Synopsis

Cpt 1

Cpt 2

Cpt 3

Cpt 5

Cpt 6

Cpt 7

Cpt 8

Cpt 9

Cpt 10

Bonus

Extra

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Claire found the Land Rover responded well to her driving. She drove slowly and kept in a low gear so she didn't have to brake. She'd heard somewhere that it was dangerous to brake in icy conditions. The scariest part was near the top bend where the truck skid marks made two slushy tracks in the snow. However, by keeping on the inside close to the cutting she drove past and continued on to the top of the hill where the track became level on a table flat.

She stopped and pulled on the coat, hat and gloves she'd brought with her. She wrapped the blankets around the first aid kit and carried them down the road to the accident site. Missy was waiting beside Alan who opened his eyes and smiled at her.

"I heard the Land Rover. It was sensible to drive on up to the top flat."

Claire nodded. "Doctor Williams is coming and I've got some blankets."

"A nice chap. Thank you. Without your help..." Alan looked worried and reached up for Claire's hand. "Go and check on Hazel please. I called out several times but she hasn't replied.

"After I've put a blanket over you."

She covered Alan and walked across to the truck. When she wriggled up on the fender and gazed inside she saw Hazel was awake with Toby tucked in beside her.

"Claire," Hazel said. "Where's Alan?"

"He's okay but has a broken leg."

"How long have we been here?"

Claire glanced at her watch. "The dogs came and got me a little over an hour ago."

"I'm a bit stuck, I'm afraid and..." She stopped talking and broke into a rasping cough. "My whole body ... oh my God, I feel terrible."

"It's okay. The doctor's coming," Claire reached out and held Hazel with her gloved hands. "He won't be long."

"We're a long way from town..."

"I know," Claire felt her courage disappearing. "He said to keep you warm. I've got blankets."

"Toby kept me warm," Hazel whispered. "He wouldn't leave me even though I told him to search for Alan."

"Missy is with him and Jiggy stayed with me." Claire pushed a blanket in and only then did Toby move aside and let her tuck it around Hazel.

"I wondered where the other two were. I thought they might have been hurt too," Hazel whispered. "I thought... I was afraid... Oh Claire. I'm so pleased you're here." She attempted a smile, closed her eyes and her head flopped sideways.

"Hazel!" Claire's racing heart slowed when she noticed Hazel's chest rising and falling. She was asleep or unconscious but seemed to be breathing okay. She waited but Hazel did not awaken. Unsure what to do, she tucked the blanket in and found some disinfectant in the first aid box. She poured some in a wad of cotton wool and gently wiped the blood off Hazel's face.

"Look after her," she said to Toby, slid back to the ground and went back to Alan.

If anything he looked more worried than earlier. "She's not..." he gasped.

"No. Sorry I was so long. She was awake for a while but has gone back to sleep."

"But!"

"She's stuck but otherwise is in better condition than you are." Claire hated telling a white lie but what good would it do to tell Alan that Hazel had coughed up blood and she was worried about her condition?

"I see," Alan whispered but did not sound convinced. "Go back to her Claire. I'll be fine." He stopped and turned his head. "Can you hear it?" he asked.

Claire was about to ask what he was talking about when she heard a thump, thump, thump sound from over the hill. Jiggy began to bark while Missy looked expectantly up the slope.

She waited as the noise became louder.

All of a sudden there it was. A massive silver helicopter flew into sight and hovered above the road. It swung around and Claire saw someone waving from an opened door. She waved both arms, shouted and watched in excitement as the machine moved slowly away and disappeared from view.

"It'll land on the top flat," Alan yelled above the engine noise. "I wonder where they got it from?"

"It's huge," Hazel gasped. "The only helicopters I've seen are tiny little things,"

Alan's eyes shone. "You did it, Claire. You're the reason it's here."

"And you'll both be safe soon," Claire replied with a laugh. She stood up. "I'll go and meet them. Are you coming, Jiggy?"

The little dog yelped and went running up the slope with Claire following close behind.

*

By the time Claire arrived, the helicopter had already landed near the Land Rover and two men were lifting a stretcher out of an opened door. One approached with his hand extended.

"Doctor Wayne Williams," he said. "You must be Claire Woodham. We've met before, you know."

Claire shook his hand but flushed at the same time. "Have we?" she said. "I can't remember."

The doctor smiled. "It was a while ago. My family attended Saint James Anglican Church in Lower Hutt. Your father was an assistant vicar or deacon there. We met at some of the church functions when my mum helped out. You would have been about ten at the time."

"I see."

"And your family? Is your father still a vicar?"

