The smoke was getting thicker, and flames at the side of the road more frequent. The tension in Carol’s body was becoming unbearable and she wanted to scream. She clasped her shaking hands together and tried to breathe deeply and calmly. Her panic wouldn’t help anyone.
‘There’s no updates,’ Anna said as she swiped both her phone and Ben’s.
‘These guys might know something.’ Ben pointed through the windscreen.
Ahead of them, through the smoke, Carol could see firefighters clustered around a truck. Her heart leaped as they pulled up next to the group, but a quick glance told her Justin wasn’t there. She sank back into her seat, unable to move. As long as she stayed here, those men couldn’t speak to her. Couldn’t speak the words she dreaded. As long as she didn’t move, hope stayed alive.
Ben and Anna got out. Carol heard her son greet the firefighters but the conversation was too soft for her to hear, so she watched Ben’s face as he nodded in answer to their words. She knew then that there was no news. And no news was good news. Wasn’t it?
Ben continued talking to them for a couple of minutes more, then one pointed towards the ridge that rose to their left. Carol followed the man’s pointing arm. The ridge was black and charred, but there was little actual flame. The bushfire had done its worst and passed on, leaving blackened devastation in its wake. Carol heard Ben thank the man as he and Anna returned to the car.
‘They said there’s been television helicopters the other side of the ridge line,’ Ben said. ‘There’s a track we can follow to get up there.’
Without another word, he started the engine and pulled away. He drove back the way they had come and Carol wanted to shout at him that they were going the wrong way, Justin needed them and they were leaving him. But after a few minutes, a gravel road appeared on their left and Ben turned onto it. The road began to climb almost instantly. It was littered with burnt and still burning detritus of the fire. At one point, a tree had fallen across the road, but Ben didn’t even hesitate. The big four-wheel drive easily coped with turning off the road onto the ravaged ground as he drove around it.
Carol heard a faint sound—the distant thud of an engine. She wound down the window and, ignoring the blast of smoky, acrid air, searched for the source of the sound.
‘There!’ A helicopter was rising into the sky off to their left. Carol could clearly see the distinctive red and yellow branding and the big white W that marked the rescue chopper. The craft rose slowly into the air, turned and headed east, the engine noise rising as it passed almost over the top of their car.
‘It came from over there.’ Carol tapped Ben on the shoulder and pointed.
When another dirt track appeared, Ben reefed on the steering wheel. The car slid on the loose gravel, but he kept it under control and their speed rose as they hurtled towards the top of the ridge.
‘Look out!’ Anna cried as they crested the rise.
Carol grasped the back of the seat in front of her as Ben hit the brakes and the car slid to a halt close to a group of men clustered around an RFS vehicle. The firefighters’ air tanks and masks, black with soot and grime, lay where they’d been dropped on the ground after the fire had passed.
She threw herself out of the car. This was Justin’s crew. She’d already spotted a couple of men she’d seen leave with Justin yesterday. She looked frantically around as faces turned towards them. There were a couple of other familiar faces, but not the one she needed so much to see.
‘Carol, he’s not here.’
Anna was beside her. Carol was about to burst into tears until she looked at the younger woman’s face. She, too, was devastated not to see Justin. It looked as if she was as close to falling apart as Carol was. Carol reached out and curled her fingers around Anna’s, seeking and receiving comfort.
***
The feel of Carol’s fingers closing around hers was a lifeline of sorts and Anna squeezed Carol’s hand as they followed Ben to where the group of men were standing.
‘Hi, Ben. Anna,’ Rick greeted them. His face was black with soot and grime, but his expression was darker. He no longer looked like a teenager. He seemed suddenly very old.
‘Justin?’ It might have been Ben’s or Carol’s place to ask, but Anna couldn’t wait.
‘He’s hurt. He and Dave Morrison are on the chopper that just left.’
‘How bad?’ Ben’s voice was taut, hinting at the level of self-control he maintained.
‘I don’t know. He had burns. They didn’t seem too bad. Dave—’ Rick’s voice broke and for a moment, he seemed unable to continue. ‘Both of them were unconscious when they left.’
‘What happened?’ Ben asked.
Wordlessly, the firefighter pointed to a dark shape further down the road. One glance told Anna everything she needed to know. A tree was lying across the cab of the truck. It had crashed through the cabin and was still smoking. All around it, the ground was black and charred. As the fire passed over them, most of the firefighters must have found shelter nearby, maybe in the narrow gully that ran beside the road, but there hadn’t been room for them all.
‘Which hospital?’ All Anna wanted was to get to Justin.
‘John Hunter.’
‘Come on, let’s go.’ Anna turned, but Ben put his hand on her arm. ‘We have to help here first.’
She spun back to argue with him, and as she did, she really looked at the men around her. Justin was not the only one who had been hurt. A couple of the men had minor injuries that may have been checked by the air ambulance, but not treated. They needed to get out of here to somewhere safe, where they could be looked after. The RFS vehicle parked nearby might have found them, but could not transport them all. And their own vehicle was useless.
