I Survived the Joplin Tornado, 2011

Dex feels a floating sensation and assumes the car has been sucked into the sky, but when he opens his eyes, he is the backseat of Dr. Gage’s now beaten-up SUV. His body feels sore, but nothing has been “crushed or broken or torn open,” and the tornado has passed (65). Dex can hear it in the distance. Everywhere he looks, he sees debris and destruction—smashed cars, crushed concrete, downed wires. Dr. Gage was thrown from the car and is “sprawled on the ground,” unmoving (66). Dr. Gage is breathing, but his leg is bleeding badly, and he cannot keep his eyes open. Dex thinks of Jeremy describing SEAL training and the importance of finding “the strength to complete your mission” and resolves to save Dr. Gage (69).

Recalling the lessons he learned in a first aid class his mother made him take the previous summer, Dex finds Dr. Gage’s first aid kit intact in the glove compartment and presses gauze to the wound on his leg until the bleeding stops. Dex vows to hold onto Dr. Gage as he had held on to Dex when the tornado threatened to suck him out of the car. Jimmy and Sara arrive, relieved to have found them.