Long Valley Road

by Ross Richdale

  "Sit in your desks, children, " the teacher ordered. "I shall go and talk to Mrs. O'Reilly."

  "There is no time!" screamed Julie. Her face reddened and chin shook with emotion.

  But the teacher was not about to be told what to do by a pupil. "Julie," she said in an enforced but angry whisper. "You will leave the room!"

  Already two five year olds had burst into tears and Helen stared with a drained face at her sister.

  "No! " Julie retorted

  "Get out!" the teacher’s voice rose an octave and she forgot to keep the volume down. "Coming in here and terrifying the children. I shall speak to your father about this."

  Julie was by now almost in tears of frustration and fear herself. "You bitch!" she muttered under her breath and ran across the room to Helen. "Come on, Helen," she ordered. "We're going out to Daddy's truck."

  "You stay here, Helen." The now openly angry teacher called out and reached out to grab Julie's arm.

  "Leave me," Julie growled and pulled her arm away. "Come on, Helen!"

  Helen's lip quivered and dropped, huge tears appeared in her eyes as she tried to cope with conflicting emotions of obeying her teacher or going with her sister. "I can't!" she howled. "Miss Taylor won't let me."

  Julie stared at the steamed up windows, the irate teacher and sobbing children. She gulped and made a decision. In one frantic move, bent down, slung Helen over her shoulders and headed for the outside door. Before she could be intercepted she opened it and headed out into the driving rain.

  "Put me down, Julie!" Helen screamed, kicked and punched at her big sister but to no avail.

  The teacher stood dumbfounded. "How dare you!" she hissed.

  Julie felt a tug on her jeans and stared down to see two wide, tear filled eyes staring up at her. Gillian McLean, who, Julie just realized had been working with Helen, had followed her out. "You can come, too Gillian," Julie soothed. "We'll be fine once we get to Dad's truck."

  Without caring about Vicky Taylor, she held the still struggling Helen, grabbed Gillian's hand and headed to the truck a few metres away. On arrival, the tall girl let Gillian's hand go, slung open the front passenger door and almost threw Helen in.

  "Stay there!" she snapped and lifted Gillian in as well.

  Helen was still sobbing but nodded her head and slipped across the seat in the security of her father's vehicle. Julie slammed the door and ran to the back tray where Harold was lifting Melanie Blackburn on board.

  "They won't come, Harold! Miss Taylor refuses to come."

  "I'll go and speak to her," Courtney replied but Harold reached out and stopped her.

  "No," he said. "I will. Can you drive the truck?"

  "Me?" The teacher was doubtful. “I’ve never..."

  "I will!" shouted Julie. “I’ve driven it around the hay field."

  "No," Courtney ordered but Julie disobeyed her second teacher in almost as many minutes, ducked behind Harold and ran to the driver's seat.

  "Get in the back with the children!" Harold told Courtney and continued in a quieter voice. "Which is your car?" He nodded at the two cars parked on the muddy grass.

  Courtney stared wide eye at him as if her courage had deserted her.

  "Why?" she asked.

  "Give me your keys. We can squeeze all the little ones in the cars and follow you."

  "Of course, Courtney replied. She handed a key ring to Harold. "The red Escort."

  "Right lassie,” Harold replied and lifted the teacher up under the tarpaulin with her shivering but remarkably well behaved children who squatted under the green cover with their backs against the hay bales. Overhead the rain thundered on the canvas but only remote drips leaked inside the tent shaped enclosure.

  "Go Julie!" he screamed and banged the driver's door.

  *

  Hundreds of metres above, the crack widened into a crevice and water poured out the side to further undermine the saturated soil. Thirty metres down another crack appeared and water flowed out.

  But it was no trickle! A spout of filthy brown water, forced out by the pressure behind, cascaded into the air. A crack of thunder rolled across the valley but this did not come from the sky. Instead, the noise was from beneath the ground; the hillside shook worse than any earthquake and began to subside, slowly at first until more water poured into the widening gap to join that already there.

  The pressure was too great! More water needed to escape and, like all natural things, took the line of least resistance... straight out! The avalanche was on its way and gathering momentum by the second.

