Tribal Trials

Destructive Winds.

The cyclone when it hit was what I'd think of if hell was released on earth. It seemed to last forever. Constant pouring heaving rains and winds so strong and powerful it destroyed the greenhouses and brought trees down, the radio stations were lost after the first day. The television stations lost the same afternoon so we were in the dark but all that was told was a repeating message "all citizens to stay inside and bunker down until the storm passes". It seemed the cyclone had taken an unpredictable turn for the worst and just hours before it hit land it intensified. Upon making landfall on the south side of the coast the mountains were turned into funnels tunnelling the winds against us. Three days we stayed bunked down dreading what we were to find, power was out but we were lucky for the camping stoves and gas cookers we had so we could still cook food and boil water just in case. By the end of the third day when we found that the fierce winds were gone, the pouring thundering rain had lessened off too just normal rain we braved the outside and began looking around the farm.
DESTROYED.
The farm was simply destroyed, the most simple and plain term to describe what we found. The greenhouses were utterly broken twisted and bent in impossible shapes. The small plants we were growing; the corn, sunflowers, passionfruit, flowers and herbs. They were all gone, broken or blown away so there was just nothing left. Looking over at Quel I shared a single look with her, our eyes connecting for a brief moment before she looked away and I turned scanning the damage around me wondering how long we had until the towns used up their food supplies and disorder started. A feeling in my gut was nagging at me; a feeling of dread. Something was building or going to happen, I could feel my anxiety in the back of my mind giving life to wild daydreams of the worst possible situations happening in town; what if we were cut off and isolated? How would the towns survive feeding over ten thousand people with crops damaged and not ready for harvest.

The nagging thoughts however were soon pushed from my mind as work took place trying to figure out what had happened and what damage had been done to the farm. I wasn't going to lie the more we looked the more worried I became inside that we were about to become broke and stressed. the three hours we had spare before work passed by like a blur of climbing, juggling and lifting of broken metal, searching, moving and cataloguing  the damage for all we could find on the destroyed farm. As four o'clock rolled around Quel and I were forced to call it quits as work demanded our attention ringing us up for a full in store meeting and cataloguing of the store. The store meeting was about as useful as just calling us and letting us know what was happening, all the store manger wanted to notify us on was that the big boss would be opening the stores as soon as possible and we were expected to make our assigned shifts. A complete waste of our time Quel and I remarked to each other as we signed on after the meeting getting into the flow of a busy night as the townsfolk flocked to one of the only fast food places in town that had power. By a quarter to eleven we finally were let go, finished with work and the non-stop rush of the afternoon and night. A normally ten minute turned into fifteen minute drive with slower conditions as the wind came back with a bit of a shove. Quel and I reached the house retiring to our bedrooms exhausted for the evening hoping that tomorrow brought a better day for us along with the days to follow.

That night I'd come to realize was the last night I ever doubted my gut again. I'd come to realize that I'd been foolish and naive for the impossible could really become possible if given the right conditions. The destructive winds of the cyclone had hidden a lot more in that storm then simple destruction, the winds had been the perfect alibi for carefully plotted schemes made for the tablelands that crazy daydreaming kids had dreamed up as a joke. I say this because I know now that on that night and that day I should have looked harder and been more observant of my follow townsfolk. Change had been already in the air, we just didn't know that the cyclone and it's winds were the sign for the plan to be put in action. That the following early clear up days brought in reports of roads blocked by fellan trees on the ranges or even in sections covered by land slides. What we however didn't realize until a further two weeks was that not only the main two ranges had been cut off; all the ranges that lead out of the tablelands had intact been washed away and cut off leaving only the western roads and reports of a day ago tell us that the western roads are gone as well. The tablelands was officially cut off.