A howl echoed down through into the village, carried from far beyond the hills.

‘Hear that?’ Orlaith whispered. ‘That’s the tornado. It must be right on the other side of the valley.’

We stood in the bushes, silent, nervous, our eyes darting down the windswept street before us. It was empty. The wind billowed through our lightweight cloaks. My shower cap rustled.

‘Remember,’ said Orlaith, ‘my dad’s going to be circling the green by now. So keep your eyes peeled for him. I’ll go in front and head for the road out of town – the rest of you follow. Owen, stick at the back and keep an eye out for any bears behind us.’

I nodded. My heart was pounding against my ribcage like a piston. I was surprised the others couldn’t hear it over the wind. It rippled through our capes, flapping them out behind us. Orlaith braced herself on her bike.

‘Ready?’ she said.

We pulled on our masks. Orlaith gave us one last glance. A smile winked at the corner of her eyes.

‘The Tornado Chasers!’ she hissed.

And with that she was off, whipping out the bushes at lightning speed and disappearing round the corner. Callum leapt up and down on his bike in excitement.

‘The Tornado Chasers!’ he said.

Without another word he kicked his bike away and shot after her. Ceri stood up in the sidecar and held out her cape to the wind.

‘The Tornado Chasers!’

Pete grinned and heaved himself down onto the pedals. They powered out of the bushes and flew down the street, Ceri giggling with excitement and slapping Pete on the bum to make him go faster.

I watched them disappear, and waited for a second. I quickly glanced over my shoulder. I could swear I heard something rustling in the bushes behind me. I swallowed, and pushed myself off.

‘The Tornado Cha …’ I managed.

I flew out the bushes like a rocket, swerving wildly into the empty street and almost toppling over. I gasped. Orlaith had completely transformed my bike – it was like riding on a cloud. The speed was unbelievable. With every stroke I surged forwards, cutting through the wind like a razorblade, the wheels responding to even the slightest movements of my body. I’d never felt anything like it. All of a sudden I found myself standing upright on the pedals, as high as I could manage, the cape fluttering ghost-silent round my shoulders.

‘A daredevil,’ I cried, almost a laugh. ‘I’m doing it. I’m doing it!’

Up ahead, the others flickered in and out the streetlights like moths, through the sleeping village streets, past the broken and boarded-up houses that lined the empty roads of Barrow. I glanced at the rows of identical houses, at the people hidden inside, and almost felt sorry for them. They had no idea how this felt – to be outside, riding bikes in the wind, with no one to know but us. To chase a tornado. I felt more terrified, and more free, than I had ever felt in my entire life.

We slipped across the green and down the road that led out into the valley. There were no streetlamps here, and we cycled in pitch black, threading the bikes against the wind that flooded into the valley. The hills lay ahead, a black wall stretching across the landscape. The red lights of the distant stormtraps glimmered in a row on top of them. Above them the night sky was moonless and thick with dust. Somewhere out there was the tornado, heading towards the village.

The others came to a stop up ahead. I gripped on the brakes, and pulled up beside them.

A roadblock lay ahead. I recognised it immediately – my parents and I had driven through it when we first arrived at Barrow. It was a small guard’s hut, with a thick metal barrier that stretched from one end of the road to the other, painted bright red and surrounded by warning signs. It had taken two guards to lift the barrier from its stand and let us through. Now, of course, the guard’s hut was empty. The sign behind it creaked and swung in the wind.

Orlaith turned to face us, her eyes glimmering fiercely above her mask.

‘Where we stand now,’ she said, ‘is the last point before we violate the most serious Storm Law in Barrow. Leaving the village.’ She looked at us. ‘Are we all still in?’

We nodded quickly, as if we didn’t want to think too much about it. The wind howled down the valleyside towards us. The tornado was getting closer.

‘Right,’ said Orlaith. ‘Well, let’s just get it over with, then.’ She turned to the metal barrier. ‘I guess we’ll have to find a way of lifting this up first …’

Pete calmly stepped forwards, and with the slightest of grunts took the great metal barrier in his hands and lifted it off the stand. We all oohed in admiration. Pete turned back round with a sheepish grin, holding the barrier in his arms like it was a nice pet rabbit.

‘Thanks Pete,’ said Orlaith. ‘Right, let’s get out of here before my dad—’

She suddenly stopped, and swung round.

‘My dad!’ she gasped. ‘Wait – did anyone see him?’

Her voice was tight with panic. We looked at each other blankly. There had been no sign of him at the green.

