Firestorm (10 page)

“It’s really
moving, man. Still a ways back but it’s huge and it’s headed this
way.”

A second later,
Ali handed Brad a backpack and tossed the other one over his own
shoulder.

“Come on, let’s
grab this stretcher and get moving. Us guys will carry the
backpacks, and if you two are still okay with taking a corner to
carry this stretcher, we’ll be able to trek faster and get out of
here.”

We all agreed
and just as we were about to lift it, Brad looked at Don and
motioned for us to wait while he unrolled his rope.

“Just to make
sure he doesn’t go anywhere again, I’m going to keep this as a
harness on him.”

But Don didn’t
want the rope around him and began to slap at Brad’s hands.

“Hey, what are
doing? You can’t take me. I’m not your prisoner. We get rescued, we
don’t get taken. Let go of me.”

Brad gently
rubbed Don’s arms.

“Don, it’s
okay. You’re not a prisoner. We just don’t want to lose you. We
have to get to the boat and in case you fall in the water, I can
pull you out. Okay?”

Don sighed in
relief and tapped Brad’s arm.

“Oh, okay. Good
thinking, James.”

Meagan and Ali
looked at each other and then he looked back and chuckled.

“James? Let me
guess, James Bond.”

Brad squatted
to pick up his end of the stretcher.

“It’s a long
story, man, and I’ll tell you about it later. Meanwhile, grab an
end and let’s go.”

We each took
one end of the stretcher and lifted Grandpa up slowly. Ali and
Meagan took the front end while Brad and I took the back end and
Don walked in between us. Grandpa was every bit as heavy as he
looked but we all agreed that carrying him was better for him than
walking, and it would only be until we reached the bridge.

It was a slow
and meticulous walk because the path was anything but smooth. The
air was very still and hot and although I’d been pleasantly cool
for that short time in the water, I was back to sweating and my
clothes sticking to me. The sharp dead grass that seemed to pop out
from nowhere along the trail scraped against my legs and made them
sting even more than before.

Don carried on
constantly about how the bombs were getting closer and how we had
to hurry. The fear in his voice made me nervous and I had tried
several times to see if the fire was in sight behind us but the
overhanging trees wouldn’t allow me to see much beyond them. It was
terrifying knowing that the forest was on fire behind us but not
being able to see how close it was.

After some time
Ali began shouting with enthusiasm.

“Hey, I see the
bridge!”

It was such a
relief to know that we were almost at the bridge, and after a few
seconds I saw it myself. I knew that once we got across the bridge,
we could get on with our original plan to leave two of us with
Grandpa and Don while the other two ran to the house for help.

The bridge
crossed the river in what seemed to be the only place where it
bottlenecked. On the left where we’d just come from it was slightly
narrow but only for a short distance and then the river opened wide
so there was a great distance between the two sides. And on the
right side going away from us the river opened wide and the forest
turned to the right so you’d need a canoe to get across. The only
link between the sides was the metal bridge that won’t burn so it
gave me a bit of comfort as I assumed that it would keep us safe
from the fire.

As we edged
down towards the bridge I looked back down the river in the
direction that we had just come from and I was almost paralyzed
with fear. The flames were bursting through the density of smoke
that covered the sky, and it seemed so much closer than before. I
struggled to walk because I wasn’t paying attention and it caused
everyone to stop and look, as well. Ali put his hand his eyes to
block out the sun.

“Wow, it really
is getting close. Maybe we should rethink two of us running ahead
and just keep going so we can all get right out of here. Anyway,
let’s keep going and get across this.”

I agreed with
Ali because I knew that I didn’t want to be one of the two left
behind to wait for a rescue team. I turned to say something to
Meagan and that’s when I noticed her leg.

“Meg, you’re
limping. Are you going to be able to keep this up?”

“Well yeah it
hurts, but we have bigger things to worry about right now.”

“Sorry, I know,
it was a dumb question.”

“It’s okay,
Sarah, I know what you mean. It’s just that I really don’t have any
choice.”

