by Nasia Alevizos, and Nik Crombie

Rutherford's a typical small town, located somewhere in New Zealand. The folk are friendly, the apple pie's great, and there's at least one big employer keeping people in work. Which is good, because people mostly drive through Rutherford on the way to somewhere more interesting. Of course, there was the murder, but the kid was an accident waiting to happen. Then there was the massive shipment of drugs that was intercepted by the police last week. And sure, some families have been feuding forever, but that’s just what happens in small towns, right? OK, and there’s a lot of new folk in the area, and they speak strangely, and they won’t say what they’re looking for. So maybe this town isn’t that quiet. Perhaps a dark heart beats underneath its placid surface. Perhaps.

Now a storm has blown in without warning. Rain swells the river, and the river eats away at the edges of the town. Wind rips the roofs off houses and pulls trees out of the ground as if it, too, is desperately seeking something. The small civil defence team has started rounding people up and directing them to the local high school, which has been deemed the safest place to spend the night while the storm rages. People have come up from the river and down from the hills – and that’s a dangerous combination, especially in a small space with nowhere else to go...