Chapter One: Tornado Warning
"And in more recent news the Jonas Brothers have canceled their tour throughout Europe that was supposed to begin next month. I bet all those girls are going to be disappointed that they didn't get to see the Jonas Brothers but they aren't missing out any less then the rest of us. No one has seen the Jonas Brothers in over a month now. It's like they have completely disappeared. Mr. and Mrs. Jonas did not seem worried when they were asked about the sudden disappearance and refused to comment. Now onto Mike for the weather, Hi Mike…" I jumped as the tv shut off suddenly, along with all the other lights in the apartment, then sighed. This had been happening at least once a day since the people upstairs had moved in. There were either two or three of them and they always seemed to be awake. They also never seemed to care about the rest of us living in the building. I was starting to get sick of the constant power outages. I guess the guy next door had too since he had moved out a week after the others had moved in. Actually, now that I thought about it, I guess I was the only other person here. Maybe they didn't know I was here so they were loud a lot of the time. It wouldn't surprise me if they didn't know I lived here. I didn't have a car and I was gone a lot of the time.
After a few minutes I grabbed a flashlight and opened my door before walking out into the hall. I hadn't heard anyone go downstairs, which wasn't a surprise either. I always ended up turning the power back on when they blew a circuit. I didn't think that the people upstairs even knew how to fix it. I opened the basement door slowly. I hated the basement, even when the lights were on. It was creepy.
The people upstairs had only been here for two weeks, but I thought thy would have figured out how to not blow a circuit… it only took me twice to realize that I couldn't run the microwave and the dishwasher at the same time that I had the tv turned on. I never used the dishwasher anyway. Come to think of it, I had never heard the people upstairs use theirs either. I wonder how they keep blowing the circuit then.
I reached the corner of the basement that had the fuse box in it and opened the metal door carefully. I shined the tiny beam of light over the labels next to the switches until I came to their apartment. I turned it off, then on again. Nothing happened. I scowled at the switch. I flipped it a few more times before I decided to call the electric company and let them deal with it. As I walked back up the stairs I heard rain drops hitting the building harshly but ignored it. Maybe the rain was the reason the power went out. I went back into my apartment and walked over to my phone and picked it up. No dial tone. I hung up the phone and pulled out my cell phone. No signal.
My cat pawed at my foot before jumping up on the table and walking over to my window that had the blinds shut, like normal. Putting my phone back in my pocket, I walked over to the window too, and peeked through the blinds. For a February in Alaska, there wasn't much snow, and the weather had been weird. It had been raining for the past few days. Now though, it was hailing and it was very windy. The wind kicked the snow into the air. As I watched, the wind, which didn't look very strong at first, tore the sign off the grocery store next door. The solitary tornado warning in the town was going off. Normally there were never tornados in Alaska. Ever. The last recorded one was over 150 years ago, but if they were sounding the warning, then the winds must have been pretty bad.
I went to my bedroom and grabbed my empty messenger bag and started throwing my stash of flashlights, batteries, and candles into it. I grabbed a lighter off the table before going to the kitchen to grab a box of matches. I decided just to camp out in the basement for a while. Since I wasn't sure how long I would be staying down there, I grabbed some cans of fruit and vegetables and stuffed those into the bag along with a loaf of bread and a package of cookies. I shown the beam of my flashlight around my apartment one last time to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything. As the beam of light fell onto my cat, still sitting on the window sill, I turned it off and stuffed it into the pocket of my sweater. I walked over to the window and picked up the small black and white cat. She had been nursing kittens but I knew that she had birthed them in the basement so I didn't worry about them. I swung my bag over my shoulder and proceeded to the door to the basement. I closed it behind me and set my cat on the stairs before walking down. I dropped my bag on the floor in the corner farthest from the door before pulling my flashlight out again. I had pretty good vision in the dark, but I liked to have a light just in case.
My cat had stayed on the stairs and was scratching at the door when I went to get her.
"What do you want silly? I'm not going to let you out so stop acting weird," I told her picking her up. She scratched at my arms, trying to get out so I dropped her. She immediately went back to scratching at the door.
