Firestorm (23 page)

The next minute
dragged on into what seemed like an eternity of torment while my
heart raced ahead so much that it hurt to breathe. The downhill
slope was just a few yards away but the truck was heavy and the
weight of Nana and I sitting inside it made it harder for them to
push. It began rolling a bit faster and then faster and then
finally we were at the top of the slope. Brad’s voice broke the
tension as he yelled at Ali and Meagan.

“Meg, jump in
now. Hurry up. Get in.”

I felt the
weight on the truck as she jumped into the back while the guys
continued to push the truck towards the downhill slope.

“Okay, Ali, are
you ready? Go!”

Ali and Brad
climbed into the back of the truck at the same time, just as we
began to descend down the slope. I gripped the steering wheel so
hard that my knuckles turned white but I managed to press the
clutch with my shaking foot and then shift it into first gear. The
truck slowed down when I shifted and it scared me because I thought
it was going to stall, but then it began to pick up speed as it
rolled down the slope. The truck was in gear and rolling but the
engine wasn’t turning on.

I heard Meagan
coughing and when I looked through the mirror again I saw that the
smoke was right upon us. I could feel myself breathing heavy as
fear was slowly gripping me. If we didn’t move soon it would
overtake us and the fire that was right behind it would be our last
memory. I turned back to the road and flicked my eyelids several
times trying to wipe away the tears of fear that were welling
up.

Please, God,
please make this thing start. Please make it turn on!

The truck began
to roll faster and a few seconds later the engine turned over. My
ears pulsated and my heart pounded as I held the steering wheel
with all my strength and stared straight ahead. The truck began to
move on its own strength and I shifted it again and again and
seconds later we were up to forty miles an hour.

The shouts and
cheers from the back of the truck brought tears of relief to my
eyes and I took several deep breaths so that I could focus on
driving. For the next minute I felt as if we were home free but
when I glanced out the side view mirror I knew that we weren’t even
close.

Suddenly, the
air waves were filled with the sounds of firecrackers shooting into
the sky and the shouts of joy from the back of the truck became
screams of terror. Meagan was yelling at me to drive faster and I
wanted to, but the donut on the front wheel wouldn’t allow me to go
any faster. As it was, I had to hold the steering wheel with all my
strength just to stop the truck from veering off to the left.

Nana screamed
that fire was shooting at us and through the side view mirror I saw
one come from behind and land on the grassy field that was just
ahead of us on the left.

“Gees, that was
close, Nana. I hope when we get to the bridge in a few minutes that
we’ll get a break from this because the river opens up so wide on
the other side.”

While Nana was
telling me to hurry and drive faster, there were a couple more
shooting ambers that came at us with loud, hideous screeches. Some
of them landed very close to us and I tried to focus on the road
and on getting to the bridge as soon as possible.

And that’s when
Meagan’s screams sent shivers up and down my spine.

“Get it off!
Get it off!”

My first
natural reaction was to slam on the brakes and help them but the
fire was closing in all around us and we were drowning in the
smoke. Nana was screaming that the back of the truck was on fire
and it took everything I had to keep driving.

Ali was yelling
to Brad to grab the shovel.

“I’ll use this
board. That’s it, scoop it – okay, we got it. We got it. Throw it.
Throw it.”

I turned
quickly and saw them through the back window as they tossed the
fire ball over the side of the truck. I was trying frantically to
see if they were okay but I had to turn back to watch where I was
going, and I couldn’t see anything through the rear-view mirror. I
wiped the tears that wouldn’t stop streaming down my face and
glanced at Nana as she held onto Misty and collapsed back into her
seat.

“Look in the
sky. The choppers are up there and I bet they’re watching us.”

“Yeah, Nana, I
see them. They know we’re here and I bet they want to start dumping
chemicals on the fire.”

Just then Ali
tapped the back window and gave a thumbs-up and I knew that they
were okay. I stared ahead to see where we were going and to my
welcoming surprise, the bridge was just up ahead. Seconds later we
were crossing it and I felt as if we were entering a new world.

