Chapter 17
CHAPTER
‘Justin. Look. There’s a fire.’
Justin took his eyes off the beam of light on the road ahead of them and glanced towards the ridge to his right. It was only the faintest glow, but even in the few seconds he looked at it, the light became stronger.
‘You’re right.’ How could he have missed it?
They had been driving home in companionable silence, each lost in their own thoughts.
His mind was engrossed with his evening with Anna.
His heart had been touched by the story of her bravery and her pain.
His lips remembered the soft skin of her cheek.
Soft skin, but rough and uneven where the scar cut through it.
Part of his soul cringed every time he thought of what had happened to her, while part of his heart warmed at the way she had so willingly shared it with him.
Trusted him with something that was so very personal to her.
The date had not gone as planned, but it was not the disaster some might consider it.
The evening had been wonderful and touching in ways he could never have imagined.
‘Justin!’
Anna’s voice called him back again. Much as he wanted to explore this wonderful place where Anna was by his side, exchanging thoughts and feelings, he had to be a firefighter now.
‘Is there a road up there? Do you know?’
‘Yes. I have a client I visit near there.’
‘Can you direct me? I need to get closer.’
‘Sure. Ignore the next right. It doesn’t go that way. But the one after that will take you in the right direction.’
Justin increased his speed. They passed a turn-off and kept going.
‘It’s just ahead,’ Anna directed.
He braked to take the turn safely. The road was bitumen, but barely wide enough for one vehicle.
Justin kept his speed as high as he safely could.
The glow ahead of them was becoming brighter.
He hoped it was because they were getting nearer, but feared it was really because the fire was expanding and taking hold in the tinder dry undergrowth.
‘I have to call this in,’ he told Anna as he touched the phone connection on his car console. ‘Call RFS HQ.’
There was a ringing tone over the car’s speakers, then, ‘Rural Fire Service, how can I help you?’ The phone was monitored twenty-four hours a day at this time of the year. And by a person, not an automated system.
Justin identified himself as an RFS officer. ‘I’m approaching a fire south-west of Scone. It’s north of Wagtail Ridge.’
‘We are on Castlerock Road, if that helps,’ Anna added.
Justin passed on that location. ‘It’s probably five K ahead of me right now.’
‘I have no reports on that yet,’ the voice on the phone said.
‘I’m about five minutes out. I’ll get back to you.’ Justin ended the call and concentrated on the road, which forked a short distance ahead. Castlerock Road curved to the left and a dirt road swung to the right.
‘Do you know where that goes?’
‘No.’
He hesitated then decided. ‘I’m going to try it.’
He braked and then swung the vehicle onto the dirt track. It was rough, but he stayed on it. After a couple of minutes, they crested a hill and Justin slammed on his brakes. The car slid to a stop.
Ahead of them, the road disappeared into a cloud of thick smoke.
Flames spread on either side, the wind pushing the fire towards them.
A tree burst into flames, sending a fierce shaft of light through the darkness.
Justin flinched, then put the car in reverse and backed further away from the fire front. He hit dial on his phone again.
After reporting his GPS position and giving more details about the fire, Justin hung up and turned the car around.
‘I’m sorry about this, Anna. You take the car and head home. I’ll be fine here. I’ll join one of the crews when they get here.’
‘What? No.’
‘I’m sorry. Nothing about this evening has gone the way I’d hoped. But I can’t take you home. I have to stay here.’
‘Do you really think that’s what I meant? I know you have to stay, but I’m not leaving you here on foot in front of a bushfire.’
‘It’ll be safer for you to get out of here.’
‘And it would have been safer for me not to go near that injured bull. Now, how can I help?’
Justin hesitated, but only for a second. ‘There’s some gear in the back of the car. Come on.’
There was only one fireproof jacket in the back and Justin insisted that Anna take it.
They each took shovels and protective gloves.
Justin soaked a couple of bandanas with water from one of the bottles he always carried, and showed Anna how to tie it over her mouth.
Then he placed his helmet on her head, nodding in encouragement.
‘Come with me. And don’t get more than a metre away from me at any time. Got it?’
‘Got it.’ Her voice was muffled through her mask.
They took up positions on either side of the narrow track, just ahead of the moving flames.
The soil was dry and powdery, and Justin dug his shovel in and tossed a load onto the front of the flames.
They instantly died back. He glanced at Anna, who nodded her understanding and dug her shovel into the soil to mimic his actions.
He swung the shovel again. There wasn’t a lot of wind, but it was enough to keep the fire moving.
The two of them couldn’t hold it back, no matter how hard they swung those shovels. Help needed to arrive soon.
***
Ben could see the fire in the distance. He was driving the Wagtail Ridge truck and was a few minutes ahead of the other trucks that were coming from Scone.
He was driving hard, his foot heavy on the pedal.
His twin brother was out there somewhere.
Alone. That was not good. Fighting fires was a team effort and a man on his own could get hurt. Or worse.
