Sams POV

Penny had given me a brilliant idea that was as dangerous as it the could be the solution. But now it was just a matter of not wasting any more time, because we were running out of time pretty quickly.

I had walked over and opened the garage to jump into my car. I was just about to start the engine when the passenger door and both rear doors opened and the next moment Penny was sitting next to me and Arnold and Annie behind me.

"What are you doing here?" I asked them all, my eyes darting back and forth between Penny and the rearview mirror in that I could see the other two.

"We're going with you?" Penny simply answered me as if it was the most logical thing in the world as she buckled up her seatbelt.

"But I told you..." I started, but stopped when Arnold patted me on the shoulder from behind.

"For the first time, I actually think it's a good thing that you don't have anything to say to us anymore, Sam!" he interjected with a grin, painfully reminding me of the fact that I wasn't even a firefighter anymore. Well, at least not officially. Nobody could take away what you kept in your heart, right?"Ellie and Elvis mount the snow blade. What are you planning to do, Sam?" he then asked me, after he obviously wanted to calm me down despite his unusually teasing joke with that at least two still listened to what I've asked for.

"I want to use Annie's plow," I reluctantly gave in and Penny looked at me perplexed.

"For what?"

"To plow?" I replied to her, because I just couldn't stop myself from teasing her a little. I loved it so much when she looked at me annoyed like she did again at that moment.

"Very funny, Sam!"

"I'm going to loosen up a strip of earth around the city and use the snow plow to clear it of grass and anything flammable," I explained to her with a sigh and stole a sideways glance at the clock. Time was still against us.

"So that the fire no longer finds food. Kind of like a protective strip," Penny then completed my thoughts by putting them into words. It happened so many times that we thought the same thing. We had a special connection and to be able to really give it a name with the word love was finally incredible but wonderful. I just hoped it could handle what was coming.

"Right. And behind that I'll set a counterfire!" I told her the rest of the plan, which I'm sure she had already thought of.

"A counterfire? Don't you think that one would be enough that the wind is already blowing towards the city? Do you really want to put a second one?" Annie interjected skeptically from behind and we both turned to her and Arnold.

"Annie, a fire needs combustible material, as well as oxygen. The main fire is so big that it literally sucks in the air to get enough oxygen. If you light a counterfire close to the main fire, the suction of the main fire will be great enough to suck in the opposing fire and not leave it to the wind, they could deprive each other of the oxygen they need," Penny explained to her cousin the physical laws of a fire.

"That can work, but it can also be a big mess if the two fires combine into one big one and jump over," Arnold remarked hesitantly, who seemed more than unsure.

"It can't jump over. The ditch behind it has to be wide enough," I defended my plan.

"And it has to be free of anything flammable, including protruding roots. How are you going to do that on your own? They say it can only be an hour at most before the fire reaches the city," Penny turned back to me and I could see the worry in her eyes.

"I have to try, Pen," I pleaded with her urgently and took her hand in mine, a silent request in my eyes that they should finally let me drive. Every second was precious right now and if I couldn't really offer Penny much anymore, a home and the city that we both loved so much I would keep for her - come what may!

"Then you should drive off instead of wasting time," but to my great surprise was their answer and none of them made any move to get out. On the contrary, Penny even closed the door that she had left open until now.

"I'll drive you to the harbor," I sighed resignedly and started the engine.

"Sam, we're a team. If you go down, we'll go down with you!" Arnold interjected, just as I put the car in reverse and met his serious look in the rearview mirror.

"Very well said, Arnold," Penny praised him and when I looked at her in amazement, I spotted a smile in the corner of her mouth. "Did you finally want to drive off?" she then admonished me and I couldn't help myself and rolled my eyes.

"My cousin is right. We're running out of time a bit. So if you're planning on marrying her here in Pontypandy, you should finally step on the gas so that we can all still have some of the wedding cake!", Annie came to her cousin's aid and I sighed in annoyance before backing the car out of the driveway. Wasn't that what I had planned all along?

After I came up with the idea of ​​the protective strip and the counterfire, I hadn't had time to think about it. But now, while we had to take quite a detour to get around the fire, thereby losing valuable time as I saw the fire up close for the first time since I had almost died in it, I began to have doubts.

Penny must have noticed because shortly before Annie's farm she put her hand on my arm and when I looked over at her briefly I saw a mild smile on her face.

"It's a good plan. We can do it, Sam. Together." She could really read minds and it made me smile. I quickly grabbed her hand and gave her a kiss on the back of her hand. She was right. If not us, who else should do it?

We reached Annie's farm and I headed toward the charred remains of the barn where she always stored the tractor and hay. The fire hadn't burned it to ashes, but it had weakened the material to the point that many of the boards had already fallen down. There was crackling everywhere and if you looked closely you could see that the embers were still in the wood. Annie was the first to jump out of the car and run towards the gate. She grabbed the gate, but immediately pulled her hands back, frightened because she seemed to have burned herself. A quick look left and right and she ran off while I walked around the car and helped Penny out of it. Arnold stayed with us and we walked to the barn door together. We arrived there at the same time as Annie, who had found a relatively intact pitchfork somewhere and was now pushing the tines into the gap between the two doors in order to pry the gate open.

Behind it we saw a picture of horror. The tractor itself, which had once been red, was now jet black and covered with the charred remains of hay and with boards and beams. My hope was already dwindling to a minimum while Annie was still pushing the boards and beams off the tractor with the pitchfork to reveal the disaster more and more to our view.

"Damn, the tractor is completely ruined," she sighed when we saw the full extent of it. The driver's cab was smashed. The seat was charred and only the springs were visible from the charred remains. The tires were also burned and all flat. Now there was no hope.