"Oh yes. He's at Saint Mary's in Karori."

"A lovely area. Your dad's done well. You must be proud of him."

Claire studied the doctor and realised he was just being polite. Anyway this was not the time to say how she really felt so she shrugged and changed the topic. "Alan has a broken leg but I'm more worried about Hazel. Could you get to her as quickly as you can?"

"Of course." Wayne turned to his companion. "Bill Saunders, my pilot. Bill, Clare Woodham."

"Hi," the pilot said. "You're lucky I was in the district. Brought the Sikorsky S-55 up from Wanganui two days ago to help move building equipment into the ranges. They're maintaining a couple of bush huts." He shrugged. "Not that we could do much today with all the snow around anyway."

They chatted as Claire led them down the track to the accident site so, with her more immediate concerns, she let the conversation about her father slip to the back of her mind. When they reached the top of the slope Wayne stopped and surveyed the scene with his hands on his hips.

"It's steep," he said to the pilot.

"Slippery too. We're going to find it hard getting them up."

"Okay," the doctor said. "But lets go and examine them first, shall we?"

*

Both Alan and Hazel were unconscious. Wayne examined Alan first, confirmed that his leg was broken and said he could also have internal injuries. When they reached Hazel, Wayne immediately strapped an oxygen mask on her face and asked Claire to hold the small cylinder attached to it.

"You did well," he complimented. "Without the blanket she could be suffering much more severe hypothermia by now." He turned to Bill. "We'll need to cut this steel away from her lower body. There's a hacksaw in my kit. Could you manage that while I concentrate on Hazel?"

"Sure."

Claire held the oxygen cylinder and watched apprehensively while the two men worked. The steel was not difficult to cut but moving Hazel out proved more difficult. Wayne reached down and placed an injection in her posterior.

"Morphine," he explained. "She may awaken when we shift her and could be in considerable pain."

It took several minutes but they manipulated the stretcher under Hazel and slid her out. Bill searched around. "I suggest we go down rather than up," he said

Claire followed his eyes. Below them, the slope became gentler and almost levelled out across a narrow valley. Afterwards, it became steep up the other side. However, there were rocks sticking up everywhere.

Wayne frowned. "You'll never get your chopper there"

"No," Bill said. "But I can hover. There's a hoist we can use to winch the stretcher aboard. I'll need someone to swing the stretcher inside, though."

"And someone will need to strap it on from this end."

"I can," Claire whispered.

Wayne glanced at Bill who shrugged.

"And why not?" Claire retorted.

"It will involve some lifting. Will you manage?"

"I can try."

"If Claire has trouble you could climb down the ladder and help," Bill said. "You'd have to climb up again to get the stretcher inside."

"And we will need to do it twice," Wayne said.

"So!" Claire snapped. The doctor was beginning to sound like her father, all patronizing but giving her no credit for being capable at anything. She shuddered.

Wayne though, smiled. "So we'll do it."

*

It was difficult. Freezing wind blew down from the helicopter's rotors and Claire's fingers were so frozen she could barely feel them. Hazel was strapped to the stretcher and she had to attach four spring clips to rings on each corner of the stretcher for the lift up. It sounded easy but she had trouble holding the taut rope, pulling back the spring clip and slipping it over the ring all at the same time. She pulled until her arms ached and finally attached one.

Good! Three to go. The second was relatively easy but the third was almost impossible. She glanced up at Wayne leaning out the helicopter door. He shouted and waved but there was no way she could hear his words above the roaring engine noise.

She tried again but could not pull the rope far enough to give her the slack to slide the clip over the ring. Her arms ached so much her eyes watered. She looked up again and gave an exaggerated shrug.

Wayne waved and disappeared from sight, the screaming engine became even louder and the downdraft almost knocked her off her feet. Oh hell, the helicopter was moving.

She gasped when she saw the rope slacken a fraction. The helicopter had moved slightly to give her some slack. With renewed energy, she pulled it over the ring; slid back the clip and her shaking fingers yanked it in place. The last rope clicked into place easily.

"I did it, " she screamed and waved up at Wayne.

She guided the stretcher as it lifted. Once it was above her hand reach she moved away from the downdraft and watched Alan guide the stretcher inside. A moment later a second folded up stretcher, followed by a rope ladder were tossed down. Claire ran to hold it. She held on while Wayne, with a safety harness around his body, climbed down.

He grinned at Claire when his feet touched and undid the harness. "I'm proud of you," he shouted in her hair.

Claire smiled. That small compliment made her feel just so... it was hard to explain. "So we get Alan," she shouted.

"We do."

