Chapter 11
Kevin's eyes fluttered open, and were immediately hit by the harsh overhead light. His head hurt, and felt like someone took an axe to it. Other than the light, all he could take in was the concrete all around him, and for a second he wondered if he was in a jail cell. Dismissing that thought as a "jump to conclusion" idea, he tried to recollect the last… how long was he out? And he had trouble trying to remember his previous moments of conscience anyways. It was true; he had a concussion, which just might explain the pain on his head, but not the origin. He was lying on a bed, and decided it was time to get up. As he lifted himself into a sitting position, he winced in pain, allowing a cry of pain to escape his throat. He looked down to see his shirt off, and a large white gauze bandage wrapped several times around him, almost tightly. He lied back down and felt the large gash under the bandage, highlighted by the equally large bright red mark showing on the bandage. The worst part was that once again he had no recollection of it, or even where he was. He thought he start off slow, and make sure he still had a memory.
My name is Kevin. Good, he had an identity.
I am a doctor of meteorology. Ok, so he has a memory up to earning his doctorate.
But Hawaii was hit, and is gone, so I can't be there. Ok, he can narrow down his choices. But also, he remembered the hurricane, the hail, Sydney, Dr. Gary, Tokyo, Noelani, Allison…
"Kevin?"
As if on cue, Allison appeared at the bottom of a staircase, her face seeming worn with tears, as if she hasn't had a happy thought in awhile. Seeing Kevin's conscience self, she quickly made her way to him, and gave him a deep hug, cut short only by his sound of pain, as her arm pressed on his midriff. The feeling of her sudden contact on his naked chest sent waves of warmth and comfort over him, but it was different. It wasn't the same as someone that one really likes touching one's self, but more of a family feeling, the brother sister feeling that they had adopted a long time ago, adopted siblings.
Embracement aside, Kevin decided that best thing would be to get right to business. "Where am I?"
For a second, Allison seemed shocked, but then smiled. "I was told you might have gotten a concussion. You were sliced after pushing me out of the way. After saving me. A piece of the debris also gashed your face, which might explain the concussion."
Unfortunately, this wasn't registering. "Wait, save you from what? Debris from what?"
"Your fantasy."
"What?"
"You really don't remember. Los Angeles has been completely devastated and destroyed from a series of tornadoes. A spawn of tornadoes. The city is more or less gone."
"Oh my God." Slowly, Kevin started to remember everything else. The flight back to Los Angeles, the job at the National Weather Service, Bob, Allison's visit, his house.
"How many, how bad?"
"I don't know, you're the head of the Weather Service."
He remembered it all, the tornadoes, and the chase. And then there was Daniel. All he could whisper was, "Oh my God." Allison seemed to read his mind, like always, and once again wrapped her arms around him. It seemed to last forever; her crying on his shoulder, till they broke off. Amazingly, it was that moment that his mind clicked, and his confusion settled. And more than that. For the first time since he left for Hawaii, his so-called "feelings" were finally understood not as a crush, but as a sibling relationship. Although they happened to be completely unrelated, they had always considered themselves as practically twins, as if they were separated at birth. This thought nearly brought a smile to his face, though he dared not to show any sign to joy at this point. This was a dark time. In fact, way more people are forever lost now.
It was time to get to business, but first he needed his vital information.
"Ok, where are we?"
"You don't remember? This is your apparent surprised, the reason for taking us to your place. I guess this is the only storm cellar in Los Angeles."
"But how? I have it password locked…"
"Oh please, Kevin, I know how you think. T-O-R-N-A-D-O." She walked over to a desk where a computer sat, with a sign on screen showing. Becoming slightly angry, she turned to Kevin, tapping the keys on the keyboard as she called them out. "T! O! R! N! A! D! O!" The computer stirred up and the familiar Windows start up music filled the room. Kevin felt himself turn red from embarrassment, but went into business.
"Ok, fine, how long have I been out?"
"A day. It's right now 11:30am"
"You mean to tell me that you go me here yourself?"
"No, the paramedics did. After a couple hours at Cedars it was apparent that the 22 hospitals remaining were more than overloaded and understaffed, so I allowed them to release you, and you were discharged completely. This city is struggling too much to survive."
"Wait, they can only let an unconscious person go…"
"If a family member approves it. I told them I was your sister."
"And they didn't check?"
"First of all, most records are lost; second, they were a little busy."
Kevin took a moment to let this sink in. "Only 22 left? Which ones?"
"7 in the valley, 1 in Ventura, 4 in Orange County, and 10 in LA, including UCLA and USC."
"And Downtown?"
"Total loss and I mean City Hall as well."
"Who's in charge?"
"You are."
"Of the city?"
"Oh, no, that would be the Chief of Police."
"None of the councilmen or the rest of the city leadership made it?"
"City Hall is leveled. And they were supposed to have a breakfast in there."
"My God. How bad has it been?"
