Firestorm (11 page)

I’d never
thought of Meagan as a nurse any more than I thought of myself as
being one. She has always wanted to create her own line in dress
design, and my dream has always been to become an architect. I love
taking pictures, but my goal is to design homes and hotels. I tried
to lighten the moment.

“Yeah, I can
see you in ER, only your purpose would be to show off and design
all the uniforms. But as a nurse, well I wouldn’t want to be your
patient.”

Meagan forced a
smile as she pulled the clip from her hair and used her trembling
fingers to comb it back up and pin it again.

“Just seeing
Grandpa like this is horrible. I hope we get him back soon.”

I stretched my
arm around Meagan’s shoulder and gave her a quick hug.

“Me, too.”

A minute later
we walked back to the others and told them we were ready to
continue on. And that’s when Don went ballistic again.

“Oh, no you
don’t. I’m not going on that bridge. Oh no. Get off of me.”

He tried to
untie the rope but Brad grabbed his hands and literally wrestled
with him for about half a minute.

“Don, it’s the
only way to safety. God, I thought we were done with this
nonsense.”

“No, the bridge
is evil. Bad things will happen when we get on it. We’ll all be
killed. There must be another way across.”

“There isn’t.
This is it. Now either you walk or I’ll carry you but we’re
crossing this bridge now. Do you hear me?”

Don backed up a
few feet and managed to wrap himself around the small tree again as
he continued to shout.

“No, I can’t.
And you’re not carrying me either. I won’t go.”

By this time
Ali was getting anxious to cross and yelled for Brad to leave
him.

“Let’s just
leave him with the girls for a second while we carry this once
across the bridge, and then one of us can stay there while the
other comes back here for this guy.”

Brad handed me
the rope and shrugged.

“Sounds good to
me.”

Brad shook his
head as he looked at Don behind him, who was still wrapped around
the tree.

“I’ll be back
for you in a minute.”

Meagan and I
stood beside Don as the guys lifted the stretcher and stepped up
and onto the swing bridge. Even though the bridge seemed long, it
was solid with high mesh sides so they were able to carry him
safely across it without worrying about slipping or falling. We
watched as they took one step at a time, slowly but surely, and
with each one the bridge swayed slightly. I was relieved that
finally Grandpa was getting across and soon we’d be on our way back
home.

At one point
they stopped and both looked to the left of them. Filled with
curiosity, Meagan and I took a few steps closer to the bridge to
see what they were looking at and we both gasped.

“Meg, it’s
getting closer by the minute. This is getting really creepy.”

Meagan grabbed
my arm and motioned for me to step back with her towards Don.

“You know,
Sarah, I was watching a Discovery show on TV a few weeks ago about
forest fires, and this guy said that he was trapped in a forest
fire, and that once the wind picked up where he was, the entire
forest was in flames within about two hours.”

“Two hours? If
that’s true then that fire will be here in a few minutes.”

“I know and
that’s why we have to stay calm because we need to get out of here
safely, and this issue here is going to really be a problem if he
doesn’t start co-operating.”

Don suddenly
became very quiet as he leaned against the tree.

“Don, are you
okay?”

He looked at me
with blank expression and then shifted his eyes back and forth.

“You hear
that?”

Meagan and I
looked at each other and then towards the guys on the bridge and
then behind us. I couldn’t hear anything but then we’d also been
talking, and on top of that my ears were ringing from all the
stress. But Don was insistent that he could something and I tried
to hear what he was hearing, but I couldn’t hear anything. I
thought it was his imagination starting up again.

“Hear what,
Don? I don’t hear anything.”

“There’s
something in those trees behind us.”

That gave me an
instant adrenaline rush.

“The fire? You
can hear the fire? Oh no, is it that close?”

“No. Not
fire.”

Meagan was
already uptight from the suspense and she snapped at him.

“What noise?
What are you talking about? I don’t hear anything.”

Don cocked his
head slightly and put his finger up as if to tell us to be
quiet.

