Summer Paradise: A Bondi Rescue Fanfiction

Chapter 10- Lightning Strikes on Bondi

I woke up to a loud "BANG".

Thunder and lightning had already started at 5 am. It was bucketing down cats and dogs outside but I still had to get up for work.

I dragged myself out of my bed and into my small but handy kitchen to grab some breakfast. I grabbed out some wheat bixs and pured some milk and fruits into my bowl.

I sat down at my little dinning table and ate my breakfast.

After eating breakfast I quickly went and got changed just about to leave when there was a knock on my door.

I made my way to the door and opened it to see who it was. "I'll give you a lift to work if you want", said Corey who was my only other neighbor apart from maxi that lived with him.

"sure, thanks a lot Corey", I said as I grabbed my backpack.

I followed Corey down stairs and outside to the car park. We made a dash to his car and we hopped in.

Only about 2 or 3 minutes later we were at bondi. Corey pulled up along the footpath in front of the pavilion and I got out.

"thanks again Corey". I called out over the thunder.

I dashed into the pavilion and opened the door to the lockers. I quickly got in and out in a few minutes.

I grabbed my rain jacket on the way out and quickly ran for the tower.

I sprinted across the road and ran into the tower. The wind was picking up and more rumbling was coming from the sky.

When I got into the tower Ben,Deano, Hoppo and itchy were already there.

The sky was growing darker by the minute and the swell was rising. The senior lifeguards were deciding on where it was safe enough to put the flags up or if the beach was even safe enough to have open.

I sat down at the desk and picked up a pair of binoculars and looked out at the water. There was literally no one in the water but a few runners remained on the beach.

"The beach isn't safe enough to put flags up anywhere. There's rips pulling from all direction", said Hoppo.

"and this storm isn't good either", he continue.

Ben went down stairs to close up the roller doors while the rest of us all sat around watching the weather.

A lone beach runner was heading towards the tower and while running past suddenly we heard a loud crack and a flash of light hit.

We looked down to the sand and saw that the beach runner had been striked. Deano, Hoppo and ben rushed down the set of stairs and I soon followed.

When we reached the patient he was lying on the sand lifeless. I ran up stairs to grab the defibrillator as itchy called an ambulance from the tower.

I quickly grabbed the defibrillator and ran back down I handed it to Hoppo. While he set it up Deano and Ben had started CPR.

Hoppo placed the patches from the defibrillator on the mans chest and we were told to stand back. The defibrillator counted then gave a shock to the man.

Deano checked for a pulse. "still nothing"he said.

The defibrillator counted again then gave another shock. Deano felt for a pulse again.

"I've got a pulse", Deano called out.

We rolled the man into the recovery position. He finally opened his eyes and came to. We rolled him back onto his back and Deano looked after an abrasion on the mans head.

The ambulance soon arrived and we quickly carried him up to get out of the storm.

We kept slipping in and out of consciousness. We finally got him into the ambulance and they drove off.

I ran back down to get the first aid box and defib out of the storm.

We all retreated back to the tower.

The rain started bucketing down and more flashes of lightning were hitting near by. I just hoped that there wouldn't be anymore strikes.

"Wow, I thought he was gone there for a second", Deano said. "I've never seen lightning actually hit someone", I said.

"that's the second time that's happened on Bondi", Hoppo exclaimed.

I looked out the window to see if there was anyone on the beach. Not one person in sight. From one day with 30,000 people to nill.

Not all of us needed to be here so Hoppo and Ben left myself and Deano in the tower while the storm continued on.

"boy, this is one big storm. Don't you just love the adrenalin rush", I asked.

"haha yeah", Deano replied not knowing where he was lying or not.

After a few hours of rain more rain and thunder and lightning the sun started to come up. Hoppo and Ben both returned to the beach.

Hoppo and Deano both went to set up the flags as I took one of the rhinos to north corner. It was the first time I was on a patrol by myself.

A few people started to emerge into the chilly water and by the way the water was pulling out it looked like there as going to be trouble.

Five swimmers were drifting into a rip right in fornt of me. I radioed the tower and said "I think I'll have to go in for them".

Ben replied with "yep there going under, you need to get in there". I quickly grabbed my board and dashed into the freezing water.

I paddle as quick as I could and told them all to hold on to my board.

I waited for backup as I wouldn't be able to manage getting 5 people back into shore at once.

I quickly saw Deano come down in the second rhino as he jumped out and made his way into the water.

"will fairy them in", he said taking 2 of the patients in on his board.

He quickly paddled out and the third patient grabbed onto his board. As Deano turned to paddle I grabbed the other two by the arm and pulled them onto the board placing one behind the other.

I slide us back as far as possible and started to paddle in.

As we got to shore the rain started up again.

We couldn't leave the rip unsupervised while people were on the beach still. I quickly got back to the rhino to take cover.

It was cold wet and miserable on Bondi beach.