The City

Chapter 1 :- In The Beginning

Chapter 1.1 In The Beginning

The boom of distant thunder awakened Aiden and he glanced over to the clock to see there was no power. The fact all power was out was confirmed when he tried to turn on the bedside lamp without success. Whispering curses at the winter storm front that the news said was approaching the night before, Aiden got out of his motel bed and decided to try the bedroom light which again didn't respond.

Another profanity escaped his dry lips.

He proceeded for a glass in the bar fridge and with tired steps went to pour himself a some water from the tap. He managed to get a glass of it and drank it quickly but when he tried to get another the pressure dwindled until only drips were coming out.

No power. No water.

"Brilliant," he cursed again, arousing his mate Damon from his slumber.

"What is it?" Damon questioned from his swag laid out on the floor.

They had just got into the city the night before and couldn't afford a two bedroom apartment as Damon had lost his credit card somewhere out bush while they were camping. Being a Sunday, they had to wait until the morning when the banks opened to get any cash. So after they fuelled the car and got supplies, they only could get a one bed apartment, forcing Damon to sleep on the floor.

"No power or water. Can you believe that? One of the biggest cities in Australia, and they can't even keep their services running properly."

Damon turns over and puts his pillow over his head. "Must be the storm. Forget about it. It'll be on again soon."

Aiden pulled back the curtains facing the pool and instead of dark clouds was surprised to see the long red fingers of dawn encroaching into a clear sky. "Don't think so mate. It's clear skies out there. That's weird."

Damon let out an expletive in disbelief and Aiden pulled his shadow away from the window to show him.

"Clear as day out there. Look."

The news was grim the night before, explaining how an unusually heavy storm front was coming through from Antarctica, and telling everyone to expect extreme flood events and lightning that could take out the power.

"What is this? The eye of a cyclone?"

The young men were from up north, and used to cyclonic events. They were aware that in the center of a cyclone the wind died down to nothing and clear skies appeared above, but it was only temporary. The strongest winds were in the eye wall of a cyclone, an encircling sheet of rain and wind that could measure up to twenty kilometres wide, with the gusts up to 240km/hr suddenly hitting from the opposite direction that could straighten trees previously pushed down and surprise people who ventured out into it.

Aiden decided to open the curtain facing out into the carpark to see if there was an eye wall, which would have been unusual, a cyclone this far south. Instead he saw something that made him silently gape in amazement.

"What is it?" Damon said as curiosity got the better of him, coming around to see what Aiden was fussed about.

"Nothing." Aiden said. "Not a cloud in the sky. This is weird."

Damon looked out and saw the clear skies. "I thought you saw something better than nothing! Damn. I am going back to bed."

"I woke up to the sound of thunder. Thats what's so weird."

Aiden went to open the door and was hit by a blast of heat as though late winter had disappeared and it was suddenly the middle of summer. When they had got into the city the night before there was torrential rain and freezing temperatures.