Page 31 of Doc Defence

“Thanks,” Hel replied, swallowing over and over to stop the coughing the smoke was causing. “I need my hands to climb out, but I’m going to put the phone in my pocket,” she croaked out.

“That’s fine,” the operator reassured her.

“Emma. We need to get out.” Hel put her hand over her mouth, coughing so hard now she could barely draw breath.

“He’ll be here in a moment.” Emma leaned out of the doorway, scanning the hall for Wayne. But she didn’t last long before she was bent double and gasping. “Wayne,” she whispered.

Hel glanced between the window and her housemate. They had to leave. Taking a step towards Emma, she grabbed hold of the younger woman’s hand.

“Come on.” She could hear the crackling of the flames and feel the heat radiating from downstairs.

“I can’t,” Emma gasped.

Hel heard a crash and froze, hoping it wasn’t about to get much worse. “Emma,” she screamed.

Wayne, at that moment, came barrelling back along the corridor from Emma’s room, clutching a large ziplock bag in his hands stuffed full of pills.

“Are you kidding me?” Hel’s eyes bulged. He had drugs in their house? And his first priority in a fire was to save them?

“Come on, Emma. Let’s go.” Wayne shoved past Hel, towing his girlfriend with him.

Hel wanted to say something sarcastic but didn’t want to waste her already short breath. Of course, Wayne threw himself out of the window first and didn’t even look back for Emma to help her. But in the gloom, she saw Greg peering in at her, having helped Emma.

“Hel, let’s go. The fire’s in the garage as well,” Greg yelled at her.

“Shit,” Hel swore and hustled over to the window. She needed to escape before the garage roof collapsed.

As she climbed over the ledge, she wasn’t careful in her rush and scraped her palms and shin, then knocked her elbow hard. Gratefully, she grabbed hold of Greg’s hand and dropped from the window to the garage roof.

Hel felt the heat radiating up through her bare feet, and she wished she had thought to grab shoes.

“Let’s go.” Greg towed her along to the edge of the roof, where Raj was standing looking up at them.

“Lower yourself Hel. I’ll catch you.” Raj held his arms up towards her.

Hel did as she was told and sat on the edge, then turned over onto her stomach, lowering herself. She sagged in relief when she felt Raj grab hold of her hips and help her the rest of the way.

“Are you okay?” he asked as he placed her on the floor.

“Yeah.” She panted, grateful for the fresh air.

Greg dropped down beside them. “We need to move away from the garage. The gas bottles are around the side here.”

Hel glanced over to where he was pointing and winced. The two big gas bottles that supplied their hot water system were indeed right there.

The three of them hustled from around the side of the garage and out onto the street to stand with the rest of their housemates, who all watched in silence as their house burned.

The fire engines turned up quickly and began to battle the blaze. An ambulance arrived and checked them all over, but didn’t need to take any of them to hospital.

Greg had thought to grab his car keys on his way out. He could squeeze them all into his car, and his parents didn’t live too far away.

When he offered, Hel thought for a moment and texted Clara. She was on call all night, so she might still be up. She sagged with relief when her friend immediately responded that she was about to leave the hospital and would come and grab her.

Hel didn’t notice when Clara pulled up as she stood staring at the still-leaping flames, which would have been mesmerising if they weren’t burning her life to ash.

“Hey.” Clara looped an arm around her waist and pulled her into a half hug.

Hel rested her head on her friend’s shoulder for a moment, then straightened. “I’m so tired. Can we go?”

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