Firestorm

I found myself looking back quite often in spite of what Ali had said just to make sure the wolves weren’t following us. That provoked my stomach into churning even more as it fought off the jitters of fear, while at the same time warding off the continuing hunger pangs that reminded me we hadn’t eaten since yesterday. We walked a bit further and then out of reflex I looked over towards the river. And that’s when I saw an even greater reason to be afraid. I handed Meagan the rope as I stared at the distant sky. “Here, hold on to him. I just want to check something.” I pushed through some broken trees and headed about twenty feet down towards the edge of the river. The smoke was thick and it was rolling in like massive brown clouds across the water. I couldn’t see much of anything else except for the bright flames that pierced through it as it carried the ominous sounds of wood that crackled and snapped on the other side of the water. I stretched over the edge as much as I could to see where we had just come from. It was visible in the distance through the layers of smoke and when I saw the bridge, my chest pounded and I ran up through the briar to get back to Meagan. “Meg, you know where we just came from on the other side of the bridge? It’s totally covered in smoke – not really thick but the smoke is all over the place. And I saw the flashes of the flare on the bridge that’s still going. We have to get out of here.” That was all the incentive we needed and so we each grabbed one of Don’s arms and hustled him along the path. Meagan’s voice trembled as we walked. “Well, at least we know that the wolves aren’t behind us. One less evil we have to worry about, right? Mind you, this is more challenging than I’d bargained for and I sure wish we were at home already – and I mean home in Bearsfield.” I knew what she meant and I felt exactly the same way. But as we ran along the rugged path I knew that it was likely going to be our greatest challenge just to get out of here alive. I couldn’t believe how fast the fire was moving and I was so thankful that we left the bridge when we did or we’d be trapped there. I was going to make another comment when Brad shouted at us. “Everything okay with Don?” I looked up and waved to him. “Yeah, we’re coming.” “Are you sure?” “Yeah, we’re okay. We’re coming.” We held Don’s arms even tighter and practically pulled him along the stony path, and several minutes later we were all at the plateau at the top of the one hill. I told the guys what I had seen and Ali told us to wait there while he checked something out. Brad ran after him and left Meagan and I squatted beside Grandpa and Don. Grandpa didn’t say anything but he groaned and whined loudly, and his leg looked even worse than before. “Meg, look at his leg. That red line there, the one Brad told us about, see it?” “Oh my god, it’s wider and longer. That means the infection’s spreading.” We tried to comfort Grandpa but nothing worked. He was groaning loudly and tears were streaming down his dirty face. Don was frantic and began yelling that we had to hide. Meagan’s cut was still bleeding and she tried dabbing it with her shirt to clean it. We were both rubbing our legs that were red and stinging from top to bottom from the scratches and the dirt and sweat that coated them. A minute later the guys returned and Ali scratched his head as he looked around nervously. Meagan looked up at him and then stood at his side. “Ali, what is it? What’s wrong?” “The fire is getting closer, Meg. It’s spreading faster than we can run.” “Yeah, but it’s on the other side, so we’re okay, right?” Ali didn’t answer. Instead he looked up the trail and then back across the river. “We have to run like crazy and hope that we can get around that bend up there as soon as possible. That’s the point that the river gets really wide and we should be clear of direct shooting ambers at that point.” I pushed myself off the ground and stood in front of Ali. “What are shooting ambers? What do you mean?” Ali took a deep breath and ran his hand through his short, dark hair. “As the fire grows, the heat builds up and gets so hot that it produces gases that become even more fuel for it. Then as the fire spreads onto the trees, the heat gets so fierce that it literally explodes parts of the burning branches or stumps and shoots them into the air.” Brad moved in beside me and gently rubbed my back, and that’s the only thing that kept me from falling over with fear. I swallowed several times to stop myself from crying as I looked towards the fire. We still had at least two hours of trekking ahead of us just to get back to the house. Ali’s words put the fear of death in me and everything inside me trembled. Meagan turned to me slowly and nodded. “That’s true. They said that on that special I watched on TV about forest fires. The guy said they can shoot hundreds of feet in any direction. He said that’s how forest fires spread so quickly, because they shoot these things and wherever they land it just begins to burn.” I could feel my eyes welling up and my thoughts were all over the place. “But it can’t shoot across the water. That’s too far, right?” I looked at Brad waiting for him to say that it couldn’t possibly do that and that we were totally safe, but instead his answer startled me. “Well, here maybe but not back there where the bridge is. It’s so narrow by the bridge and all around there that if the ambers shoot across they could easily light the trees behind us, and if the wind shifts then we’re like sitting ducks out here. We need to get out as fast as we can.” Ali motioned for Meagan to pick up the right front end of the stretcher and Brad took the rope from me and grabbed the back, right end. We all get ready to pick Grandpa up but my legs were prickling as much as my insides were jittering, and for a few seconds I struggled to get myself moving. Brad leaned over and rubbed my arm. “You okay?” I realized that I was the only one who hadn’t taken a corner of the stretcher and so I squatted to pick it up. “Yeah, just a little nervous, you know.” Brad shrugged as he adjusted the rope on his shoulder. “We all are, but we’re going to have to talk about that later.” I felt foolish. I knew that the others were as scared as I was, and I was angry at myself because I always seemed to be the only one who ever showed it. I’d never been caught in a forest fire before and it was really freaking me out, especially since in just the few seconds that we stopped, it had already gained more ground. We lifted Grandpa and began trekking as fast as we could along the open path, which was basically only as fast as Don could go. The large, prevailing clouds of smoke on the other side of the river were clearly visible above the trees that were planted between us and the river. The trail led away from the river and that gave me a bit of confidence in that we were heading away from any potential direct shooting amber. The next ten minutes were silent and no one said a word, not even Don. And that’s when the horrifying thought hit me and I gasped louder than I had planned to. We slowed our pace and everyone turned to look at me. Brad leaned over and asked me if I was okay. I saw the concern in his eyes as we continued to step carefully over the rocky path. “I was just thinking about what you guys said about the shooting ambers and it’s really bothering me, that’s all.” Meagan turned her head slightly towards me as I talked. “I know, I keep thinking about it, too.” “I know, Meg, I guess we all are. It’s just that Ali said the fire gets hotter as it goes along and starts shooting burning debris because of the gases. Well, by the time it gets to the bridge it’s going to be really hot and what if it starts shooting them at that point? It’s so narrow all along there. Then the fire would be right behind us and it’s moving faster than we are. How do we run from that?”