There was a
police car several yards on the other side and the officer jumped
out and flagged me to pull over. At first I was reluctant to stop
because of the issues we had with restarting before, but then I
thought that if it turned off again, we’d all just pile into his
car to get away. So I pulled over and threw the truck into neutral
and waited as the officer came right up to us.

“Are one of you
guys Ali?”

Ali was
watching and he waved to the officer.

“Hey, right
here. This is everyone, Officer. This is the rest of the Davies
family that I told the patrol officer about.”

“Did you see
any other people along the way that we need to look out for?”

“We’re not
aware of anyone else. As far as I know it was just us back
there.”

While they were
talking the second officer came to Nana’s door and asked her if she
was okay.

“That gash on
your head may need stitches. You should get to the hospital as soon
as possible.”

I wasn’t sure
who was left in the town or where I should go, but I knew that I
just wanted to get as far away from this place as possible.

“Has the town
been evacuated, yet?”

“Oh yeah, long
time ago. Now you need to get to the hospital and get Mrs. Davies
looked after as well as yourselves. Are you able to drive
this?”

Before I could
answer him, Brad opened the driver’s door and told the officer that
he’d drive the rest of the way. The officer was more helpful than I
ever imagined police officers to be.

“Look, the
choppers are ready to dump chemicals on this and the ground crew
have already begun their work so there’s nothing more for us to do
here. So, just follow us and we’ll lead you to the hospital. It’s
about an hour’s drive away, so do think this old can will make it
that far?”

Brad snickered
to the officer as he climbed in beside me.

“Well, it got
us through all that so I think it’ll do just fine when it’s not
under pressure.”

Brad followed
the officers to Pembroke along roads that had no evidence of fire.
No one said a word and I knew that this trip had taken everything
out of him, maybe even out of our relationship. I rested beside him
but my mind was spinning with everything that happened in the last
twenty-four hours. I just wanted to go home.

When we pulled
into the hospital parking lot, the one officer helped Nana out of
the truck and escorted her inside the hospital. She was still
clinging on to Misty and I think it was likely the one thing that
kept her going. The rest of us followed them in and we collapsed
into the hard vinyl chairs in the waiting room while we waited for
Nana to return. A thin middle-aged nurse with short blonde hair and
a wide friendly grin came out to greet us and handed Misty to me,
and then gave each of us a bottle of Gatorade.

“We can’t let
the cat stay here so you’ll need to hang on to her. Wow, you kids
sure look like you’ve been through it all. Do any of you need
medical attention because now’s the time?”

I looked at
Meagan and then at Ali and Brad and for the first time I realized
how utterly dirty and smelly we all were.

“Meg, what
color is your hair again? You are such a mess.”

“What are you
talking about? You’ve got black all over your face and arms. You’re
even more of a mess.”

I was dirty and
I was raunchy and I didn’t care. We both giggled because we were
alive and that was all that was important.

The nurse
looked at Meagan’s knee and put some disinfectant on it and then
took Brad’s hand and asked him to open it.

“Ooh, you’re
burned. Come with me and I’ll clean that up and get you some burn
cream for it.”

Brad left the
waiting room and I felt sick inside. I didn’t realize that he got
burned when they were trying to get the fire ball off the back of
the truck. He returned a few minutes later and as I looked at him I
just wanted to cry when I asked him how he was.

“I’m okay,
Sarah. Don’t worry about it. We made it and that’s all that
counts.”

Nana returned
about a half hour later, after having two stitches put in to close
the gash in her head.

“I’m going to
stay here with Grandpa but the hospital has arranged for you to
stay at a hotel nearby until you can get a flight home
tomorrow.”

Grandpa! I had
totally forgotten about him.

“How is
he?”

Nana didn’t
answer but instead wiped tears from her eyes. The nurse put her arm
around her and smiled at us.

