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<h1>11</h1>
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<p><em>August 1. 2.30pm</em></p>
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<p>A sound of thunder cracked way over at Drumbeck Hill and the
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noise of the explosion at the quarry face came rolling over the
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fields and up the valley. Doug stopped on the brow of the hill
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where the drystone wall angled back towards the barwoods.</p>
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<p>"Houston, we have lift off," he bawled in a dreadful American
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accent.</p>
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<p>"Bombs away," Billy hooted and the rolling grumble in the air
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passed them by in a shockwave they could actually feel. Doug
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clambered up on top of the wall and helped Danny heft the tent
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over.</p>
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<p>"Look there," Doug said, pointing south and east towards where
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the tall spruce trees crowded on the other side of the valley,
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marking the edge of the Overbuck estates. He shaded his eyes and
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the others followed the direction of his outstretched finger. "I
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saw something."</p>
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<p>"Yeah. The wild larch tree," Corky said. "Very rare. That's the
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last million larch trees in the whole world."</p>
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<p>"No, you daft <em>baskit</em>. I saw somebody. Over there at the
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edge."</p>
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<p>The boys all made visors of their hands and peered under the
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shadow towards the edge of the plantation. The high trees
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straggling close to the edge were all in silhouette against the
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heat haze of the summer. Nothing moved.</p>
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<p>"I saw somebody watching us," Doug insisted.</p>
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<p>"It was the cow again," Billy said. "It's supercow oh-oh-seven.
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Trained to search and destroy. Fitted with exploding tits. It won't
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give up until it's molocated us all." Everybody laughed, even Doug.
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Nothing moved in the plantation. They all climbed the wall and
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lugged the tent along the bare path worn by the sheep as they moved
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up onto the moor. The peaty ground was dotted with thick clumps of
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gorse, wickedly spiked but in the warm updraughts and eddies,
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wafting an exquisite scent of coconut and delicate oils into the
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air. They ambled slowly up the track towards where the line of
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electricity pylons marched west, trailing black cables under the
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sky. The quarry blast rumbled again.</p>
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<p>"That's what it was like all the time during the war," Billy
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said. "Must have been great."</p>
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<p>"Must have been murder," Corky said. "You'd go to bed and never
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know if you'd wake up again." He swung his stick and lopped the
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head off a thistle, watching it go tumbling through the air.</p>
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<p>"Wonder if there's any more bodies in the river," Doug said.
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"They'll all come floating up."</p>
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<p>"Jeez Dougs, give it a break," Tom snapped.</p>
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<p>"I was just thinking about Paulie. Just when I heard the quarry
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blast."</p>
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<p>"He was covered in all sorts of crap," Billy said. "The current
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took him almost across to the other side of the river and he must
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have been stuck under the ribs of one of the sunk boats down in the
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mud. Al Crombie said he was all grey and stuck like this." Billy
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hunched his shoulders and stuck his hands out, mimicking a twisted
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corpse. "But the crabs and fish had got his fingers and the toes on
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one of his feet where his boot had come off. Chewed them all away.
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His lovin' mother wouldn't have recognised him."</p>
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<p>"Jeez Billy, give it a rest." Tom pleaded again. Billy ignored
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him.</p>
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<p>"And they think Mole Hopkirk got his the same day. That's when
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he went missing."</p>
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<p>"Everybody knows that," Doug said. They were ambling along, in a
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ragged line, weaving between the jagged thorns of the gorse,
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listening to the drying seed-pods crackle and pop open in the heat
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of the sun. "That was really creepy. Like old <em>Twitchy</em>
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fixed it so nobody was looking."</p>
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<p>"No. Mole was off his head anyway. Remember we saw him down at
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Rope Vennel?" Tom asked Billy. "When he was cadging smokes? He was
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always swinging those keys, trying to swipe them down people's
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faces. He could have put somebody's eye out with them."</p>
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<p>"And then somebody put his eye out. What a horrible way to go."