“Hear it?
Crackling. There’s something behind us.”

He was adding
even more fear to my already jittering insides, and just listening
to his frightened voice sent goose bumps up and down my arms.
Whatever it was that he was hearing was very real to him and the
fear it brought on was becoming very real to Meagan and I, too. I
had to say something to stop this from getting out of hand.

“There’s
nothing behind us, Don. All the animals and birds are gone,
remember? Grandpa and the guys are almost across the bridge and
we’re next. We’re fine. We’re going to get across it and then home.
Okay? And the fire is still way over there.”

“No, we’re not
okay. Something is behind us in those buses behind those trees and
it’s getting closer.”

My nerves were
now almost raw with fear. I began wondering what it could be that
he was hearing but I brushed off any possibilities because I really
couldn’t deal with any more challenges right now. Meagan, on the
other hand, became angry at Don for adding more stress to an
already horrible situation.

“Don, I’ve had
enough of your nonsense, okay? I’m not a foolish teenager and we
didn’t have to come out here for you guys. We could have just said
who cares and stayed at home. But we came out for you and the least
you could do is stop trying to freak us out. I don’t hear any noise
and what you’re trying to do is make us more scared than we already
are, but you know what? I’m already too darned scared to care about
anything else except getting out of here.”

Just then, we
could hear Ali’s distant voice echoing from the other side of the
bridge as he yelled to us and then waved. We all looked over at him
and I was so relieved just knowing that Grandpa was out of the
direct path of the fire.

“Meg, they made
it. Okay, let’s stop this nonsense and get ready to cross.”

We watched as
Brad came running across the bridge by himself with his hands just
gliding along the railings. The bridge was swaying back and forth
and I knew that if we didn’t have this dilemma that he could
actually have enjoyed his little jaunt. He jumped off and came up
to us and took the rope from Meagan.

“Okay, let’s
go. Meg, you and Sarah get going and we’ll follow you.”

But Don had no
intensions of moving. He stood with his back to the tree and his
arms wrapped around the trunk behind him. His face was white and
without expression.

“We’re dead if
we go and we’re dead if we stay. I hate fires. I don’t want to die
in a fire.”

Brad tried to
loosen Don’s arms.

“Well, neither
do we, so that’s why I’m going to carry you across to where there
is no fire. You can keep your eyes closed and we’ll be across in no
time.”

Brad pulled
Don’s arms off the tree and picked him up around his legs and then
flung him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Meagan jumped
onto the bridge first but when she turned to say something, she
stopped and turned a million shades of white. She didn’t say a
word. I was standing beside Brad and I asked her what was wrong but
she didn’t answer. She just stared behind us as she slowly lifted
her hand and pointed.

Brad and I both
turned and stared into the woods. I had no idea what Meagan was
referring to.

“Do you see
anything, Brad? I don’t. The fire’s still way over there.”

Brad stared
straight ahead into the woods and then down to the ground. His eyes
followed the path that we had just come from and then spoke in a
sombre voice.

“They smell the
blood.”

Brad was now
wearing his own shade of white, and I quickly searched the woods
with my eyes to see what they were looking at. He grabbed my arm
and whispered as he pushed me.

“Move slow and
get on the bridge. Now!”

I glanced back
at the tall, dry grass that was spread out between the trees and I
saw them staring at me, wolves with eyes that pierced my soul.

Brad reached
out slowly with his left hand and then gently pushed me again to
move onto the bridge. He stared at me with his head tipped down as
he spoke quietly.

“Sarah, get on
the bridge. Walk steady and fast. In about ten seconds we’re gonna
rock this thing back and forth.”

“But Brad…”

“Get on the
bridge. Maybe we can scare these things into staying off of it. But
you have to swing with me. Tell Meg to swing with us. Now get on
and move fast.”

I turned around
slowly, trying not to lose my balance with my rubbery legs as I
took hold of cold railings with my clammy hands. Meagan was just a
few feet ahead of me but she was moving fast and steady. I was
trying to walk evenly but my insides were shaking so much that my
legs were trembling with each step.

