Page 30 of Doc Defence

It finally arrived at one am. She texted her thanks to Clara and settled back to try and sleep. Staring at the ceiling, the rest she so desperately needed evaded her until, after far too long, her eyes drifted closed.

An alarm screamed, and Hel reached her hand out to silence her phone. She couldn’t work out why she set an alarm as she wasn’t at work today. Snatching up her phone, she looked at the screen and frowned. It wasn’t her alarm. It must be one of her housemates.

She lay back down and closed her eyes as the alarm screeched, but it was so piercing there was no way she would fall back asleep. Grumpily, she grabbed her dressing gown and stuffed her arms into the sleeves, then picked up her phone and put it in her pocket. She needed to find whose alarm was the worst sound she had ever heard and give them a piece of her mind.

Hel stomped across her room and yanked the door open. The sound of the alarm increased in volume, and smoke wafted up the stairs and floated past her.

“Shit,” Hel cursed.

Fire, they were on fire.

Her sleepiness vanished in an instant, and she dashed along the hallway, banging on her housemate’s doors and then flinging them open.

“Fire. Wake up. We’ve got a fire.”

Her shouts were met with groans initially and then panicked realisation as they woke up and smelled the smoke.

When everyone was awake, Hel rushed to the top of the stairs and flinched. Flames were licking at the bottom.

Shit, they couldn’t leave that way. She thought about it for a moment. Erin’s window was over the garage roof. They would have to go out of it and lower themselves down.

Turning around, she saw her five housemates and the extra who was always there, gathered on the landing behind her.

“The fires at the bottom of the stairs. We’ll have to go out Erin’s window.” She gestured back behind them and began to move.

“Have you called the fire department?” Erin asked as the seven of them hustled back into her room.

“No. I’ve got my phone. I’ll do it now.” Hel pulled her mobile out of her pocket and dialled as she waited for her housemates to pry the painted-shut window open.

Wayne, the extra, suddenly bolted out of the bedroom door. His girlfriend, Emma, called after him. “Wayne. Where are you going?”

“I’ll be right back,” he yelled over his shoulder.

Hel huffed with exasperation. What the hell was he doing? But she didn’t have time to worry as the operator answered.

“This is triple zero. What service do you need? Police, fire or ambulance.”

“Fire,” Hel told them.

Greg, one of her housemates, made a crow of triumph, and the window he had been working on slid open. Hel’s shoulders sagged in relief.

“Thank you. What’s your address?” the operator asked.

Hel coughed before she answered. She wanted to close the door to keep the smoke, which was now being sucked into the room by the open window, from getting thicker, but Wayne—the idiot—meant she couldn’t.

Emma was leaning against the bedroom door, shouting for her boyfriend to hurry up, and despite the severity of the situation, Hel rolled her eyes.

“It’s thirty-four Poplar Avenue, Kookaburra Creek,” Hel supplied.

She covered her mouth and coughed again. The smoke was definitely getting thicker.

“Thank you. What is your emergency?”

“Our house is on fire. We can’t get down the stairs. We’re currently getting out one of the upstairs bedroom windows.”

As she spoke, the first two of her housemates clambered out the window. The smoke was so thick now it was getting hard to see.

“The fire service is on their way. Please keep the line with me open until they arrive,” the controller advised her.

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