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Billy turned to Doug who was just behind him. "You said with any
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luck he'd fallen in the river. You wished it on him."</p>
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<p>"No I didn't," Doug protested. "And anyway, you said you wished
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he'd taken on somebody bigger than himself, and that's what
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happened, so <em>you</em> wished it on him too."</p>
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<p>"Listen to yourselves," Corky said. He was ahead of them on the
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pathway, just behind Danny, both of them lacquered with sweat and
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panting. Corky had taken off his frayed shirt and tied the arms
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around his waist, leaving a tail hanging like an apron. The marks
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of cleg-fly bites stood out on his shoulders. "You two would start
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a fight in an empty house."</p>
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<p>"But he said..." Billy started.</p>
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<p>"So what? He's a goner isn't he? He was dead before any of us
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knew about it, and he was as crazy as a cat with a poker up its
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arse and all. It wasn't our fault he met up with some loony. He
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shouldn't have been breaking in to houses anyway."</p>
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<p>"Like we broke into Overbuck's kitchen," Billy asked
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mischievously.</p>
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<p>"That's different," Corky said. "They're as rich as sin. And
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there was no crazy about to grab us."</p>
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<p>"That gardener looked pretty crazy to me. If he'd have caught us
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we'd have been in real stook. I nearly crapped my pants."</p>
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<p>"I thought you had, from the smell of it," Corky said and
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everybody laughed again.</p>
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<p>They got to the brow of the hill and dropped the tent. Doug had
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taken off his faded tee-shirt, revealing a tattered string vest
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which more holes in it now that when it was new. Billy said it
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looked like a lot of spaces joined together and Doug admitted
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without rancour that most of the holes weren't joined at all.</p>
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<p>"I want to get a tan," he said. "All criss-crossed."</p>
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<p>"You'll look like a chain-link fence," somebody said and they
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laughed some more. They were all in a circle, Corky standing
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astride the green bulk of the tent, rapping his knuckles on the
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polished-wood of the support poles jutting from the roll. Billy was
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leaning against the creosoted trunk of an electricity pole which
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bore three parallel cables down the side of the hill and across the
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valley. He lit a cigarette and offered them around. Tom took one
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and Billy lit for both, before flipping the match to the side.
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Immediately a clump of grass started to shrivel and crackle as a
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flame, made invisible by the bright sunlight, caught the tinder-dry
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brush. Billy casually stamped his foot and put it out. He lifted
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the long ash stave he'd cut in the valley and started peeling the
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bark back in strips. Danny got his slingshot from his pack and shot
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some small stones at the glass insulating plates high overhead,
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missing with every shot. He was better at throwing. Doug switched
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on the radio, made it whinge and whine as he spun the little dial
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searching for a station. For a brief moment, the Righteous Brothers
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cranked up to losing that lovin' feeling then they were gone, gone,
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gone in a crackle of static.</p>
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<p>"You're too near the power lines," Corky said. Doug looked up,
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switching the little radio off.</p>
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<p>"There's a nest up there," he said. They looked up and saw the
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little tangle of grass and moss out on the arm where the black
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cables snaked in their loop from one set of insulators to the
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other. He got up and reached towards the overhead spar joining the
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two poles. Beyond them barbed wire set round the uprights offered
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resistance to temptation, and as an added deterrent, a tin plate
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bearing a lightning-bolt motif blared in red letters: <em>Warning:
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130,000 volts</em>. <em>Danger of Death.</em> Overhead, even though
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the air was dry, they could hear the low, somehow animal, growling
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vibration of power.</p>
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<p>"Not worth it," Danny said. "You go near those wires and they'll
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burn you to a crisp." He was sitting furthest away from the pole
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and the trickling buzz of the voltage made him nervous. "And you
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can't let go either. It makes you hold on tight and burns you up
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until there's nothing left."</p>
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<p>Doug moved back from the strut and ran a hand through his
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straight fair hair.</p>
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<p>"That can't be true," Billy said. "Look. There's a crow up on
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the wire. It's just sitting there no bother at all and it's not
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getting zapped."</p>
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<p>"That's because it isn't earthed," Corky said. "Don't you ever
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listen in science?"</p>
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<p>"I don't believe it," Billy retorted. He jammed the cigarette in
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the corner of his mouth and hauled himself up, using his stave as a
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climbing pole. His weight drove the point deep into the earth and
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he had to pull hard to get it out again. He hefted the straight
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stick, holding it like a spear as he walked backwards up the hill.
