and Pat had become good friends with his teammates over the years. They’d provided great support to him, but he wanted a clear head for tomorrow.
‘Me too,’ Connor replied.
A sudden gust of wind swirled around Pat as Connor spoke, startling him after the extraordinary stillness of the night. A noise similar to that of a jet engine roared behind them, its sound swallowing the background noise, and the ground shook beneath their feet. Pat looked up but the sky was just as dark as before. He could see nothing untoward but the rumble continued, the ground unsteady, testing their balance. He felt his heart rate accelerate as he turned around, his eyes glued to the mountain, searching for the source of the noise, his gut telling him it wasn’t a plane.
Was it an avalanche? Even though they’d spent hours on avalanche training he’d never heard, or seen, one. They were a rare occurrence in Australia.
His eyes scanned the slopes, glancing over the buildings as he looked towards the tree line. Ironbark Lodge sat highest on the mountain and he could see it silhouetted against the snow, its windows lit up against the night sky. He saw the lights waver and flicker as though candles illuminated the glass instead of electricity. And then the lights disappeared, leaving the lodge in darkness.
Pat looked down the mountain, expecting a complete power outage, but the other buildings remained bright. Movement in the corner of his eye drew his gaze up again.
He blinked.
Ironbark Lodge looked as if it was moving.
He must be more tired than he thought. He shook his head and rubbed one hand across his eyes before opening them again. He must be seeing things.
No. He wasn’t. The lodge was definitely moving.
‘Bloody hell!’ It took him a moment to process what he was looking at and meanwhile Ironbark Lodge continued to move. He watched on in horror and disbelief as the lodge slid down the side of the mountain.
Snowgum Chalet sat directly in its path.
He took off, sprinting along the icy paths, retracing his steps from moments before, running right into the path of the disaster.
‘AMY?’ CHARLI CALLED from the darkness of the bedroom.
She’d fallen asleep quickly with a smile on her lips as she’d thought about having brunch with Patrick but had been woken abruptly by the wind. ‘Amy, are you there? Can you hear that?’
The wind was loud. So loud it sounded like it was rushing through the apartment. At first, she’d thought the noise was the bathroom fan but as it continued to increase in volume she realised it wasn’t coming from the bathroom but was moving closer. It sounded like it was coming for her. She sat up just as a loud explosion split the air and her heart leapt as the unexpected sound shattered the night.
What was that? A gas cylinder exploding? A car backfiring?
The windows of the apartment rattled as she reached for the bedside lamp. The whole bed was shaking and it took her two attempts to find the switch. A backfiring car wouldn’t shake the bed.
But an avalanche might.
‘Amy?’ she called again, louder this time, as she finally turned on the light.
Was Amy home or was she still in the bar? Charli was about to get out of bed to look for her when the lights went out, engulfing her in darkness.
The noise hadn’t stopped, it had only intensified.
It was incredible. It sounded like a freight train, which was impossible as there was no train on the mountain. Her next thought was perhaps it was one of the snow-grooming machines. Had someone lost control? And then, cutting through the noise, she heard screams.
‘Amy?’
She leapt out of bed, stumbling in the darkness.
The noise was deafening now. Windows shattered and she heard glass hit the floor. Timbers were cracking and metal twisted and screeched, hurting her ears. She could hear bricks falling and over it all the noise of the wind and the screams continued.
Instinctively she threw her hands over her head as she took another step forward before her legs gave way beneath her. She didn’t realise that it wasn’t her legs but the floor that had disappeared from under her, and then there was nothing.
No light. No sound and only very slight vibrations. The wind had stopped as suddenly as it had begun and the room was no longer shaking violently, but she still couldn’t see and, much worse, she still couldn’t hear a sound. Even the screams had been silenced.
‘Amy?’
She coughed as she inhaled a mouthful of dust and it stuck on her tongue.
‘Are you there?’
There was only silence. Had Amy come home? Was she there?
Charli had no idea. It was awfully quiet.
Deathly quiet.
The room had stopped shaking and was now resting quietly in the dark. But the sudden silence wasn’t peaceful or calming, it was frightening. What had happened?
The air was frigid. The temperature had dropped and the floor beneath her legs was cold and damp. The bedroom was carpeted but the carpet was now flooded and icy water swirled around her. She could feel it and it chilled her to the bone, but she had no idea where it had come from.
‘Hello. Is anyone there?’ she yelled, choking on the thick dust that seemed to be hanging in the air.
She tried to stand up but smacked her head on something hard before she could fully straighten her knees. She swore out loud and rubbed her forehead above her left eye. A lump was already forming from the collision. She crouched down and reached up with one hand. She felt concrete under her fingers. Was that the ceiling? Why was it so low?
She squatted on the floor as she tried to figure out what had happened. Had the ceiling collapsed? God, she hoped not. Amy’s apartment was on the ground floor of a four-storey building.
What had happened? It was impossible to tell. The darkness made it impossible to get her bearings, impossible to work out what had happened and what was going on.
She reached out carefully, not knowing what she might find.
There was nothing in front of her so she crawled towards the door, or to where she thought the door was. Her hands were immersed in the freezing cold water and her fingers were going numb. She was dressed only in a T-shirt and knickers, clothes that were warm enough to sleep in while the central heating worked, but it offered no protection in her current situation.
She stretched her hands out and shuffled forward on her knees. There was an overpowering smell of diesel fumes and overflowing toilets. She didn’t want to know what she was crawling through.
Something sharp grazed her calf but she pressed on, hands outstretched in front of her.
It