"Mostly it's been shock here, and people trying to figure out what happened."
Kevin slumped back, and seared in pain, which he had forgotten since the conversation. The second largest city in the US was now in ruin, in what Kevin knew would be the worst disaster to ever hit the country, since Katrina/Rita in 2005. Slowly, he slid off the bed, pulled a shirt on, and got his shoes on, sneakers this time. He started to walk slowly to the stairs, headed for the door. Allison watched him. "What are you doing?"
"I think I need to see this myself," he said, before turning back towards her. "Plus, I wanna find my car."
The first thing he noticed as he exited the room was the fact that half his new home was gone; all that was left were a few walls, and at least one room that he had reinforced to withstand anything short of a direct explosion. As he walked out, the site amazed him: a partly cloudy sky, the sun nearly at its height, and one of the greatest cities on earth in smoky ruins. He started the walk down the hills, and towards the roads at the bottom, in the general direction of downtown. All around him people were standing like idiots at the remains of their lifestyle, or rescue workers working with good Samaritans to pull people out of rubble, or bodies. There were horrifying sites everywhere one went, if it wasn't the wreckage of cars, choppers, or whatever was unlucky enough to cross the path of the onslaught, it was the dead bodies strewn everywhere, of men, women, children, of policemen, firemen, paramedics, it didn't matter. Here in the Hills most people are the upper class fancy, not accustomed to having to endue what "those other poor people" face when there is a disaster, but here they were, actors and politicians, pulling their hair out at the shear magnitude of their loss. It was a first sign of a new reality, one that would grow and change as the weather does.
After a few hours, Kevin finally made it to the Basin, and crossed under the freeway to Colorado Boulevard, and started searching for an abandoned vehicle. With no such luck, he started walking again, till the car behind him pulled up and honked. He turned around to see a fire engine waiting for him, with Allison hanging on the side. "They're going downtown! Hurry up!" she screamed, as Kevin hopped on, and held on, taking in the sheer velocity of damage. Kevin leaned in and tapped one of the firefighters on the shoulder.
"How are you guys holding up?"
"We're good, but the rest of the department is not. Fire Chief is gone, and so are more than half of the stations. You sounding like you got a purpose. Who are you?"
"Assistant Director of the National Weather Service here. Actually, I think I'm now the head director, but whatever."
The dark skinned guy turned around completely, with an evil look in his eye. "Oh, good, so tell me, what the fuck happened yesterday?"
Kevin turned forward, taking his eyes off the now tearing man. "I wish I knew."
With sirens blaring, and horn honking, the truck pulled onto Hope Street, a rather fitting name considering the situation. All over the road were debris from the skyscrapers, most of which were just completely gutted, with a few fallen scrapers, and a couple with whole parts cut out of it. The building that Kevin worked at was just like that, half of it was missing. The building would not last long. Although Kevin did want to search for his jeep and other things, it was more important to get any data out of there, as well as all important data, charts and graphs concerning the weather in this area, especially after this event. Kevin made his way over, seeing just 5 people in the area, plus a truck full of equipment. Kevin recognized these people as members of the staff, and hollered at them, as he tried to run. Instantly he was met by hugs and back slaps, knowing they made it. After a few minutes, however, Kevin took off the hat of relief and placed the boss hat on.
"Ok, where is the equipment going?"
Ann, one of newer meteorologist, answered. "We're relocating to a temporary building, at UCLA."
Although he knew that the University of California, Los Angeles was a relatively safe place, there was one particular college that was a little more suited for their field.
"What about CSUN? That's the college with the meteorology department, right?"
A senior meteorologist, Paul, pushed a PC into the truck and looked at Kevin. "You didn't hear? Northridge is gone. Cal State was hit with a ground zero F3." This meant that this tornado touched ground in the University.
"Ok, so where we stand with employees?"
"15 of us made it, plus we have another 23 college majors now working with us."
"And Bob?"
"Waters? No, we haven't found him or Tina."
Kevin looked up at the building they were in. The creaks and moans coming from the straining structure were getting louder and more frequent; this building would not survive. Allison tapped him on the shoulder, and told him she needed to check in with the USGS. Kevin picked up a cell phone from the ground, checked to make sure it was working, and tossed it to her. Then he turned to his working crew. "Ok, hurry up with the data; that building could go any time. I want a meeting with the group at UCLA by 3:00, which gives you well over 2 hours. Got it?" Kevin started to walk, but turned back to the group.
"Yeah, you wouldn't happen to have seen my jeep, would you?"
Ann spoke up. "Yeah actually we thought you too were dead. It's on West street, at the Biltmore. This is good; the media can finally have their press conference, we have been holding it off, not wanting to say that our entire leadership has been killed, and that we didn't want to do it."
"Press conference? You're got to be kidding me. Fine." And with that, he walked towards Library Tower, or at least the remaining hollow shell that was Library Tower, one of the biggest symbols of Los Angeles now gone, and what used to be the tallest building west of the Mississippi.
