Firestorm (12 page)

When I turned
around to go back to them, I lost my balance and fell to the floor
of the bridge and landed on my right hip and leg. That’s when the
view of the encroaching fire really grabbed my attention and filled
me with the fear of death. The flames shot fiercely high above the
tallest tree and it was already at the edge of the water where we
had rescued Don. The smoke had rolled even further since I looked a
minute ago.

It took me a
few seconds to regain my own composure and that’s when I got on my
knees and with my right hand, took hold of the railing and pulled
myself up. I swung my left arm around and grabbed the other railing
to face Brad and then took a few short steps towards him. As much
as I wanted to keep going so I could get to the other side of the
bridge, I knew that Brad needed help, so I held my breath and moved
closer towards him.

I had to
retract about twenty feet to get back to where they were and I
could see the veins just popping out of Brad’s neck as he struggled
to hold onto Don. I finally made it to Don’s side and took hold of
one of his arms.

“Don, get down.
Come on!”

“No, there’s
the boat. I have to get on the boat before those tanks get on the
bridge.”

I had to think
fast. Don was back in the world in his mind and for us right now,
this just might turn out to be a good thing. The onus was on me now
to keep his thoughts there so that I could convince him that there
was a boat waiting on the other side of the bridge. But first, I
had to convince myself that this wasn’t wasting our precious time
and giving the wolves the opportunity to get to us. I kept hold of
his arm and pulled him as I talked to him.

“Don, it’s me,
Pete. Come with me. James has the boat over there. Hurry, he’s
waiting for us.”

I tried to turn
to where the others were and all I could really see was Meagan
almost at the end.

“See, over
there? Can you see the boat over there? It’s waiting for us.”

Don turned with
an angry scowl on his face and shouted at me.

“You think I’m
stupid? There’s no boat over there. It’s down in the water. I can
see it. Let’s go before the bombs get us.”

Just then he
jerked forward and he almost broke loose of my grasp as he tried to
lift his leg over the side railing. Brad wrapped his arm around his
waist tighter and pulled him as he yelled.

“No, Don,
that’s an enemy boat. Ours is back here. Listen, they’re calling
for you. If we don’t hurry up, they’ll leave without us.”

“Where?”

I pulled on his
arm and we got Don to stand on the bridge again.

“Behind us. Can
you see it? The boat is there and they’re waiting for you.”

After what
seemed like minutes of fighting with him, Don stopped and faced Ali
on the far side of the bridge. My voice was trembling so much that
at first I wasn’t sure if I was even speaking clear enough for him
to understand me, but I guess I was because he leaned his head
forward and strained to look where I was pointing.

“He’s getting
the boat there, eh Pete?”

“Yes, and we
have to hurry so we can get on.”

Ali was waving
in our direction and that helped us to convince Don that he was
actually waving at him to hurry and get on the boat. Don trembled
and his eyes welled up with tears. Brad still had hold of him
around his waist but I could see that even he was relaxing slightly
even though his face and arms were coated in sweat. I held onto
Don’s arm with one hand and picked up the slack of the rope with
the other one.

“Okay, Don,
we’re going to walk towards Ali, okay?”

Don looked back
towards the fire and his voice broke.

“The bombs are
so close now, Pete. Where are the others?”

I realized that
we needed to get Don calmed down so that he could regain some
confidence before he would take one single step across the bridge.
But at the same time, every second we waited was another second for
the wolves to gain on us.

Brad lifted the
bottom of his shirt and wiped the drops of sweat away from his
eyes.

“Okay, enough.
Grab him and let’s go.”

I pulled Don
towards me and he wrapped his injured arm around my shoulder while
his other hand was burning into the railing.

“Okay, let go
of the railing a little bit so we can walk. I’ll walk with you but
we have to hurry.”

“I know. I
know. But we’re going to have to duck to stay out of the way of the
bombers.”

Brad took a
deep breath and tried to look behind us.

“Maybe I should
just carry him. It’ll be faster.”

I knew that
would be the best way but Don began to yell that he wanted to walk
by himself. Then he pointed to the fire in the distance and began
to cry.