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They all watched him.</p>
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<p>"What's he up to?" Tom asked.</p>
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<p>"Damned if I know," Doug said mildly. Billy got about thirty
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yards, right on to the shoulder of the slope. Behind him, two
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lapwings flopped into the still air, beating jerkily while they
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bleated their distress at the intrusion into their territory and
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the danger to their nest.</p>
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<p>Billy stopped, looked up and then came running back the way he
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had come. He took ten steps and swung his arm back.</p>
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<p>"Geronimo!" The stave soared like a javelin, heavy-end foremost,
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curving through the air. It arrowed above the wires, seen from
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where the rest of the boys were sitting and for a moment they
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assumed it would fly straight over, to land in the gorse beyond. It
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landed right on top of the wires, fifty feet from the pylon. It
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made a pinging sound as it slapped across all three of the thick
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cables.</p>
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<p>A red flame flashed across its length.</p>
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<p>There was absolutely no warning, no hesitation. It simply flared
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with a sound of ripping canvas.</p>
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<p>"Bloody hell," Tom mouthed.</p>
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<p>"Yee-hah," Billy crowed triumphantly. The others watched in
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amazement. The flames crackled across the ash stave, making it
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jitter on the wires, twisting like a snake. An explosion of blue
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sparks erupted where it lost contact with the centre-cable and a
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sound like a road-drill came rattling down.</p>
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<p>The five of them stood simply mesmerised.</p>
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<p>"Look at it <em>burn,</em>" Billy yelled. He was jumping up and
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down, his tee-shirt flopping, waving both hands in the air. A sheet
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of flame flew off the burning branch, coiled into a sphere and
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rolled upwards, roaring like an angry beast. Even from where the
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four nearest boys stood, open mouthed, they could feel the heat.
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Another shower of sparks fountained outwards, sparkling like
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sapphires. The drill noise came rapping across, shuddering through
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the wires. Then the stave just exploded.</p>
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<p>It was a real blast, not merely a disintegration. The white
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peeled sapling had turned to black in the space of mere seconds.
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The flames were reaching up towards a blue sky and then a crack
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like a shotgun blast punched the air. The stick was there and then
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it was gone. Burning cinders catapulted into the air, trailing
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smoke in grey streamers. A piece of charred wood came whirling
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past, making a whoop-whoop sound as itspun, and hit Billy on the
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cheek making him yell, though none of the others heard him. They
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were running to get out from under the falling debris. Doug and
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Corky reached the tent first and heaved it up. Danny and Tom
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grabbed the rucksacks and Billy's army bag.</p>
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<p>The crack of the explosion faded away, though it still crackled
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in their ears.</p>
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<p>"Did you see that?" Billy bawled, racing down towards them.</p>
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<p>"You're a crazy <em>baskit</em>," Doug asserted.</p>
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<p>Just then, the first crackle of flames became audible. Doug
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stopped, almost pulling Corky off his feet. "Listen," he said
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holding himself still, head cocked.</p>
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<p>"Nearly put my eye out," Billy was saying, still rubbing his
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cheek where the piece of charred wood had left a sooty smear.</p>
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<p>"Wheesht," Corky hushed him to silence. For a moment, they were
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still. Billy was standing with his mouth open and his brows drawn
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down angrily, about to argue with Doug. Corky had his hand up,
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telling everyone to hush.</p>
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<p>The crackle of fire came from beyond the pylon. They all turned.
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A gorse bush burst into flame. It was as if burning petrol had been
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thrown over it and it just blossomed fire. It growled madly like
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the flame-throwers of war movies. One second it was thick and green
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and festooned with golden blossom; the next it was shrivelling
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under a ten-foot flame. The heat came rolling on the dry air,
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slapping them like a hot hand. Behind them, another bush roared
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into flame, like a fiery lion rising from a thicket.</p>
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<p>"Christ man," Corky bawled. "The whole place is going..."</p>
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<p>Ten feet away, a second bush erupted. The fine hairs on Danny's
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arms twisted and shrivelled in the sudden flare of heat. To the
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right, two smaller bushes crackled into life.</p>
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<p>"....out of here," Doug was yelling, the first words lost in the
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roar of the flames, but the meaning perfectly clear. He and Corky
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ran between two reaching hedges, bent with the heavy weight of the
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tent. Danny followed. Tom and Billy were somewhere behind them.</p>
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<p>"Yee-hah," Billy hooted again. "Bombs away." Beyond them, a
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towering forest of flame reached for the sky, a great red animal
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clawing at the sky. The air all around them danced as if it had
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been turned liquid in the scorch. It tasted of pollen and charcoal
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and instantly seared their throats dry.</p>
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<p>Something flew round the corner of one flowering hedge and
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missed Corky by a hair's breadth in a flurry of whirring wings. The
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panicked woodcock jinked and headed for the stand of pines further
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down the slope of the hill. Overhead, two skylarks warbled their
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distress while somewhere in the bushes their almost fully fledged
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nestlings huddled in fear, their instinctive compulsion to freeze
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now acting against them as the flames licked around them.</p>
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<p>A pillar of fire exploded into life to Doug's left and he jinked
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right, holding a hand up to protect his face. Corky followed,
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dragged by the tent, stumbling as he went. A gust of wind, sucked
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in by the powerful updraught, dragged with it a wall of grey smoke.