"Fine, I'll let you out, but don't expect me to come looking for you if the weather gets bad," I told her opening the door. She slipped out and then sat at the bottom of the stairs and looked back at me. She ran back to me after a few moments, and then back to the stairs. I didn't know everything about animals, but I knew that that meant they wanted you to follow them. I sighed and stepped back into the hall. The winds outside were screaming and hitting the building harshly. I followed my cat up the stairs and to the door of the apartment above mine.
"Are you sure?" I asked my cat as she scratched at the door. She looked up at me as if to say, 'of course I'm sure, I'm a cat.'
I knocked on the door and stood back to wait. No ne answered it. I walked back to the window above the stairs and looked out. Their car was here so they must be too. I walked back to the door and was about to knock again when I heard glass shattering in the apartment. Seconds later the window above the stairs broke and a cold gust of strong wind blew into the hallway. I opened the door and looked inside the apartment.
"Hello? Is anyone home?" I called into the quiet apartment. My cat slipped past my legs and ran into the apartment. I followed her without thinking about it. She clawed the door leading to a bedroom. If this apartment was the same as mine, then this was the master bedroom. I opened the door as another gust of wind blew through the broken kitchen window knocking things off the counters. I pushed the door all the way open and followed my cat as she ran over to the side of the bed near a window that had been blown in. Lying on the floor was a guy who looked to be about 19 or 20. He had a cut on his face where a piece of glass must have hit him, and he looked like he was knocked out or something. I knelt down and shook his shoulder, trying to wake him up, but it didn't work. I lifted his arm and put it around my shoulders then stood, pulling him up with me. It wasn't easy work. The guy was skinny but he was about half a foot taller then me, and I wasn't exactly strong at all. My cat was sitting in the doorway looking at me. I managed to get the guy over to the door but it was hard work. When I stopped to rest for a second, my cat ran to the other bedroom door, which was shut and scratched at it. I set the guy I was trying to carry on the floor gently before going over to the other door. I opened it quickly and saw another guy who looked a lot like the first one lying on a bed sleeping. At first I wondered how anyone could sleep through the loud wind and the tornado siren but then I noticed that he was wearing headphones and had an iPod on the bed next to him. I ran over and pulled the headphones out of his ears and shook him to wake him up.
"Please wake up," I said shaking him. "I need help and we need to get out of here." The guy opened his eyes and looked at me for a moment before he jumped up.
"Who are you and what are you doing in here?" he asked me looking past me to the door.
"I need help. There is a tornado warning and the windows in your apartment broke. We need to get to the basement now. Come on," I told him quickly, looking at me feet. I didn't like talking to people I didn't know, but this was kind of an emergency. I grabbed his wrist and pulled him up then dragged him over to the other guy. "Help me carry him," I ordered without thinking.
I knelt down and pulled the guys arm over my shoulders and pulled him up again then looked at the other guy. He was looking out the broken window in the kitchen.
"Is there anyone else here?" I asked him quickly. He shook his head and continued to look out the window at the dark grayish clouds. "Any animals?" I asked as I tried to drag the unconscious guy toward the door to the apartment.
"No," he said distractedly.
"Hey," I said waving my free hand in front of his face. He seemed to snap out of whatever trance he had been in. "I need help; this guy is too heavy for me to carry all the way to the basement." The guy seemed to realize that his friend was hurt now.
"What happened to him, is he okay?" the guy asked as he went to the unconscious guys other side and helped me get him to the door.
"I don't know," I told him honestly. "Is there anything in here that is important to you? I'll wait here while you get it but you need to hurry," The guy nodded and let go of his friend before running back to his bedroom. I managed to get the unconscious guy to the top of the stairs before the other guy came back carrying a backpack. He put his arm around his friend and we got to the bottom of the stairs quickly then to the basement door where my cat had been waiting for us. We made it down the basement stairs without any problems and I ran back up to shut the door. I bolted the metal lock as an afterthought. When I made it back down the stairs, I saw that the unconscious guy had been laid on the floor in the corner that I had left my bag in.
