The snarling and growling sounds erupted―there had to be more than one―and a second later, a dull, vice-like pressure latched on my fist, so I slowly, slowly pulled it out. Attached by its teeth to the end of my jacket was a joey, no bigger than a kitten, but its grip was like that of a pit bull terrier.
I spun on my knees to the tub and put the joey in it. Not knowing how to get it to let go, I gently pinched the scruff of its neck the way the mother would, and he let go. I quickly put the lid on and rewrapped my hand. I stuck it into the den a second time. There was more growling, then again something latched onto my jacket. I pulled out the second joey and put it in the tub with the first one.
The den was quiet. There was no more noise, no scurrying, no anything. Not from the den anyway. The sound of the fire was louder, closer. I opened the jacket up, and taking the lid off the tub, I covered the joeys and closed the lid again.
I looked up at the sky and saw smoke. Thick black smoke had crept over the trees. “Oh God.”
I scrambled to my feet just as something else got Rosemary’s attention. Her ears pricked up and she took off up the embankment just as I heard something else.
“Lawson!”
I clambered up the edge of the gully, trying to keep the tub even, but my foot kept slipping in the mud.
“Lawson!”
It was Jack.
Rosemary had disappeared over the top and I knew he’d see her, but I called out anyway. “Down here!”
Jack appeared in bright orange overalls looking a horrid mess. “Oh, thank god,” he said with tears in his eyes. He put his hand to his heart before he held it out to me to help me up.
“Take the tub,” I urged, holding it up. “Be careful with it.”
He got down on his knees and took it, then helped pull me to the top. But he didn’t stop. He picked up the tub, handed it to me, grabbed me by the shirt, and pulled me in the direction of the Defender. “Run!”
So I ran.
Rosemary went with Jack, and I struggled to start the Defender, my hands were shaking so badly. Jack reversed like a mad man and I finally got the gearstick into reverse and floored it. He spun his ute around onto the road, backed up a bit, and waited for me to do the same. When I reversed onto the road, I spun the Defender around, rammed it into first gear, and drove the fastest I’d ever driven. Jack’s front bumper was right on my tail, he was urging me to go faster. Or at the very least, not letting me slow down.
Then I saw why.
In my rear-vision mirror, the tree line behind us was a wall of black smoke and orange fire.
*
The drive back into Scottsdale didn’t take long. Given the speed at which we were travelling, it wasn’t too surprising. It was long enough for the adrenaline to nose dive, and by the time I pulled up at the evacuation centre, I was barely holding it together.
There were people everywhere, and Jack’s ute screeched to a stop behind me. I fumbled with my seatbelt, then couldn’t get the door open at first, and when I did, I almost fell out of the Defender.
Jack stomped toward me. “What the hell were you thinking?!”
Right, then. His adrenaline had worn off too, but instead of falling in a heap like me, he was angry. No, actually, he was pissed. At me. And rightly so. Everyone had stopped and stared at our dramatic entrance.
He seemed so big and so intimidating, and his ire was aimed right at me. “For a genius, you can be really fucking stupid.”
I nodded and my vision blurred as tears spilled down my cheeks. “I had to save them.”
His whole body sagged, and he took huge strides so he could throw his arms around me. In front of all the good people of Scottsdale, he hugged me so damn hard, and all I could do was cry. My hands were shaking and, no, not just my hands. My whole body was shaking.
“I need a blanket here,” he called out. He rubbed my back. He whispered against my ear. “You’re okay, Lawson. I’m sorry I spoke to you like that. I was so worried, and you scared the hell outta me.”
A blanket was placed around my shoulders, and I turned to find a concerned Remmy. She rubbed my arm. “You okay, hun?”
I nodded. I felt rather foolish for letting my emotions get the better of me. I wiped my face. “Sorry. I think the adrenaline wore off.” I stepped back so I could look up into Jack’s face. “There were only two joeys. The mother and the other joey weren’t there.”
“Maybe the mother took the strongest,” Jack suggested. Then he blinked. “Is that what you have in the tub?”
I nodded. “We need to take them to someone who can care for them. And the butterflies and eggs. I need to get them into a controlled environment.”
Jack fixed the blanket around me, then collected the tub off the front passenger seat. He carefully pulled the lid off to reveal two little devil joeys huddled in my jacket. The people gathered around all oooohed and ahhhhed, but I couldn’t take my eyes off Jack. “Oh, Lawson,” he whispered. “You went back for them?”
“Rosemary made me. She’s really Lassie, did you know that?” She was sitting faithfully at our feet, so I took a second to give her a pat. “It was her idea to save the joeys. She was barking at them and wouldn’t come back when I called her, and I would have died before I left her behind.”
Jack’s eyes shone with tears. I got the feeling he didn’t get too choked up all that often. All he did was nod, then gave me a hard kiss on the side of my head. He looked at Remmy. “Can you stay with him? Make sure he doesn’t run off and almost die trying to save any more animals. I’ll go and see if I can find Paul.”
Remmy nodded and gave me a bit of a hug. We watched Jack leave with the tub of devil joeys. “Who’s Paul?”
“Paul’s a local wildlife rescue guy. He looks after native animals until they’re ready for release.”
“Oh. Okay.”
Remmy gave me a sad smile. “Oh, Lawson, you should have seen Jack. They got the fire contained on the southeast line, so he came here looking for you. I told him I hadn’t seen you at all, and he took off like… crazy. He just turned and ran. I guess he knew where to look for you.”
Jack was suddenly back with a man who was now holding the tub with the two joeys. Jack gave me a look that said I was in a lot of trouble. “Oh, I knew where to look alright. And when I saw the gate on the reserve had been smashed off its hinges, I knew exactly where to find him.”
“I’ll pay for the gate,” I said.
“Never mind the gate now,” Jack said. “That whole area’s now nothing but charred ground. There’s no gate or fences anymore.”
“The fire,” I said, looking to the east. The hills were nothing but dark clouds and black smoke. “How was it contained? It didn’t look too contained when we were in the mountains. And why are we not evacuating?”
“We pushed the frontline to run up the mountain, making it turn back on itself,” Jack explained. “The two kilometres of cleared farming land between the town and the national park protects the town.”
Paul, the man holding the joey tub spoke then. “You got these two little critters out?” People had gathered around, all clearly curious.