CHAPTER 1
“What the hell are you doing here? Are ye crazy, woman? It’s nae safe. I could’ve run ye over!” a male voice shouted from somewhere behind her. Hayley blinked as she swung around, only now seeing the headlights through the thick cloud of smoke barely metres from where she was standing disorientated in the middle of the road.
The man climbed out of the truck and rushed towards her. Relief washed through her when she recognised his firefighter’s helmet and gear.
She didn’t have to wonder how she looked, with smoke burning her eyes and soot covering her clothes. Although she grabbed a surgical mask before she left the consulting rooms in a hurry, she still struggled. But there wasn’t time to panic or looking for niceties. The moment the man reached her, Hayley grasped his arm and pleaded, “Please, you need to help me. My friend is in her house. I need to get to her. I tried to contact the fire chief, but it’s chaos there. I had no choice than coming here, trying to find help.”
Hayley couldn’t see his face, but she heard the strong Scottish accent as he muttered, “Yer still crazy. But where is yer friend? Is she alone? Will she be able tae walk on her own?”
His questions came rapidly, as if time was of the essence, which Hayley realised it was, otherwise she wouldn’t have come here. She heard the wind had changed and that the fire had jumped over the firebreak they made. Only a few miles were separating the new fire to the house Courtney shared with her husband, Taylor, when he was at home. Taylor was in Qatar, where he was working for six months of the year.
She pulled out her phone and opened it, still struggling to see the screen clearly through teary eyes, “Here are the coordinates. And yes, she’s alone up here.”
He studied the coordinates and tapped it into a small tablet he had pulled from his pocket and then he muttered, “We’ve been there. No one answered.”
“She came out this morning to collect stuff, but she’s heavily pregnant and struggles with low blood pressure. She passed out, and when she came to, she phoned me. Please, she is still there. I spoke to her, not even an hour ago.”
The man muttered something unintelligible under his breath. From his belt he pulled a mobile phone from his pocket. He barely gave the person on the other side a chance to respond before he ordered, “Mike, prepare for an emergency evacuation. Pregnant woman in house. Get the team ready. I’ll be there in a minute.”
Ending the call, he muttered to Hayley, “Get in.”
Hayley didn’t need a second invitation, or rather a command. Within seconds she pulled herself up and landed rather clumsily in the seat next to him. She had barely strapped herself in when the man manoeuvred the truck around and rushed back to where he came from. Hayley hadn’t been far from the control centre because of the heavy smoke, but it might’ve taken her much longer if she didn’t meet the man. She could hardly see a metre in front of her.
He had barely brought the truck to a standstill when he was out, and called to another man standing by, “Make sure she doesn’t wander off.”
“Please, can’t I come with you...”
“Are ye nuts?! Ye stay where ye are, do you ken? Under nae circumstances will I allow ye tae come with us. Stay!”
“Okay, damn it. I’m not a dog!” Hayley muttered.
He didn’t bother to answer her but barked into his radio, “Ready?”
She heard the crackling of the radio as he strode off. The young rookie firefighter came around the truck to open the door for her. When he recognised her, his mouth dropped open, “Dr Evans? What are you doing here? Your father will get a fit...”
“I know, Mark, but I didn’t have a choice. Courtney had it in her crazy head to come home to collect more clothes for the baby and other personal stuff. I swear, those pregnancy hormones are playing havoc with her brain cells,” she muttered as she allowed young Mark to help her down from the truck. The young boy took her arm and led her to a tent where volunteers had set up a coffee and snack table. Hayley declined the coffee offered to her. She was already operating on enough natural adrenaline and didn’t need the extra intake of caffeine. She accepted the bottle of cold water and gratefully let the moisture slid down her parched throat as she set in to wait for the rescue squad to return with her best friend. The sun, barely visible through the thick smog, was disappearing rapidly and soon it would be dark. She hoped they could return quickly.
Mark regularly returned to Hayley’s side to check if she followed the foreigner’s orders and stay put, but Hayley wasn’t stupid. She knew the drill. Haley didn’t understand why she felt as if she could trust the man, but somehow she did. He would bring her friend back safely. Mark reassured her that, “If there is one team who could bring Courtney back safely, it was the team from the Overseas Fire Rescue team, led by officer Mackenzie”. Hayley suspected officer Mackenzie was the curt man who came to her rescue. Young Marl seemed to have huge respect for him.
Hayley closed her eyes, silently praying. That was all she could do at that moment when fear wanted to envelop her.
* * *
For a moment, he froze when her words registered. Heavily pregnant. Stuart wanted to panic, to flee, but then his training and responsibility kicked in. He should’ve reassured the crazy woman, but he didn’t as his mind was now on only one thing and that was to bring the woman and her unborn child to safety. That was why he was doing this job, or rather, fulfilling his calling, and he couldn’t fail.
By the time he reached the assembly point, his squad was ready, as Stuart knew they would be. They knew each other well, and he knew he could rely on them. It took him seconds to brief them before they were on their way. On the way to the house, only a couple of miles away on a dirt track, Stuart briefed Mike, his second-in-command. Mike frowned when Stuart announced, “I want ye tae take command. I’m going in.”
“Are you sure it’s wise, mate?”
“I have tae. Ye know I have tae.”
“I know, Stu, but...”
“There are no buts. This is my one chance tae redeem myself.”
Mike sighed and shook his head, “You know you’ve done that a million times over. How many lives have you saved in the last twelve years since you joined this organisation? Or in the three years before that?”
“But none of them was a pregnant woman and her unborn child...”
The silence hung between them, but Stuart knew Mike needed no further explanation. He would not argue any further, but he also knew that his friend would watch his movements with a hawk’s eye, looking out for that moment of panic which might be the difference between life and death.
The house, nestling amongst the trees, was barely visible through the smoke as the radio rattled. The news wasn’t good. The wind had picked up, but with it, the clouds had also gathered. Would this be the night it rained and put an end to the nightmare this small town still had to endure? Groenbosbaai was a rapidly developing seaside town on this stretch of the Southern Cape coastline, but it still was a close-knit community.
So far, they had kept the fires away from the town and its inhabitants. For safety’s sake, they had evacuated the elderly and most vulnerable people to George. There were still the stalwarts in the community who refused to budge until it’s absolutely necessary. They were the ones who provided sustenance to the teams and carried on with their every-day life as if nothing was happening.
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