Bat Home Blackout

• Brielle Thompson, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2013

For many years Cuningham’s Gap has been under repair; restoring the rock-strewn hills, and constructing large water pipes to divert the dense flow of water that gushes down the steamy greenery. Travellers would wait up to anywhere from 1 minute to 60, for their chance to drive around the scenic rim in the one narrow lane that was open. Now, nearly 2 years later, the disrupting repairs are complete, and it is once again thoroughly enjoyable to glide around the twists and turns and absorb the mysterious open plains of Cunningham’s Gap.
It is late January and another trip to the Gold Coast awaits my Mum, Nan and I. We are going to Jupiter’s Casino for me to take part in the National Finals of a modelling competition. The excitement that flooded my stomach didn’t compare to the flooded roads that trailed behind us. We were to take the normal route, through Boonah and Beaudesert, but as we continued our journey the chances were looking slim. Semi-trailers rumbled by us frequently which masked our windscreen in what looked like thick white toothpaste. So that meant every 10 minutes reducing our speed that was already a snail pace rate by a further 20km/h.
Thankfully we made it half way and are just poking along at 40km/h around the Gap. I squinted out my window and anything beyond our car was slowly being destructed. The gushes of water that were seamlessly coming down the cliff faces were simply too much for the newly built pipes to handle. Water was rapidly spurting out onto the road and the rain that dominated our windscreen wipers added to the chaos. Wailing in the distance were sirens, which were followed by blurred Police lights. The Gap was closing and all repairs were undone- we had just made the final cut.
We crossed through depths of muddy water and have now passed Aratula and are coming into Beaudesert- the home of bats. Millions of black dots clinging to the trees were swaying frantically as Mum slammed the breaks, and Nan and I jolted forward then back while a tree, 10 metres before us, was blown over by the rallying winds. Our hearts accelerated- it missed the car on the opposite side by no more than a metre. We waited in relief for the car to pass and then carried on for just a second before our car hit a pot hole, and spun wildly into the tree. My vision turned to fuzz and my mind flickered through memories of the past 3 hours. They kept repeating, the same ones, over and over until a sudden blackness.
A couple of minutes later strikes of light attacked my eyes and I woke with pounding thumps in my head. There were more flashing lights, this time from an Ambulance. All 3 of us were alive with only minor injuries.

- Many thanks to all who have assisted with the 2013 floods.