No Mercy

• Riley Kemble, Grade 6, Quirindi Public School
• Short Story
• 2014

Excellence Award in the 'Write As Rain 2014' competition

Every television in Australia is screening weather warnings. Families are already evacuating their houses. Children are starting to feel nervous. Those with asthma are already having breathing difficulties. Animals can be seen stampeding through the rugged, dry bushland. Everyone is trying to escape the raging dust storm. The sky darkens as a cloud moves in front of the shining sun. Suddenly, there is a loud bang, as lightning strikes a tree, igniting a huge bushfire. The whole outback is alight. Properties are burning. Animals are dying. People are dying. The trees and grass are black ash. Suddenly, a huge whirlwind of dust starts up. It is covering everything. Just then, a huge burning Eucalyptus tree falls down, landing inside the whirlwind. The whole whirlwind catches alight. All the people stop and stare. Now there is a huge cyclone of raging flames and burnt debris. Houses are getting torn apart. Livestock are being turned to ash. Tsunamis are coming in and flattening coastal towns. Cyclones are destroying cities. Flaming whirlwinds are travelling great distances and massacring the human race. The whole country is smouldering. Then it came! The first drop of rain penetrated the raging fire! The wet season had started.