AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“By my estimates, Hades’ burrow is only twenty metres or so away.”
I met Rosie’s eyes. The largest burrow on the mountain that we’d found. With an entrance so large and deep, a man could stand in it.
Suddenly Rosie’s wombat training session with the brigade was the most important thing I’d ever studied.
“Hades’ burrow. Go!”
It was the slowest twenty metres of my life. Helping Rosie navigate the terrain with a joey clutched to her stomach was slower going than I anticipated. If this had been a warmer day … If the wind was more fierce, if the undergrowth had more fuel, if it hadn’t just snowed two days ago…
Don’t think it. Keep going.
“We’re almost there. Keep going.”
The burrow entrance was the most welcome thing I’d seen. I threw the backpack in and held out my hands for our baby wombat.
“You first. I’ll follow.”
Rosie hesitated for a second and then handed over the joey, who was barely covered in fur, and made a makeshift sling from my woollen jumper under my firefighter jacket. Rosie jumped down and slid into the burrow feet first.
The blaze was intensifying now as more flames reached petrol on the ground, despite the damp conditions in the bush. I clutched the joey to my stomach, lowered to the burrow’s edge, then half fell, half slid inside.
The burrow was pitch black and cold.
“Rosie? Rosie!”
“Here, I’m here.” A hand squeezed my biceps, and my eyes soon made out her silhouette in the dark. It was almost full moon, luckily, and what light it cast helped to see in this tight space. “Come further in. It’s cosy but we’re safe.” Panic was on the edge of her words. “I hope the hut will be okay.”
“S’kay, the wind’s blowing in the other direction. Snow event made everything wet. Dew is heavy tonight. You’re safe. That’s all that matters.”
But there’d been dry winds today and yesterday. The westerly winds always came in winter. God, I hoped the fire just burnt itself out.
Rosie had her legs stretched out to the burrow on our right. I sat with my back to the burrow wall, the top of my head scraping the roof and sending dust and sandy dirt everywhere.
We couldn’t stand here. But sitting or on hands and knees was fine.
I sat cross legged, and let Rosie lie her head on one thigh, and juggled the wombat joey in my jumper on the other.
Occasionally, the glow of flames flickered at the burrow entrance. It made a current of air, drawing fresher air from other entrances and passages, but no smoke came down.
“It’s burning really hot from the petrol, but that won’t last long on a cold night. More frost is predicted. It can’t last long.”
“He tried to start a fire the night of the snow.”
“Yeah.” I shifted, sending a cascade of dirt over us. “Maria showed us the footage. That’s how we knew where you were.”
“Stole my damn camera,” Rosie muttered, dusting off her jacket.
The joey adjusted its position in my jumper and huddled against her beanie. “You’re a wombat dad now.”
“Ha. Did not see that coming.”
I could still hear the crackle of the fire. Trees could stay alight for days. If one of those fell right now, or even exploded from the internal heat of literally being on fire…
Keep talking, Tom.
“I’m just hoping the brigade have caught the front of the fire and have it contained before it reaches the four wheeler and my ute.”
I shuddered, recalling how Stacey’s ute recently got caught in a fire. The damaged fuel tank had exploded in the heat of the inferno.