  *

  Julie crunched into low gear, roared the motor and let out the clutch. It worked! The old truck moved forward.

  "The windshield wipers!" she screamed. "They aren't going! I can't see." All the time her eyes were riveted onto the rain smudged glass.

  "Daddy pulls that black button out." Helen, now over her tantrum, responded.

  "Pull it!" Julie gasped.

  The smaller Berg girl reached out and pulled the old fashioned knob and the wiper, there was only one, swung down in an arc so Julie could see the road ahead.

  "Thanks, Helen," she said, and changed up to second gear. That was it, though. In the hay paddock she had never moved into a higher gear and the thought of doing so now was too scary to contemplate. Sweaty hands gripped the steering wheel and the motor screamed along in second gear.

  As it worked out, this was the best gear on the slushy surface. Traction held and the heavy truck floundered forward, blue fumes belched out the side exhaust and, at the back, Courtney held the flapping tarpaulin down.

  "What about the little ones, Mrs. O'Reilly?" Melanie gasped. "We shouldn't be leaving them behind!"

  "Harold will put them in the cars," the teacher replied. "They'll be fine."

  Her face, though was white with worry. What if what Harold said was true and there was no time! She grimaced, brushed wet hair from her forehead and gave an encouraging smile at the dozen children huddled in the semidarkness. The tray stunk of half wet hay and animal dung but was dry and they were moving.

  *

  Julie approached the ninety-degree turn into Top Oasis with trepidation. She'd never attempted a move like this and was too frightened to attempt to shift back to low gear. Even Daddy crunched it at times. She lifted her foot from the accelerator, shoved the clutch in and steered right to give her room for the left hand turn. The disengaged motor screamed, Julie swore, removed her left foot, swung the steering wheel and pushed the accelerator.

  The Bedford lurched, mud squelched from the tires and the cab swayed. But the double rear wheels maintained grip on the soft gravel and the manoeuvre was completed. Ahead was the long drive and, being sheltered by trees from the sweeping rain, the truck just rumbled up. The nervous driver leaned forward, teeth bit a bottom lip in apprehension as white knuckles gripped the steering wheel but she was determined to reach the house.

  The top bend was easier and the concrete drive at the top meant the thuds and bangs of stones were replaced by an almost silent hum of the tires. The house was in front! Julie swung in under the carport, braked but forgot to use the clutch. There was a shudder, the Bedford jumped forward and stalled. The horn howled and the glass doors slid back to show Fiona's worried face.

  "My God, Julie!" she gasped when she recognized the driver. "What are you doing here?"

  "Dad and Kylena, Grandma. Where are they?" Julie replied.

  "Gone to town but why are you here driving your father's truck?" Fiona's face creased in worry lines.

  Words tumbled out of Julie's mouth to explain everything that had happened.

  "I'm here," came Courtney's voice from behind. She reached up and squeezed her eldest pupil's hand. "That was one tremendous effort, Julie. I'm proud of you."

  Fiona watched the children climb down off the truck and took charge. "Look, get everyone inside," she said. "You too, Julie and I'll take the truck back to help Harold."

  "But Grandma!"

  "Do i
t, Julie."

  The girl nodded and leaped from the cab. Helen and Gillian slid across and were lifted out; Fiona climbed in and waited until all the children had dismounted. Courtney gave the all clear and she headed the truck back down the drive.

  But it was too late!

  Heading down to her right was a mountain of brown, an inverted waterfall of water, mud, slush and debris. The children's screams were struck silent by the booming, scrapping, crunching wall of deluge that thundered by.

  Fiona managed to stop by a gap in the trees and had a panoramic view of the avalanche.

  Below there was no road, no school or schoolhouse. All she could see was a wall of filthy chocolate brown foam. Water! A raging torrent, worse than any waterfall, swirled and tumbled behind the farm cottage that stood unaffected by the deluge. Immediately behind the tiny building, though, was a mountain of mud mixed with boulders, slush, logs, and trees. A churning twisting wall of terror, nature at its worse, poured by like a flooded river!