He flexed his fingers and convinced himself that Justin would be fine. After all, he was the sensible one. He was something of a legend among the firefighters too. To hear them talk, Justin should be able to get this little event under control all on his own. It wasn’t a very big fire. Yet.
As the road became rougher, he was forced to slow down, then he crested a ridge and braked.
Justin’s car was parked on the side of the road, leaving room for the fire trucks to move through.
How like his brother. Ben drove past the car and pulled up where he needed to be, as close to the fire as was safe. He flung himself out of the car.
‘Justin!’ There was no answer.
Ben flicked on the radio attached to his jacket and tried again. ‘Justin.’
There was no answer. Of course not. Justin had been out somewhere. He wouldn’t have a radio with him.
‘Justin!’ His yell seemed like a whisper against the sounds of the fire.
‘Here.’
The voice did not come from his radio.
Ben’s pent-up breath exploded in a sigh of relief. He watched his brother emerging from the smoke ahead, silhouetted against the glow of the fire. Justin was not wearing the protective gear that he kept with him at all times.
‘The Scone team is a few minutes out.’ Ben stopped talking as he realised Justin was not alone.
The person with Justin was smaller, and almost drowned by the large protective jacket with the name Turner clearly visible on the front.
Ben had no idea who was hidden beneath the helmet.
All he could see was a bit of blonde hair and a lot of sweat and dirt from wielding a shovel.
Then she pulled down the mask and the first thing he saw was the scar.
‘Anna?’
‘Hi, Ben.’ She was breathing heavily from a combination of smoke and exertion.
Before they could say anything else, the beam of approaching headlights split the darkness. The Scone fire truck pulled up next to them.
‘You can drive in about forty metres. It’s not as bad as I first thought. Get the hoses on it and you should have it,’ Justin told them.
The driver nodded and drove forward.
‘Righto.’ Ben swung himself back into his truck. ‘You two take a break. We’ve got it.’
‘Be safe.’
As the truck moved forward, Ben saw his brother and Anna exchange a few quick words. Then they hefted their shovels over their shoulders and followed. Ben shrugged. His brother was a firefighter before all other things. As for Anna …
The truck had stopped near the flames and Ben could see shadowy shapes running hoses from the water tank on the back.
In a matter of minutes, water was pouring onto the worst of the flames and they died back.
Ben felt a change in the wind and nodded.
This would be under control before the night was out.
Anna appeared at his side and pulled down her mask. ‘I need a pair of pliers. Quickly.’
Instinctively, Ben turned to the tool kit on the side of the truck. It took just a few seconds to unlock it and find the pliers. He hesitated. She was, after all, a civilian. He couldn’t have her doing the wrong thing. ‘What needs doing?’
‘I have to cut through a fence.’ She pulled the pliers from his grasp before he could respond.
‘Wait. Let me see—’ She was gone.
He followed her into the swirling smoke.
Lost sight of her, then spotted her. She was ahead of a slow-moving line of fire, climbing through a fence.
Briefly, amid the swirling smoke and the flicker of flame in the darkness, she seemed different.
Older. Heavier. The protective jacket had been replaced by an old sweatshirt and she ran towards the fire clutching not a pair of pliers, but a blanket. Mum!
The child’s voice in his head faltered as a flash of light showed him Anna, bending over a wire fence, pliers in her hand.
A cluster of sheep had been trapped in a corner of a paddock by the approaching flames.
Desperate to escape, they were pushing against the barbed wire as Anna tried to cut through it.
Ben caught his breath. Anna could be trapped there too, by the panicking animals or caught up in the wire.
He moved in her direction. Before he could reach her, Anna turned her attention to the fence.
She cut through the lowest wire first. Then the next and the next.
A couple of the sheep had already pushed through under the top wire and the whole group was trying to follow.
Anna was in danger of being knocked over by their relentless pressure.
She cut through the top wire and stepped through the gap.
The animals dashed through behind her and kept running across the paddock to safety.
‘Get out of there!’ Ben yelled.
Instead, she bent to lift the strands of wire off the ground and bend them back, weaving them through the fence wire and out of the way of passing animals. Ben wanted to shake her until her teeth rattled.
Finally and, it seemed to him, without any real haste, she slipped back through the fence.
‘Thanks.’ She held the pliers out for him.
‘You idiot!’ He snatched the pliers from her hand. ‘You could have been trapped there. You don’t ever leave yourself with no way out.’
‘Those animals were trapped. They were going to burn if I didn’t get them out.’
Ben became aware of Justin stepping between them. He turned his fury on his brother.
‘And you. You should know better than to let an untrained civilian wander around a fire.’
‘Calm down, Ben. She’s fine.’
‘No, Justin, she’s not. She’s exactly the same as our mother. Never thinking of what her actions might mean to those around her. To her family. To those who love her.’
Ben’s voice broke on the last words, and he turned away.