Don slowed down
as he walked between Brad and I, and he quickly became very
fidgety. When he saw me looking at him he began to shout that we
were all going to die. The distant smoke and threat of fire had
made him panic and he tried to run away but Brad had hold of him by
the rope. We had to lay Grandpa on the ground so that Brad could
get control of Don again, but he kept yelling.

“Let go of me.
I have to get to the boat. The bombs are coming. The bombs are
coming.”

That just
sparked the panic that was lingering inside me and it sent waves of
fear spiking up and down my back. Don saw the distance fire as
bombs but regardless of how he interpreted it, we were still in a
dangerous position. Brad took hold of Don’s shoulders.

“Hey, we’re
going to be okay. You have to settle down.”

“The boat,
James, where’s the boat? They’re going to get us if we don’t get in
the boat.”

“It’s just
across the bridge and down the path. We’re almost there.”

Ali looked
curiously at Brad.

“What boat is
he talking about?”

Brad shook his
head at Ali.

“You know, the
rescue boat on the other side of the bridge?”

I realized that
Don was old and scared, but I was worried that if he continued to
have these panic attacks, it was going to take us hours to get out
of the forest. And the anxious look on Ali’s face said that he was
just as concerned.

“Hey man, is he
going to be okay now?”

Brad continued
to rub Don’s arms as he nodded.

“For the
moment, but I’m not sure how long we can keep him this way.”

Don seemed to
have calmed down so we each lifted our corner of the stretcher and
continued towards the bridge. Before we could get on it, though,
Grandpa began to whine loudly.

“I feel sick. I
can’t feel my toes. My leg is killing me. God, it hurts.”

I patted his
good leg gently and told him that we’d be home soon and that he
should just relax. He never opened his eyes but he kept groaning
and I knew from the wet and bloodied bandages on his leg that he
was in a lot of pain. The infection was getting worse by the
minute, and for the first time I actually began to worry that he
might lose his leg if we didn’t get him to a doctor soon.

The sun was
right above us and the heat rays were penetrating like hot razors
through my skin. I was glad that we were finally going to get to
the other side where there was more shade from the trees since the
forest was much denser on the other side. Just looking at it from
this side gave me hope that we’d soon be home.

“Wow, it looks
so much cooler over there, and it’s so nice to finally have a
breeze to cool us down.”

Meagan turned
sharply and glared at me.

“What did you
say?”

“I said it was
nice to have a breeze to cool us down?”

The echo of my
own voice sent chills up and down my spine. There was a breeze and
it was coming at us in the same direction as the fire.

Now I knew why
the fire was moving so fast towards us and that made my chest pound
even harder. I took a couple of deep breaths just as Meagan yelled
that we should get going, so we edged our way carefully down to the
bridge. But as bad luck would have it, the bridge was too narrow
and so we had to stop.

Ali suggested
that he and Brad should carry Grandpa by themselves across the
bridge, and that Meagan and I should help Don to cross. It was the
most logical way to get across and under normal circumstances this
would have the perfect plan.

Unfortunately,
as soon as the guys were manoeuvring themselves to take hold of our
ends of the stretcher, Grandpa began to groan loudly and cry out so
painfully that it stirred the hairs on the nape of my neck. His
face turned red as he cringed again and cried even louder in agony.
The guys quickly backed up and lowered him onto the dried grass on
the river bank.

Huge tears
seeped from his eyes and trickled down his sweaty face. He waved
his right arm aimlessly towards his wounded leg that now reeked
with a rotten stench. Meagan talked to him but he didn’t respond.
He collapsed and appeared almost lethargic as the tears stopped and
his whole body began to shiver.

Meagan grabbed
my arm.

“Sarah, look at
his leg. We’re going to have to stop it from bleeding before we
take another step.”

“Do we have
time for this, Meg? I mean, you know, all things considered.”

“Sarah, if we
don’t get the bleeding to stop or at least slow down, he’s not
going to make it. Look at it.”

