Hi, people! How is everything? Hey, are most of you out of school already? If you are, I officially hate you. lol I don't get out until Friday. But that's when "Control Freaks" airs! Oh, and thanks for the reviews.
Okay, let's move along to Chapter 5!
Several hours after Peterson's discussion with Fredrick, farther out west, the people in Los Angeles, California were just waking up. But the weather they woke up to was far from welcoming.
A thunderstorm was occurring right now. But the rather odd thing about this was that there were very strong winds. People who were outside to get the morning paper or catch an early breakfast were amazed at how windy it was.
Over at the L.A. Weather Center, one of the workers who monitored the weather was currently asleep. His name was Brian. He was awoken by some kind of motor. He got up and walked to the hallway. He saw a janitor waxing the floor. He gave an apologetic wave and turned his machine off.
Brian then heard the phone ring inside his office. Wondering who could be calling this early, he sighed and walked inside to pick up the phone.
He answered, "L.A. Weather Center."
A frantic voice answered, "It's Tracey. I'm down at the beach."
Brian sighed, "I was just asleep, Trace. What is it?"
Tracey yelled in shock as Brian heard loud thuds around him. Tracey said, "There's hail the size of softballs coming down here." Indeed, as Tracey said, there were large chunks of hail coming down, similar to the hailstorm that occurred in Tokyo the other day.
Brian's face had a look of concern as a man on the Weather Channel was reporting, "Low pressure system moving along the California coastline is creating a cyclonic system across the L.A. basin."
Fearing the worst, Brian called his boss, Jason. Jason was still asleep in his bed. Jason answered after three rings, "Hello."
Brian got right to the point, "Hey, boss. Turn on the Weather Channel immediately. We might have to issue a tornado warning."
The mention of tornadoes in Los Angeles was rather crazy, since it was all mountains out there. Tornadoes never occurred there.
"What are you talking about?" said Jason as he got up and turned on the Weather Channel.
He saw symbols showing high winds in their area. The woman now reporting was saying, "There are reports of wind speeds in excess of seventy miles per hour. Conditions that are highly unusual for California."
"Hold on a second," said Jason looking concerned as well. He got up and walked outside to his balcony.
What he saw next made Jason think he was in a nightmare. Up in the sky where the thunderclouds were, Jason saw something. It looked like…rotating.
The rotating wind started moving downward, and then it connected to the ground. Unbelievably, it was a real live tornado in Los Angeles. But one tornado turned out to be the least of the citizens' worries.
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Back in Washington, Fredrick was at the NOAA (National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration), the place where he mainly worked at, with Steve, a colleague, Patrick, and a woman Fredrick didn't know. Mark would be joining them later. They were currently walking towards the main room.
"We're building a forecast model, Pat," said Fredrick, and then turned to Steve, "We're gonna need, what?"
Steve answered, "Priority access to the mainframe for two days, three, possibly."
Patrick scoffed, "Oh, is that all? Anything else you need?"
"No," said Fredrick, "but we need what we do need right away."
Patrick sighed, "You know, Fredrick, I'd say that you've lost your mind, but you've been this way ever since you began working here."
Fredrick responded irritably, "Patrick, I'm serious. This is important."
The woman with them asked Fredrick, "If it's alright to ask, what is this forecast model you're building?"
Patrick introduced them, "Brittany Wilson, this is Fredrick Fenton. Brittany's a hurricane specialist with NASA. Fredrick's a paleoclimatologist, and I have no idea in the world what he's up to." He then saw that everyone in the main room was gathered around the television.
"Lewis!" Patrick shouted, "What's going on?"
Lewis answered, "They just issued a tornado warning in Los Angeles."
Hardly believing it, the four of them walked over to the TV. Currently FOX was on, and the reporter was saying, "Breaking news as we prepare to go live to Los Angeles."
They walked over to Lewis, who said, "Report's just come in."
The reporter was still saying, "…extreme weather occurring in the area." He pressed his finger to his headphones and finished, "Okay, we're going now to our FOX affiliate in Los Angeles."
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Out in Los Angeles, the situation had just grown worse. There was not one tornado striking downtown Los Angeles. There were four! They were all causing great damage.
The affiliate, a woman named Judy, was reporting, "We have live coverage in our FOX 11 chopper. Are you there, Ben?"
Ben replied in the chopper, "Yes, I'm here. These tornadoes are forming so fast..." His voice trailed off as his partner pilot pointed to something far to their left.
Ben gasped as he saw one of the tornadoes destroying the Hollywood sign. "Oh my god," said Ben, "Hey, are you getting this on camera? This tornado just came and erased the Hollywood sign. The Hollywood sign is gone. It's just shredded to pieces."
Meanwhile, Jason had arrived at a scene where one of the tornadoes was nearing a record company building. He watched in awe as it tore up the city along with the others.
Judy was currently asking Ben, "Ben, what can you see? Is anyone hurt down there?"