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Danny stumbled into it, felt the incredible blast of heat and
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backed away. Corky and Doug kept on moving. They got twenty yards
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and came scooting out of the gorse bushes and onto the flat of the
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sphagnum damplands.</p>
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<p>Danny reeled away to the right, smoke in his eyes and searing
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down his throat. Somewhere close by, Tom yelled something and Danny
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stumbled backwards, knuckling under his brows to clear the dust and
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smoke-induced tears. By this time, the heat was unbelievable. A
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roaring noise thundered close by and he shied away from it, falling
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over one small bush which stabbed him in what felt like a thousand
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places. A gorse spine went right up under his nail and a needle of
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pain drilled into his finger. Danny rolled and found himself in a
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small clearing. A chance eddy of wind sucked the smoke away. Ahead
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of him, up the slope, he could see a line of flames, twenty feet
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high. Behind him, hardly fifteen yards away, a stand of scrub hazel
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was well alight. He turned, panic beginning to bubble up. A minute
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before, Danny could have outrun anything except Doug who could run
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like a greyhound. Danny was fast and agile and he'd been able to
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show Phil Corcoran an easy clean pair of heels. But this fire, it
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<em>moved</em>. It ran like a red tiger, chasing and hounding. It
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had leapt in front of him to bar his way, catching him no matter
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how fast he could run, no matter how he jinked and dived.</p>
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<p>"Danny," Tom's voice came wavering from somewhere to the right.
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"Help me!" Danny whirled, truing to gulp down the rising terror. He
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spun again and stopped. Right in front of him, a roe-deer fawn
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stood shivering, a tiny, spindly thing, no bigger than a mountain
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hare, balanced on four stick legs. Its eyes were huge and black.
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The deer and Danny looked at each other. The animal was shivering
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so violently it looked as if it might have been connected to the
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voltage in the black cables overhead. Then it turned. Danny
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couldn't tell how it had done it. There was no visible movement at
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all. It stared at him and then its back was toward him and it
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flicked, as if my magic , between two bushes. To his left another
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wall of flame burst into life. To his right, Tom squealed, high and
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clear and there was real fear in the sound. Danny blundered through
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the small gap, brushing past the spines which dug through his jeans
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and drove into his knees. His lungs were hurting and the skin on
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the back of his neck felt as if it was turning crisp and a dread
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horror came rippling through him.</p>
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<p>He was stuck here. He was trapped in the fire.</p>
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<p><em>The Bad Fire</em></p>
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<p>Sister Julia's face came wavering on the heat-tortured air.
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<em>The Good Lord can look down on you at any time and decide to
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take you</em></p>
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<p>Like he had taken Paul Degman.</p>
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<p><em>You must always try to be in a state of grace.</em></p>
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<p>The fire was all around and the heat was searing his throat and
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he was stuck in it. Real fear almost froze him to stone.</p>
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<p>"Danny. Jesus Danny I'm stuck," Tom's cry came from just beyond
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the next bush. It punched him through the membrane of
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paralysis.</p>
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<p>He fell over the hedge, almost blown over by the force of the
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heat. Tom was snagged on a hazel branch. He'd been crawling under a
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natural canopy and a dead branch had fingered down the neck of his
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shirt and out the tail. Under any other circumstances, it would
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have looked completely ludicrous. Tom's feet were scrabbling and
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slipping on dried mud.</p>
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<p>"Oh God don't let it get me," he babbled. In a flash of reality,
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he saw the very real possibility that he could die. Panic soared.