“Your
grandfather is upstairs in the ICU ward for now. You kids saved his
life. You hear that, Grandma? Your kids saved your husband’s life.
You have good kids here.”

I swallowed to
stop from crying and Meagan was wiping her tears with her dirty
shirt.

“What about his
leg? Can they save it?”

The nurse shook
her head and raised her thin brown eyebrows.

“I really don’t
know about that, but I do know that the doctors here will do
everything possible to get him back on his feet – on both of his
feet.”

Meagan nodded
and spoke through her trembling lips.

“So, you’re
going to stay in the hospital until Grandpa is ready to come
home?”

The nurse
tapped Meagan’s hands.

“We’re a
friendly hospital and she’ll take a guest room on the main floor
where she can stay until your grandfather gets his own room. And
when he’s well enough we’ll help arrange the flight to send them
both home to you. Meanwhile, those officers will take you to the
hotel where you can clean up, get something to eat and maybe even
get some sleep. You all look like you haven’t slept in days.”

Before we knew
it we were at the hotel and I was standing in a hot shower watching
the dirty, smoky water flush away black dirt and grit. I felt so
relieved and so grateful that we had actually escaped death’s door
so many times.

I walked into
the small living room where Meagan was sitting on the couch wearing
her matching clean white robe. I plopped down beside her and gave
her a shaky hug.

“Your hair
looks much better, Meg. Smells nice, too.”

“You too. You
hair is so pretty and shiny when it’s clean.”

We chuckled as
we tried to build each other up but I knew that she was worried
about the guys as much as I was.

“Meg, do you
think this was the last straw for us? The guys seemed so quiet and
distant in the car, almost as if they couldn’t get away from us
fast enough. Not that I blame Brad. All I ever do is drag him into
dangerous situations and that’s a lot for a new boyfriend to
take.”

“Yeah, I’m a
bit worried too, although I think with a bit of time I may be able
to show Ali that life can be fun without all this. I just hope that
this adventure hasn’t been that one too many, you know?”

I grabbed a
tissue from the coffee table and wiped my nose.

“I’ve never had
a real normal date with Brad, you know. I wish I could and I’d love
it to be a quiet time where all we do is eat pizza and watch a
movie, talk and get to know each other. But I think I blew it and
now I just want to go home and get ready for college.”

Meagan held her
hand out and fiddled with the ring on her finger.

“Ali gave me
this as a friendship ring. Well, we don’t have time for dating
anyway. Like you said, we’ll be off to college soon and we’ll all
be busy studying.”

We sat on the
couch wiping our tears and I couldn’t even feel the relief of being
alive anymore because I knew that I had probably lost the best guy
in the world. We’d head home tomorrow and whatever we had or
thought we had would be over and we’d all have to get on with our
lives. Our old friend Amanda was just waiting for the moment to
grab Brad and my heart was aching because I had just given her the
opportunity she’d been waiting for.

We must have
sat there crying and comforting each other for an hour until we
were interrupted by a knock at the door. Meagan wiped her eyes with
a fresh tissue and then got off the couch.

“I’ll get it.
The guy at the front desk said they’d wash our clothes that were in
our bags and return them to us all cleaned. Although, this robe is
so warm and comfy I almost hate to take it off.”

She took a deep
breath and opened the door to a short elderly woman with white hair
who was dressed in the blue motel uniform. She smiled at us and
handed Meagan a page that listed all of our laundry. We were both
excited to have clean clothes and Meagan helped the woman wheel the
trolley into our little hallway.

“Oh, thank you
so much. Wow, our own little rolling closet. This is really
great.”

As she turned
to leave, the woman noticed an empty hanger and glanced at the list
in Meagan’s hand.

“Oh, I’m so
sorry. Your green cardigan must have fallen off the hanger by the
elevator. I’ll go and get it and I’ll be right back. Just give me a
second.”

We left the
door partly open so the woman could come right back and then Meagan
rolled the stand to one side of the hallway. It did feel good
having clean clothes to wear so I picked out my pink hoodie and
shorts.