Читать книгу The One Winter Collection - Rebecca Winters - Страница 32

CHAPTER FOUR

THE SOUND CAME before the fire. Before the embers. Before hell.

It was a thousand freight trains roaring across the mountains, and it was so sudden that they were working separately when it hit. It was a sweeping updraught which felt as if it was sucking all the air from her lungs. It was a mass of burning embers, not small spot fires they could cope with but a mass of burning rain.

Stand and fight... They knew as the rumble built to a roar that no man alive could stay and fight this onslaught.

Julie was fighting to get a last gush of water onto the veranda. A branch had blasted in against the wall and Rob had been dragging it away from the building. She couldn’t see him.

He was somewhere out in the smoke, heading back to her. Please, she pleaded. Please let him be heading back to her.

She had the drill in her head. When the fire hits, take cover in your designated refuge and wait for the front to pass. As soon as the worst has passed, you can emerge to fight for your home, but don’t try and fight as the front hits. Take cover.

Now.

‘Rob...’ Where was he? She was screaming for him but she couldn’t even hear herself above the roar. The heat was blasting in front of the fire, taking the temperature to unbearable levels. She’d have to head for the shelter without him...

Unthinkable!

But suddenly he was with her. Grabbing her, hauling her off the veranda. But, instead of heading towards the bunker, he was hauling her forward, into the heat. ‘Jules, help me.’

‘Help?’ They had to get to the bunker. What else could they do?

‘Jules, there are people next door.’ He was yelling into her ear. ‘There’s a woman—pregnant, a mum. She was trying to back her car out of the driveway and she’s hit a post. Jules, she won’t come with me. We need to make her see sense. Forcibly if need be, and I can’t do it by myself.’

And, like it or not, sensible or not, he had her arm. He was hauling her with him, stumbling across their yard, a yard which seemed so unfamiliar now that it was terrifying.

There were burning embers, burning leaves hitting her face. They shouldn’t be here. They had to seek refuge. But...

‘She’s lost...a kid...’ Rob was struggling to get enough breath to yell over the roar of impending fire. ‘When the car hit, the dog got out. The kid’s four years old, chasing his dog and she can’t find him. I have to...’ But then a blast of heat hit them, so intense he couldn’t keep yelling. He just held onto her and ran.

But she wanted to be safe. She wanted this to be over. Why was Rob dragging her away from the bunker?

A child... Four years old? She tried to take it in but her mind wouldn’t go there.

And then they were past the boundary post, not even visible now, only recognised because she brushed it as they passed. Then onto the gravel of the next-door neighbour’s house. There was a car in the driveway, visible only as they almost ran into it.

She didn’t know the neighbours. This house had been owned by an elderly couple when they’d built theirs. The woman had since died, her husband had left to live with his daughter and the house had stood empty and neglected for almost the entire time they’d lived here.

Last night she’d been surprised to see the lights. She and Rob had both registered that there’d been someone there, but then they’d both been so caught up...

And then her thoughts stopped. Through the wall of smoke, there was a woman. Slight. Shorter than she was.

Very, very pregnant.

Rob reached to grab her and held.

‘I can’t find him.’ The woman was screaming. ‘Help me! Help me!’ The scream pierced even the roar of the fire and it held all the agony in the world. It was a wail of loss and desperation and horror.

‘We will.’ Rob grabbed Julie’s arm, thrust the woman’s hand into hers and clamped his own hand on top. ‘Julie, don’t let go and that’s an order. Consider it a dot-point, the biggest one there is. Julie, Amina; Amina, Julie. Amina, Julie’s taking you to safety. You need to go with her now. Julie, go.’

‘But Danny...’ The woman was still screaming.

‘I’ll find him. Julie, the bunker...’

‘But you have to come, too.’ Julie was screaming as well. Already they were cutting things so close they mightn’t make it. The blackness was now tinged with burning orange, flashes looming out of the blasting heat. Dear God, they had to go—but they had to go together.

But Rob was backing away, yelling back at her over the roar of the fire. ‘Jules, there’s a little boy.’ His voice held a desperation that matched hers. ‘He ran to find his dog. I won’t let this one die. I won’t. Go!’

And his words stopped her screaming. They stopped her even wanting to scream.