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The awesome finality of death had been with him since long before
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Paulie Degman had fallen into the river, since little Maureen had
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slipped away while his mother had been out at the corner shop
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getting chicken soup. She'd gone and they'd taken her away and put
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her in the ground, little Mo, his baby sister, and they'd all had
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to pray while his parents stood frozen by a deadly graveside, too
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poor to put up a headstone. Tom had held on to his other kid sister
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Marie, held on so tight his fingers bruised her shoulder and as he
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looked down at that hole in the ground, in the old graveyard behind
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St Rowan's Church, it was like looking into a black well that went
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down forever. Nobody who went down there ever came back.</p>
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<p>"Danny," he screeched. "Help."</p>
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<p>He pushed forward, the way a snared rabbit will, and felt the
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branch strain against the cotton. He pushed again, felt the fabric
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rip, pushed some more and was stopped dead. He could not go
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forward; he could not go backward.</p>
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<p>"Danny," he screeched again, voice high, just like a girl's.
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"Help me Danny I'm stuck!"</p>
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<p>He squirmed in a sudden desperate frenzy. He was stuck and the
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flames were all around him and in that instant he clearly saw the
|
|
maw of infinity approaching fast. His feet shoved at the dusty
|
|
hardpack of the ground, gouging out two grooves but gaining no
|
|
purchase strong enough to break the branch that snagged him or rip
|
|
the shirt on which it hooked. The heat of the flames pressed in
|
|
from the side. A billow of smoke rolled over him and he coughed
|
|
violently, rasping his throat. Just then something hit him from
|
|
behind. At first he thought it was Danny pushing him through. Then
|
|
a soft body squeezed beside him, wriggled past in a shiver of
|
|
muscle and fur. The little roe deer, in its panic, hadn't even seen
|
|
him. It made it through the gap and flashed away. Tom was left
|
|
stuck.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Out on the far side, Corky and Doug watched the wall of flames.
|
|
Further up the hill, beyond the line of power-cable, Billy was
|
|
whooping with unfettered glee, completely unaware of the danger
|
|
Danny and Tom were in down the slope among the massed tangle of
|
|
burning gorse. It just hadn't occurred to him that they would still
|
|
be in there.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>"Like a fuckin' bomb," Billy yelled. He had a bird's eye view of
|
|
the whole thing, but he couldn't see Tom or Danny were stuck in the
|
|
middle of it all. The flames absolutely gobsmacking fantastic. They
|
|
rumbled and roared, snarled and fought, leaping from bush to
|
|
thicket, a contagion of instant fire. The bushes just splurged into
|
|
flame. The heat warped the air so much the power-cables seemed to
|
|
shimmy and dance. Little birds spiralled up through the smoke. Only
|
|
fifty feet away he saw a yellowhammer come flitting up in its
|
|
bouncing, undulating flight and then suddenly fall like a stone
|
|
into the mass of flame below. Two hares came scooting from cover,
|
|
brown blurs that raced up the slope and swerved just before they
|
|
reached him, their eyes rolling.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>"Christ on a bloody <em>bike</em>," he bawled to himself.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>He trotted down the hill a little distance, getting to within
|
|
twenty feet of the nearest bush which had crumpled in on itself,
|
|
thin grey ash tumbling down in a stream where the spikes of gorse
|
|
powdered to threatless dust. The fire had eaten and moved on,
|
|
leaving a bare skeleton. Billy bent and grabbed at a tussock of
|
|
couch grass, rocking his weight from side to free the roots. It
|
|
finally came ripping up from the ground and without any hesitation,
|
|
he jammed it in against the smouldering roots of the burned bush.
|
|
The grass crackled and caught. He spun, whirling the turf and grass
|
|
around his head, then aimed for a clear patch down the hill where
|
|
the fire hadn't reached.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>His grenade tumbled in the air, trailing smoke. He watched it
|
|
level out then curve down. It landed off to the right, almost due
|
|
south. Over the screaming of the flames he didn't hear the thud.