"Do you have any blankets?" The guy asked me. I had dropped my flashlight at the bottom of the stairs before I shut the door so I went over to get it now.
"I'll look in my storage but I think they are all upstairs," I told him walking over to the wooden door. I hadn't put on any shoes when I came down here and now the cold cement floor was making my feet really cold. I reached for the keys that were always on my belt loop but they weren't there.
"Crap, I don't have my keys. Sorry," I told the guy.
"Just pull the door, the locks on those never work well," he told me walking over. I pulled on the handle but it stayed firmly shut. I put my flashlight on the floor and pulled again with both hands. Nothing happened at first but after a few moments the door gave way. I pulled it open and grabbed my flashlight again.
I moved the light around the shelves in the storage room passing over boxes. Finally I saw a short stack of blankets and sheets next to a box of old clothes. I walked over to it and was about to pull the stack off the shelf when my cat jumped onto the shelf and hissed at me. I let go of the blankets startled, then I saw a moving lump on the blanket. I moved my flashlight so I could look at it in the light, and was greeted with a chorus of mews. I had found my cats kittens. I looked back at my cat who was now washing a paw as if that was what she had meant to be do the whole time. I sighed and set my flashlight on the shelf next to the stack of blankets and then lifted the pile with both arms so I didn't drop any of the kittens. I counted them in the faint light from the flashlight. There were five of them. They were about a week old at the most, their eyes were still closed.
I walked out of the storage area and over to the guy who was now sitting by his unconscious friend. I set the stack down and moved the top blanket to an empty space near the wall. The kittens mewed in protest at the movement but my cat lay down on the blanket and started washing them and they quieted. I went back to get my flashlight before sorting through the stack of blankets and sheets. There were only two blankets, both of them quilts that my grandma had helped me make when I was little. The rest were sheets and pillow cases. I spread the thicker quilt on the floor and folded it in half.
"Help me move him onto the blanket; it'll be a lot warmer then the floor. I think he got hit on the head be something," I told the guy. Between the two of us, we got the unconscious guy onto the blanket within a few minutes. I went back over to the stack of sheets and pillow cases and stuffed a few sheets into a pillow case and put it underneath the unconscious guys head then sat on the floor and leaned against the wall.
"So…" The guy said as he also sat against the wall a few feet away from me. "What's you name?"
"Kasi," I responded tiredly as I switched the flashlight off to save the batteries. "What's yours?" I asked. I heard an intake of breath, as if he was startled that I asked him.
"Um, Joseph. And that is my brother," he said after a few moments of silence. "So you said he got hit in the head?"
"No, I said I think he might have gotten hit in the head. Hold on," I told him and crawled the few feet over to the unconscious guy.
"What are you doing to him?" Joseph asked in a panicked voice, as if he thought I was going to hurt his brother.
"Chill," I told him. "Can you come here and hold the flashlight for me please?" He hesitated. "I work at the hospital down the road as an MA. I know how to tell if someone is seriously hurt or not, relax."
He moved to the guys other side and I handed him the flashlight.
"Shine it on the top of his head please," I said as I lifted the unconscious guys head up with one hand and started feeling the top of his head with my other hand, looking and feeling for any sort of bump or cut. 'This guy has really soft hair,' I thought as I felt his hair. Finally I found a lump. It was on the right side of his head just above his ear.
"Do you have anything cold in your backpack?" I asked Joseph.
"I have a bottle of water that was in the fridge," he said.
"Can you get it please?" I asked him. He went to his bag and rummaged through it for a few moments then came back carrying two water bottles. When he handed them to me, I opened one and poured a little bit of it onto the corner if the pillow case then used the wet fabric to wipe the dried blood off the unconscious guys' face where he had been cut. When that was done, I put the lid back on the bottle and then held the unopened one against the lump on the guys head.
"He's fine," I told Joseph. "Turn the light off; we don't need to waste the batteries. I have a few candles in my bag over there; you can light them if you want."
"Okay," he said taking the flashlight over to my bag that was sitting near the blanket with the kittens. "Are these your cats?" He asked me as he rummaged through my bag looking for the candles.
