Chapter 3
Tagging Along

"Rabbit?" Jo set her CB radio aside so that she could use both hands to navigate a particularly sharp corner. Holding the wheel steady, she reached back for radio mic as she came out of the turn.

"Yeah boss!" Rabbit replied.

"Can we do better than the 30?" Jo asked.

Inside Sanders' truck, Rabbit reached behind his seat and grabbed the detailed road maps and adjusted his headset.

"No, not for awhile, it's ah, best to stay on it until we pass Roger's Creek…" Rabbit said, looking at the map.

"Copy that." Jo said.

The radio crackled as Jo accelerated up over a hill in the road, and Felix searched for the frequency on the CB in his own truck.

"Once we catch up with them you take the truck and head home," Felix said. He glanced over at Marzia and gave her a smile. "I'll get the papers signed and see you tonight, okay?"

Marzia looked at him. "No," she insisted. "You know what honey, I find this kind of interesting, I'm gonna tag along!"

Felix smiled, but his expression quickly turned to one of disgust as he caught sight of his rival in the reflection of his side mirror.

"Jonas…Son of a bitch!" he exclaimed in disbelief.

The black truck drove even beside them before pulling ahead, and Marzia followed Felix's gaze.

"Felix, who is that?" she asked.

"That's Jonas Miller," Felix replied, frowning. "He's a Night Crawler. We all started out in the same lab and Jonas went out and got himself some corporate sponsors. He's in this for the money, and not the science. He's got a lot of high tech gadgets... but he's got no instincts." Felix turned smugly back to face the road. "And he doesn't have Dorothy."

"Jo, I think we got fleas!" Beltzer announced over the radio.

"Jo, come back." Felix call out on his own radio, and Jo leaned over to glance at her side mirror.

"Hey there, you change your mind?" she asked over the radio.

"Yeah, what is Jonas doing here?" Felix replied.

Jo looked out the driver side window and watched as one by one, the single file line of all-black vehicles drove past her truck, which were lead by Jonas.

"I'm not sure." she radioed back. "But I bet he's asking himself the same question about you!"

Felix glanced at his side mirror and did a double take as he realized that the last vehicle on Jonas's team, was a big black van that was bearing down on his driver's side and the driver began to honk it's horn at them.

"Oh shit, hold on!" Felix grabbed the wheel and swung right as the driver of the van continued to blare it's horn and bore past them, running them off the road. "God damn, son of a bitch!"

The truck bounced onto the grassy bank and up over a pile of culvert poles. They clanged against the undercarriage of the Dodge as Felix struggled to control the bucking wheel axle. He slammed on the brakes as the truck bounced over the last of the metal poles and one of trucks rear tires blew out.


At a truck and diner stop, Felix pulled the spare from the back hatch of his truck. It bounced as it hit the ground as he guided it across the parking lot and over to the garage attendant.

"How long do you think that'll take to get fixed?" he asked the attendant.

"Oh maybe ten minutes, fifteen tops." the attendant replied in a thick southern accent.

Felix smiled. "Sounds good." He glanced at his watch and headed back over to his truck. He brushed the dirt off his shirt and paused, looking up as he heard a familiar, pretentious Southern drawl. He could clearly hear that it was Jonas.

"What drives me is the unknown," Jonas announced. "What if we could predict a tornado's path? How many lives would be spared with the creation of an early warnin' system! And D.O.T. 3 is the answer! The first Digital, Orthographic, Telemeter..."

Felix followed the sound of Jonas Miller's preaching, and across the parking lot, he spotted him by a large weather instrument that looked very much alike to his creation of Dorothy...

"And inside, she holds hundreds of these little sensors," Jonas continued, holding up the object for everyone on his team to see. "Which when released into the tornado, it will transmit data back on wind speed, pressure, and due point temperature!"

Felix could feel his blood pressure begin to rise as he marched forward, towards the crowd of people and cameras surrounding Jonas and his team. Jo and the rest of the team had a map spread out across the hood of Sanders and Rabbit's truck, and Jo glanced up, casting a look over her shoulder as she sensed Felix drawing nearer.

"Felix," Jo warned.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Felix asked, glaring at Jo as he walked.

"Felix, don't!" Jo pleaded.

