Page 52 of Into the Tempest

My heart rate was high, and he knew then just how scared I was.

His eyes cut to mine and he held my arm tighter. “I’m still mad at you,” he said, before snuggling into me and putting his head into the crook of my neck.

And then the lights went out and the dashboard went dark.

Suri let out a cry, and Doreen soothed her. “It’s okay, the generator will kick in.”

We waited and waited...

Nothing.

The generator had either been disconnected, or maybe it was no longer there at all.

I scrambled for my phone and hit the torch button. It lit up the small, dark room enough that Suri breathed a little better.

And we stayed like that for what felt like an age, until time didn’t mean anything anymore, until the winds got quieter. I only really noticed because I could hear over the roar of the wind again. I kissed the top of Tully’s head and lifted him off me so I could stand up.

I began flipping switches, trying to get anything to work. The only operational screen was the old Doppler radar.

It showed Hazer directly above us, rotating and not slowing down at all.

But within the span of maybe five minutes, the wind outside had stopped altogether. Like someone had switched the cyclone off, yet on the screen it was still very much there.

And that could only mean one thing.

We were in the eye of the cyclone.

CHAPTER NINE

TULLY

Jeremiah Overton was a genius.Supersmart, graduated early, earned his doctorate well before any of his peers. An undeniably incredibly smart man.

He was also really fuckin’ stupid.

Stupid for openin’ the door.

Stupid for goin’ outside.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

If it had been for a human, I could understand.

But a bird?

An already half-dead bird, at that.

How the building we were in still had a roof, I didn’t know.

I didn’t want to question it or jinx it.

My heart didn’t stop hammering for longer than was probably good for me, and as much as I wanted to wring his neck, I wanted to hug him even more. His watch told me how his heart was pounding too, and despite his outward calm, I knew he was as scared as me. I wanted to hold him and make sure he was okay, make sure he was still in one piece.

I also wanted to pummel the shit out of him for scarin’ me like that.

And then the lights went out. He got up and went to the control dash, flipping a few switches and checkin’ the data reel. All of the screens were now black bar one, and I could guess the antennas or satellite that had been on the roof were now a few suburbs over.

It had taken me a second to realise the noise was dying down, like I’d stood next to heavy duty machinery or a jet engine, and even though the noise was gone, my ears still rang with the sound of it.

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