I put my hand
on Grandpa’s face and he was really hot with a fever. His leg was
drenched in blood and infection and I knew Meagan was right, and
that we had to do something now. But instinctively, I looked at the
fire in the distance to the left of us and it seemed even closer
than before, and I was scared.

“Let’s just get
him across first where it will be a bit safer and where there’s
shade and then I’ll clean up his wound and do something to help
stop the bleeding. Okay?”

Meagan huffed
as she rubbed Grandpa’s hand.

“I guess
so.”

“It’ll be okay,
Meg. It’ll take us less than a minute to cross this and then we can
take care of it over there. We’ll do it as soon as we get across, I
promise, but I really think we should get across first.”

It was at that
moment that Don’s mind came back to the real world. He saw the
bridge and began to yell and swear at us. He slapped at Brad who
was trying to calm him down and then wrapped himself around a young
tree trunk so that Brad couldn’t even peel him off of it.

He kept
repeating that the bridge would break and that we’d all die, and
the more the guys tried to calm him down, the more frantic he
became. This went on for several minutes and the fear in Don’s
voice got Grandpa crying again. He mumbled several times that his
leg was really hurting and felt as if it was going to burst.

Ali turned to
me in frustration and pulled the first aid box out of his
backpack.

“Just take care
of your grandfather. We’re not going anywhere in a hurry anyway so
just do what you can to help him and we’ll try to pry this guy from
the tree so I can just carry him across.”

Meagan opened
the first aid box and took out the last of the bandages as she took
a deep breath and stared at me.

“Ready?”

I knew what
that meant. What she was saying was, ‘are you ready to do it?’ I
held my breath and my nostrils flinched at the sickening stench
that was permeating from his leg. I tried not to breathe while I
unravelled the saturated bandage, and I almost threw up when I saw
his leg.

“Oh geez. This
is disgusting.”

Ali left Don
with Brad and squatted beside us. He took out the last two tissues
to wipe off the green infection that was all over the wound.

“These bandages
aren’t going to do any good. It won’t keep this covered so I’ll use
them to finish wiping off all this crap.”

Meagan handed
him the bandages reluctantly.

“Well, what are
we going to wrap his leg with? We can’t just leave it open like
this.”

“It’s okay,
Meg. We’ll use my shirt. We can wrap it around his leg and then tie
it tight and hopefully that’ll stop some of this bleeding. Okay,
where’s the disinfectant?”

My hands were
shaking as I handed Ali the small bottle of iodine.

“There’s not
much left.”

“Well, it’ll
have to do. Better than nothing. Oh crap. Look at all the blood
that’s dripping from his leg already. We have to work fast.”

Ali pulled off
his grey t-shirt and laid it under Grandpa’s leg, and then poured
the iodine over the wound. Grandpa grabbed the sides of the
stretcher and screamed out in pain which sent cold shivers up and
down my back. There was still so much infection there and it was
bleeding steadily, but Ali wrapped his shirt tightly around
Grandpa’s leg, and said that at least keep the bleeding down for a
little while.

Meagan rubbed
Ali’s shoulder and tried to smile at him.

“Thanks, Ali.
We really appreciate you helping Grandpa like this.”

Ali shook his
head and pointed to Grandpa’s leg.

“Look how red
it is all around here. It’s almost at his knee. This is not a good
sign and it means that the infection is likely already in his
blood. I just hope that wolf didn’t have rabies.”

Rabies!

Those words
made my whole body shudder with fear. I’d never even given any
thought to the wolf having rabies. Now I was really worried about
Grandpa. Meagan looked as if she was about to pass out so I pulled
her over to the side a few feet away. Her eyes welled up as she
spoke.

“Sarah, this is
awful. The smell, the sight, gees, I think I’m going to throw
up.”

I looked back
at Ali who was collecting all the rotten bandages into a pile on
the ground and I motioned for him to just give us a minute to
recoup. We both took a couple of really deep breaths and then she
tried to speak through her quivering lips in her own way to break
the tension.

“Mom always
wanted me to be a nurse and I couldn’t make her understand that
this stuff really gets to me. Can you picture me working in the
ER?”