In one split second, Felix rushed in through the crowd of people and up to Jonas, knocking the hat from his head, and grabbed him by his shirt collar.

"Hey!" Jonas let out a startled cry as Felix shoved him up against the weather device. "Hey, hey, hey!"

"Du jävel!" Felix cursed in Swedish, yelling in Jonas' face. "What'd you think, I wasn't gonna find out about this?! Huh?!"

Jo's team came rushing across the parking lot and into the fighting crowd as Jonas' men grabbed at Felix from all sides.

"Hey guys, could someone get this Swedish loser off of me!" Jonas yelled to his crew.

Dusty, Rabbit, and Beltzer pulled on Felix as he surged against shoves from the other team.

"Alright back off!" someone yelled. "Back off!"

"What's your malfunction man!" someone demanded.

"He's not worth it!" Beltzer called as Dusty grabbed Felix by his shoulders and pulled him back, trying to get him away from Jonas.

"What is the matter with you!" Jonas demanded. He took a daring step towards Felix.

"You stole my design, you son of a bitch!" Felix yelled. Slipping out of Dusty's grasp, he lunged forward, taking another wild swing at Jonas as Dusty and Rabbit grabbed him.

"Calm down, man!" Dusty yelled.

"What the hell you talkin' about?!" Jonas demanded.

"Dorothy," Felix said through clenched teeth. "You took her, you damn thief!"

A slow smile spread across Jonas' face. "Oh, I get it," he said, grinning. "You wanna take credit for my design."

"You're a liar!" Felix exclaimed. "She was our idea and you know it!"

Jonas laughed. "Unrealized idea," he said, smirking. "Unrealized."

"That thing isn't worth shit unless it flies!" Felix yelled. He barreled forward and Jo broke into a run across the parking lot, quickly realizing that another round of pushing and shoving was about to take place.

"Hey, hey!" Jo shouted. "Guys, guys! Guys!" Jo drew even with the fray and pushed her way in front of Felix. "All my guys, get a grip on yourself!" She turned towards him, her words now directed at Felix. "We both know, he'll never get that thing up in the air."

"That's right!" Beltzer called.

Jonas rounded his weather instrument and smiled proudly. "Well let me enlighten you people!" he said cheerfully. "This baby has satellite COM link." He pressed the sensor cap and the arms of the telemeter folded back into place. "We've got onboard pulse Doppler, and we got Next-RAD real-time…Today, we're gonna make history! So stick around…'cause the days of sniffing the dirt are over."

"Better than what you sniff!" Rabbit threw back, and Felix stepped forward.

"We'll see who gets there first, pal!" Felix called.

Jonas turned from his retreat with the rest of his team. "Oh, and by the way," he said, putting his hat back on. "I really enjoy your weather reports."

Jonas' team burst into loud laughs as a more rage overcame Felix. He clenched his jaw and rushed forward, breaking away from the rest of the group.

"Du slem!" Felix cursed. "I'm not through with you yet!"

Jo's entire team rushed forward to grab Felix while Jonas continued his retreat.

"Get your hands off of me!" Felix shrugged his shoulders and pushed away members of their own team. "Okay!" He walked away from the crowd to cool down, letting out an aggravated yell.

"He's a corporate kiss butt, man!" Sanders called after him.

Jo ran over to Felix. "I'm sorry, I should have told you," she said.

Felix ran a hand through his hair and scowled. "One day," he insisted. "I will give you one day. Whether she flies or not, I'm gone.

"Cara? Il miele è tutto ok?" Marzia was rushing towards them and speaking to Felix in Italian, and Jo walked away.

"It's okay," Felix assured her. "Everything is fine, Marzia."

"Are you sure?" Marzia asked.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he said, taking her hand in his. "Listen, I'm gonna hang out here for a while and get some air. Why don't you... Why don't you go get us some cold drinks."

"Okay sweetheart," Marzia said, smiling. Kissing him on the cheek, she walked away towards the diner.

In the diner, Jonas came up to Jo as soon as she walked inside.

"You know Jo, I don't know what the matter is with Felix," he said. "I mean he-he's…he's wacko, he's crazy! I mean you should start puttin' a leash on him!"