|
|
There was a pause and then, with a startling <em>whoosh</em> the
|
|
bush and its neighbour were ablaze.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Billy howled in delight. He saw himself in uniform, just like
|
|
his father, tossing grenades or hosing liquid fire from the
|
|
flame-throwers he'd seen in the films. The wavering air and the
|
|
heat, the smell of burning and the sudden <em>violence</em> of it
|
|
all was incredible. Billy just couldn't believe he'd done all that,
|
|
all with just one thrown piece of wood.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Out on the damplands where the sphagnum moss had sopped up the
|
|
moisture of the pre-summer rains and held it in the seeps and
|
|
depressions of the moor, Corky and Doug stood side by side.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>"Can you see them?" Corky asked. Doug shook his head. His light
|
|
blue eyes were ringed with smudges and he used a finger to wipe a
|
|
trickle of dusty snot from his lip. A twig of gorse had snagged in
|
|
his hair like a miniature crown of thorns."</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>"Can't see a thing."</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>"I heard somebody. Sounded like Tom."</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>"What, in there?" Doug jerked his thumb towards the wall of
|
|
flames. His face went suddenly pale.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>The flames rampaged along. Something came soaring over the smoke
|
|
and hit beyond them and another growl of flame started eating at
|
|
the gorse. The fire made strange sounds. It roared and rasped and
|
|
underneath that sound, it screamed and screeched as the branches
|
|
and roots twisted and gave off their gasses. It sounded as if lost
|
|
souls were writhing in agony in there, buckling and shrivelling in
|
|
the heat of the flames.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Corky remembered what Danny had said, his own vision of hell.
|
|
That's what it would sound like. Just screaming and shrieking and
|
|
it would go on and on. He shook his head. It was just fire. It was
|
|
just bushes. He'd seen the gorse go up before. It wouldn't last
|
|
long.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>But what if...</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>It rustled and whispered, it crackled and it laughed as if it
|
|
could read his mind.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>"No," Corky said, more in hope than in certainty. "They must
|
|
have gone down the other side. And Billy went up the hill."</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Just as he said that, Billy let out a triumphant holler. They
|
|
saw a shadow move and he came lumbering through a pall of smoke. He
|
|
had a dry tussock in his hand and he set it alight before tossing
|
|
it down the slope, leading the fire on.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>"Where's Dan?" Corky bawled, making himself heard above the
|
|
commotion. Billy shrugged. His face was aglow behind the
|
|
smudges.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>"And Tom," Doug bawled. "You seen them?" Billy shook his head.
|
|
His mind was elsewhere.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Just then a flight of partridges came bulleting out of the smoke
|
|
on whirring wings, fat little propeller-driven birds. They arrowed
|
|
straight towards the boys, seemed to notice them at the last
|
|
possible second and veered up and over their heads. Right behind
|
|
them, the tiny roe fawn came springing out. It stopped on its
|
|
spindly legs, its tongue lolling. It didn't even see them. The
|
|
gorse crackled behind it and it was gone, a brown little blur,
|
|
spider fast, gone and away.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Corky looked at Billy. His eyes were alight and his face was red
|
|
with excitement. Doug followed Corky's look. Billy was prancing
|
|
around, throwing the sods of peat and grass into the flames,
|
|
spreading it further as if it needed stoking.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>"He's off his bloody head," Doug said. The fire squealed as it
|
|
tortured a briar root into impossible torques.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Inside the burning swathe, Danny found Tom snagged on the hazel
|
|
branch. His old scuffed shoes were digging into the soft earth,
|
|
ploughing up their furrows as he frantically tried to free himself.
|
|
Danny could hear his panicked whimper. The heat was incredible now,
|
|
searing his cheeks, and there seemed to be no air to breathe. He
|
|
stumbled forward and tried to break the thin stick with his hands.
|
|
Tom's hand grabbed his ankle and pulled desperately, almost
|
|
throwing Danny off balance.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>The branch wouldn't break. Without thinking it through, Danny
|
|
simply bent down and got his weight against Tom's skinny backside,
|
|
dug his own feet into the ground and pushed with all his weight.