She checked for a moment, fought for air, fought for sanity. A wave of wind and heat smashed into her, almost knocking her from her feet. Burning embers were smashing against their clothes.

The woman was wearing a bulky black dress but it didn’t hide her late pregnancy. Another child. Dear God...

And they didn’t have to wait until the fire front hit them; the fire was here now.

‘Jules, go!’ Rob was yelling, pushing.

But still... ‘I can’t...leave you.’

‘Danny...’ The woman’s scream was beyond terror, beyond reason, almost drowning Julie’s, but Rob had heard her.

‘Jules.’ He touched her once, briefly, a hand on her cheek. A touch of reassurance where there was no reassurance to be had. A touch for courage. Then he pushed her again.

‘Keep her and her little one safe. You can do this,’ he said fiercely. ‘But stay safe. I won’t lose...more. I’ll find him,’ he said fiercely. ‘Go!’

* * *

The woman had to be almost dragged to the bunker. Somewhere out there was her son, and Julie could feel her terror, could almost taste it, and it was nearly enough to drown her own fear.

Left on her own she’d be with Rob, no question. Did it matter if she died? Not much. But she was gripping her neighbour’s hand and the woman looked almost to term. Two lives depended on her and Rob had told her what he expected.

And she expected it of herself. That one touch and she knew what she was doing couldn’t be questioned.

But by now it was almost impossible to move. She hardly knew where the bunker was. The world was a swirling blast of madness. Trees loomed from nowhere. She could see nothing. How could she be lost in her own front yard?

She couldn’t. She wouldn’t. She had the woman’s hand in a grip of iron and she kept on going, tugging the woman behind her.

Finally she reached the side of the house. There was no vision left at all now. The last of the light had gone. The world was all heat and smoke and fear.

She touched the house and kept touching as she hauled the woman along behind her. The woman had ceased fighting, but she could feel her heaving sobs. There was nothing she could do about that, though. Her only thought was to get to the rear yard, then keep going without deviation and the bunker would be right there.

But Rob...

Don’t think of Rob.

There was so much smoke. How could they breathe?

And then the bunker was right in front of her groping arm. She’d been here earlier, checked it was clear. She should have left the door open. Now it was all she could do to haul it wide. She had to let Amina go and she was fearful she’d run.

If it was her little boy out there she’d run.

Christopher. Aiden...

Don’t think it. That was the way of madness.

But Amina had obviously made a choice. She was no longer pulling back. Her maternal instincts must be tearing her apart. Her son was in the fire but she had to keep her baby safe. She was trusting in Rob.

Do not think of Rob.

Somehow she managed to haul open the great iron door Rob had built as the entrance to the bunker. The bunker itself was dug into the side of the hill, with reinforced earth on the sides and floor and roof, with one thick door facing the elements and a thinner one inside.

She got the outer door open, shoving the woman inside, fighting to keep out embers.

She slammed it shut behind her and it felt as if she was condemning Rob to death.

Inside the inner door was designed to keep out heat. She couldn’t shut that. No way. The outer door would have to buckle before she’d consider it. One sheet of iron between Rob and safety was more than she could bear; two was unthinkable.

The woman was sobbing, crumpling downward. There were lamps by the door. She flicked one on, took a deep, clean breath of air that hardly had any smoke in it and took stock.

She was safe here. They were safe.

She wasn’t sure what was driving her, what was stopping her crumbling as well, but she knew what she had to do. The drill. Her dot-points. Rob would laugh at her, say she’d be efficient to the point where she organised her own funeral.

He loved her dot-points.

She allowed herself one tiny sob of fear, then swallowed it and knelt beside the woman, putting her arm around the woman’s shoulders.

‘We’re safe,’ she told her, fighting to keep her voice steady. ‘You and your baby are safe. This place is fireproof. Rob’s designed it so we have ventilation. We have air, water, even food if we need. We can stay here until it’s all over.’

‘D...Danny.’

‘Rob is with Danny,’ she said with a certainty she had to assume. But suddenly it wasn’t assumed. Rob had to be with Danny and Rob had to be safe. Anything else was unthinkable.

‘Rob will have him,’ she whispered. ‘My...my husband will keep him safe.’

* * *

‘Danny! Luka!’ Why was he yelling? Nothing could be heard above the roar of the fire. He could see nothing. To stay out here and search for a child in these conditions was like searching in hot, blasting sludge. A child would be swallowed, as he was being swallowed.

