The possum flung himself off me, obviously wanting to escape the noise, but the wombat? He just wanted to escape.
And right as I went to stop him, the method to his madness became apparent.
The door rattled on its hinges, the latch as well, and the force he was using was enough to pop the lock, leaving me to watch the door swing open.
“Nugget!” I shouted, lunging forward, but the beast was trundling off seconds later and outside the door.
It was as if the wombat was a major at the head of his forces. Joeys and magpies and echidnas came scurrying forward,forcing me to intercept by throwing myself outside and shutting the door behind me.
“Nugget!”
The wombat paused for a second, then looked over his shoulder, before making a beeline for the track that led away from the farm. If he walked for long enough, he’d come to the forest.
Charlie had given me one job: to protect the rescue, and I hadn’t even managed to do that. My eyes found the place where he disappeared under the fence, then went running towards the trees and then I had the car keys in my hand. Leaping into the 4WD, I turned the engine over, then pushed the car forward, intent on going after him.
Chapter 23
Mackenzie
He couldn’t be this far out.
“Nugget…!” I called out as I bumped down a dirt track. “Nugget!” Shaking my head, I put my foot on the brake and then sat back in the seat. “Where the hell are…?”
The far off sound of a scream was what silenced me. At least, I think it was. My Mimi used to tell me to always ignore the sounds that came from the darkness once night fell, but this… I couldn’t seem to follow her advice or anyone else’s as I put the car in gear.
Trees whizzed past as I drove further on, but the reassuring silver trunks quickly changed. The smoke got thicker, and I started coughing again, right before I saw this. Blackened branches clawing at the sky, as if caught in their death throes. Leaf litter turned from beige and greyish green to black ash, and that wasn’t the worst of it. That scream, it got louder, and that was enough to have me stopping the car. Ash flew up in a cloud as soon as my feet hit the ground, filling the air with soot with every step I took.
“No…” I barely whispered that as I stalked forward. There was no chance of an animal hiding in the bush now. Fire had stripped everyone and everything of their defences.
Including this poor little guy.
“No.” I dropped down to my knees, not caring about the heat of the ash, because the faint sting of embers burning through my jeans was better than the sight before me. Curled up in a defensive ball was a koala, his fur singed, some patches of skin red raw. “No.” I shook my head, unwilling to accept what everyone had been telling me. “No, no, no…”
That was the moment when his eyes cracked open slightly and because he was scared of me or because I was bearing witness to his pain, his raucous shout cut through the forest air. My lungs seized in my chest, unable to expand or contract as I started forward.
Carrier.The thought was like bone dry tinder, burned up by the agony in my chest, but that wasn’t right.Water.My hands shook as I instinctively reached for the koala, right before I stopped myself and then yanked the shirt I was wearing over a camisole off. Draping it around the creature, it didn’t stop crying out, and that got me running. Feet sliding through the ashes, I landed heavily against the side of the car, then yanked the door open. One of the collapsible soft carriers was in my hand seconds later, then I headed back.
“I’ll get you help…” I stammered out. “The vet…” But my hands shook as I reached out. “How do I pick you up without hurting you?”
Or me. Charlie had warned me that koalas could strike back and with force if hurt or scared, but there was no self-preservation left in me.Get the koala into the carrier and?—
“Mackenzie?” My name crackled down the radio, breaking me out of the spell I was under. “Mackenzie, where the hell are you?”
“Charlie?” I asked, then realised I hadn’t pressed my finger down. “I’m in the forest…” Looking around wildly, I searched for some kind of landmark to orientate myself. “Charlie, there’s a koala that’s burned?—”
“This isn’t what we talked about.” She sounded pissed, but a sigh quickly followed. “You’re in the 4WD?”
“I took it to go after Nugget,” I babbled out. “He broke out.”
“Popped the door, did he?” she said, her voice terribly flat.
“Yep, then I heard a scream…”
Looking around me, I realised that wasn’t something only the koala was doing. As my voice fell away, there’s became easy to perceive. Screams of agony came from deeper into the forest, tempting me forward, but my feet remained where they were.
“Stay where you are,” Charlie said. “I’ll find you.”
“Looks like it’s just me and you for the moment,” I told the koala after grabbing some water and a tray. Holding it out, the animal sniffed it vaguely, and I hated the way his head wavered on his neck. That first lick of water, it helped settle something inside me, right up until I heard the roar of the trail bike. Charlie’s footsteps echoed through the trees as she strode over, then came to a stop.
