Page 169 of The Storm Boys Series Collection

“Holy shit,” Tully whispered. “Oh my fucking god.”

Up ahead, there were people standing on the road, shocked and distraught. The adjoining street was something out of a disaster movie.

It was... gone.

As if a giant plough had upturned one single stretch of earth.

There wasn’t one house left standing. Just piles of debris and construction materials where houses once were.

Tully took his hand back, gripped the steering wheel, and floored it. Driving too fast by the debris, by the dazed people. He swung the Jeep around the corner, took one intersection way too fast, going straight past his street. I only caught a glimpse, but Tully’s house looked okay as we sped past—the front was still standing, if that was some indication—though he just kept driving by and up and over the crest.

Shane was now kneeling on the seat, filming behind us, I realised, across the elevated view of Darwin. The entirety of the damage was indescribable.

There just weren’t the words.

The huge houses in this street were still standing, unscathed, like the gaps between the giant ploughs had spared it. Tully drove up the gutter and slammed on the brakes.

He was out of the Jeep and running to the front of the house. “Mum! Dad!”

Oh god.

The front door was open and his father stepped outside, and Tully ran into his arms like he hit a wall. Then his mum was hugging him too, right in the front yard. “Oh, thank god,” his mum cried.

“Ellis,” Tully said frantically. “Where’s Ellis? Is he here? Tell me he’s here.”

Rowan appeared, holding one of his kids, and Ellis came out from behind him.

As soon as Tully saw him, he sucked back a breath and finally exhaled, his hands on his knees, relief almost knocking him over. “Thank fuck,” Tully cried, then collected his brother in a fierce hug.

Ellis was as shocked as the rest of them, and Tully pulled back, taking his brother’s face in his hands. “Your house. Your whole street, Ellis.” He shook his head. “It’s gone. I thought you mighta been there. I was so fucking scared.” He pushed against his stomach with the heel of his hand, as if the knots that had been there were beginning to unravel. He was still breathing hard.

Ellis shook his head, eyes wide. “What do you mean, gone?”

Tully held him by the shoulders. “I mean it’s gone.” Then he looked at his parents, at Rowan and then Zoe, who was standing in the door with a small child on her hip. “So much is gone. The damage. From the bureau to here.” He shook his head and his voice trembled, teary-eyed. “The damage...”

I went to him then and pulled him against me. His hands came up slowly to fist my shirt and he sobbed, the relief that his family was safe, that Ellis was safe, finally bubbled over.

His dad came over and rubbed his back, then his mum went to Ellis. Her sad eyes met mine. “You’re both okay, and we’re all okay, and that’s all that matters.” Then she took Ellis’ face in her hands. “Houses can be rebuilt. Things can be replaced. People can’t.”

He nodded and wiped a tear from his cheek, then he came over and literally peeled Tully away from me to hug him. His mum took my arm. “We were so worried about you both. We came up when the eye passed over, but then the sirens went off so fast, so we all went back down.”

Tully cry-laughed, wiping his tears. “Well, I got a story about that,” he said. Then his eyes met mine. And if I could read him at all, perhaps his eyes acknowledged that my message on the radar screen had saved his family... “But the story can wait.” He looked around at everyone. “We’re all okay. That’s all we can ask for.” Then he looked at Ellis. “Come on, let’s go take a look at your place before the cops close it off.”

I grabbed Tully’s arm and nodded to Shane, who was still filming the street, and to Lindsey, who was standing there like she was barely held together. “We should ask them where we can take them.”

Tully’s mother noticed Lindsey then and went to her, bringing her over. “Are you okay, dear?”

Lindsey scrubbed a tear from her cheek and recomposed herself, though she was far from her newsreader put-together appearance. She nodded. “Oh, we’re fine,” she said. “Well, I mean, first up Doctor Overton saved us from being struck by lightning, then we sheltered in the bureau office with them and with another family he saved from being struck by lightning, and our van was tipped over, so then they drove us back—” She sucked back a breath and started to cry. “I’m fine.”

Yeah. She was not fine.

Tully’s mother looked at me. Everyone looked at me. “I didn’t save anyone, really,” I said. “I just prevented—”

“Yeah, he did,” Shane interrupted. “Saved those two little kids, one hundred percent. I got it on tape too.”

“Oh good,” Tully said, sourly. “Gonna run it before or after the footage of his mother’s death this time? Which is worth more ratings?”

Oh boy.

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