He’d asked for the dog’s name. ‘Luka,’ Amina had told him through sobs. ‘A great big golden retriever my husband bought to keep us safe. Danny loves him.’

So now he added Luka to his yelling. But where in this inferno...?

He stopped and made himself think. The boy had followed the dog. Where would the dog go?

Back to the house, surely. He’d escaped from the car. He’d be terrified. If Danny had managed to follow him...

The heat was burning. He’d shoved a wool cap over his head. Now he pulled it right down over his eyes. He couldn’t see anyway and it stopped the pain as embers hit. He had his hands out, blundering his way to the front door.

At least Julie was safe. It was the one thing that kept him sane, but if there was another tragedy out of this day...

He knew, none better, how close to the edge of sanity Julie had been. He knew how tightly she held herself together. How controlled...

He hadn’t been able to get past that control and in the end he’d had to respect it. He’d had to walk away, to preserve them both.

If he died now maybe Julie’s control would grow even deeper. The barriers could become impenetrable—or maybe the barriers would crumble completely.

Either option was unthinkable.

Last night he’d seen a glimmer of what they’d once had. Only a glimmer; the barriers had been up again this morning. But he’d seen underneath. How vulnerable...

He could go to her now. Save himself.

And sit in the bunker while another child died?

He had his own armour, his own barriers, and they were vulnerable, too. Another child’s death...

‘Danny! Luka!’ He was screaming, and his screams were mixing with the fire.

‘Please...’

* * *

Please.

She said it over and over again. She’d found water bottles. She’d given one to Amina, and watched her slump against the back wall, her face expressionless.

Her face looked dead.

Her face would look like that too, Julie thought. Maybe it had looked like that for four years?

She slumped down on the floor beside her. Fought to make her mind work.

What was safety when others weren’t safe? When Rob was out there?

‘Do you think...?’ Amina whispered.

‘I can’t think,’ Julie told her. She took a long gulp of water and realised just how parched she’d been. How much worse for Rob...

‘So...so what do we do?’ Amina whispered.

‘Wait for Rob.’

‘Your husband.’

‘Yes.’ He still was, after all. It was a dead marriage but the legalities still held.

‘My...my husband will be trying to reach us,’ Amina whispered. ‘He’s a fly in, fly out miner. He was flying back in last night. He rang from the airport and told us not to move until he got here. I’m not very good in the car but in the end I couldn’t wait. But then I crashed.’

‘What’s his name?’ She was trying so hard to focus on anything but Rob.

‘Henry,’ Amina said. ‘He’ll come. I know he will. I...I need him.’

You need Rob, Julie thought, but she didn’t say it.

And she didn’t say how much her life depended on Rob pushing through that door.

* * *

Amina’s house had caught fire. Dear God, he could see flames through the blackness. The heat was almost unbearable. No, make that past unbearable.

He had to go. He was doing nothing staying here. He was killing himself in a useless hunt.

But still... His hand had caught the veranda rail. He steadied. One last try...

He hauled himself onto the veranda and gave one last yell.

‘Danny! Luka!’

And a great heavy body shoved itself at his legs, almost pushing him over.

Dog. He couldn’t see him. He could only crouch and hold.

He searched for his collar and found...a hand. A kid, holding the dog.

‘Danny!’ There was nothing of him, a sliver of gasping fear. He couldn’t see. He hauled him into his arms and hugged, steadying for a moment, taking as well as giving comfort. Taking strength.

God, the heat...

‘Mama...’ the little boy whimpered, burying his face in Rob’s chest, not because he trusted him, but to stop the heat.

Rob was holding him with one arm, unbuttoning his wool flannel shirt with the other. Thank God the shirt was oversized. The kid was in shorts and sandals!

He buttoned up again, kid inside, and the kid didn’t move. He was past moving, Rob thought. He could feel his chest heaving as he fought for breath. His own breathing hurt.

He had him. Them. The dog was hard at his side, not going anywhere.

He had to get to the bunker. It was way past a safe time for them to get there but there was nowhere else.

Julie would be at the bunker. If she’d made it.

