It's Christmas Eve and we have all had a gorgeous diner, my fiancé Stark and I head up to bed. I'm woken after midnight by a loud bang. I get up making sure not to wake Stark I walk over to the window and open the curtains only to see trees and all manner of things flying all over the place. I run back to the bed and shake Stark until he wakes up.
"Stark get up there's a cyclone we have to wake the others." He gets up and pulls on the jeans and shirt he had on last night, I pull on a pair of jeans and top with a jacket over it before packing a bunch of things in a bag and throwing them out into the corridor I run next door into my sister Selene's room, I wake her up and tell her to get dressed. I walk outside and see mom and dad walking down to the basement, Stark comes out of our room and takes my hand trying to pull me down the stairs with him. "No I have to wait for Selene."
"Ok but be careful." He shouts at me over the noise.
"I will." I shout back.
He walks down the hall with my parents and disappears into the basement. Lucy soon comes out of her room with a bag of things I grab my bag and we run down the stairs to the basement. Lucy runs to mum and dad while I run over to Stark. "You ok?" I ask as he pulls me into his lap.
"I'm fine just worried about you and my family."
"They'll be fine they have a basement don't they."
"Yeah." I snuggle into his lap his arms holding me close. We all sit there all night playing games trying to distract Selene from what's going on outside. We listen to the radio waiting for it to pass. I think about what might be going on outside thankful that we had left the house boarded up after the false alarm.
Around seven or eight hours later the noise stops dad stands up and walks up the stairs until we can't see him. A couple of seconds later he comes back down the stairs. "It's safe to come out now the storm has passed over. So we all get up and walk up the stairs. The house is mostly intact but the windows are shattered and things have been blown around. I walk to the front door pulling Stark with me I open the door and look around.
There's nothing but chaos and destruction for as far as the eye can see. "Oh my goddess look at this." I feel Stark wrap his arms around me and pull me away from the door.
"Darling come away from there." I back up and walk over to where my family is cleaning up the mess that was our lounge room. I get the broom from the cupboard under the stairs and start to sweep up the glass. I see Selene sitting next to the Christmas tree and walk over to her. "Hey what's wrong?"
"Everything's gone Zoey everything."
"It'll all be ok I promise you everything will turn out fine in the end."
"Ok."
"Come on let's check what they are saying on the radio." We walk over to where mom dad and Stark are standing around the radio. We all listen closely and soon we hear them talking. Dad turns it up as we listen to the news from around the state.
"and as reports come in of more deaths around Darwin which was last night hit by cyclone Tracy the death toll is looking to be much lower than first thought with 16 people dead at sea the death toll is around 70. Evacuations plans are being made interstate and free flights are being organised so people can spend Christmas with family."
With that dad turns it off and turns to face us. "Ok everyone pack what you can we need to try to get out of here."
"Ok dad." Stark and I run up the stairs into our room. "Stark where are we going to go your family or mine?"
"Why not mine cause you haven't met my family yet."
"ok." We quickly pack what we can before taking it downstairs.
"Buses will be going around in the next few days to pick up people when the airport is rebuilt."
"Ok dad."
"Stark are you coming with us or going to your family."
"Well dad Stark and I were going to go to his families place in Melbourne."
"Ok well be careful darling."
"We will dad."
So we wait around the house for the next day sleeping when we can, around lunch time two days after Tracy hit we hear a horn honking out the front. We grab our cases and run out climbing onto the bus that was brought in to transport people to the airport. We climb in and stand in the isle until we get to the airport where we are herded into the airport terminal and get the tickets. We say our goodbye's and Stark and I walk off to catch our plain.
A few hours later we land in Melbourne getting off the plane we grab our luggage and walk through the terminal. "Come on they're just over there."
"ok." Stark takes my hand and leads me through the crowd towards a small group of people. "Mum, dad this is my fiancé Zoey." After we all say hello we get into the car and drive back to their house. I talk to mum dad and Selene everyday and in the end we all move to a house in Melbourne to be together again.