‘My God…’ the SES chief whispered. He swung around to his second-in-command. ‘The shoring timbers we’ve got won’t hold that. Get back to base. I want more men and stouter timbers. If that goes down…’
There was no reason to finish the sentence. They all knew.
‘Jim, where are you?’ Nikki was moving along the trunk of the tree, stepping over debris.
‘In here…’ Jim’s voice was hoarse and tight.
‘Are you hurt?’
‘Yeah…I’ve…I think my arm’s broke…And my head…I keep blacking out…’
‘And your dad?’
‘He’s here. He’s unconscious but he’s still alive. He’s bleeding, though, Doc. I’m holding his leg but…I can’t keep the pressure up.’
‘Are you trapped?’
‘There’s a bit of space behind me. I- reckon…I reckon I could crawl back out. But…but Dad’s stuck and if I leave him he’ll bleed to death.’
Nikki was standing almost over the voice now. She looked around to where the debris subsided. The old doorway was just here…
Clambering down, she peered through. There was a gap in here. If she crawled…
‘Jim…?’
‘Yeah…’
She could see a shape stir slightly in the blackness. The beams of the doorway had slipped down but had afforded protection to a small area-a tunnel of no more than eighteen inches in diameter. Jim seemed about fifteen feet in through this tunnel.
‘Your father’s bleeding from the leg?’ she asked. Behind her, the SES men and Sandra were staring in horror as she wedged herself into the gap, trying to see.
‘The top of his thigh. He’s…The tree’s over his chest. I can’t budge…’ Jim’s voice trailed off. He sounded close to unconsciousness himself.
‘And you’ve lost blood too?’ Nikki spoke loudly and insistently. She didn’t want him passing out now.
‘Yeah…It…it doesn’t matter…’
‘Oh, Jim.’ Behind Nikki, Sandra had started to cry. She clutched Nikki’s arm and pulled her backwards. ‘He’s got to come out. If that tree slips…’ Then she raised her voice. ‘Jim, you’ve got to come out. Your
dad doesn’t give a stuff about you. You’ve got to-’
She broke off and turned away.
‘Jim’s not like his father,’ Nikki told her, rising and putting her hand briefly on Sandra’s shoulder. ‘And if he were…if he were then you wouldn’t be crying.’ She took a deep breath and lowered her voice. ‘Sandra, have you told Jim how dangerous the tree is?’
Sandra shook her head. ‘I didn’t see until now. Oh, Nikki…’
‘Jim, we’re shoring up the entrance to where you are.’ Nikki gave a warning look to Sandra and the men as she raised her voice. ‘I want you to come out.’
‘I’m not leaving. I told you…Dad’ll die.’
‘He’ll die if you stay,’ Nikki said brutally. ‘You sound as though you’re drifting in and out of unconsciousness. ‘Do you have the strength to maintain pressure on that leg, or is it still bleeding?’
‘It’s still bleeding,’ Jim managed.
‘But you can move?’
‘Yeah…but…’
‘Jim, I can’t get in unless you come out,’ Nikki said harshly. ‘And your father needs me.’
Sandra gave a gasp. ‘But Nikki…You can’t…’
She was stopped by Nikki’s fierce grip on her arm. ‘Sandra, Jim’s hurt and I don’t know how badly. This is the only way he’ll come out.’
It was. Nikki had known it since she saw the entrance. It was unpalatable but true. She bent down and peered into the recess. One of the SES men was directing a flashlight through the rubble. ‘OK, Jim,’ she ordered. ‘Start moving slowly backwards. Now!’
‘But Dad’ll die…’
‘The faster you get out, the faster I get in,’ Nikki said ruthlessly. ‘Move, Jim.’
Three minutes later Jim emerged to daylight. Nikki did a lightning check on the dazed young man, satisfied herself that she could leave him to the care of the people around him, and then stooped down. The SES man stopped her as she placed her hand on the door-beam.
‘Doc, this is just Bert Payne you’re risking your neck for,’ he said uncertainly. ‘I…I don’t like this…’
Nikki nodded. ‘I know it’s just Bert Payne,’ she whispered, looking over to where Sandra was holding Jim. ‘But he’s dying in there, and I’m a doctor. I haven’t a choice.’
‘He wouldn’t do the same for you,’ the man said brutally.
‘No.’ Nikki shook her head. ‘But then he doesn’t seem to have passed his cruel attitudes on to his son, thank heaven…And we can’t afford to be like him.’ She took one last look at Jim and Sandra, took a deep breath and lowered herself into the makeshift passage.
Jim had been wearing heavy denim jeans, which had protected him a little from the worst of the jagged splinters and nails, and for the first time in weeks Nikki regretted that she wasn’t wearing the same. Charlotte’s pretty clothes had become part of her-a legacy of her time with Luke. Now the dress she was wearing ripped three feet into the tunnel and she felt a nail jab into her bare leg. She swore and kept going.
I’ll ring Charlotte and give her a hard time when I get out of here, Nikki thought grimly as she felt her way forward through the mass of broken timber. The thought of Charlotte-of Cairns-of somewhere other than this hell- hole-was somehow steadying. She had to think of something other than the tree poised above.
Where on earth was Bert? Jim had backed out this way. Bert Payne must be somewhere here…
She shoved forward, her hands groping in the dim light, and her hand met something soft. Here he was…
Nikki could see nothing. What she was feeling seemed to be a leg. She’d attached a rope to her waist before coming in, and now she turned to tug it after her. Her bag came sliding roughly through the debris, and attached to its handle was a flashlight. Nikki looked back along the tunnel and saw daylight being blocked by anxious faces. She flashed her light at them and then turned back to her patient.
And her heart sank. Bert Payne lay half crushed by the huge tree. It held his body in a vice, and Nikki couldn’t see his left arm or leg. His face was near her, his skin devoid of any colour, and his breathing was shallow and uneven. Nikki’s hand slid down the exposed leg, and met the warm ooze of blood.
Instinctively Nikki felt for a pressure point, but she knew already that her action was useless. There must be massive internal injuries. With her free hand she felt for a pulse, and as she did Bert’s eyes flew open.
‘Jim…’ he whispered.
‘We’ve taken Jim out,’ Nikki said gently. ‘He has a broken arm, but he’s safe.’
‘But…’ The man’s eyes concentrated in a sheer effort of remembrance as Nikki groped in her bag for morphine. ‘But he was here…’
‘Yes.’
‘He came back to see I was all right…’
‘Yes, he did.’ Nikki twisted her body to a position where she could fill the syringe. She turned and drove it home, wondering as she did so whether there was time for it to take effect.
‘I was…I was a bastard to him,’ the big man muttered. He reached forward with his one free arm and gripped Nikki’s hand. ‘You’re sure…you’re sure he’s all right?’
‘He’s safe.’ Nikki was no longer worrying about the oozing blood. It was too late for that now. She gripped Bert’s free hand in hers and held it.
Tell him…tell him I’m sorry.’
‘I’ll do that,’ Nikki told him evenly. ‘I promise.’
‘And tell him…’ The elderly fisherman closed his eyes as if he had reached a point where he could go no further. His words were an almost superhuman effort. ‘Tell him he’s been a good kid and I’m…I’m proud of him. Tell him…’
‘I’ll tell him.’
It was the last thing Bert Payne ever said. Five minutes later he died.
