He nodded. ‘Stand here, nurse. You can be our collection point.’ He ran off, gesturing to two sergeants nearby. In hardly any time at all, I had half a dozen men gathered around me, sitting or lying in the mud and more on their way. A sergeant came back and handed me a whistle.
‘Keep blowing, miss. Let them know where you are.’ I blew and blew, turning all the time. They brought up another man, but he was already dead. We left him. Eventually, the ambulance came back. We were loading people on board when the major turned up again. He clambered in after the last man and turned to me reaching out his hand. ‘On board, nurse, and that’s an order.’
I couldn’t go with him and if I ran back into the courtyard he’d come after me, so I said, ‘Yes, sir. I’ll go in front with the driver,’ and slammed the doors on him. I slapped the side and it disappeared into the murk.
The two sides of the building were well ablaze now and even I could see the east wall was going to come down any minute. The heat hurt my face. It was like an oven. Terrible noises came from the third side of the courtyard, the stables over which Sussman lived. There was no chance of getting the horses out, none at all. They screamed in fear and panic and I could hear them kicking against their partitions in their desperation to get out. The building was almost engulfed in flames. There was nothing I could do. I turned and ran.
I knew someone was in the pod, because the scrap had been kicked aside, exposing the door. I picked up my skirts and really ran for it, months of physical training paying off at last. I heard a shout behind me. Thank God, it was Kal. Her hair hung down; she was bleeding from a nasty scalp wound, and smeared black with smoke and soot. I reached out, took her hand and we ran to the pod together. Sussman had the door open, ready. We fell, gasping, into the pod and as we did, I saw the east wall sway, lean impossibly, and then come down with a crash and a great shower of sparks and burning debris. The door closed, shutting out the roaring flames, screaming horses, and the sound of people burning alive.
And then there was silence.
Sussman was white-faced. ‘Max? Max, my God, I can’t believe it. I thought you were dead. Why aren’t you dead?’ I shook my head and he passed me some water. ‘I heard it started in the linen rooms and I knew that’s where you were. I can’t believe you got out alive.’
‘Hey,’ said Kal sourly. ‘I’m alive too.’ I gave her the water and she took a good slug.
For a long time we watched it on the screen. Sussman had all the cameras working. These films, together with our own personal records were our reason for being here.
Slowly, Kal got up. ‘Come on, Max, on your feet. Let’s have a look at you.’
‘I’m fine,’ I said, because that’s what you always say, even if your head’s just fallen off, but clambered to my feet.
‘Sussman, get the med kit. So, what hurts the most?’
‘Well, the door fell on my head so I think I’ve got a bit of an egg. I swallowed my own body weight in smoke and my chest hurts a bit and I’ve burnt my hands. Otherwise it’s only a broken fingernail and loss of appetite.’
She sprayed my hands with medical plastic, to cool and protect the burns and I slapped a quick dressing on her forehead. ‘There, that should hold us for a while.’ We both turned to look at Sussman sitting at the console and monitoring the cameras.
I said, ‘How about you? What’s the damage?’
He’d split the screen to show all four cameras and was watching closely. ‘What? Oh, I’m fine, thanks. No problems here.’
Kal looked him up and down. ‘You’re not hurt at all? How’s that, then?’
‘What?’ He dragged his eyes from the screen.
‘You’re awfully clean, given the state of Max and me. How did you manage that?’
‘I was with the other drivers when the alarm sounded. We were dispatched to our vehicles to evacuate the tents. I waited until no one was looking and then got back to the pod. I kept an eye out for you two on the way, but missed you, obviously. So I cleared the door and got inside. The cameras had activated automatically, so I made sure they’d got the best angles and waited for you two.’
He became aware of the silence. ‘As per your instructions.’ The silence lengthened.
‘What?’ he said, defensively. ‘You said, “No heroics. I’ll kick your arses,” etc. So I came straight to the pod as instructed by my mission controller, that’s you Miss Black, and got on with our mission, which is to investigate and record.’
He was being over-defensive and belligerent. Behind Kal, I made ‘Shut up, Shut up’ signs to him, but he couldn’t or wouldn’t see them. He finished with, ‘So what’s your problem, then?’