Page 88 of It Was Always You

Lil, please tell me you’re okay. This hurricane is doing a major number on the part of USA where you are. I’m terrified for you.

Lily took a calming breath and hit reply.

All’s fine here, Adders. Not as bad as it sounds on the news.

(This was a lie.)

Don’t think we will get footage we need so prob comin home early xx

No reply came. Lily wondered if her message had even gone. There was a good chance that networks were down locally. She went to the window, pulled back the drapes and gasped, her hands reaching for her face. The scene below was one of utter devastation. In a very short period of time since she had closed the drapes, the palm trees she had been watching earlier were now bent double and staying there. Some looked on the verge of being torn from the ground at any second. Garbage swirled a rhythmless, chaotic dance around the parking lot of the hotel. Several cars were already damaged, and the rain hammered down relentlessly. The wind whirred eerily through the invisible gaps in the windows, creating a creepy whistling sound, and she swore she could see the glass bowing inward. She stepped away, just in case. There was a hammering on her door, and she dashed over to open it.

A young bellhop stood there. ‘Miss Macrae, you must come down to the hotel restaurant immediately, please. We need to clear every floor above ground level.’ His face was pale and his tone urgent.

She nodded nervously, the weight of the situation finally sinking in. ‘Yes, yes, sure. Let me just grab a few of my belongings.’

His eyes widened and he held up his hands to her. ‘Miss, there isn’t time, please.’ But she was already inside the room grabbing her phone and handbag. Everything else would have to wait.

Once on the ground floor, she gave her name and room number to a gaunt-looking woman who wore the hotel’s uniform. Her name badge read:

Sindy Mason, Head Receptionist

Sindy had clearly been given the job of completing a roll call. Lily glanced down as Sindy ticked her name off the list. She noticed that there were still a number of names not marked off. Her heart rate increased.

Walking past the receptionist, Lily was surrounded by people dashing around frantically. The restaurant had been turned into some kind of refugee centre. She felt like she had walked onto the set of a disaster movie. There were people wrapped in blankets, some with injuries.

Many of the male staff were already outside, wrestling with some of the automated shutters on the exterior of the restaurant that had apparently failed. As they struggled to drag the barriers down, Lily spotted some other men bringing huge sheets of what looked to be marine ply for boarding up the windows that they couldn’t protect with the shutters. Some of the male guests were making their way outside to help, too. Lily rushed to the exit and stepped outside just as a large metal object came hurtling towards her. She screamed and jumped back just in the nick of time as the mailbox hit the ground in front of her and twisted into a heap at her feet, gouging a chunk out of the asphalt. Her hair swirled around her as if it had a mind of its own. With her heart pounding, she retreated back inside, feeling shaken after her brush with death.

She watched as the men outside tried hard to keep the boarding in place while dodging debris flying through the air. It all seemed too little, too late as one window blew inward, showering Lily and a group of people with shards of glass. People screamed and ducked down or ran. An older lady cried out in pain and a female member of staff rushed over with a medical box in hand. The poor woman was covered in blood. The wind howled through the open space left by the implosion and people rushed to the aid of those who had been hit, while men outside tried their best to cover the broken window. Each panel of boarding that was fixed in place darkened the already dimly lit room a little more.

Lily’s heart thudded in her chest. It was like a war zone. She remembered being offered a post reporting in Ukraine; she had turned it down, feeling unable to cope with what may have been presented to her there. She felt sure it would have been much worse than the situation she found herself in now and she wasn’t coping well at all. Definitely the right decision to turn it down.

Looking at the fear-filled expressions that surrounded her, something suddenly clicked in her mind, and she rushed into action, making her way over to help an elderly gentleman who was also covered in blood and hobbling away from the large group that had gathered.

She managed to grab some swabs and antiseptic from one of the staff and helped the old man to sit down in a chair at the opposite side of the large room.

A faint scream could be heard coming from outside, and a piece of the boarding at one of the windows was whipped away by the ferocious storm. She rushed to the direction of the noise and caught sight of a crumpled, lifeless body just through the opening. Her stomach lurched. This can’t be happening. It just can’t. It has to be a nightmare. Wake up, Lily… please wake up. She was frozen to the spot but thankfully a man appeared, seemingly from thin air, to tend to the body. It was all too much.

On shaking limbs and with adrenaline coursing through her veins, she made her way back over to the old man and began to clean his wounded arms. Someone grabbed her shoulder from behind and she swung around.

Mack was pale and his face was scratched and grazed. ‘Lily, have you seen Kyle anywhere?’

‘No… no, Mack, I haven’t,’ she stuttered. ‘Some of the men have gone outside to help. What happened to your face?’

‘Got hit by flying glass when my room windows blew in. I’m okay, though.’ He squeezed her shoulder.

‘Oh, no, I can clean it for you if you⁠—’

‘No, it’s fine, honestly. I want to find Kyle.’ He patted her arm and headed out of the door which led into the corridor in search of his friend. She turned back to the elderly gent.

‘Not what you signed up for, huh, honey?’ the man said as Lily dabbed at the cuts on his arm.

‘No… no… not at all. Sorry if I’m hurting you.’ She winced.

‘I’m Abe. And don’t worry, honey, I’m a tough old guy. Fought in my fair share of battles. I was in Vietnam.’

‘Oh, gosh. That must have been tough. I’m Lily, by the way. It’s nice to meet you, although I wish it had been in better circumstances.’ She shook his hand lightly.

‘Hmm, not the best way to spend the holiday, is it?’