The Calm Before The Storm

Chapter 3

The Boy:

The boy's eyes locked with mine and we just stared at each other for a long time. I didn't know what to do, his emerald gaze seemed to have me locked in place. Was this stranger going to help us or try to hurt us? That thought ran through my mind over and over again. Finally I made the decision to try and become friends with him. That always seemed to work in the movies anyway. He didn't seem dangerous. But the storm hadn't, at first.

I extended my hand and he shook.
"I'm Mia and this is my brother Jonas. We're from about 2 days south. Are you from here?"
I had so many questions, but for the moment I restrained myself from bombarding this newcomer.

"I'm Will. Yeah, I'm from here. Well what used to be here."
His eyes were filled with sadness. I knew exactly how he felt. Maybe it would be good to have somebody else with us. As if he could read my mind, Jonas spoke up.
"Do you wanna come with us?"
He looked up hopefully at our new... Friend?

Will hesitated for a second before the smile returned to his face and he agreed. Jonas grabbed his hand and dragged Will to where we had slept last night. When we reached the spot, I realised that the water had gone down a fair bit. By the morning it would be gone completely. And so would the car. There went the last thing we had.

It turned out that Will had a pocket knife, so we were able to make a small fire. While we sat around the dancing flames, we shared our stories of the past week. Will had gone through the same things as us at the start. Except his family didn't make it. Instead of heading away, Will came to this hill. He explained that he used to go camping here so he knew it had plenty of food and even a small stream. We continued talking well into the night, until our eyelids began to drop and, one by one, we fell asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~

When I groggily sat up the next morning, the first thing u noticed was that I wasn't being shaken awake by Jonas. I looked over to where he was asleep and had to do a double take. He was gone. Looking at the rest of our campsite I realized that Will was gone as well. Panic filled my heart as crazy scenarios began to play in my head.

This was all my fault. I shouldn't have trusted him. Did he even lose his family? No, there's no way the hurt on his face was fake. I jumped to my feet and shouted out for Jonas. I realized this was the second time in less than a week, that I was calling out for him, hoping against hope that he was still with me.

The bushes behind me rustled and I whipped my head around, expecting Will to jump out and take me too. When Jonas and Will emerged together - laughing - I was shocked. I ran to Jonas and hugged him. I was probably suffocating him again, but the relief that was washing over me has trumped that. I wasn't sure whether to be furious with him or not, but in the end I just decided to be happy that he was alright.

"Don't you ever leave me again!" I practically yelled at the poor kid.
"We were just getting some water from the stream."
"I thought I lost you." Jonas hugged me back as the worry registered in my voice. Behind us, Will shifted uncomfortably. I could see that he thought I was going to yell at him. He really hadn't done anything wrong, so I decided to just let it go - and have frozen songs forever stuck in my head. I really needed to be a bit less paranoid. When he looked up at me I just smiled at him and his face brightened. I hadn't really paid attention until then, but Will was actually quite handsome. He looked about 18, only a year older than me. I mentally scolded myself; I couldn't allow myself to fall for him. He was practically a stranger. And I had Jonas to take care of.

After a moment of awkward silence, I realized that I had been staring at Will the whole time. As my face flushed red, I trudged back to the campsite. The murmurs behind me confirmed my thoughts. Jonas was no doubt telling Will that in a matter of days I would confess my undying love for him. I took a mental note to give him a good whack to the back of the head later.

When we were settled down, eating our breakfast of hot beans, I finally realized that the water had gone all the way down. The scene before me was horrific. The wreckage from the storm was now spread throughout the fields surrounding the city. As I had feared, the car had been swept away. It would be walking from here on out. Will must have been thinking the same things because he looked over at me and spoke to me for the first time that morning.

"Where are guys headed?"
I didn't answer straight away. Without thinking I had driven in the direction of where our parents were. We had travelled 2 days from Sydney. I realized then that I didn't even know where we were now. Brisbane? That would make sense. I was going fairly slow and taking all the back roads.
"Is this Brisbane?" I finally asked. Will simply nodded.
"We need to get to Cairns. That's where our parents are. That far north should be alright from the storm. It shouldn't have made it this far, but there's no way it could make it there."

And that was that. We talked for a bit more before we packed our things and headed down the hill in search of a vehicle. Will seemed to head in a certain direction, as if he knew where to go. At first I just let him lead, seeing as he had the local knowledge, but eventually more curiosity became too much for me and I asked him about it. He admitted that he had a plan. Turns out that Will had been getting his pilot license before the Dark Days - very fitting name I think - started. He was taking us to the airport. If luck was on our side, we would be able to find a plane and fly out of this ghost town.

We stopped at lunch time for a quick break - thanks to Jonas' complaining - before we continued walking. Before long we had made it to the airport. Our hearts sank as the destruction came into view. I had almost given up hope when we finally saw an unharmed plane. It could seat 8 people, had full feud tanks as well as extra tanks, food and Will could fly it easily. It was too good to be true. I hadn't felt lucky recently, but this couldn't be described as anything but pure luck.

We scrambled into small plane. Jonas and Will in the cockpit and myself standing in the aisle just behind them. Will did the pre-flight checks and soon we were ready to go. I was still dumbfounded by how lucky we were.

Together we made the decision to fly until it got dark and then we would find an airport to land in for the night. The trip went fairly fast. All of us were in general of moods and spent the time chatting and joking. For a while it almost felt like nothing had happened. We were all avoiding looking down, afraid of what we would see.

A city finally went past beneath us, as the sky bang to grow dark. I couldn't stop myself from looking. By now I had hope that I would be less affected by the carnage I saw on a daily basis, but if anything it was worse this time. I thought that the storm hadn't made it this far. Signs of the tsunami were everywhere as well. It was horrible.

The airport came into view and the sight shocked me to my core. There were only two destroyed planes. The rest must have been lifted into the air and tossed like rag dolls. They were probably on the other side of the city. My thoughts sent a shiver down my spine as Will circled the airport and began our descent. I braced myself for the hard impact, but it never came. I was pleasantly surprised when there was only a soft thud as the plane landed. Will was an extremely good pilot for an 18 year old.

After a quick dinner - back to cold beans - we settled down on the seats at the back of the plane. Jonas was in the row in front of me and Will was in the row behind. I placed my head in the window and tried to sleep. Just before I drifted into unconsciousness, I heard footsteps and felt someone sit down next to me. I looked over, expecting to see Jonas, but instead Will's emerald green eyes were staring back at me. He gave me a questioning look, as if asking for permission. I shifted my head to rest on his shoulder and drifted off to sleep.