Page 172 of The Storm Boys Series Collection

“Dad, stop,” Ellis said, grabbing his father’s arm. “Don’t.” He shook his head and sighed. “There are gas lines, and that wall doesn’t look stable.” He looked at what used to be his house. “All my photos are in the cloud. My hard drive is backed up; all my work files are saved. I’m wearing the watch you guys bought me.” He shook his head and shrugged. “What’s left is just... stuff. It’s just replaceable stuff.” He held up the clock and gave me a sad smile. “Except this.”

Tully put his arm around me. He rested his forehead on my shoulder, exhausted. I knew exactly how he felt.

“I don’t know where I’ll go,” Ellis mumbled.

“You can live with us,” Tully replied quickly.

Us?

It took me a moment to realise that Tully included me. Sure, I lived there. But up until now it had felt like I was onlystayingthere. As if it were a temporary arrangement.

Tully squeezed my hand. “Is that okay?”

Okay?

“Of course it’s okay. It’s your house. Why are you asking me?”

“Because you live there too.”

“Yeah, but it’s not my house.”

Tully sighed and, ignoring that comment but still holding my hand, looked at Ellis. “You can stay with us. For as long as you need.”

The fire truck came down toward us and one guy got out. “Hey, folks,” he said. “Everyone okay here?”

“Uh, yeah,” Ellis replied. “This is my house... Or was... I wasn’t here when it struck.”

“Do you know if any of your neighbours were home?”

He told them about the Lims and how he’d thought the people across the road were staying, but the Lims had said no, the Wards had left yesterday. The fireman said they’d go check anyway but warned that none of the street was safe and we’d be required to move along.

“Excuse me,” I said. “Have you any updates on the power outage? Or the internet?”

He gave me an odd look, so I clarified. “I work at the Bureau of Meteorology and our power was cut. All my systems are down. I lost all comms. I’ll need to relay some data to Arnhem Land—”

He stared at me. “You work at the... Was it you who did that message?”

Oh.

Tully snorted and clapped my back. “Yes, it was him.”

The officer took two giant strides toward me and collected my hand, shaking it somewhat violently. “Well, I’ll be damned,” he said, grinning. Then he called out toward the truck. “Jimmy, it’s the weather station guy!”

Another fireman, who was at the house across the street, came over. He was maybe fifty, fit, and rather good-looking. “What’s up?” he said.

“The guy who put the message on the weather radar about the eye of the storm,” the first officer said, gesturing to me. “This is him.”

Jimmy’s chiselled face grinned. “Ah, the blue-eyed weather guy from the news. It was you?”

I heard Tully grumble beside me, but then he inhaled deeply, which I knew meant he had every intent to unload a mouthful. I tugged on his hand to let him know I had this one.

“Yes, my eyes are blue,” I said with a sigh, because that was the detail they took away from all of this.

I shouldn’t ever dare to not be surprised. Or disappointed.

“In othermore importantnews, do you have any updates on the power and internet outage?” I asked flatly. “I’d like to get my system up and running as fast as possible. The building’s intact, but I have no satellites or antennas. I’m sure you can understand the urgency. Flood warnings will remain in place, and I have no access to data or alerts to the east of us, where Hazer is right now.”

He straightened up. “The main lines are down. There’s optic fibre cable damage on the cable line that comes into Darwin. I believe they’re working on it. Could be days for all we know.” He glanced back at the truck and his colleague. “We don’t even have radio. Even the CB towers are down. They’re working on satellite comms but most of the dishes were destroyed, so guessing a timeframe is sketchy at best.”

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