Across the Mersey - Annie Groves [160]
‘Don’t worry,’ Seb told Grace robustly. ‘I reckon your dad and his mates will be here any minute now and they’ll soon have everyone out of here.’
‘I’ve got to go and see if I can help the injured, Seb,’ Grace told him.
‘Grace, no, it’s too dangerous,’ Seb protested. Grace could hear his love for her in his voice and along with it his fear. She felt afraid herself but she knew what she must do.
‘I’ve got to, Seb.’
She had turned away from him when someone called out frantically, ‘The bloody roof’s fallen in back here, and there’s hundreds trapped underneath it.’
Seb had grabbed hold of her hand and was holding it tightly.
‘The ruddy place is on fire,’ another voice called out, and Grace stiffened in horror as she looked back into the shelter and saw that a fire had started at the furthermost end.
‘There’s water coming through, an’ all,’ another voice chimed in. ‘Looks like the flaming water main’s bin hit.’
Thick choking smoke was pouring into the part of the shelter where they were trapped. Helplessly Grace buried her face in Seb’s shoulder and clung to him. She had never felt so afraid.
The sounds of pain from the injured and dying trapped behind the fallen masonry, and echoing on the dusty air were hellish and harrowing. All the more so because the victims could not be seen.
Duty and fear struggled within Grace, but she knew what she had to do. She lifted her head and whispered to Seb, ‘I’ve got to try to help, please understand and let me go.’
She could feel the unsteady breath he exhaled as he held her tighter, and then released her, his muffled, ‘I love you,’ echoing in her ears as she called out, ‘I’m a nurse. Please let me though to see if I can help.’
‘It’s no use, love,’ one of the men in charge told her gruffly, blocking her way. ‘You can’t get through to them poor sods that have bin trapped.’
‘But I must try,’ she protested.
‘It’s no use, lass,’ the ARP warden told her thickly.
The water from the burst main was rising swiftly. It was almost up to her knees now, Grace noticed with a new shock of fear, as its fierce movement forced her back to cling to Seb or risk losing her balance. Men were lifting small children onto their shoulders, whilst women sobbed and prayed for their little ones.
‘We’re going to die. We’re all going to die,’ one woman screamed before starting to sob hysterically.
Seb wrapped his arms around her and Grace moved as close into his embrace as she could. She was shivering, trembling with the horror and cruelty of it all. But at least if they were going to die here she would be with Seb, she tried to comfort herself.
‘You’re cold,’ Seb told her. ‘Here, take my jacket.’
She tried to protest that he needed it himself but he was insistent and the smell of him on it as she slipped it on was sweetly comforting.
She could feel the water lapping above her knees. In the darkness someone stumbled against her. Without Seb’s strong arms around her the weight of them falling against her could easily have overbalanced her. A person wouldn’t have much chance if they lost their footing.
‘We’re going to die anyway,’ a woman sobbed. ‘Why don’t we just lie down in the water and get it over with quickly?’
‘Here, we don’t want none of that talk,’ another woman called up sharply.
The water was still rising. The smoke from the fire burned her throat and she could hear people coughing, and children crying.
Grace felt Seb bending his head down towards her. His skin felt warm, alive. Surely it wasn’t for this that he had been spared septicaemia? A sob tore at her throat but she suppressed it.
‘If it gets any deeper I’m going to kneel down so that you can climb on my shoulders,’ Seb told her.
Grace shook her head. ‘No, Seb. If we have to die then I want us to die together.’ She had to stop speaking to cough against the acrid smoke filling air. When she had stopped, Seb kissed her.
It was dark enough for them not to be seen,