Being specially built as a storm chasing vehicle, the jeep could take a load of abuse and damage before being totaled. But for his jeep, the problem wasn't that it was totaled, but that it was buried upside down in the side of Library Tower. Kevin went into the mangled shell of his former vehicle, trying to salvage anything in it, and also to see if he could find Daniel's body, so that he could be at peace. To his horror, hanging on a bent piece of frame was the entire sleeve to Daniel's jacket. Kevin was absorbed into the world of memory, replaying what he now remembered only a day ago, until he heard the footsteps of someone coming towards him. Knowing who it was, he quickly snatched up the sleeve, to avoid a breakdown from the one person he knew it would hurt.
"Whatcha find?" asked Allison.
"Well, it looks like the jeep is a loss, but I think the equipment inside is salvageable, and it looks like the rest of our stuff is more or less here. I'll just need to pull it out."
"And is… he… here?"
Kevin took a breath, the sleeve rag burning in his hand. "No, there's no sign of him."
"Ok, I'm gonna head over to the Valley, I'll, uh, see you later."
Kevin just stood there, still in shock over his new reality. He remembered what happened that day in August, in 2005, with New Orleans. This was their Hurricane Katrina. No levees, no city below sea level… and no warnings. No evacuations. And now, he had a press conference to tell the nation what? That they have no idea what happened? That they can't explain why the Mid-West went full west? Shaking his head, he finally pried his equipment out, and then took an LAPD patrol car to UCLA, courtesy of two confused officers, trying to help revive a dying city.
He was in a large conference room, much like the control center, hastily set up by the professors at UCLA's Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences Department. Of course, he was at the front, facing all of his crew. The survivors. There was no big screens, no fancy equipment, no enthusiastic faces. These were the people with guilt, with a look of sorrow, confusion and loss all across the face. He, too, was not immune at all. The gash he received on his midriff had opened and allowed blood to flow, especially since this was a gash that nearly sliced him in half. So here he was, in a blood-stained t-shirt and the dress pants he's been wearing since yesterday. He cleared his throat and began his speech, outlining what they were gonna divert all attention to.
"Ladies and gentleman, you all are survivors to one of the biggest weather-related disasters since Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf. You are all natives of Los Angeles, you are all now meteorologist of Los Angeles. There is no more city government, so there is no one to receive orders here. Right now, I need to know what happened in the past 48 hours, and what could or will happen in the next 48 hours. I need to know why this storm took us by surprise, and more importantly, why we received or are receiving a Mid-West climate zone. Right now, Los Angeles has lost a good half of it population, and good deal more are overcrowding hospitals, or have decided to move out.
Kevin hesitated, and then continued, "This isn't the same city you all grew up in, or even lived in at the beginning of the week. There is no movie industry, no Port of Los Angeles, no LAX, no Compton violence, Disneyland, Hollywood, or Downtown. I want a damage assessment as well. I want to know the future, if there is one, of the City and County of Los Angeles. Some of you are undergrads, some majors, and some members of the National Weather Service. But you are all Angelinos, so do your part."
Kevin stood in silence, till it was broken by the hand clapping of one of the surviving media who had stepped in the room and stood by the doorway, followed by more people, and finally by the meteorologist in the room, erupting the building in applause, and bringing a smile to his face, something that had not happened in a while. He turned and headed for the door, the press conference only and hour away. A young assistance ran down the hall as soon as Kevin walked out the door, and handed him his suit. With a kind thank you, he walked to the Gym to change. All classes were cancelled today, and until further noticed, so he knew he'd be alone for the time he needed. After at least washing his hair, trying to not to get the blood soaked bandages wet, he finally got dressed, and took a look at the preliminary notes he receive for the conference. You can do this Kevin, just act normal, and tell it how it is. Your no journalist, you don't have to lie. As he finished tying his Winsor knot, he reached for his tie clipped, and stopped as he brought it up. On it was nothing more than a thundercloud and a large tornado under it. It brought a whole new meaning to Kevin, and he knew he was finally ready.
The conference was set up on the lawn in front of the University, and Kevin sat back, as it started. He looked up at the sky, with the almost taunting feathery like cirrus clouds overhead. Finally, he heard his name.
"…and now, ladies and gentleman, I want to introduce the new head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Weather Service of Los Angeles. Dr. Kevin Gabriel."
Kevin stood up, still feeling pain in his side, and the blood flowing slowly underneath. But he kept his cool, and walked up to the podium, prepared to give his speech.
"Good Afternoon. I am Dr. Kevin Gabriel. Yesterday, at 4:08 am, Pacific Standard Time, the National Weather Service began watching a thunderstorm formed from the former Hurricane Noelani, as it moved up and into the Los Angeles Basin, as well as Ventura County and the San Fernando Valley. Preliminary reports suggest that the first tornado was spotted in Ventura at 5:24 am, soon to be followed…"