beyond belief. Horror piled upon horror...
‘Because of the ghosts,’ Julie whispered.
Amina glanced from Julie to Rob and back again, her expression showing her sheer incomprehension of what they must have gone through. Or maybe it wasn’t incomprehension. She’d been so close herself...
‘If you hadn’t saved Danny...’ she whispered.
‘We did,’ Rob told her.
‘But it can’t bring your boys back.’
‘No.’ Rob’s voice was harsh.
‘There’s nothing...’ Amina was crying now, hugging Danny to her, looking from Julie to Rob and back again. ‘You’ve saved us and there’s nothing I can do to thank you. No way... I wish...’
‘We all wish,’ Rob said grimly, glancing at Julie. ‘But at least today we have less to wish for. A bit of ointment and the odd bandage for Luka’s sore paws and we’ll be ready to carry on where we left off.’
Where we left off yesterday, though, Julie thought bleakly. Not where we left off four years ago.
What had she been about, clinging to this man last night? The ghosts were still all around them.
The ghosts would never let them go.
‘We’re okay,’ Rob said and suddenly he’d tugged her to him and he was holding. Just holding. Taking comfort or giving it, it didn’t matter. His body was black and filthy and big and hard and infinitely comforting and she had a huge urge to turn and kiss him, smoke and all. She didn’t. She couldn’t and it wasn’t just that they were with Amina and Danny.
The ghosts still held the power to hold them apart.
* * *
An hour later, Rob finally decreed they might open the bunker doors. The sounds had died to little more than high wind, with the occasional crack of falling timber. The battery-operated radio Rob had dug up from beneath a pile of blankets told them the front had moved south. Messages were confused. There was chaos and destruction throughout the mountains. All roads were closed. The advice was not to move from where they were.
They had no intention of moving from where they were, but they might look outside.
The normal advice during a bush fire was to take shelter while the front passed, and then emerge as soon as possible and fight to keep the house from burning. That’d be okay in a fast-moving grass fire but down in the valley the bush had caught and burned with an intensity that was never going to blow through. There’d been an hour of heat so intense they could feel it through the double doors. Now...she thought they’d emerge to nothing.
‘What about staying here while we do a reconnaissance?’ Rob asked Amina and the woman gave a grim nod.
‘Our house’ll be gone anyway; I know that. What’s there to see? Danny, can you pass me another drink? We’ll stay here until Rob and Julie tell us it’s safe.’
‘I want to see the burned,’ Danny said, and Julie thought this was becoming an adventure to the little boy. He had no idea how close he’d come.
‘You’ll see it soon enough.’ Rob managed to keep the grimness from his voice. ‘But, for now, Julie and I are the fearless forward scouts. You’re the captain minding the fort. Take care of everyone here, Danny. You’re in charge.’
And he held out his hand to Julie. ‘Come on, love,’ he said. ‘Let’s go face the music.’
She hesitated. There was so much behind those words. Sadness, tenderness, and...caring? How many years had they been apart and yet he could still call her love.
It twisted her heart. It made her feel vulnerable in a way she couldn’t define.
‘I’m coming,’ she said, but she didn’t take his hand. ‘Let’s go.’
* * *
First impression was black and smoke and heat. The wash of heat was so intense it took her breath away.
Second impression was desolation. The once glorious bushland that had surrounded their home was now a blackened, ash-filled landscape, still smouldering, flickers of flame still orange through the haze of smoke.
Third impression was that their house was still standing.
‘My God,’ Rob breathed. ‘It’s withstood... Julie, Plan D now.’
And she got it. Their fire plan had been formed years before but it was typed up and laminated, pasted to their bathroom door so they couldn’t help but learn it.
Plan A: leave the area before the house was threatened. When they’d had the boys, this was the most sensible course of action. Maybe it was the most sensible course of action anyway. Their independent decision to come into a fire zone had been dumb. But okay, moving on.
Plan B: stay in the house and defend. They’d abandon that plan if the threat was dire, the fire intense.
Plan C: head to the bunker and stay there until the front passed. And then implement Plan D.
Plan D: get out of the bunker as soon as possible and try to stop remnants of fire destroying the house.
The fire had been so intense that Julie had never dreamed she’d be faced with Plan D but now it had happened, and the list with its dot-points was so ingrained in her head that she moved into automatic action.
The generator was under the house. The pump was under there too. If they were safe they could pump water from the underground tanks.
‘You do the water, spray the roof,’ Rob snapped. ‘I’ll check inside, then head round the foundations and put out spot fires.’ It was still impossibly hard to speak. Even breathing hurt, but somehow Rob managed it. ‘We can do this, Julie. With this level of fire, we might be stuck here for hours, if not days. We need to keep the house safe.’
Why? There was a tiny part of her that demanded it. Why bother?
For the same reason she’d come back, she thought. This house had been home. It no longer was, or she’d thought it no longer was. But Rob was already heading for the bricked-in cavity under the house where they’d find tools to defend.
Rob thought this place was worth fighting for—the remnants of her home?
Who knew the truth of it? Who knew the logic? All she knew was that Rob thought this house was worth defending and, for now, all she could do was follow.
* * *
They worked solidly for two hours. After the initial checks they worked together, side by side. Rob’s design genius had paid off. The house was intact but the smouldering fires after the front were insidious. A tiny spark in leaf litter hard by the house could be enough to turn the house into flames hours after the main fire. So Julie sprayed while Rob ran along the base of the house with a mop and bucket.
The underground water tank was a lifesaver. The water flowing out seemed unbelievably precious. Heaven knew how people managed without such tanks.