*

The short journey with Alan on the stretcher was probably just as difficult but Claire never hesitated. She helped Wayne carry him down to where the helicopter still hovered and ignored her aching arms. At least she didn't have to walk backwards down the hill like the doctor did. With Wayne's help it was easy to attach the stretcher to the ropes after they arrived.

"When we leave you are to get back into the warm house straight away. Understand?" he shouted.

Claire nodded.

"I'll telephone you as soon as I can." Wayne smiled and squeezed her arm. "You take care now."

She watched as the doctor climbed up the swaying ladder, waved and slid the door across. The helicopter roared, rose up and flew away.

Claire gulped as a different feeling flooded her body, one of being alone. It was akin to the feeling she had felt when she stepped off the train.

"Oh snap out of it," she muttered. She felt a wet nose against her hand and glanced down. It was Jiggy. All three dogs were around her and looking up with gentle eyes.

"Alan and Hazel will be fine," she said and stroked each of them on the head in turn. "So let's get the Land Rover and go home, shall we?"

The dogs yelped and ran in little circles with their tails wagging. It was as if they understood everything that had happened.

*

When Claire arrived back at the Land Rover a new problem confronted her. Hundreds of sheep were bleating from behind the gate. She gazed out over the snow. "Poor things," she said. "You never got your hay this morning."

But what could she do? All the hay was down the bank around the truck. She thought about the situation. There was food for them that was quite close but... She remembered that half way up the track there was an open gateway that she had driven through. Now if this part of the track didn't open up though the whole farm couldn't she close that gate and let the sheep go to the hay?

"Come on dogs," she called and opened the back door. All three dogs leaped into the Land Rover and sat down.

Claire needed to turn the Land Rover around anyway so she decided to see where the track led. After travelling several hundred yards she came to a woolshed with wooden pens around it. Better still was the large turning area and what looked like three paddocks with gates leading into the track she was on. One of these was the one the sheep were in and the other two appeared to be just snow covered and devoid of animals. The track she was on was fenced on both sides and appeared self-contained. It appeared okay to let the sheep into it.

"We'll do it!" she said to the dogs who wagged their tails. Of course they had no idea what she was talking about but they had accepted her as their mistress.

She turned the Land Rover around and headed back. When she reached the gate there was something else she hadn't thought of. They were on a steep narrow section and she couldn't reverse all the back to the top gate where the sheep were waiting. She drove through the gate and stopped again.

"Well, we walk, dogs," she said and opened the door.

After shutting this gate she headed up to the top flat with the dogs trotting beside her. Again they appeared to be quite happy to be with her. The sun shone and the snow in direct sunlight had already begun to melt. Claire pulled her collar up and puffed little clouds of condensation into the morning air. She couldn't see the truck but when she turned around she saw the farmhouse way below them. The road in front of the farm was still covered in snow with no vehicle tracks at all. In a different direction she could see the black cattle who had spread out from the hay that had been largely eaten.

It was an isolated but beautiful place a world away from the crowded suburbs of Wellington. Claire sighed. If it wasn't for this horrible accident...

She reached the gate and swung it open. The sheep, though, hung back and didn't move. Of course, the dogs were with her.

"Bring them out to the hay, dogs," she said.

The result was spectacular. Missy ran through the gate and around the mob at full speed while Toby trotted up the track a little and sat down. Jiggy hadn’t moved.

Missy started barking and the sheep ran around in half a circle before one spied the open gateway and charged through. Immediately the whole mob followed but ran in the wrong direction towards the woolshed. Perhaps this was the way they usually went.

Toby stood up and walked slowly across the track. The front sheep stopped, one thumped its foot to the ground in frustration and stepped forward. Toby stood like a statue and held his tail straight out.

Claire watched in fascination as the two animals confronted each other. Toby stepped forward one step, then another. He never made a sound and Missy, out in the paddock had also stopped barking. With his ears forward and eyes on the lead sheep, Toby took another step forward. The sheep stamped its foot, the dog moved again and won its battle of wills.

The sheep turned and the whole mob followed. They thundered past Claire and there was a blur as Missy tore up the fence side of the farm track. In seconds she had reached the front and began barking again. The sheep turned and headed in the only direction left, down the bank to where the truck and hay was.

Both dogs stopped and looked up at Claire as if they wanted to be praised.

"Wonderful," she called. "That's it. Now we can go home."

She opened the track gate for the dogs, slid through herself and latched it shut. The dogs jumped in the Land Rover and sat there panting as if pleased with their efforts. Even Jiggy sat there as if she, too had helped. Claire grinned as they all headed home.

*

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