will have another child and you will be so happy."

Randy could hear the wind raging against the windows sounding exactly how he felt. He held Taylor to him and watched the rain and the hail bounce off the cement ledge until he saw it.

"Oh my …"

Taylor screamed as a large oak tree barreled through the window, shattering it and tearing apart each item in the room it collided with. Randy grabbed her from its path, knocking her to the floor and covering her with his body. Slowly he crawled, pulling her along until her was able to reach a small closet. He opened the door, slung out a mop bucket and urged her inside. He shut the door and again he held her, shielding her as the wind roared. She could still hear snaps and cracks outside of the door.

"It's going to be fine." Randy whispered.

Taylor pulled from his embrace and stared into his eyes. She cupped his face gently and smiled, sure that the twister was about to claim them both. She kissed him a passionate kiss until all was black.

Randy didn't expect to wake up. He expected the heavy cement blocks of the building to crush him and Taylor both and he thought he would be opening his eyes to see his mother holding Aiden, standing hand and hand with his little sister to welcome him. And at his side, Taylor would smile, knowing they would no longer be tortured and they would all enter that gate together.

He heard water spraying. Probably from a broken pipe. Other than that, all was quiet. He moved slowly, still feeling Taylor's warm body beneath him. He propped himself up on his elbow and turned her face towards him. Her eyes were still closed.

"Taylor, wake up. It's over." He whispered and stroked her long hair. Again tears escaped him and traveled the same route as the ones he had cried for each of his family members. "Taylor."

Finally, she moaned and her eyes fluttered open and she blinked them repeatedly until finally she remembered where she was and what had happened.

"I guess I'm still here."

"Ya." Randy smiled.

She laughed and then began to cry, holding her hand to her head and he knew she had thought her survival another cruel joke.

"It's settled then. There must be some reason for me to go on living." She gasped through her tears. "Maybe it's you."

"Maybe." He too laughed and sobbed at the same time.

Amazingly, neither felt pain as they pulled themselves to their feet and pushed and forced the door open. They climbed over debris and looked around them. Sirens sounded. Everywhere they looked was destroyed. They heard crying, screaming and kayos.

Buried beneath the rubble, his mother's body appeared at peace. Her lips turned in a soft smile that he had not remembered before. As if she was sending him a message beyond the grave the idea came to him. He made his way and one by one he opened doors and body bags and said his goodbyes to his loved ones, then knelt beside his mother and kissed her forehead.

"I know you will all be looking out for us now. So I know the odds are on our side."

He could smell gas.

He grabbed Taylor's hand.

"Take my hand and whatever you do, don't let go!"

He dug into his pocket, plucked out a Zippo lighter, flicked it and tossed it behind them as they ran away from what was left of the morgue.

No one was looking for them with so many people injured and so many who were in the hospital needing attention. Workers worked on the generators to get power going. Cops directed those who had made it out okay. Randy and Taylor were ushered past as if they were any other normal citizen. They climbed on a bus to ride to a nearby make-shift shelter and Taylor knew it was only a matter of time before they were remembered and taken back to jail, but Randy had other plans.

He said nothing to her about his plan, letting her enjoy a hot cup of coffee and a couple of donuts giving to them by a kind volunteer. He searched through boxes of donated clothes and found them some clean clothes, decent shoes and warm jackets.

"How long do you think it will take before they come looking for us?" Taylor asked after night had fallen, her head resting on his chest as they shared a mattress on the school gym floor.

"They probably think we are dead. They know I was in the morgue and I'm sure they will assume that's where you ran away to."

"Why did you burn it, Randy?"

"Because I can't be here to bury them, so I said good bye. We've rested long enough. Come."

Randy spoke like a crazy man, but she thought it was expected considering all he had been through so she followed him without speaking and without question. Trusting him wholeheartedly even as he carefully led them with their backs bent so not to be seen, towards a row of parked cars. Towards the end of the line, he opened the door to a SUV that still had the keys in the ignition.

"I can't believe this." Randy said as they drove slowly through the town until they were out of the wreckage with nothing but clear roads ahead. Randy dipped his hand into the arm rest hoping to find another lighter. He did along with a bank envelope containing nearly a thousand dollars in cash. "I feel bad for taking this, but it's working out too well for me to believe it's not meant to be."

"Randy, they're going to catch us eventually." Taylor told him, but she smiled because she knew could possibly live a normal life for many years with Randy before they were caught. Even a life on the run was better than the life she had to look forward to. "Wait, Randy. We have to go back."

"Why?"

"You're out in a week. I'm not going to let you throw it away like this. I'm not going to let you be on the run for the rest of your life because of me."

"If I'm not with you, I don't want to be free. Trust me. They will think we are dead.

A week later, in a town half way across the country, Randy finally stopped. They watched the sun rise over the lake and then pushed the SUV in and watched as it sank to the bottom.

They walked liked what they truly were, a young couple in love until they reached the bus station, bought a ticket and rode it further away from the world that hated them until it stopped for lunch at a small country diner in a town that seemed like it came off the television screen. Dirt roads and a small house with a doctor's sign hung on the door.

"This is home." Randy smiled and handed her something from his pocket.

"Nicole Shelton?" She read from the card. "Who is this?"

"You. And I am Cory Fields"

"We can't just start using someone else's social security cards, Randy."

"We can when they're dead."
"They had family, Randy."

"No, they didn't. I remembered them talking about them before the storm. Before you came in. These two were our age, but they had no family. They were run away orphans from the next town over and they have been on the run for four years. They were killed by a drunk driver on the way into town. They had no one and were going to be buried in the state cemetery in donated plots. I grabbed their stuff before I burned the place. No one will remember their names without the paperwork. We can start over and if anyone figures it out we will just run and find a new identity, but I think we are safe. Trust me?"

"I do. I do trust you Randy. I trust you with all of my heart."

The End.