Page 34 of The London Girls
‘Can we go in?’ she yelled to the closest fireman.
‘We’re doing our best to dampen the flames,’ he yelled back. ‘If you think you can get in there, you can. But that roof could fall in at any moment.’
Florence didn’t waste time thinking about it. She leapt forward, intent on getting in and seeing if there were any survivors. The warden hadn’t attempted to go near the house and the firemen were too busy dousing flames to look for people, which only made Flo all the more determined to enter.
If not me, then who?She looked back at Jack, knowing that without him she had no hope of dragging anyone out. She needed his strength, and he knew it.
‘Are you coming or not?’ she called out to him.
‘Damn you, woman!’ he cursed, lumbering forward like a bear charging towards her.
Florence pressed on, covering her mouth with her arm to stop from choking on the smoke. If there was anyone in there alive, they weren’t going to survive much longer.
‘Hello!’ she yelled, muffled as she kept her arm held high. ‘Hello!’ She coughed and kept moving forward over the unsteady debris beneath her that had once formed a house, trying to tie her scarf even tighter.
‘Here!’ came a weak call back. ‘Help!’
‘I’m coming!’ she shouted, dropping her arm as she frantically picked her way through what was left of the room. She used her light, flashing it around as she tried to find where the call had come from. The inside of the house looked like a wrecking ball had demolished it – that anyone had managed to survive was a miracle.
‘Help!’ came another cry, just as the house creaked, making Florence stop moving as she shone her light towards what was left of the ceiling.
‘We’ll die in here if we don’t get out soon!’ Jack yelled. ‘Florence, we need to hurry!’
‘Go and get help,’ she said. ‘Please, Jack, we can’t leave them in here.’
‘Christ almighty!’ he swore as he backtracked, leaving her in the remnants of the house alone. ‘You stay safe, you hear me! Stay safe and get out if you hear the roof cracking!’
But when her light caught a waving hand, raised just high enough for her to see, she knew it had been worth the risk. She dropped, digging through the wreckage, her nails bleeding as she frantically tried to save the person. It turned out to be a girl, perhaps twelve or thirteen, and as Florence found a strength she hadn’t even known she possessed, she freed her and in doing so uncovered the girl’s brother, too.
‘Can you walk?’ Florence asked.
The girl tested her leg and let out a loud yelp, but big hands caught her as she fell, Jack appearing beside her at just the right moment. Despite his own physical limitations, somehow Jack hefted her over his shoulder and began to carry her out, and Florence helped the boy up, prepared to carry him herself if she needed to.
‘Can you walk?’ she asked. ‘We just need to follow him out of here, but we have to hurry.’
The boy nodded, tears making wet lines through the filth covering his face as she shone the light on him.
‘Go, follow that man. He’ll take you to safety.’
The boy scrambled away, half walking, half crawling through what was left of his home. She knew there had to be at least one parent buried somewhere too, and she didn’t want two orphans on her conscience.
‘You have to get out of here! It’s about to fall!’
The call of a fireman sent a shiver through her as the framing around her creaked more loudly this time, water spraying the side of her face as they valiantly fought to put out the fire on the side of the house.
‘Get out of there!’ Jack was yelling at her now, but she wasn’t listening to him. Instead, her head was cocked as she heard a faint tapping.
‘There’s someone else in here!’ She tripped over all sorts of things as she hurried forward, knowing they only had minutes, possibly even seconds, before they lost their own lives, too.
Two firemen appeared beside her as she pinpointed where the sound was coming from.
‘Quickly, they’re here!’ she screamed. ‘There’s tapping right here.’
Florence dropped down low as the firemen pulled rubble away, her heart almost skipping a beat when she saw an arm emerge, themen heroically lifting something,someone, from beneath a large piece of broken furniture.
‘The roof’s about to collapse!’ someone yelled. ‘Get out of there! There’s no more time!’
Jack pulled her, his grip unrelenting as he yanked her backwards, out of the falling house. She wanted to fight him, but she knew there was nothing else she could do. If there was anyone else inside, they were gone now.