‘That doesn’t make any sense,’ said Orlaith, confused. ‘We should have seen him …’

We glanced at each other nervously.

‘Maybe he went a different way round?’ suggested Ceri.

Orlaith frowned. ‘Like where? It’s a tiny village!’

I shrugged. ‘Maybe he took a back road on the way round, and we missed him?’

Orlaith shook her head. ‘Then … where would he be now?’

A pair of headlights suddenly appeared behind me.

I swung round. There, flying towards me and getting closer every second, was Officer Reade’s car. Before I could even think of moving, I startled. My whole body froze from top to bottom. I realised there and then that the car was going to hit me – all I could do was watch it happen. It was over in seconds. I saw Officer Reade’s eyes widen and his foot slam down, and heard the screech of his brakes, and –

WHAM.

I was flung backwards through the air, and landed hard on the cold earth that lay beside the road. The breath was slammed out of me, and as I swung back my helmet came down against the tarmac with a sickening crack.

For a while – or what seemed like a while – all I could do was lie still and make out the different sounds around me. My heartbeat. The wind howling across the fields. A car door slamming.

‘Oh no!’

And then suddenly the adrenaline rushed through me and I gasped in a freezing clutch of air. My ribcage swelled and deflated against the ground, and my brain reeled. I had just been hit by a car. And something about my head felt wrong – very wrong.

I pushed myself up, and looked down. There were things on the ground around me where I had landed. Lots of things. I reached out and picked one up.

It was a shard of plastic.

‘My helmet,’ I muttered.

I touched the top of my head. There, instead of smooth plastic, I felt a set of jagged edges where the helmet had shattered apart. My head underneath was completely unharmed. A hand suddenly grabbed me and flipped me onto my back. Officer Reade looked down at me, bent over in the sickly glow of the headlights. He looked terrified.

‘Oh, thank God,’ he gasped, his face flooding with relief. ‘Thank God! I thought you were …’

He suddenly stopped, and heaved me to my feet. The hardness came back to his face in an instant.

‘Are you insane?’ he cried. ‘What the hell are you doing out here? I could have killed you, you … you idiot!’

He flipped round to the others. They stood frozen to the spot. Pete was still holding the barrier in his arms, trembling from head to toe.

‘What is this?’ he shouted. ‘The tornado’s the other side of the hill, and you’re all standing in the street, in the middle of the night – dressed up like flipping Batman?’

His whole body had clenched with anger. The others stared at him, their terrified eyes the only part of their face visible above the masks.

‘Get in the car!’ he screamed. ‘And take those stupid costumes off! When I find out who you are, you’re all in serious trouble!’ He pointed a finger at Pete. ‘And as for you – put that barrier back, right now!’

Pete squeaked in terror, and swung round.

CLANG.

The next thing I knew, Officer Reade was slumped onto the tarmac beside me.

The four of us looked at his motionless body in horror. Pete stopped, and turned back round. He looked at us, then at Officer Reade, then at the barrier in his hands. He took a moment to work out what had happened, before crying out and dropping the metal pole on the ground like it was burning red hot. Orlaith suddenly ran forwards and knelt beside her father.

‘Dad! Dad! Are you OK?’

‘Uuurgh …’ Officer Reade gurgled.

She turned him onto his back. He had been knocked out cold. On top of his head was now a small, straight cut where the barrier had hit him, an angry lump forming rapidly around it.

‘Oh no,’ said Orlaith. ‘Oh no, oh no, oh no …’

The radio in the car let out a sudden burst of feedback.

‘Officer Reade,’ came a loud, crackly voice. ‘Come in, Reade – we need an update of your location, please.’

Callum’s eyes widened.

‘What do we do?’ he said, desperately. ‘What do we do?’

None of us said anything. We didn’t even move. Our gaze was fixed on the Barrow Truancy Officer that we had just knocked unconscious. We tried to work out how we could explain what had happened. To work out how much trouble we were in now. To think if there was any way of fixing it, of turning back time, of undoing what had been done.

‘Reade,’ repeated the voice on the radio. ‘Come in, Reade.’

Officer Reade’s eyes suddenly blinked open. ‘Orlaith? Is that you, Orlaith?’

We looked at each other. Of course, we knew there was no way of undoing it. It was too late for that now. There was only one thing left we could do.

‘Reade?’

The five of us turned and leapt onto our bikes, and without a word we flew through the open barrier and up the hillside, away from the village and the terrible mess we had made, charging towards the tornado as fast as we could.