“They’re
coming. Oh god, Pete, they’re coming. You can’t die again. You just
can’t die again.”

Brad glanced
over at the fire and then at me.

“I don’t care
how we do it but we have to get across this thing now.”

He pushed Don
sharply and that’s when he began to walk on his own with one arm
wrapped around mine. I looked ahead at how far we had to go yet to
get off the bridge and to get to the others. Meagan was on the
other side with Ali and Grandpa and we were almost half-way across.
That’s when I noticed Ali running towards us with something in his
hand but I couldn’t tell what it was.

We were walking
too slowly even though we were swaying the bridge as we went, and
we needed to speed up. Brad tried to grab Don around the waist to
carry him but he reacted like a spoiled child and began to shout
and cry and slap at Brad’s hands. I just wanted to scream because
we were in a lot of danger and we had such a long way to go to get
to safety. Don’s paranoia was keeping us from moving more than a
few inches at a time, and it almost seemed as if we were moving
backwards.

Ali was at my
side a few seconds later and told me that he’d help Brad get Don
across and that I should go join the others. I was trying to let go
of Don and as I tried to leave, he began to shout in a voice that
rattled my nerves.

“No, Pete!
Don’t leave me. They’ll kill me if you leave me here. Look at the
bombs. Look at the tanks. They’re coming for us. Don’t leave
me.”

His words made
my skin crawl. The bridge was jerking sideways aggressively from
all the commotion we were making and I lost my balance and fell
again. Ali reached out his arm to help me up and that’s when my
heart almost fell out.

As I was
pushing myself to my feet, I looked behind Brad and screamed out in
shock as I saw what was behind him. I sat on the floor of the
bridge with my heart pounding so hard that I thought it would break
my chest. I’m not sure if I was breathing or not but what I do know
is that I couldn’t move and my ears pulsated with fearful
thumping.

I swallowed
hard and stared into the eyes of an oncoming wolf that was only
about twelve feet away as it crept slowly and surely towards us.
Its fangs were jutted out of its daunting mouth and foamy drops of
saliva drooled down its protruding jaw. I felt as if someone had
dumped a bucket of ice all over me and I was too frozen to
move.

For a few short
seconds, I couldn’t hear anything and I couldn’t feel anything
around me. I felt as if I was trapped in a soundproof room that
terrorized me. I swallowed again as my thoughts told me to get up.
But I couldn’t. I was totally mesmerized by the scraggly black and
grey wolf that edged slowly towards me. And that’s when I realized
that he was the leader because the rest of the pack was right
behind him.

Its eyes stared
into mine, almost as if it was trying to hypnotize me, and for a
couple of seconds I felt locked into its power. I couldn’t move and
that’s when Ali reached down and pulled me to my feet.

“Get back to
Meagan. Run as fast as you can and get off this bridge. Move!”

He pushed me
behind him and then twisted the flare that he’d been carrying in
his hand. I watched as it burst into bright, dancing flames and
shot bullets of fire straight ahead. Ali walked slowly behind Brad
and waved the flare in front of him as he aimed the shots of fire
at the wolves. The leader stepped back quickly and growled. The
others turned and yelped as they ran off the bridge.

Ali edged
slowly towards the leader that didn’t want to heed to the fire he
waved in his hands. But Ali was persistent and continued to creep
closer and closer, and a few seconds later the wolf began to yelp
as it backed up. Ali shrieked at it with a loud, penetrating bawl
as he waved the flare frantically in front of him.

The wolf turned
and ran off the bridge and then stood in the distance with the
other three wolves. Ali jammed the back end of the flare into the
strips of metal that criss-crossed on the floor of the bridge and
then stood back to watch. It continued to shoot bright flames that
hissed and splattered at the wolves. I watched as I walked slowly
backwards and a few seconds later the wolves retreated back into
the dry grass of the forest.

Brad wrapped
his arm around Don and yelled for me to run, so I turned and with
both hands on the side rails, I ran as fast as my rubbery legs
would let me. I could hear Brad huffing and puffing right behind
me, and a few minutes later I jumped off the end of the bridge and
ran towards Meagan who was sitting on the ground holding Grandpa’s
hand.