|
|
There was a sharp crack as the branch snapped. Tom went flopping
|
|
forward and Danny fell on top of him, knocking the wind out of the
|
|
smaller boy's lungs.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>"Oof..." Tom gasped and that was a whole lot better than the
|
|
fearful whimpering. Danny rolled, slipped and fell flat. Tom was
|
|
up, his canvas bag still slung over one shoulder. He grabbed for
|
|
the back of Danny's shirt and hauled first him to his knees, then
|
|
up to his feet. Without a word they stumbled forwards. Ahead of
|
|
them the flames danced in orange spires. But then a gust of wind
|
|
thinned them momentarily. They had reached the edge. Both of them
|
|
realised there was no turning back. They both closed their eyes and
|
|
ran for it. Charred twigs and branches crunched under their feet
|
|
and the dust rose up to clog their nostrils. They barged through
|
|
and for a second the heat soared up to an incredible scorch. The
|
|
whole world seemed to be on fire. Danny hit hard ground first but
|
|
the smoke was in his eyes. Tom reached for him, got a hand to the
|
|
strap of the rucksack and both boys came out of the burning gorse
|
|
like the two hares, running blind, cheeks tear-streaked. Danny went
|
|
crashing over the ridge of hummock-grass and down the far side,
|
|
lungs hauling for cool air, down the lee side, missed his footing
|
|
and started to fall. Tom was right behind him, flipping over,
|
|
bouncing on the moss, then tumbling in pursuit.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>They rolled for fifteen feet past the ridge and then both of
|
|
them hit the water of the shallow pool at exactly the same moment.
|
|
The surface was covered in duckweed and the pond was less than two
|
|
feet deep, a low, circular depression on a flat shoulder below the
|
|
ridge of the hill. They tumbled into it and immediately the tepid
|
|
water sucked the heat from their skins.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Tom came up spluttering, coughing water out. It dribbled from
|
|
his nose in muddy streaks. Danny turned over, trying to push
|
|
himself to his feet and at first only succeeded in driving his hand
|
|
a foot into the mud. Finally he managed to get to his knees then
|
|
pushed himself up to a shaky stance. His tough jeans, cut-down
|
|
versions of workmen's denims complete with the long ruler pocket
|
|
down the leg, sagged with the weight of water. Tom was hauling in
|
|
great breaths, and still coughing violently, trying to expel the
|
|
slimy water that had splashed down his throat.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>"Jeez, Tom, I thought we were goners there," he finally
|
|
blurted.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Tom nodded, still unable to speak. He opened his eyes and he and
|
|
Danny shared a look that expressed the words they couldn't say. It
|
|
had been a close thing.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Corky and Doug came running down the hill. "You all right?"</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Both boys nodded breathlessly, chests hitching.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>"Flaming hell," Corky said. "We thought you were in there."</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>"We <em>were</em> in there. Nearly singed all my hair off."
|
|
Danny held up his arm to show where the fine white hairs on the
|
|
side were twisted and curled. He peered closer and saw where the
|
|
ends were shrivelled. Each had a little dot of melted hair on the
|
|
end. He closed his eyes, remembering the heat on his face and the
|
|
back of his neck and felt the panic try to weasel in again. He
|
|
shook it away.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Billy came loping down the slope. Behind him the air was thick
|
|
with smoke. Pieces of grey ash were twirling skywards in the
|
|
updraught. The fire had crept down for more than fifty yards until
|
|
it reached a boggy patch where the gorse gave way to a dark patch
|
|
of low reeds. Beyond the marsh the land rose up again, golden with
|
|
furze and broom blossom, but the flames could not cross over the
|
|
reed bed to get to it.. Almost as quickly as it began, the fire
|
|
died, leaving little smouldering patches of charred briar root and
|
|
the twisted stems of the bushes blackened and skeletal.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>"Pure brilliant," Billy said. "Fan-bloody-<em>tastic</em>."</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Tom rounded on him. "You nearly killed us, you stupid fast
|
|
shite. Me an' Danny, we nearly copped it in there."</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>"Oh quit bubbling," Billy sneered. He took a step forward and
|
|
gave Tom a push, not hard, but enough to make the smaller boy take
|
|
a step backwards. "No kidding, your lip's always trembling. And
|
|
just watch who you're calling names, <em>Titch.</em>"</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Tom hit his hand away. "You're off your head. No kidding. You've
|
|
got screws loose. You nearly killed us. That fire was... it was..."
