Core Punch by Pauline Baird Jones

grasping fingers.
    The debris got closer.
    Sounds of objects hitting the sides of the skimmer. Bigger objects. A large branch blocked their view for several seconds before being dragged up and back.
    The slot they aimed for looked pretty small all of a sudden. She didn’t think—didn’t dare speak and break his concentration again.
    Felt like they were going too fast—
    The skimmer shuddered harder.
    Joe put the pedal to the metal—whatever that meant. It was a phrase from Grand Paw Paw which made no sense at all. Their pedals were for braking.
    Hole got closer. Smaller.
    Vi squinted, because she couldn’t close her eyes, half turned as if bracing for a hit.
    Felt the skimmer shudder when he reversed thrust by actually applying pedals to metal.
    Was flung against the straps holding her in.
    Scraping sounds, above this time. Some shrieking of metal on rock.
    Stopping. Stopped.
    Another fling against straps. A few stars cart-wheeling past….
    A roaring, like a mighty engine going over. Wild crashing sounds. The wrath of the gods for sure.
    Fido whined, might have tried to dig his way deeper into the backseat.
    She reached out, eyes still stuck straight ahead and grabbed Joe’s arm, felt down until she found his hand. Gripped it.
    Fido howled now, a terrified sound she would have echoed had that been possible. Fear had a choke hold on her throat.
    The skimmer moved back with a jerk, but it stopped, and then the vortex was in front of them.
    In one flash of lightning, she saw the cone and its load of debris before it vanished from sight again.
    The wind and rain came back with more fury, as if enraged that they weren’t dead.
    They weren’t dead.
    Joe locked them in hover mode, using his free hand. She almost asked why, but at the moment she didn’t care. Vi released her breath in a gust.
    â€œDamn.” She looked at Joe. The edges of her mouth tipped up some. Couldn’t quite get her smile on, even though inside she was beaming. They weren’t dead . The dog whined and scratched the shield. “Sit!” she ordered. Then she grabbed the neck of Joe’s suit and pulled him toward her. Planted that promised kiss right on his sort-of purple mouth.
    It didn’t taste like a color. It tasted like man, no cool in it either. The guy hid a lot. Like how good he could kiss….
    The dog barked sharply, as if annoyed. She ignored him until he threw himself against the shield with a howling whining sort of bark that shook their slings.
    She eased back from Joe a millimeter or so. Oh yeah, there was fire in there. His eyes fairly blazed. Vi found her smile, and he matched it and then some. Water dripped down her face and his. He had a drop on the end of his sassy nose. She caught it with the tip of her finger. For an instant it looked like he might say something. Or pounce. Then he sighed. But he touched her cheek with his finger, the light touch edged with tender, before he said, “We must—”
    â€œYeah, we must,” she admitted. Her whole body wanted to keep leaning his way. Her lips wanted to continue the kissing. She sat back. She was a grownup. Darn it. Matched Joe’s sigh and raised it. She gave herself a shake. If they’d made it to the freeway…she tried to do math, wasn’t sure how well she did it. “So, we’ve gone two, maybe three blocks and used up a quarter of our fuel. Maybe we should wait here?”
    Yeah, they might be under several tons of really old concrete, but she knew what was out there.
    Joe considered the suggestion, then shook his head. “I do not believe we are above the storm surge here.”
    Vi looked down at her weather screen.
    It was as dark as the view outside.

4
    â€œ W hat else is offline ?” Joe asked, checking the panels closest to his station. His screens appeared to be functional, but they were all related to skimmer operations. It was a relief to be stationary, even if only briefly.