There was no answer. He knew the emergency services would be sending out warning messages to everyone in the area but that didn’t stop him from sending off his own text. Fire coming. Get out now!, before he got back to work.
When it was clear there was no stopping it this end, they sent crews around the flanks, bouncing up the rough fire tracks around the gorge to try to get any residents in its path out of the way. Caleb’s appliance was one of them, climbing about the burning valley below, grey and white smoke billowing upwards in massive clouds, turning the dawn to dusk. But, from his vantage point here, he could see the path the fire would take, and knew there was no way it could miss her.
He could just about make it out, a ridge or two away, the low stone house set into the side of the hill, the big rain water tank on the side. Had she activated the sprinkler system yet? Did she know what was coming? “There’s Ava’s house,” he called. “Let’s get her out.”
They were through one rocky dip in the track and over the next ridge, when Richo said, “Shit,” pulling the truck to a sudden halt.
Before them a massive gum tree had fallen across the track, the diameter of its trunk a couple of metres at least. No way around it, and no job for a mere chainsaw when there was fire raging through the gorge.
“We can’t get through this way. We’ll have to go back.”
“No!”
“Caleb, there’s no way. We have to turn around and try to find a track in from the top.”
Which was when Caleb had jumped out of the truck.
“What are you doing?” yelled Richo.
“Go,” Caleb yelled back, already scrambling his way over the fallen tree. Because he knew a way that didn’t rely on the roundabout fire tracks. He knew it from what felt like a hundred years ago when he’d played amongst these hills and gorges with his brother, and he knew that even on foot he could make it this way before the fire front when a vehicle never could make it all the way around in time.
And because now that he was this close, he wasn’t about to leave Ava stranded.
“You’re bloody mad, you know that!” Richo called after him, even as he was reversing the big truck around. “They’ll chuck you out of the service for this dumbass stunt, if you bloody survive, that is.”
Caleb just waved them away, already finding the path through the bush that he’d once known so well. Richo was probably right, but right now he Caleb didn’t care about the job. All he cared about was getting to Ava. And getting there in time.
The path was overgrown from how he’d remembered it, there were more fallen trees to clamber over and inside his suit he was a soggy, sweaty mess. But below him the flames lapped at the edges of the gorge and he kept right on going.
She woke to the smell of smoke. Fire. Outside her windows the view had turned grey. Fear clenched her gut. She found her phone, realised it was still switched off for her session at the gallery yesterday – so stupid – and flicked it on. Meanwhile she sprinted to the pump box on the side of the house to get the sprinklers working, messages pinging into her phone one after the other, telling her to activate her emergency fire plan or get out from the emergency services, one from Caleb telling her the same.
The wild winds whipped at her hair, the smoke was terrifying, ashes already falling from the massive dark clouds belching from the gorge, the noise fearful, roaring and crackling. The fire was enormous. She was no hero. She’d never planned to stay and defend on her own. She’d turn on the sprinklers and get the hell out and if the house was still standing when she got back, well and good.
A new message popped in then, another one from the emergency services, telling her it was now too late to evacuate, and to activate her survival plan.
Oh, god.
“Stay calm,” she told herself, her heart racing, her fingers tangling, fumbling with the key to the pump, one eye on the monstrous orange glow from below, the roar of the fire making her want to get in her car and go, and not stand here trying to get this damned pump to work.
It took her three attempts but finally it started, the pump kicking in and sending water cascading over the roof and under the eaves. Would it be enough though, given what was coming? She slammed the pump door shut and turned, just as something emerged through the smoky haze. A figure in yellow and running, trying to shout something over the roar of the fire. She narrowed her eyes, when a sizzle of recognition zipped down her spine.
Caleb!
He glanced over his shoulder at the gorge below, at the flames now visible in the treetops across the gorge and yelled at her to get inside. But she was already heading towards him, she wasn’t going anywhere without him. He caught her up and got her by the hand and tugged her forcibly through the wall of water and inside the studio. “Get to the safe room,” he ordered, as he pulled away anything flammable from near the windows. “Now!”
She managed to grab her sketchbook on the way and another small canvas she’d been tinkering with.
“What about that one?” Caleb asked behind her as they rushed past the mad painting of herself as a teenager on the bed.
“Leave it,” she said, and they fled into the tiny retreat room at the back of the house and slammed the door, huddling down near the