"Yeah," I said as I set the unconscious guys head back down on the makeshift pillow.
"Kevin is allergic to them, you might want to keep them far away," he said distractedly as he found the candles and started looking for the matches.
"Here, I have a lighter," I told him. Something in the back of my mind was bugging me but I couldn't figure out what it was. Joseph came over and turned the flashlight off as I handed him the lighter. He lit the four candles I had brought with me and set them far enough away from the blankets that they wouldn't catch fire, but close enough that we could see. I glanced at him as he set the last candle up and a suspicion started forming in the back of my mind. Both of these boys had dark brown hair, Joseph's was straight and Kevin's was curly.
Joseph sat down on the other side of Kevin and it was silent for a few moments as I continued to hold the cold water bottle against Kevin's head. Joseph shifted on the hard floor trying to get comfortable.
"There is another blanket over there if you want it," I told him pointing near the cats. He got up and grabbed it, folding it on the floor before sitting down again. It was completely silent now. I could hear the wind blowing around outside are the tornado warning in the distance. We both jumped as my phone rang loudly. I pulled it out of my pocket, surprised that I got signal in the basement in this weather. My ringtone was a Taylor Swift song called Breath, but this version was a cover by a guy called Stephen Jerzak. I looked at the caller ID and answered it quickly.
"Hi dad," I said quietly. "I'm fine," I said in response to his questions.
"There's a tornado about six miles from here, heading straight toward the town. Are you in the basement?" He asked me. I only heard about half the words because of the bad reception but I could guess the rest of it.
"I'm in the basement. I'll be fine dad," I told him. "I can barely hear you."
"Bad reception. I gotta go, Love you," he said quickly.
"Love you too, bye." I hung up.
"My dad says that there actually is a tornado about six miles from his house which is about… five miles from here. He said it's headed straight for the town," I said into the silence of the basement. I could hear the fright in my voice so I stopped talking. I had never seen a real tornado before, and I was kind of scared. It was quiet for a few more minutes before Kevin moved a little bit and started to wake up.
"Joe, what's going on? The window broke…" He trailed off as he tried to sit up. I helped him. He looked around the dark basement. "Where's Nick? Oh never mind he went back to LA I forgot for a…" he trailed off as his eyes landed on me. "Who are you?"
"My name is Kasi," I told him. "There is a tornado. We are in the basement." Suddenly the thing that had been at the back of my mind for the past few minutes came into focus. "You guys are the Jonas brothers right?" I asked suspiciously.
"Yeah but we aren't supposed to tell anyone, we are hiding," Kevin said as Joe shook his head at Kevin.
"You just told, Kevin," Joe told him matter of factly.
"No I didn't she already knew," Kevin said as he sat up completely.
"No she didn't, she asked, that means she wasn't sure. You are stupid," Joe said shaking his head again.
"I am not," Kevin protested.
"Are too."
"Am not."
"Are too."
"Stop," I said as Kevin sneezed. "I don't care about why you are in Alaska in the middle of nowhere. Does your head hurt, Kevin?"
"Kinda…" he said slowly.
"Here, hold this against your head where it hurts, it should help for a while," I told him handing the water bottle to him. He put it against the right side of his head where I had found the bump. It was silent for a few more minutes before we heard banging from the upstairs part of the building. The wind had obviously blown the front door open.
"So why are you guys here in the middle of nowhere?" I asked after a few minutes of awkward silence.
"I thought you didn't care," Joe said laughing.
"I don't, I'm, just trying to keep a conversation going so I don't have to listen to my house being torn apart," I said as I leaned back against the wall. I was starting to get a headache.
"Well, our record label thinks that we aren't serious enough about our work. They said that if we could keep ourselves out of the news for three months then they would let us go back and sing, otherwise they would end the contract," Kevin told me then paused to sneeze. "So we came out here, to the smallest town in Alaska that wasn't freezing this time of year."
"Oh," I said. "Are you okay?" I asked Kevin. "Joe said you are allergic to cats and my cat just had kittens. Are they bothering you?"