Jo smiled at Jonas, nodding in mock sympathy. "He's not my problem, he's yours." she said.

"Oh, and by the way, this storm is gonna be a lot bigger than we anticipated." Jonas cast a glance out the window towards Felix. "I got reports of mesos from Grand County all the way to Logan."

Jo smiled. "Sharing information with me?" she asked.

"No, it's just ah…I'm curious as to which way you're gonna head." Jonas said.

Jo nodded. "Southeast, I think. To the counter." She walked past Jonas and cast a disbelieving glance in the direction of his team as she approached the counter where Marzia was sitting. "Nothing changes..." she muttered.

"Pardon me?" Marzia asked, looking over at Jo.

"He's gonna wait and see what Felix does," Jo said, nodding her head towards Jonas.

"That man is waiting for Felix, why?" Marzia asked.

Standing in the parking lot, Felix looked up into the sky, watching as a dark wall cloud was rolling in through the west. Everything seemed quiet except for the breeze. Bending down, Felix scooped up some dirt in his hand and let it slide through his fingers against the wind. He looked back up at the clouds, watching the sky begin to darken.

Back inside the diner, Jo sat next to Marzia, telling her about Felix's experience with the weather.

"My Aunt Meg used to call him a human barometer," Jo provided, by way of explanation.

"So what you're telling me is that Felix knows what a storm is thinking?" Marzia asked disbelievingly.

"Something like that." Jo said. "Gum?"

Marzia shook her head and shifted in her seat. "Well he hasn't really told me about all this."

"If you have to pee, you should do it now, 'cause there's not very many places to stop once we get on the road," Jo said, changing the subject.

Marzia was silent for a moment before she spoke once more. "You're still in love with Felix, aren't you?" she asked Jo.

Jo raised her eyebrows and looked over at Marzia in disbelief.

"Not that I blame you," she continued, softly. "I just hope that this is not some desperate attempt to keep him in your life."

Jo chewed her gum in silence, contemplating the young Italian woman's words before reaching over and plucking Marzia's tab off the counter.

"We're together," Jo told the waitress, placing both tickets and a wad of crumpled bills onto the counter. Grabbing her coffee, she shot Marzia a friendly smile before turning from the counter and walking away.


Outside, Felix continued stand at the edge of the parking lot, staring up at the clouds. The sky had darkened considerably; it's edges were tinged with a nasty green color. Thunder rumbled off in the distance, and before his eyes the light steadily changed from grey to orange to a heavy, ominous green, until soon the whole sky was tinted with the dark color. The crunch of gravel signaled Dusty's presence as he walked up behind Felix and stood beside him, his hands deep in his pockets.

"Hey man, what's up?" Dusty asked, smiling.

"It's going green," Felix said, keeping his gaze on darkening clouds.

"Greenage," Dusty said, looking up into the sky, and Felix turned, heading back towards the diner.

"Saddle 'em up…" Felix called back.

Dusty grinned. "You got it, boss!"

Dusty eagerly headed back to the others in the diner and Felix strode to his truck, grabbing his jacket from the front seat and shrugging it onto his shoulders.

Marzia approached Felix with drinks in her hand. "Honey, I got you some lemonade." she said.

"We gotta move out!" Felix exclaimed, looking at Marzia. "Listen, follow us in the truck but stay behind Dusty's van, you'll be safe back there. I gotta go with Jo!"

Felix spun on his heel and ran towards Jo's truck, rallying the others as they exited the diner in ones and twos, preparing to depart.

"Okay let's move out people, let's go!" Felix announced, clapping his hands together.

"Where are we going?" Marzia called.

Dusty hit the flashing lights on his bus and drove past, and Marzia fumbled for her keys, shoving the drinks onto the roof of the truck before pulling the door open and sliding into the drivers seat.

"Thanks, I'll drive!" Felix rushed past, snatching the keys away from Jo, and slid behind the wheel of her truck.

Giving Felix an annoyed look, Jo ran to the passenger side and jumped in beside him.

One by one, each vehicle raced out of the parking lot of the diner, and Dusty turned on the speakers, which began blaring Van Halen across the darkened plains as they hit the highway, gathering up speed.

Dusty laughed in celebration. "Ha ha! It's the wonder of nature baby!"