‘Here!’ Glynn shouted. A man rushed to his side and he showed him what he was dealing with. The man’s head was gashed deeply, and Glynn had roughly bandaged it with what was left of his shorts. He had no clothes left, apart from his underwear. The medic began taking clothes out of his bag. He also had a simple medical kit. Glynn left him and made his way to the ’copter, which was on its side, but became more accessible as the flames died back. He knew he shouldn’t approach it because it could explode again, at any moment. He smelled aviation fuel. But he could also see that somebody inside was still alive. An old man was staring at him through the cabin, which was crushed and twisted, as if painted by Salvador Dali, Glynn’s hero. They were both Catalan. As Glynn got closer, the heat was intense around the cabin, and he saw the remains of the pilots. One was decapitated and the other had metal melted into his body, making him look like some kind of transformer machine, part human, part helicopter. Movement caught his eye and another man, behind the older of the two, moved as well. He stared into their eyes and assessed the situation. Flames rose where they hadn’t been before and inside Glynn’s heart, he knew the fate of the two men was sealed. Even if he could get to them, he could see that they were stuck on their sides. It would take him long minutes to get them both out, and already he could see that the flames had reached their bodies. He locked eyes with the older of the two, who seemed strangely calm. It was the younger one who flailed about, screaming and pulling at his clothes.

Glynn made it to the cabin and never took his eyes off the older man as he tried to find something to try and break into the doorway, but it was unrecognisable as a passable space, and he couldn’t find any way in. The heat burned his breath. The screams pierced his brain. The smell of burning electrical circuitry mingled with flesh and he felt himself being dragged backwards. It was the medic.

‘You can’t go in there!’ he shouted at Glynn at the top of his lungs. ‘Get back!’

Glynn put his hands up to his face as the heat got too much and he felt the skin on his face begin to tingle as he bent over double in a coughing fit. The older man was weeping.

The screams of the other man stopped.

Glynn dropped to his knees and realised that the wet boggy grass was a welcome sensation on his charred skin. The medic slapped him on his back. ‘Well done, pal, you did what you could.’ Then he was gone.