“These things are rusted on here. We’re not going to get them off. Meg, can you look in the glove box and see if there’s something in there that might work. I need a wrench.”
“Yeah, hang on.”
Meagan whipped the glove box open and threw everything on the floor as she searched hurriedly for a wrench.
“Nothing here, just papers and stuff.”
My insides were jumping and without thinking, I looked back at the fire. It had got much closer just in the last couple of minutes and I could feel myself panicking inside. We had to find something to get the wheel nuts off. Brad was pounding them with a stone from the roadside but they weren’t budging.
I jumped into the back of the truck and searched for a tool to use, but there was nothing out in the open except for an old rusted shovel. I stuck my hand in the hole where the spare tire had been hidden and groped around in the rust and dirt until I felt something.
“I think I found a wrench.”
I pulled out an old worn wrench and leaned over the side of the truck. Brad snatched it from my hands and quickly adjusted it to fit the wheel nuts but it wouldn’t stay locked in place. It slipped constantly so that there wasn’t any grip on the wheel nuts, and his face turned red with frustration.
“This thing is so old and worn, it won’t stay shut. Crap, look at it, it just falls open.”
Brad glanced back at the fire and then tried it again.
“Okay, it’s working. I just have to press it here with my thumb. It’s gonna hold. Okay, I’ll get them loose and maybe you can unscrew them.”
Ali squatted beside Brad and the two of them grunted and groaned for the next couple of minutes as they struggled to remove the wheel nuts. I knew they were working as fast as they could but when my eyes shifted back to the fire my insides began to churn even more. It had gained considerable distance in just that couple of minutes.
Finally, the wheel nuts were off and the guys tugged and pulled at the wheel but it wouldn’t move. Brad kicked it violently a couple of times to get it loose and then finally the wheel came loose and they pulled it off. Ali flung it into the ditch behind us as Brad put the donut in place. Within a minute, the new wheel was on. Ali flung the jack into the back and yelled for us all to get in.
Brad and I jumped into the back and when Ali slammed the truck door we heard the loudest “Crap” imaginable.
“The truck turned off!”
He tried starting it but it just sounded like it was dying and so Ali jumped out of the truck and spun in circles as he held his cap in one hand and brushed his short hair several times with the other. I was totally paralyzed for a few seconds from my heart thumping so loud inside my chest. I couldn’t believe that yet another thing could go wrong. Brad jumped over the side of the truck and went to say something to Ali but stared straight behind me instead.
“The smoke. Look at the smoke. It’s rolling right at us. We have to get out of here now.”
The two guys whispered together and then Ali yelled out and motioned for us to come to him.
“Okay, we have to push it again to get it started. One of you girls can drive it and the rest will push. We’re going to have to push it up to where the road slopes down and then we’ll jump in the back. Hopefully that slope will be enough to get it going.”
We all looked ahead where an even greater challenge was waiting for us. On the other side of the down slope was a slight incline so if the truck didn’t start on that slope then we were doomed because it would never start on a hill. The tension was increasing and so was my headache.
Meagan pushed me towards the cab saying that I couldn’t push the truck with a twisted ankle and I wasn’t going to argue with her because it was hurting more now than it was before. I hobbled to the driver’s door and looked back as the three of them got in position to push.
For a few daunting seconds I stared beyond them and at the smoke that was quickly coming at us. The perils of the dream came at me again and I had to shake it off so I could get into the truck. The heavy dark clouds were about a city block away from us all across the back but they were even closer on the left side.
“Sarah, get in!”
Meagan’s frantic voice broke the trance and I jumped into the truck. I put it in neutral and got ready to steer but when I adjusted the rear view mirror all I could see was the enormous blanket of smoke and it was so massive that it seemed almost as if it was resting on the back of the truck. I knew we had to hurry.
The truck began to roll very slowly and my insides were shaking. The threat of the oncoming fire was intensified by the smoke that just kept gaining on us. I couldn’t do anything until the truck got to the hill to roll down and so I gripped the wheel and got ready, and that’s when Nana began to slap my arm.
“Start it. Turn the key, Sarah. Come on, start the truck.”
“Nana, I can’t start the truck until they get it rolling. And the key is on so please don’t touch it.”
“You have to turn the key to start the engine, Sarah.”
Nana had never driven a vehicle in her life but she’d been with Grandpa when he had driven and she felt as if she knew how to drive better than I did, and I’d been driving for a couple of years.
“Nana, please let go of my arm. I know what I’m doing.”
But she kept shaking my arm and yelling at me to start the engine.
“Honey, the fire is right behind us. You have to start this thing now. Even I know you have to turn the key.”
“Nana, the key is turned on, okay? Just give us a second. We have to get the thing rolling so it’ll start.”
“You have to have it in gear like Grandpa does.”
I never suspected that Nana could be aggressive, but to my surprise she leaned over and slammed the stick shift into first gear and the truck came to a screeching halt. I jerked forward and banged my head on the steering wheel at the same time that I felt the thumps against the tail of the truck. I held my breath and sure enough, they all began to yell at me.
Brad was at the driver’s door in a second and his face was red as he yelled.
“What’s wrong? Why did you put it into gear? We’re not even at the hill yet.”
“I didn’t. Nana grabbed the ….”
But Nana reached out her arm and pushed me back in the seat as she spoke loudly to Brad.
“You need to put the truck in gear, that’s what my husband always says and I’m not sure that Sarah here knows how to drive this kind of truck. Maybe one of you boys should get in here and drive it.”
“Look, Mrs. Davies, Sarah knows how to drive, okay? You have to let her drive this and you need to sit quiet, okay?”
Nana huffed as she moved back into the passenger seat and stared straight ahead.
“I was just trying to help. There’s a fire behind us you know, and we have to get going.”
“We know, Mrs. Davies. We know that.”
Brad huffed and waved his hand to Ali and Meagan as if to say, ‘hold on’.
“So, you’re okay, Sarah? Your cheek is really red.”
“I just hit the steering wheel when we stopped. I’m okay.”
“All right, let’s get ready to try it again, and please, Mrs. Davies, don’t do anything.”
I knew that Brad was trying to keep peace but the stress on his face told me that he was panicking over the encroaching fire and inability to get away from it as much as the rest of us were. He tapped the side of the truck and ran to the back with the others.
“It’s okay. Your Nana switched gears on Sarah but it’s okay now. Let’s try this again.”
I stuck my head out of the window to see if they were okay and I could hear Ali complaining that we’d now lost several feet of the runway and about ten minutes to the fire. A few seconds later the truck began to roll again as my eyes bounced from the road ahead to the rear view mirror.
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!”
Chapter 21
Final Destination
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 ge
t 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.
Firestorm Page 17