Ben replied, "I wouldn't be surprised. There is great damage down there. And there are people down there taking pictures!"
Sure enough, some people were capturing this once-in-a-lifetime experience on film. Jason saw a few of them and shouted, "What in the world do you guys think you're doing? Go for cover! You can't stay here! Get out of here!" They backed away slowly, still trying to get a few good shots.
In another part of Los Angeles, Tracey was now driving in his car, following the scene as FOX reported it. Two thin tornadoes were close together moving along the city. Tracey said, "What you're seeing now are two real tornadoes striking Los Angeles International Airport. Wait, it looks like they've joined and formed into one large tornado."
Indeed, the two tornadoes had formed together into a bigger tornado.
"Tracey!" shouted Tracey's partner in the passenger's seat. A car was flying right towards them!
"Oh my god!" shouted Tracey as he swerved out of the way just in time. He then swerved again as another car flew towards him, and then again for another.
Back at the L.A. Weather Center, Brian was calling Jason on his cell phone, "Jason, where are you?"
Jason looked around where he was and answered, "I'm on Yuka and Vine. I'm about to head in now."
Brian looked at the TV screen and said with worry in his voice, "You're on TV. You're right in the middle of it!"
Jason lowered his phone and stared at what was in front of him, "God. Oh my god!" Debris was flying everywhere, including dangerously close to him.
Brian shouted, "You gotta get out of there, man!"
Jason jumped back into his car, and tried to pull away in reverse. But he didn't get far before a bus flew out and landed right on top of his car!
Ben was reporting this right now, "That bus just got dropped on top of that red car right there. Oh, I hope there was no one in that car."
Brian watched in fright as his phone rang the busy signal, signaling that the line was dead.
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In New York City, everyone was currently having breakfast down in the café. They had woken up to find it thunderstorming once again. They had eaten for a little while before the TV in the café was turned on, and everyone's eyes were glued to the screen as they watched the chaos occurring in Los Angeles.
Currently Judy was reporting, "For our national audience just tuning in, we are going live to downtown Los Angeles right now. Tracey?"
Tracey appeared on screen out on a street. He said loudly over the noise, "If you look over there behind me, that's a tornado. That's right, folks. A real live twister in Los Angeles. It's one of the many tornadoes currently destroying our city. There's another one!" Tracey added as he pointed to a second tornado not far from the first, tearing apart a building, "That's the Los Angeles Skyline! It's unbelievable! It's huge! I've never seen anything like it!"
Over at the Weather Center, Brian had a look of horror as the building started shaking. One tornado was reaching the building!
Tracey continued, "It looks like some sort of huge, horrific, terrifying nightmare, only this is the real thing!" Just then, a large piece of debris flew out and hit Tracy, carrying him far away.
The tornado was now tearing apart the Weather Center. Brian ran back into the room he was first in and stood away from the window. As the building shook around him, all Brian could do was stand there and wait for it to pass…
Finally, after several tense minutes, it stopped.
Brian slowly walked to the window and looked out. The tornadoes were finally leaving Los Angeles. But many buildings that had been in their paths were in ruins. Several people were killed, and there was debris all over the place.
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In another part of Washington D.C., Bob Richardson was talking on the phone with the FAA as he looked at the TV, "Yes, I'm looking at it right now. Yes, it is."
President Gerald Knox walked in and asked, "What's going on, Richardson?"
"I'll call you back," said Richardson and he hung up. He turned to Knox, "Mr. President. Los Angeles has been devastated by a series of tornadoes. And to follow that up, the FAA wants your approval to suspend all air traffic."
"What do you think we should do?"
"Until we get a clue what's going on, we really don't have much choice, sir."
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Back in Washington, the Casper High freshmen as well as others were watching the aftermath of the chaos that had just occurred in Los Angeles. "What you're seeing," said Judy, "Is what's left of downtown Los Angeles."
Tucker turned to Danny after talking on his PDA, "Hey, dude. I just got off the phone with my dad." He walked over to the TV and said, "Hey, guys, I'm sorry about this, but we're gonna have to change the channel."
Everyone else groaned and complained as Tucker switched to the other FOX channel. It showed an airport with hundreds of people inside. The woman reporting was saying, "The FAA has grounded all air traffic in the United States. Unfortunately, the order came just too late. Recently, two planes were brought down by severe turbulence. One in Colorado, and the other near Missouri."
Danny said to Tucker, "So much for one in a billion."
Tucker responded, "Hey, it could've been a million, you know."
Sam sighed, "You're missing the point. How are we gonna get home now?"
Don't worry, you'll find out soon enough. Anyway, sorry if this chapter resembled the movie a little too much, but I couldn't really think of anything else. Anyway, tornadoes have just ripped apart Los Angeles, and now the air traffic has been suspended. With flying out of the question, how will our heroes get back to Amity Park? Review, and Chapter 6 will arrive shortly.