  Trees on the roadside snapped like matchwood or were plucked away as a side arm of the avalanche twisted up the road towards the Top Oasis gateway. Two minutes earlier and the Bedford with everyone aboard would have been plunged down to a certain dead.

  "Harold!" screamed Fiona as she sat alone in the truck's cab and tears flooded her eyes. Her mind endeavoured to comprehend the scene being played out in front of her as the avalanche thundered on by. "Why couldn't you have come back with Julie?"

  *

  "Children! Everyone in earthquake positions under your desks," Vicky Taylor spoke in a calm voice after she shut the outside door.

  Though frightened, the nine children responded to her voice, dived beneath their desks and held onto the steel legs just as they had done in a practice a week before.

  "I want Mummy," one little fellow sobbed.

  "You are safe here, Chas," the teacher replied. "Now all of you wait while I go out and see Mrs. O'Reilly."

  Her anger had subsided a little but she still had not swallowed her pride. The cheek of that girl! Julie was usually so co-operative but just because that recluse roared in ...she had to bring the senior room back and Courtney, too. She should have shown more responsibility. After all, she was the acting principal! Vicky squinted her eyes as the rain hit her face and blundered straight into Harold coming in.

  "Look lassie," the man said in a quiet voice. "I know this is all happening but you must listen. This building cannot protect the children. It will be buried. Please listen. I am not just trying to override your authority. Your life, as well as those of the children are too important for that!"

  Whether it was his calm voice, pleading look or the earthquake that began to shake the ground, nobody would ever know but Vicky Taylor did take heed of the advice.

  "What do we do, Doctor Bentley?" she responded in a strained voice of uncertainty.

  "The truck's gone. Get the remaining children in the cars and drive straight out. Don't even turn around. There isn't time. I'll take Mrs. O'Reilly's car."

  "Right!" Vicky replied.

  Now she had decided evacuation was a sensible alternative she acted with professionalism and turned back into the room. "Children, all stand, take your neighbour's hand and make a crocodile line behind Larry," She nodded at the little boy closest to the door. "Don't run!"

  A clap of thunder sounded through the heavens and the earth shook yet again.

  Harold gathered Larry and the second child in his arms and ran to Courtney's car while Vicky guided the remaining seven children, all hands joined, out to the vehicles.

  "The first three in line go into Mrs. O'Reilly's car, the rest in mine," Vicky roared against the howling competition of the rain.

  She counted numbers and stared, pinch lipped at Harold. "They're all here," she whispered.

  "Good. Now go!"

  At the same time as when Julie turned up the driveway in the Bedford, therefore, the two cars accelerated in the opposite direction. Above, the avalanche began its destructive plunge towards the valley. A door banged in the wind and a child's sweater was swept against an adjacent hedge. In the backfield, school sheep stood huddled under a tree whose life span would now be limited to minutes at the most. They were blissfully ignorant of the impending disaster.

  Armageddon had arrived on Long Valley Road.

  *

  CHAPTER 16

  In many ways, Kylena loved travelling in the old Land Rover. It was slow, noisy, drove like a tank and, at the moment water leaked in through the front air vents and the windshield wipers could barely cope with the rain. But it reminded her of childhood. She'd come off a farm and for most of her formative years a Land Rover was the family's only vehicle. She hitched up the pillow under her posterior and reached forward to wipe the windshield clear.

  "Are you cold?" John asked and turned the blower up. It sounded like a tornado and a little more warm air blew in onto Kylena's feet.

  "No," she smiled. "It's perfect. Everything is." She held her tummy, reached across and kissed her partner's cheek.

  John grinned.” Extremes again?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "It was you. You said pregnant women did everything in extremes."

  "I did, didn't I?"

  John glanced casually in the rear vision mirror and grunted. A police car appeared out of nowhere with blue and red lights flashing and siren screaming. He pulled left to allow the vehicle by but it pulled in behind and a hand waved for them to pull over.

  Kylena frowned. "Well, you couldn't have been speeding," she commented as a police officer in a wide brimmed hat and waterproof jacket alighted from his vehicle and walked forward to them.

