physical sense. The church was packed. My parents were holding me up but you weren’t there... It nearly killed me. And then, when you got out of hospital and I asked if you’d go to the cemetery...’
‘I couldn’t.’ She remembered how she’d felt. Where were her boys? To go to the cemetery...to see two tiny graves...
She’d blocked it out. It wasn’t real. If she didn’t see the graves, then maybe the nightmare would be just that. An endless dream.
‘It was like our family ended right there,’ Rob said, staring sightlessly out into the smoke. ‘It didn’t end when our boys died. It ended...when we couldn’t face their death together.’
‘Rob...’
‘I don’t know why I’m saying this now,’ he said, almost savagely. ‘But hell, Julie, I’m fighting this. Our family doesn’t exist any more. I can’t get back...any of it. But once upon a time we loved each other and that still means something. So if you’re sitting here thinking it doesn’t matter much if you go up in flames, then think again. Because, even though I’m not part of your life any more, if I lose you completely, then what’s left of my sanity goes, too. So prepare to be protected, Jules. No fire is going to get what’s left of what I once loved. Of what I still love. So I’m heading off to do a fast survey of the boundary, looking for embers. It’d be good if you checked closer to the house but you don’t need to. I’ll do it for both of us. This fire...I’ll fight it with everything I have. Enough of our past has been destroyed. This is my line in the sand.’
THE SOUND CAME before the fire. Before the embers. Before hell.
It was a thousand freight trains roaring across the mountains, and it was so sudden that they were working separately when it hit. It was a sweeping updraught which felt as if it was sucking all the air from her lungs. It was a mass of burning embers, not small spot fires they could cope with but a mass of burning rain.
Stand and fight... They knew as the rumble built to a roar that no man alive could stay and fight this onslaught.
Julie was fighting to get a last gush of water onto the veranda. A branch had blasted in against the wall and Rob had been dragging it away from the building. She couldn’t see him.
He was somewhere out in the smoke, heading back to her. Please, she pleaded. Please let him be heading back to her.
She had the drill in her head. When the fire hits, take cover in your designated refuge and wait for the front to pass. As soon as the worst has passed, you can emerge to fight for your home, but don’t try and fight as the front hits. Take cover.
Now.
‘Rob...’ Where was he? She was screaming for him but she couldn’t even hear herself above the roar. The heat was blasting in front of the fire, taking the temperature to unbearable levels. She’d have to head for the shelter without him...
Unthinkable!
But suddenly he was with her. Grabbing her, hauling her off the veranda. But, instead of heading towards the bunker, he was hauling her forward, into the heat. ‘Jules, help me.’
‘Help?’ They had to get to the bunker. What else could they do?
‘Jules, there are people next door.’ He was yelling into her ear. ‘There’s a woman—pregnant, a mum. She was trying to back her car out of the driveway and she’s hit a post. Jules, she won’t come with me. We need to make her see sense. Forcibly if need be, and I can’t do it by myself.’
And, like it or not, sensible or not, he had her arm. He was hauling her with him, stumbling across their yard, a yard which seemed so unfamiliar now that it was terrifying.
There were burning embers, burning leaves hitting her face. They shouldn’t be here. They had to seek refuge. But...
‘She’s lost...a kid...’ Rob was struggling to get enough breath to yell over the roar of impending fire. ‘When the car hit, the dog got out. The kid’s four years old, chasing his dog and she can’t find him. I have to...’ But then a blast of heat hit them, so intense he couldn’t keep yelling. He just held onto her and ran.
But she wanted to be safe. She wanted this to be over. Why was Rob dragging her away from the bunker?
A child... Four years old? She tried to take it in but her mind wouldn’t go there.
And then they were past the boundary post, not even visible now, only recognised because she brushed it as they passed. Then onto the gravel of the next-door neighbour’s house. There was a car in the driveway, visible only as they almost ran into it.
She didn’t know the neighbours. This house had been owned by an elderly couple when they’d built theirs. The woman had since died, her husband had left to live with his daughter and the house had stood empty and neglected for almost the entire time they’d lived here.
Last night she’d been surprised to see the lights. She and Rob had both registered that there’d been someone there, but then they’d both been so caught up...
And then her thoughts stopped. Through the wall of smoke, there was a woman. Slight. Shorter than she was.
Very, very pregnant.
Rob reached to grab her and held.
‘I can’t find him.’ The woman was screaming. ‘Help me! Help me!’ The scream pierced even the roar of the fire and it held all the agony in the world. It was a wail of loss and desperation and horror.
‘We will.’ Rob grabbed Julie’s arm, thrust the woman’s hand into hers and clamped his own hand on top. ‘Julie, don’t let go and that’s an order. Consider it a dot-point, the biggest one there is. Julie, Amina; Amina, Julie. Amina, Julie’s taking you to safety. You need to go with her now. Julie, go.’
‘But Danny...’ The woman was still screaming.
‘I’ll find him. Julie, the bunker...’
‘But you have to come, too.’ Julie was screaming as well. Already they were cutting things so close they mightn’t make it. The blackness was now tinged with burning orange, flashes looming out of the blasting heat. Dear God, they had to go—but they had to go together.
But Rob was backing away, yelling back at her over the roar of the fire. ‘Jules, there’s a little boy.’ His voice held a desperation that matched hers. ‘He ran to find his dog. I won’t let this one die. I won’t. Go!’
And his words stopped her screaming. They stopped her even wanting to scream.
She checked for a moment, fought for air, fought for sanity. A wave of wind and heat smashed into her, almost knocking her from her feet. Burning embers were smashing against their clothes.
The woman was wearing a bulky black dress but it didn’t hide her late pregnancy. Another child. Dear God...
And they didn’t have to wait until the fire front hit them; the fire was here now.
‘Jules, go!’ Rob was yelling, pushing.
But still... ‘I can’t...leave you.’
‘Danny...’ The woman’s scream was beyond terror, beyond reason, almost drowning Julie’s, but Rob had heard her.
‘Jules.’ He touched her once, briefly, a hand on her cheek. A touch of reassurance where there was no reassurance to be had. A touch for courage. Then he pushed her again.
‘Keep her and her little one safe. You can do this,’ he said fiercely. ‘But stay safe. I won’t lose...more. I’ll find him,’ he said fiercely. ‘Go!’
* * *
The woman had to be almost dragged to the bunker. Somewhere out there was her son, and Julie could feel her terror, could almost taste