Chapter 36
CHAPTER
The mobile command centre arrived at the hall in the middle of the afternoon.
Sitting outside the hall on a bench, Ben consumed the latest round of coffee and biscuits pressed on him by Deb.
The air wasn’t exactly fresh; he could smell the smoke with every breath and knew he and his team would be back out there as soon as they’d had a chance to regain their strength.
Until then, he didn’t want to watch the faces of the townspeople he’d come to know during his assignment here.
They were scared and the arrival of the command centre would only add to that fear and leave them wondering if that meant their town was in the path of the fire.
Were they going to lose everything? Ben didn’t know the answer to that, but for himself, he was glad to see the command truck setting up on the side of the road outside the hall.
If there was any news of Justin, this is where it would come.
Not that he was too concerned—Justin knew what he was doing.
But this fire was proving to be a bear and it was always better when he and Justin were fighting the bear side by side.
He heard footsteps approaching from the hall and glanced up.
It was Carol. Her steps were uncertain and she looked terrified.
He didn’t want to talk to her, and would have asked her to leave, but as she came closer, he saw the tears in her eyes.
He hoped that was because of the fire, not at the thought of approaching him.
‘Ben …’ Her voice was hesitant. ‘They told me he hasn’t called in for hours.’
‘He’s fighting a fire. He’s busy. He’ll call in when he can. He knows what he’s doing. He’ll be fine.’
‘You can’t know that.’
She was right. He couldn’t know that but he had to believe it.
Because to disbelieve was to allow the possibility of something he didn’t even want to begin to contemplate.
‘I’ve fought dozens, maybe even hundreds of fires with Justin,’ he said.
‘He good. He’s the best of us by far. And he’s determined.
He won’t come back here until either his men are desperately in need of a break or the fire is out. ’
‘Your men came back.’
‘He drives his harder than most. And they do it, because he’s Justin. But he’d never push too hard or put them at risk. He’ll be here soon. Or if not here, we’ll get word that he’s at one of the other bases.’
She stood there, looking down at the ground, not meeting his eyes. Ben found that far more disturbing than thinking about his brother.
‘Sit down. You won’t do Justin or anyone else any good getting yourself wound up.’ He didn’t say that she looked as if she’d fall if she didn’t sit. She looked so fragile. In all his life, he’d never once thought of his mother as vulnerable, far less fragile.
She cared. He hadn’t really accepted that before.
Part of him was still the angry teenager who’d walked out a week before his seventeenth birthday.
Eight days before the birthday he’d never celebrated.
As he looked at the lines in his mother’s face and thought about his brother, fighting the beast out there somewhere, some things suddenly didn’t seem as important.
Ben looked down at his phone and swiped for a refresh. He nodded when he saw the latest updates.
‘They’re bringing in the planes. That will help.’
‘Planes?’
‘Water-bombing planes.’ He read on and heaved a sigh. ‘They say the weather’s changing. The wind will swing around later today. It might even rain.’
‘Thank God.’
‘It would need to be some decent rain, though. A shower is not going to do it.’
They turned their eyes upwards. Smoke cast a pall over everything, but whenever a gust of wind caused the smoke to clear, even for a few seconds, the mid-afternoon sky was cold, hard blue, with not even a hint of cloud.
They sat in silence, each locked in their own thoughts.
Ben cast a sideways glance at Carol. Her hands were clasped in her lap.
They were the hands of a woman no longer young.
A woman who had known and still did know hard work.
Her nails were chipped and uneven, the dry skin crisscrossed with healing scratches, no doubt from when she was pulling young branches off trees to feed the injured animals she nursed.
Or maybe from the animals themselves; even young koalas had long claws.
He tried to remember what her hands had been like when she was younger.
When he and Justin had been children. But he could not remember them any different.
Nor could he remember her wearing pretty clothes or makeup.
In his mind, her hair had always been unkempt and her brow always furrowed with concern.
He had a few memories of her face wreathed in a smile and the sound of her laughter, but very few.
She hadn’t been that kind of parent. She had always been distant, and Ben had always sought out his twin rather than his mother.
Justin had always had time for him. His mother hadn’t.
But as he sat, he wondered for the first time if that distance had been related to the work-worn hands and the ragged hair. Maybe there was a reason she had so seldom laughed. A reason she had lied to him for all those years. If he asked her, what would she say?
The actual thought of asking her should have horrified him, but for some reason it didn’t.