  "Mr. and Mrs. Berg?" the young looking officer asked through the driver's window.

  "Why yes officer," John replied. "Is there a problem?"

  The man's eyes, though, were on Kylena. "You're the principal of Long Valley School, I believe, Mrs. Berg," he stated. "On maternity leave," he added and flicked a gaze over her rotund body.

  Kylena shivered. Something was wrong. She knew it.

  "I am, constable."

  "First let me say your two children, Julie and Helen are safe, along with most of the school's pupils who are now at your home..." His attempt to reassure the pair only aggravated the situation.

  "At the house!" Kylena eyes showed the fear she felt. "Why aren't they at school?"

  "There's been a problem, Mrs. Berg." the police officer coughed.

  "Well, son," John replied with his American accent quite pronounced, "I'd say you had better tell us what has happened."

  The man told the two everything he knew. "Mrs. Fiona Reynolds phoned the emergency number and reported the avalanche has filled the valley beyond your drive. The school and schoolhouse have been buried beneath the subsidence. A rescue helicopter is due to arrive there within moments and I was dispatched to find you two."

  "Oh my God!" Kylena's fear turned to horror "So Harold, Vicky and most of the junior room pupils buried in the slip." she gasped.

  "We do not know that Ma'am," the constable replied. "They may have escaped down the eastern side of the site. That was their intention.”

  "I want to get there!" Kylena added. Her face was drawn, she could feel her heart pounding in her chest but she had a determined expression that the police constable noticed.

  "I'll lead the way," he said. "If any more news comes through the radio I'll flag you down. Okay?"

  John glanced at his man's nametag. "We'll appreciate that, Constable Deans," he replied and reached across to shut the window. "Thank you."

  The officer gave a slight smile. "Now don't worry. I'm sure they had time to evacuate the school. There were two adults with the children."

  Kylena was about to scream that he never knew but saw the compassion in his eyes and realized he was only trying to be kind. She met the eyes fixed on her and nodded. Her throat, though was dry and her stomach churned to compound the thumping heart. Suddenly, without warning, a pain shot through he
r body; so excruciating she cried out in agony and clasped her stomach. Other things were happening inside! She stifled a scream and realized her clothes and legs were wet.

  Both men turned in alarm and John's arm shot out. "What is it, my dear?"

  "My water, John!" Kylena choked. "My water's burst. I think I'm having the baby." She grimaced as another pain raked through her body.

  Constable Deans was the first to react. "The Schneider farm is just up the road," he said. "Can you hold on until then, Ma'am? Five minutes, tops."

  "I hope so," the mother-to-be grimaced and attempted a smile.

  The police constable ran to his car and accelerated with tires spinning, so fast he was up the road and had to slow to allow John to catch up.

  "He's more nervous than you, “John muttered.

  But Kylena was too worried to respond. She clasped a handhold and bite on her lip as another birth pain ripped through her body. "Hurry John," she panted. "Bubs doesn't want to wait."

  *

  Betty Schneider, a plump woman in her forties couldn't have been more cooperative. As soon as Constable Deans explained the situation, she rushed through to a bedroom and opened the patio doors there.

  “Bring her in here,” she said. 'I'll phone Doctor Downie.'

  John would not let Kylena walk but carried her along the wide veranda to the bedroom and placed her on the bed. "You're be fine, my sweet," he encouraged and kissed her cheek.

  "I'm sorry, John," she responded. "What a time for this to happen."

  John ran a finger over her lips. "Yes. In years to come when Caroline is Julie's age we'll tell her about the untimely arrival."

  "Caroline?" Kylena frowned.

  "Wasn't that the name we both picked for a girl?"

  "Oh yes, I'd forgotten." Her voice turned into a scream. "She's coming, oh my God!"

  *

  Perhaps the Grim Reaper tossed the dice that day and it came up a three or it may have been sheer fate. When Harold accelerated away behind Vicky's Toyota, the only thing on his mind was to move as fast as possible away from the area. But the car in front was too slow, so slow he almost hit its rear bumper. He braked and allowed a few metres to separate the two vehicles; a traffic accident at this stage would not help.