And he had something to fight for. For Rob, the last four years had passed in a mist of grey. He’d tried to get on with his life, he’d built his career, he’d tried to enjoy life again but, in truth, every sense had seemed dulled. Yet now, when the world around him truly was grey and thick with smoke, every one of his senses was alert, intent, focused.

He would make it to the bunker. He would save this kid.

He would make it back to Julie.

Please...

‘Hold on,’ he managed to yell to the kid, though whether the little boy could hear him over the roar of the flames was impossible to tell. ‘Hold your breath, Danny. We’re going to run.’

* * *

Amina was crying, not sobbing, not hysterical, but tears were running unchecked down her face.

Julie was past crying. She was past feeling. If Rob was safe he’d be here by now. The creek at the bottom of the gully was dry. Even if it had been running it was overhung with dense bush. There was no safe place except here.

She was the last, she thought numbly. Her boys had gone. Now Rob, too?

Last night had been amazing. Last night it had felt as if she was waking up from a nightmare, as if slivers of light were finally breaking through the fog.

She hadn’t deserved the light. She might have known...

‘Your husband...’ Amina managed, and she knew the woman was making a Herculean effort to talk. ‘He’s...great.’

‘I...yeah.’ What to say? There was nothing to say.

‘How long have you been married?’

She had to think. Was she still married? Sort of. Sort of not.

‘Seven years,’ she managed.

‘No kids?’

‘I...no.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Amina whispered, and the dead feeling inside Julie turned into the hard, tight knot she knew so well. The knot that threatened to choke her. The knot that had ended her life.

‘It’s too late, isn’t it?’ Amina whispered. ‘They would have been here by now. It’s too...’

‘I don’t know...’

And then she stopped.

A bang. She was sure...

It was embers crashing against the door. Surely.

She should have closed the inner door. It was the last of her dot-points.

Another bang.

She was up, scrambling to reach the door. But then she paused, forcing herself to be logical. She was trying desperately to think and somehow she managed to make her mind see sense. To open the outer door mid-fire would suck every trace of oxygen from the bunker, even if the fire didn’t blast right in. She couldn’t do that to Amina.

Follow the dot-points. Follow the rules.

The banging must have been flying embers. It must. But if not...

She was already in the outer chamber, hauling the inner door closed behind her, closing herself off from the inner sanctuary. ‘Stay!’ she yelled at Amina and Amina had the sense to obey.

With the inner door closed it was pitch-dark, but she didn’t need to see. She was at the outer door. She could feel the heat.

She hauled up the latch and tugged, then hauled.

The door swung wide with a vicious blast of heat and smoke.

And a body. A great solid body, holding something. Almost falling in.

A huge, furry creature lunging against her legs.

‘Get it...get it sh—’

Rob. He was beyond speech. He was beyond anything. He crumpled to his knees, gasping for air.

She knew what he’d been trying to say. She had to get the door shut. She did it but afterwards she never knew how. It felt as if she herself was being sucked out. She fought with the door, fought with everything she had, and finally the great latch Rob had designed with such foresight fell into place.

But still...the smoke... There was no air. She couldn’t breathe.

It took effort, will, concentration to find the latch on the inner door but somehow she did. She tugged and Amina was on the other side. As soon as the latch lifted she had it open.

‘Danny...’ It was a quavering sob.

‘He’s here,’ Rob managed and then slumped sideways into the inner chamber, giving way to the all-consuming black.

* * *

Rob surfaced to water. Cool, wondrous water, washing his face. Someone was letting water run over him. There was water on his head. The wool cap was nowhere. There was just water.

He shifted a little and tasted it, and heard a sob of relief.

‘Rob...’

‘Julie.’ The word didn’t quite come out, though. His mouth felt thick and swollen. He heard a grunt that must have been him but he couldn’t do better.

‘Let me hold you while you drink.’ And she had him. Her arm was supporting his shoulders, and magically there was a bottle of water at his lips. He drank, gloriously grateful for the water, even more grateful that it was Julie who had him. He could see her by the dim light of the torch lamp. Julie...

‘The...the boy...’ Maybe it came out, maybe it didn’t, but she seemed to understand what he said.

‘Danny’s safe; not even burned. His mother has him. They’re pouring water over Luka’s pads. His pads look like your face. You both look scorched, but okay. It’s okay, Rob.’ Her voice broke. ‘You’ll live. We’ll all live, thanks to you.’