Every time Pip tried to stand up, the floor shifted as the van rolled and she was falling again.
‘Aaaggghhh,’ she screamed as her elbow slammed into the floor.
‘Woowoo!’ Houdini wailed in response.
Eventually the van came to a stop. She thought it must have landed on its side. When she looked up from where she lay on the floor, one of the rear doors hung open. Outside, she could hear cars braking, and then shouts and screams.
‘Houdini,’ she whispered.
He whimpered and emerged slowly from a tight huddle in the corner to lick her face.
‘I think it’s stopped moving,’ she told him. ‘We need to get out while we can.’
Cautiously, she stood up again, slipped her backpack on and stuck her head out the back. The car that had hit the van had landed a few metres away. Its front was crumpled and the driver was looking dazed the wheel. Several other people had pulled over and were staring at the wreckage as if they couldn’t believe what had just happened.
On shaking legs, Pip scrambled out of the upturned van, encouraged Houdini to do the same and led him well away from the road where she tied his lead firmly to a tree. Cars were still moving fast in the outer lanes and the last thing anyone needed was a crazy dog getting loose on the motorway.
She turned and spotted the van driver climbing groggily from his van, blood dripping slowly from his head.
Someone shouted, ‘It’s on fire!’
Pip turned as smoke began billowing from the crunched bonnet of the car that had hit the back of the van. Even as she watched, small flames began to lick out from underneath.
‘Hey, mister!’ Pip yelled, when the man slumped in the driver’s seat didn’t move. ‘Your car’s on fire.’
‘I’ve called triple zero,’ a lady said, climbing from a car that had just pulled up. ‘Emergency services will be here soon.’
Pip didn’t think they had time to wait for a fire truck. The flames were dancing higher now, and the woman edged closer to the door. She tried to open the door and staggered back gasping, holding her right hand with the left. ‘It’s burning hot! Don’t touch it!’ she warned Pip.
‘We have to get him out. There’s no time,’ Pip told her. She dumped her pack on the ground, unzipped it and tugged out the blanket she’d been wrapped in when Sully had found her on his doorstep.
Wrapping it several times around her hand, she seized the doorhandle and wrenched it open. Smoke billowed out, blinding her, and she turned away coughing.
‘Someone’s coming with an extinguisher,’ the woman said.
‘Mister! Wake up. You have to wake up!’ Pip yelled to the driver. ‘Your car’s on fire.’
The man stirred and groaned. His breath smelled like Sully’s had when he’d been drinking. Pip pushed him away from the steering wheel. ‘Come on, you have to get out,’ she told him. ‘Hurry!’
‘I can’t…’ He fumbled for his seatbelt clip, his eyes glazed. ‘I can’t find it.’
The man with the extinguisher began to blast the front of the car with foam.
Pip raced around to the other side of the car, dragged open the door, leant over the empty passenger seat and unclipped the driver’s seatbelt. ‘Okay, you can get out now.’
The injured man slumped half out of the door, and with the lady’s help, Pip dragged him out just as the first fire truck arrived. One firefighter ran towards them as another began putting out roadblocks. Pip could see an ambulance pulling up behind the fire truck.
She slipped behind the growing crowd, as the woman started to explain what had happened to a fireman. Turning, Pip saw the van driver leaning against his upturned vehicle, pressing tissues to the gash on his head. ‘I’m really sorry,’ she told him. ‘The ambulance is here now. I hope you’re okay.’
He stared at her blankly. Pip hoped he hadn’t hit his head too badly. In any case, two ambulance officers were heading his way. It was time she disappeared before anyone started asking questions about her.
As she hurried away from the van, she heard one of the ambos ask the man if she was his kid but she didn’t hear his reply. With so much going on, though, she thought there was a good chance everyone would forget all about her.
As Pip slipped down the embankment, Houdini pranced and yipped in delight at seeing her. She unclipped him and took a last glance back at the motorway. It was a mess. Cars and emergency vehicles were parked all across the three lanes. Police and ambos were bustling about as people stood by their cars and watched. Traffic was at a standstill, and in the distance she could see more flashing lights, unable to get through to the accident scene.
How had a place to sleep snowballed into this giant catastrophe?
Pip sighed and looked down at Houdini. He gave her a sorrowful look, almost as if he now realised they weren’t going back to his bones and comfy bed at the Brownings’.
‘Sorry, Houdini,’ she mumbled past the lump in her throat as they turned away from the motorway wreckage, slipped down the embankment and disappeared into the trees.
It didn’t take long before she realised she had no idea where she was going. The trees were tall and spindly and close together, making it difficult to see far ahead. The sounds from the crash scene were getting fainter, and within minutes Pip couldn’t hear them at all. In fact, she couldn’t hear anything except the crackle and crunch of her footsteps and Houdini’s on the twigs and leaves that covered the ground.
At least they hadn’t been followed.
They walked for what seemed like forever before stopping for a rest, and then continued deep into the afternoon until she started to wonder if they were walking in circles. She wished she’d thought to bring food and drink.
Not long after, Pip stopped again. It was really shadowy now amid the closely planted trees as evening began to close in, and while it was cooler, it was also kind of spooky. She knew ghosts weren’t real, but right now it was easier to believe they were. And even if they weren’t, axe murderers were. She felt a shiver run down her spine.
‘We’d better find somewhere to sleep, Houdini,’ she whispered. ‘I’ll work out what to do in the morning.’
She found a place encircled by thick shrubs where the leaves had collected in a deep pile. Unzipping her pack, she went to pull out the blanket she’d had since she was a baby, in case the night became cooler. It wasn’t there! And then she remembered using it to open the door of the burning car, how it had blackened and smouldered.
Rats! She must have dropped it when she went to help the driver escape from his seatbelt. One of the very last things that connected her with her mother was lost for good.
She sat down with her back propped against the tree, Houdini snuggled next to her, and pulled the photo of her mother from her pack. As much as she had tried to take care of it, it was now a bit wrinkled and one corner was bent. It didn’t matter, nor did the fact Pip couldn’t really make out any details in the fading light. She knew that the photo showed a young woman with Pip’s grey-green eyes. She wore a pale blue summer dress and she was laughing.
There and then, Pip decided she was going to find Cass, however long it took her, however far she had to go.
Cass would understand what it was like to be Pip. She’d had her own troubles as a kid. She wouldn’t mind that Pip wasn’t perfect because nor was she.
A little voice in Pip’s head whispered that it was nine long years since Cass had come looking for her. Pip silenced the voice. It wasn’t Cass’s fault. She’d thought Sully had found Pip a good home; she had probably figured she was doing Pip a favour by staying well away.
But Pip would find her and then everything would be okay. They would be a family at last.