|
|
Tom's mouth started opening and closing, but his throat and tongue
|
|
had ganged up against him and refused to let the words out. His
|
|
eyes filled with tears. Doug and Corky shuffled their feet,
|
|
embarrassed for him. Tom turned away and the others could see his
|
|
shoulders jerking up and down.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>"What did I tell you,? Billy started to say. "Always whinging
|
|
about something."</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>"Leave off," Danny told him. Billy's eyes opened wide, taking
|
|
offence again but Corky spoke up. "Yeah Billy, let it rest eh? You
|
|
could have killed somebody."</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>This time it was Billy's turn to act like a fish. He looked from
|
|
one to the other then shook his head in disgust. For a second, Doug
|
|
thought Billy might have a go at Corky, just because he was all
|
|
fired up with the excitement. Billy was the biggest of them all,
|
|
almost a head taller than both Danny and Corky and he towered over
|
|
Tom who looked as if his wet clothes would make him stagger. Canny
|
|
said nothing. He just looked at Billy without any expression on his
|
|
face. The confrontation faded. Billy shrugged and walked up the
|
|
hill to get his rucksack.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>He stood there while the others waited for Tom. He could hear
|
|
them mumbling and he assumed they were persuading Tom to come along
|
|
with them rather than turning to go back down the hill and home
|
|
again. Finally, Tom wiped his eyes and they started to straggle up
|
|
the hill.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>"Come on you lot," he called down. "This ain't a picnic you
|
|
know."</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>The fire finally died out. Down at the station near Castlebank
|
|
Church, and over at the waterworks post up from Cargill Farm, the
|
|
smoke and flames had been monitored. It was always a hazard at this
|
|
time of the year and in the high summer, hardly a week went past
|
|
without a brush fire or a gorse fire. It was what the kids did,
|
|
part of the tradition. Most of the time, like this time, the fires
|
|
burned themselves out. When the smoke cleared, the light wind
|
|
carried the dust high over Langmuir Crags and everybody forgot
|
|
about it.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>The five boys straggled over the brow of the hill and down the
|
|
lee slope on a slow descent towards the Blackwood Stream. Billy was
|
|
still in a high state of excitement over the violence, and the
|
|
sudden destruction, and while Tom and Danny could have cheerfully
|
|
choked him, his actions that day, while they almost killed two of
|
|
his friends, had a long-reaching effect.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>When he'd tossed the stave onto the wires, shorting out the
|
|
voltage between the cables, a heavy breaker-gate slammed open and
|
|
shut off the current in the junction station just west of Barloan
|
|
Harbour, the next village along, near Old Kildenny. All the power
|
|
in Barloan Harbour winked off.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Down on Barge Street, where in the old days, the hauliers would
|
|
unload their goods from the canal bay, Terry Hughes, an engineer
|
|
with the sewage department was inspecting a blocked duct when the
|
|
lights went out. He had planned to stay down a half-hour longer
|
|
before coming up for a break. In the dark, he turned and his cable
|
|
light cracked against a rock with a pop of glass. Up in the fresh
|
|
air, he had a flask of strong coffee waiting. Terry made his way
|
|
along the duct and reached the up-well. He took off his hard hat
|
|
and hung it on the hook, going by sense of touch. He climbed the
|
|
fifteen horse-shoe steps set into the brick shaft. Somebody had put
|
|
the manhole cover down and Terry assumed that one of his colleagues
|
|
had been playing a practical joke, shutting off the light and then
|
|
shutting him in. He pushed it up, crawled into the daylight and let
|
|
it slam down again. He turned to the little canvas shelter where
|
|
he'd left his flag when the ground shuddered. The manhole cover
|
|
exploded upwards on a pillar of blue flame, tumbling like a tossed
|
|
coin. It soared right across the railway line and crashed through
|
|
the upper deck, the galley and the hull of a neat little ketch down
|
|
in the harbour basin, taking it straight to the mud at the
|
|
bottom.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Terry Hughes was knocked off his feet and he suffered a graze to
|
|
his finger.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Investigators later found it had been caused by a huge build up
|
|
of gas in a sump, gas which had leaked from a cracked mains pipe.
|
|
When the power winked back on, the cracked lamp had ignited the gas
|
|
and let rip an explosion so violent that it ruptured the entire
|
|
wall of the sewer duct and caved in a section of road fifty yards
|
|
long. Terry Hughes' protective hat was found, or what was left of
|
|
it a hundred yards away in the fork of a tree. It was split into
|
|
four ragged shell-pieces that made it look like a blossoming dog
|
|
rose. As he told his workmates in the Horseshoe Bar where he got
|
|
monumentally drunk that afternoon, if the lights hadn't gone off,
|
|
he'd have been down there when it happened and he'd never have come
|
|
back up again.</p>
|
|
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|
|
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|
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</body>
|
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