"No it's fine. As long as I'm not close to them," He told me. The basement sunk into silence again as we listened to the winds howling outside.
"So how come you were in our apartment before?" Joe asked after a few minutes. I looked down into my lap. I could feel my face turning red.
"Um, my cat led me there. I came down here when I heard the warning going off but she kept scratching at the door so I opened it and she led me to your apartment. I knew you guys were home cuz your car was outside; otherwise I would have just left. But then I heard the window break and I didn't really think about it, I just kinda went in, I'm sorry," I said. It sounded weird to say that my cat had led me, but she was a smart cat. She always knew things that cats shouldn't know.
"It's okay, I think you saved our lives," Joe said laughing.
"Haha yeah," I said before the basement fell into an awkward silence again.
"So," Joe said as he leaned against the wall. "Do you sing?"
"Um, no," I said quickly. "I mean, I was in choir in high school, but that's about it."
"Oh cool. So what kind of music do you listen to?" he asked, obviously trying to break the silence.
"Uh, anything really. I like most kinds of music."
"Oh gimme your iPod!" Kevin said as he came to sit in front of Joe and I.
"Why?" I asked suspiciously.
"Well you can tell a lot about someone's personality from the music they have on their iPod. Duh," Kevin said in a voice that made me feel stupid. I fished my iPod out of my pocket and unplugged the headphones before handing it to him. He scrolled through the songs for a few seconds.
"Ooooh good taste," he said smiling as he started to play a song by the Jonas Brothers. We both laughed.
"Damn," he said after a few more minutes. "You really do listen to everything. You have everything from Marlyn Manson to Mozart. Do you actually like all of that?"
"Well yeah," I mumbled. "It depends what mood I'm in."
"Yay Lion King!" Kevin exclaimed as Hakuna Matata started playing. It was barely audible over the howl of the wind. This went on for a few more moments before he handed my iPod back to me. I turned it off and stuffed it back in my pocket.
"So what have you discovered about my personality?" I asked Kevin jokingly.
"Well, I have learned that you have random mood swings a lot but you don't let that get in the way of what you really care about. You are an easy going person and you like to laugh a lot. You like to be around people but you also like to be alone a lot of the time. And your favorite color is green," he said in one breath. I stared at him.
"How did you get all that from an iPod?" I asked when the surprise wore off.
"Easy, I am a genius," he replied throwing his arms out dramatically. After a few seconds we all laughed.
"You guys are pretty cool for famous rock stars," I said when the laughter had stopped. "So how long are you guys gonna stay in the middle of nowhere?"
They looked at each other.
"Well, I guess we are going to have to move somewhere else now that you know we are here…" Joe said slowly.
"But I'm not going to tell anyone!" I exclaimed. "That would mean you guys wouldn't be able to make your music anymore and I like your music."
"Well, I guess as long as you don't tell…" Joe said thinking.
"I won't, I promise," I said smiling.
"Well then we will be here for two months," Kevin said standing up.
"Um, you probably shouldn't stand yet, you did get hit on the head," I said as I saw him sway. He sat back down quickly.
"So what do we do now?" Joe asked trying to fill the silence again.
"Let's play 20 questions!!" Kevin said excitedly.
"Um, okay," I said slowly. "How do you play?" They both looked at me like I had grown an extra head.
"You don't know how to play?" Kevin asked shocked. I shook my head. "What is this world coming to?" he said sadly.
"All you do is ask one of us a question. And we ask you questions. And you have to answer them truthfully. It's easy," Joe explained as Kevin continued to look dejected. "I'll start. Um, when is your birthday?" he asked me.
"April 30th," I answered. "Now I ask a question?" He nodded. "Okay… what is your favorite color?" I asked Kevin.
"Blue!" he shouted. "No wait, purple. No red… no blue. Yeah, blue." I laughed. Joe shook his head.
"Joe when is your birthday?" he asked Joe seriously. Joe stared back at him.
"Really?" he asked. "You're my brother. You should know." We all laughed at that. Our game continued for what seemed like hours and we were all laughing too much to realize that the winds had stopped howling and the tornado siren had stopped sounding.