“Charles was right here,” Karena says. “He was!” She whips around to look wildly in every direction.

“Maybe we haven’t gotten to him yet. Maybe he’s a little farther along ---”

“Maybe nothing!” Kevin says. “Maybe he’s not there at all!” He smacks the dash and Karena flinches. 

“I saw him,” she insists. 

“That is not the point,” Kevin roars. “Even if he was there, he’s not there now, and we’ve lost the others and we are miles behind them and there’s at least one tornado between us and them ---” 

Kevin suddenly slows and then brings the Jeep to a stop. 

“Ho-ly Christ,” he says.

“What is that?” Karena asks and puts a hand over her mouth.

The highway ahead of them has disappeared into the storm. It is not a tornado --- not like any tornado Karena has ever seen. The storm has simply come down onto the ground. The road now runs straight into a churning brown-black cloud like a wall, a mile-high wall that has swallowed the prairie in front of them.

Excerpted from The Stormchasers © Copyright 2012 by Jenna Blum. Reprinted with permission by Plume. All rights reserved.