Tornado

Alex was going through his ill-gotten loot when he heard the sirens go off, signaling a tornado had touched down. The only problem was that Alex had lived in this town his entire life and never remembered hearing of one tornado touching down. So Alex continued counting up what he brought in that night. He decided what to melt down and saw how much he could spend.

He laughed with glee at the amount of this haul. It set him up for weeks on cash flow. He wouldn’t have to go out for a while. The haul from those three houses alone was preposterous, let alone what he got from the convenience store earlier in the evening. Alex’s needs were simple: rent, utilities, groceries, and a little spending money for movies.

Damn it. He wished that the siren would go off. It was messing with his concentration. Did he have 60 grams of gold or 70 grams? Was it 50 pounds of silver or 60? He’d counted the cash four times and got a different amount each time. He knew the haul was good but couldn’t tell how good.

Suddenly, the storm got quiet. The siren seemed to get even louder. Then, there was the sound of a rushing train. At first, Alex was confused. Then it hit him. A tornado had touched down close by.

Alex took off running to his bathroom. Without warning, all the windows in his house ruptured inward, sending glass shreds into Alex’s skin. He had six feet to go to the bathroom when the roof of the old house he grew up in was torn off.

The tornado was right overhead. Alex froze and stared at the majestic, frightening beauty of the swirling mess above him right before he and his ill-gotten goods were sucked up with the rest of his house to be deposited on the other side of town. Wholly torn up and mangled.