Chapter 7: Blackout

The ute spun its tyres on the gravel and went.

Noah stood in the car park until the dust settled.

Then he went back upstairs.

"What did he say?" Damian asked.

"Get well soon."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

Damian looked at him like he didn't quite believe it.

Noah didn't give him anything else.

The power went out at six that evening.

The fan slowed down and stopped.

The fridge in the kitchenette shuddered and went quiet.

The whole building went so silent Noah could hear a crow on the roof.

He checked his phone.

The fire had come down the ridge and taken out the lines on the eastern side of town.

No estimate for when it would be back.

By eight it was thirty-eight degrees in room 14 and not moving.

They were both lying on their beds in their shorts, soaked.

"I'm going to die in here," Damian said.

"There's the fire escape."

"I can't get up a fire escape."

"You don't have to go up. There's a landing."

Noah helped him down the corridor, past room 22, to the fire door at the end.

He pushed it open.

Hot air came in, but it was moving air.

There was a metal landing outside, big enough for two people to sit on.

They sat down with their backs against the bricks and their legs hanging through the railing.

The sky to the east was red.

Not sunset red.

A low, dirty red right along the hills, like something was burning under the world.

You could smell it.

"My brothers would be filming this," Damian said.

"Would you?"

"I'd be on the phone to my dad telling him I'm fine."

"Are you?"

Damian turned his head and looked at him.

"I'm sitting on a fire escape with you in the dark," he said. "I'm better than fine."

Noah looked away first.

Damian nudged his knee with his own.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah."

"How did you know? About yourself."

Noah thought about it.