And then a boom thunders through the house, so loud that I hear it clearly over the game. So loud that the walls shake. The spare oxygen canisters for my CPAP rattle and clink together for a few seconds, and then go still.

‘Did you hear that?’ Chets says, as I jump out of my gaming chair, which is hard cos it’s really low, and I’m slightly lacking in core body strength. I dart to the window, forgetting that I’m attached to my console by the headset lead. It jerks me back, 10 and my headset thuds onto the carpet, at the same time as my mum runs back into the room.

Outside my window, the winter sky is the palest grey-blue, quiet and clear without even a bird to break up the view. I can see a way across Straybridge, beyond the shopping mall and the church in the town centre, and across to the other side of town, where a plume of black smoke is billowing into the air.

I fumble my headset back on as my mum gapes open-mouthed at the scene outside. ‘You seeing this, Chets?’

‘If you mean the apocalyptic toxic cloud, then yeah, I’m seeing it.’

‘I’m going to look at the news,’ Mum says, heading downstairs. ‘You stay here.’

I grab my phone and start scrolling through social media. Within thirty seconds I’m seeing the same word over and over again. Explosion.

‘What is happening?’ Chets gasps, probably looking at the same feeds as I am.

I stare at the smoke churning and bubbling in the sky above my town: a town where literally nothing interesting ever happens, and I feel a creeping dread prickling in my chest. 11

‘I don’t know,’ I say. ‘But, to use the words of every great Star Wars hero, I have a really bad feeling about this.’

2

Old Enemy

It only takes a minute for the shocked silence to be replaced by the sound of sirens. I watch from my window as distant blue lights zip down streets towards the smoke, and I’m trying to work out exactly where they’re going. It’s got to be a couple of kilometres away, which means the explosion must have been big for both me and Chets to hear it from our houses.

‘Lance, I’ve got to go,’ Chets says. ‘My mum is having a meltdown.’

‘Yeah, no problem, mate,’ I say, my mind still racing as I try to work out what could have happened. ‘I hope she’s OK. Text you later.’

‘Let me know if you find anything out,’ Chets says. ‘See ya.’

I pull off my headset and scroll through my phone again.

‘Lance! Come downstairs, will you?’ Mum shouts up. ‘Something’s coming on the news.’

13I jog downstairs to the den where Mum is sitting on the sofa with the remote control in her hand.