I tried to call
Meagan as loud as I could shout in a whisper.

“Meg? Can you
hear me?”

“Yeah, just
keep walking, Sarah.”

“Did you see
them?”

“Yeah, why do
think I’m moving so fast?”

“Meg, slow
down. Listen, we’re going to swing the bridge to scare them off.
Hold on and get ready.”

“What?”

I was straining
my ears to listen for Brad behind me but I couldn’t hear anything
so I turned my head around as far as I could to see him. He was
right behind me, walking steady with Don wrapped around him like a
frightened child. Brad had his hands on both of the side rails and
was about six feet onto the bridge. He was walking sure and steady
towards me but I looked behind him and fear shot through my chest
like bolts of lightning. One of the wolves had stepped onto
bridge.

I gasped loudly
and turned back to catch myself before I stumbled over my own feet,
and that’s when I heard Brad shout.

“Now!”

All three of us
held on tightly to the rails and rocked the bridge so that it
bounced around and swung about two feet out on either side. I had
done this for fun on a few other hikes and laughed uncontrollably
as the thrill gave me such an adrenaline rush. But the bridges were
shorter and it was all done in fun, so it was very different. This
time it was to stay alive and the only rush I got was the fear of
dying.

I heard the
closest wolf yelp a few times and then I heard Brad yell for us to
keep walking and rocking. I walked as quickly as was possible on
the bridge that was being tossed from side to side, but my legs
were filled with pins and needles and it was hard to move them.

My ears were
ringing with fear and I was struggling to hold onto the rails. Part
of me wanted to look to the left to see how much the fire had
spread, and the other part of me wanted to turn around and see if
this scare tactic was working on the wolves. I knew that normally
wolves did not like to travel on these kinds of bridges, but these
didn’t seem like normal wolves, otherwise they would have fled the
forest with the other animals.

Don began to
scream and his voice sent goose bumps all over my body. At first, I
thought maybe one of the wolves had got to him and that’s when my
chest really began to pound. But then I heard him shouting out
profanities to them and I knew by his voice tone and the words that
he was just cussing them.

I wanted to
turn around and look but that would have made it too easy to lose
my balance, and even though the sides of this bridge were covered
with a metal mesh, I didn’t want to trip or cause Brad to trip
which give the wolves an advantage over us. It took all of my
concentration to just keep walking and not stumble.

I knew it was
going to be a long trip crossing this bridge. I kept my head down
and my eyes straight ahead. It was only another few feet until
Meagan would be off but it felt as if it would take forever for me
to get to that point. Somehow she was able to just sail right
across it and she was way ahead of me.

The bridge was
swaying aggressively now and even though I didn’t want to do it, I
tipped my head slightly to the left and looked at the fire in the
distance. It was definitely closer now, and the smoke was hugging
the water’s edge as it burned towards us, while its rolling clouds
reached up high into the heavens. That made my insides shake even
more and for a few seconds I couldn’t even move.

I forced myself
to focus on the bridge and a second later I slid my hands very
slowly along the rails, still rocking the bridge as best as I could
with my feet as I pressed down one rubbery leg at a time. I felt as
if my whole life was hinging on the balances of ‘what ifs’, and I
was beginning to wonder if we really were going to get out of this
whole trip safely.

Meagan was
still moving as quickly as she could in front of me and I knew
she’d be at the end soon. I turned slightly to look at Brad behind
me and that’s when I noticed out of the corner of my eye that he
wasn’t there. I stretched my neck as much as I could to see where
he was and that’s when I knew that Murphy’s Law seemed to just
follow us around like a plague at times.

Don had somehow
managed to get out of Brad’s grasp and was trying to climb over the
side rail to jump off. Brad had his one arm wrapped around Don’s
chest trying to pull him off while holding on to the other rail
with the other hand. The bridge shook and jerked as Brad struggled
with Don and yelled for him to get down. Don yelled back that he
needed to get on the boat.