"Open the hood," said Penny, to my surprise, and Annie looked at her questioningly for a moment before she released the latch and folded the hood to the side. When Penny started to climb onto the front drawbar, I was immediately next to her to help her, supporting her so that she didn't put too much strain on her leg while she was already reaching into the engine compartment and various parts that I had absolutely no use for. "The engine isn't in the best condition, but I'll get it running again if..." she began, but was interrupted by Arnold, who had just run back into the barn and came back carrying some canisters under his arms.

"I found motor oil and gasoline!" he shouted excitedly and enthusiastically. Just then, Annie rolled a tractor tire around the corner.

"And I got the spare tires. Not the best anymore, but the back corner of the barn where I had stored them seemed to be spared from the fire. We were lucky," she said with a satisfied grin, dropped the tire and ran, close followed by Arnold, off to get the next one.

"It's like they can read minds," I said with a smile and looked up at Penny, who also smiled.

"Now we just need tools," she then remarked, but I could help with that. I ran back to the car and grabbed the toolbox I always kept there from the trunk. You never knew what was coming. I was always prepared for almost anything.

"Where did you get the gas and oil, Arnold?" I heard Penny ask our younger colleague, who was already changing the first wheel with Annie.

"He must have gotten that from my shed," Annie explained to her instead, because Arnold was trying to loosen a wheel nut and was clearly having trouble with it. I was there immediately and helped him. Creaking, it gave in. "I always keep something like this in a locked cupboard, along with pesticides and cleaning products, so that no one else can get to it," she then explained to her cousin and stood next to her to take my place and assist her.

"Right. The fire went past the shed," Arnold confirmed to her as I put the wrench on the nearest lug nut. He immediately pitched in again and helped me loosen the next wheel nut.

"I thought you were doing organic farming. Then what are you doing with pesticides?" I heard Penny ask her cousin skeptically.

"It's organic. It's fertilizer. I make it myself," Annie answered her with a shrug and I paused. Fertilizer? As manur?

"I'll never eat fruit and vegetables again!" I said out loud as I shook and Arnold helped me unscrew the wheel nuts with our hands, which we had all loosened by now.

"What? Why not?" Only a farmer could act so innocently, right?

"Fertilizer, Annie! Manur!" I repeated the obvious - or at least I thought it was obvious.

"My goodness, it's plant fertilizer. I make it from various herbs that I collect in the meadows," Annie replied annoyed, rolling her eyes. Oh, of course that was something different. That calmed me down immensely. "I only use the manure from the cattle to fertilize the corn and rye fields." I cringed in disgust and, in shock, let go of the tire that Arnold and I had just taken off.

"Bah," Arnold and I said at the same time when we realized that none of us were holding on to the man-sized front wheel and that it was threatening to fall on top of us. Startled, we both jumped back and simply dropped it. We just looked at each other and shrugged before grabbing the spare and putting it on, ignoring the old one and leaving it where it was. Once we saved Pontypandy there would still be enough time to clean up.

"You get in line! I'll go check out the harvester," Annie stated as she placed the cans of oil and gasoline next to Penny and jumped down from the tractor.

"What do you want with that?" Penny called after her, which wasn't something just she was wondering about.

"If I reposition it a little, we might be able to use it to dig up the roots on the shelter strip once the soil has been removed." Wow, that was a pretty good idea. There was just one thing she hadn't considered.

"Who's going to drive all the vehicles?" I said out loud and everyone looked up from their work and looked at me as if I had just said something really stupid. I suddenly didn't feel comfortable in my own skin and that was certainly not just because of the looks they were giving me but also because of the feeling that I was about to hear something that I wouldn't like at all.

"We're more than enough, aren't we?" Penny said seriously and grabbed one of the canisters to fill the engine with oil.

"You have to go back to the station or at least to the harbor so that you can be evacuated," I replied to them all and looked at them, but Penny and Arnold just continued their work and Annie just waved it off boredly, before she ran away.

"What did you say before? If necessary we'll take a skiff, but we won't give up the city that easily!" Penny repeated the words I had shouted to her as I had left the fire station and I rolled my eyes in annoyance.

"What am I driving?" Arnold interjected as I brought him the second small front tire to put on. Now all that was missing was a big one at the back.

"If you want to join in, Arnold, then drive to the station in Sam's car and get Phoenix. We'll meet at the west end of town," Penny suggested to him and I knew that I wouldn't really have anything to say about it here .

"Roger that, Penny!" he replied to her.

Ten minutes later, Arnold and I had changed the last wheel and Penny had sat in the driver's seat, on which I quickly placed a pillow that I had found in my car. She turned the key and the engine sputtered. It took a while, but finally it actually started and I climbed up to kiss her.

A loud honk pulled us apart and we saw Arnold and my car disappearing into the distance as Annie drove up with the harvester.

"The baby is running and I also got the planting machine running. They were both so out of the way that the fire pretty much passed them by. I have two plows. One is pretty old, but it still works. So you could drive next to each other and create a wider strip faster," Annie then shouted to us over the noise of the engine and even though we had lost almost half an hour, to hear that made my hope grow again.

"Okay, guys. Then let's pack up the gas, hook up the plows and bring everything back to town!" I shouted enthusiastically and saw Annie get down to help Penny hook up the plow.

"Roger that, Sam!" they shouted just as enthusiastically, before I ran to the planting machine, which turned out to be just a normal tractor with an attachment on the back that didn't really mean anything to me. But it didn't matter either. What was important first was to use everything we had at our disposal to save Pontypandy and that's exactly what we were going to do now!

To be continued...