A few seconds
later Brad climbed down from the bridge with Ali right behind him.
They showed Don where to rest and then they both plopped down onto
the ground beside us. Brad was still huffing as he wiped his face
with his shirt.

“Everyone
okay?”

We all looked
at each other and nodded and that’s when I saw the beads of sweat
streaming down Brad’s face.

“We should be
asking you guys that. Brad, are you okay?”

“Yeah, just a
little worn out from all the fun we’re having.”

Brad handed
Meagan the rope and then drew his knees into his chest as he leaned
forward to catch his breath.

“Wish we could
dismantle this bridge and kind of keep those things on that
side.”

Ali kept his
eye on the bridge.

“Yeah, that
would be great but I don’t have a metal saw in this bag and that’s
the only way we’re going to take it down. That flare should keep
going for at least ten or twelve minutes before it starts to burn
out. And hopefully, those things would have clued in and taken off
long before then.”

Brad nodded as
he put his cap back on his head.

“I don’t think
they’ll stick around. They can sense the fire behind them and
they’re afraid of the flares so they’re likely long gone by
now.”

I clung to the
hope in Brad’s words as I sat on the ground shaking beside Grandpa.
He was really warm and it seemed as if he’d digressed a lot in the
few minutes we were stuck on the bridge. His face was whiter and
laden with stress. I knew he was in a lot of pain even though he
wasn’t saying anything. He just laid there and groaned with each
breath he took.

Brad asked if
we were ready to keep going and that’s when I looked up at the sky
to the right of us in the direction of the fire. It was filled with
mounds of greyish-brown rolling smoke that was highlighted with
bright yellow and orange. It reached above the clouds and stretched
over the water. Brad was right and we had to get moving.

For a few
seconds no one said a word, and then Ali stood up and handed Meagan
his backpack as he wiped his forehead with his hand again. Meagan
was holding the rope that was wound around Don and Brad picked up
the loose end of it that was on the ground and then handed the coil
to me.

“Here, Sarah,
he’s all yours. Ali and I will carry your grandfather. Who’s got
the other bag?”

Meagan picked
it up off the ground and I took it and flung it on my back. She was
worried that the wolves might try to cross again, but Ali reassured
her that they had no idea that the flares would eventually burn out
and that they wouldn’t be waiting around, especially when the fire
was moving in so quickly.

Just then,
there was a loud pop that echoed from the other side of the river.
The flames were clear and moving quickly through the forest. The
only consolation we had was that it would hopefully continue in a
straight path and not reach across the river at this narrow point.
The bridge couldn’t burn so that gave me a bit of confidence that
the fire was contained to the other side of the river.

Ali pulled
another flare out of his backpack and handed it to Meagan.

“Here, Meg,
hold on to this. I really don’t think you have to worry about the
wolves anymore because they won’t cross the bridge with those
flares there, and they’re going to be running to save themselves.
But just so you know what to do, you twist it like this and then
point it away from you. And I’m just a few feet ahead of you,
anyway, so just yell if you think they’re behind us.”

Meagan nodded
with a blank look on her face.

“Yeah, sure. No
problem.”

Ali leaned over
and gave her a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“That’s my
girl. You show them who’s boss.”

Then he
motioned for Brad to pick up his end of the stretcher. As they
lifted Grandpa up, Brad turned to me and then glanced over to
Don.

“Look, if he
gets to be too much let me know, okay? The path is really narrow
here but when we get to the other side of that little hill over
there it gets wider, so we can all grab a corner again and I’ll
hold on to Don. Okay?”

“Yeah, we’re
okay with that, Brad. Right, Meg? We’ll be right behind you.”

I wasn’t
totally okay with it, though, because I still had this reservation
about the wolves crossing the bridge and coming after us. I looked
back several times before we actually started walking and there was
no sign of the wolves anywhere, and Ali must have known that Meagan
and I were a bit worried so he yelled back for us to relax.