‘Have you seen Piper?’
The mayor’s eyes widened and he shook his head. They shone their torches out into the rain. Had she run to the car? But she hadn’t driven down. She was catching a lift home with him. He ran a hand down his side. His keys were still in his pocket.
Lightning flashed again and Emmett gasped at the giant gum tree lying across the car park’s entry. The wind blew the rain out of his line of sight as a figure darted up to the fallen tree. Piper.
Terror iced his veins.
‘Stay here.’ He threw his medical bag at Mayor Briggs and took off into the rain.
He’d been wet before but as the wind tossed the water at him every which way, it soaked into any dry crevice he had left. It didn’t stop him though.
‘Piper!’
He reached the spot where he’d thought he’d seen her disappear and swore. She was crouched at the head of a man pinned by a giant branch of the tree.
Piper looked up, blinking at the torch light he had on her.
‘Emmett, help me.’
He shifted the torch beam to assess the situation. The man was lying on his stomach and the branch of the tree was across his shoulders. Piper had turned his face sideways and Emmett saw his forehead was red with blood. Shit. It was Harry Flinders, their annoying neighbour, whose favourite time to mow was when Emmett had just finished night shift.
‘Shit!’
‘We’ve got to get the branch off him!’
Emmett crouched down to Harry’s face. ‘Harry! Where’s the pain?’
‘My head and leg.’
Emmett ran the torch light down the elderly man’s body. His left leg was twisted at an angle it shouldn’t be and there was a noticeable bow in the shin made prominent by his wet pants glued to him. Shit. ‘Any chest pain?’
‘No,’ he wheezed. ‘I just can’t push against the branch. She’s firm.’
The rain suddenly eased but the strength of the wind seemed to double. Emmett’s eyes met Piper’s. ‘I’ll lift the branch, you drag him out as quickly as you can.’
Piper nodded and placed her hands under Harry’s armpits as Emmett moved to lift the branch with two hands. He couldn’t get a good enough grip. Snapping off leaves and twigs, he narrowed the width of the branch as much as he could.
‘This is going to hurt, Harry. Be strong.’
The man held his head as high as he could and gave a nod.
‘One, two, three!’
Emmett gave a roar of exertion as he lifted the heavy branch and Piper pulled Harry’s arms as hard as she could. Harry slid on the wet grass and Piper somehow kept her footing even as the old man’s yell of pain cut through the wind. Emmett’s arms shook but he didn’t drop the branch until they were clear.
Piper had Harry rolled over as the rain started up again. Wordlessly, Emmett and Piper slung an arm over their shoulders and helped him stand. He let out another groan of pain as the trio headed down the slope.
Neither Emmett nor Piper stopped until they were in the doorway of the storage room.
‘Make way!’ Emmett called over the noise and the people closest to them parted until they could get over to the camping stretcher Stef had set up on the far wall.
‘I’ll grab some blankets,’ she said once Harry was lying down.
Emmett grabbed Piper’s shoulders, examining from her head to her toes, making sure she was intact, that adrenaline wasn’t masking any injuries.
‘Emmett, I’m okay. I’m not hurt.’
His breathing remained quick. ‘You crazy-brave woman.’