Maybe it was time. Justin had said it was time to move on.
His brother was right about so many things, perhaps he was right about this as well.
Justin should be there for this conversation.
When he was back with them and this emergency had passed.
He heard a startled gasp and looked towards the hall. Anna was standing there, staring at her phone. Her face was white, making the scar stand out even more. She was shaking her head.
‘Anna? What’s wrong?’
***
Anna barely heard the voice. Her eyes were glued to the news alert on her phone.
A burnt-out fire truck had been found on a dirt road halfway up a blackened ridge. A news helicopter crew had seen it and flown a low pass over the vehicle. They’d seen no movement nearby and no sign of the fire crew.
The picture on the phone screen showed a barely recognisable hulk of burnt vehicle completely surrounded by charred earth. A tree had fallen on the truck, crushing part of the cab. A vice squeezed her heart and she could hardly breathe.
‘Anna?’
The voice that was so like Justin’s but totally unlike him caused her to look up.
‘Ben. Carol …’ She could barely speak. How could she tell them?
She didn’t have to. Ben stepped to her side and took the phone from her hand.
He read the screen, scrolling through the words, then stopping to study the picture.
His face told her everything she needed to know.
His eyes were pools of fear as he handed the phone back and ran to the command centre.
He took the stairs in two huge steps and vanished inside.
‘What’s wrong?’ Carol appeared at her side. ‘Is it Justin? What’s wrong?’
In a few words, Anna told her, then they followed Ben to the control centre.
He met them at the bottom of the truck stairs. ‘I know where it is. They’ve told me there’s no way to get there. There’s a band of fire between here and there.’
Anna heard the agony in his voice. ‘But we can’t just—’
‘Trying to get there would just put my crew in danger. I can’t do that.’ His face was set in a determined grimace. ‘So I’m going alone.’
‘No, you’re not,’ Anna said. ‘I’m coming with you.’
‘So am I,’ Carol added.
‘No. I won’t put you in that sort of danger either. If anything happened, Justin would never forgive …’ His voice trailed off.
Anna knew what he was thinking. Justin would never forgive him—but only if Justin was still alive.
‘I will not be left behind,’ Carol said firmly.
‘If we don’t go with you, we’ll simply follow you,’ Anna said. She grabbed Ben by the arm. ‘We need to go. Now.’
He didn’t argue and moments later the three of them were speeding out of town in Ben’s RFS ute.
Anna stared out the window as the landscape around them changed from the subdued greens and strong browns of summer grass to blackened and charred, burnt-out pastures.
Ben held his phone out to her. ‘Take this.’
She took it and looked at the screen.
‘It’s the RFS app,’ he told her. ‘If there’s any news, it’ll be there. Keep an eye on it.’
She was also keeping a close eye on the new alerts on her phone, willing it to beep.
Willing it to bring news. Good news. She was very aware of Carol in the seat behind her.
The twins’ mother hadn’t spoken a word since they had started this journey.
Anna could only guess at how she must feel.
If she lost her son just as they were beginning to make a reconciliation …
Anna spotted flashing lights ahead. A police vehicle was parked at the side of the road. As they approached, the officer flagged them down.
Ben pulled over and leaned out the window. ‘Is the road passable?’
The officer shook his head. ‘I’ve been told to keep this closed. They’ve found an RFS truck and—’ He looked at the two women in the vehicle, neither of whom were wearing RFS uniforms.
‘I need to get to them,’ Ben said firmly.
‘Okay.’ The officer didn’t look happy, but Anna exhaled a small sigh when he stepped back.
Ben didn’t waste any more time; he put the car in gear and roared off down the road.
Within a couple of kilometres, the acrid smell of burnt bush was replaced by smoke, which thickened with every minute of their journey.
Anna saw the occasional fire victim as they drove.
Animals, sometimes too burnt to recognise.
She heard the sharp intake of breath as Carol saw them too.
Under normal circumstances, neither of them would drive past without checking if the creature could be saved or put out of its pain.
But this time, neither of them flinched. Their mission was more important.
‘We’re getting close to a hot spot,’ Ben told them, although the words weren’t necessary.
The news app on Anna’s phone pinged and she swiped fearfully.
‘What?’ Carol leaned forward and grabbed the back of her seat. ‘What does it say?’
‘They’re saying a storm system is moving in. There will be rain before morning.’
They continued on in silence, Anna hoping desperately that the good news hadn’t come too late.