by Rachel Lacey
Fucking hell.
That orange glow wasn’t the sunrise. It was fire.
He lurched to his feet and ran back inside. “Isa, wake up.”
She rolled over, smiling up at him through bleary eyes. “Morning.”
“Sweetheart, I hate to rush you, but we’ve got to go.”
“What?” She rubbed her eyes.
“The fire’s gotten closer, much closer. We can’t stay here.”
“Oh.” She sat up in bed, the blanket pooling around her waist to reveal her breasts.
And as much as he wanted to enjoy the view, he’d been overtaken with an urgency to get the hell out of Dodge. He leaned in to give her a quick kiss, then started gathering their supplies.
Isa slid out of bed, dressed, and headed outside.
By the time she returned, he had packed their bags. He stripped the blanket and sheets off the bed, bound them into a bundle, and tied them to his duffel bag with Maya’s leash. He’d also packed forks, spoons, the can opener, their one remaining match, and the can of baked beans.
“Breakfast of champions,” he said, handing her a granola bar. These were their last two granola bars. They were down to a bag of potato chips and a can of baked beans. Not ideal, but they’d make it work. They had no other choice.
“This is the closest it’s been,” she said, eyes wide as she bit into her granola bar.
“I know.”
They finished their breakfast in silence. He doused the embers in the wood stove with water from the stream, and they headed out. The sun was just peeking over the treetops.
“I’m scared,” Isa said quietly, eyeing the orange glow still visible to the west.
“We’re going to be okay.” He pulled her in for a quick hug.
They walked to the stream to refill their water bottles.
“If we keep going the way we’ve been going, we’re still headed more or less away from the fire, so I think we should keep following the stream,” she said, pulling herself together the way she was so good at.
He admired the hell out of her for that. “I agree.”
“Okay, then.” She set off, leading the way out of the valley and into the forest beyond.
He fell into step beside her. Maya trotted alongside them, occasionally darting off into the trees in pursuit of a squirrel.
“I’m so glad she’s back with us,” Isa said.
“I am too.”
“Awfully tired of hiking, though.”
“Yeah.” He smiled wryly as they made their way through the woods, their pace hastened by the fire at their heels. After thinking they could stay at the cabin and wait for search and rescue, being back on the run was a brutal readjustment.
“I’m always thinking, ‘just around this next bend…’” she said as they rounded a bend, revealing nothing but more forest.
“And one of these times, it’s going to happen.” He took her hand. “We’re going to round a bend and find a road, or at least a marked hiking trail.”
“And please let it be today.” There was a grim determination in her features.
“Maybe we should have taken food and supplies from the shack yesterday and kept walking.” The thought had been nagging at him since he’d seen the glow of flames that morning. Because while he’d been romancing Isa, the fire had been closing in on them.
“No.” She shook her head briskly. “It made perfect sense to stay there and give search and rescue a chance to find us. Plus, we were dead on our feet when we found that place. If we hadn’t stopped to recharge, we might not have had the strength to finish this.”
“You’re right.” He knew it, but damn, he wished that wildfire had stayed put.
“Plus, it brought Maya back to us.”
Isa had set a brisk pace for them, and they maintained it for most of the morning. Around noon, they paused for a quick rest to refill their water bottles and freshen up. Maya splashed in the stream while he gathered a handful of pine nuts to give them a midday boost. Smoke still hung heavy in the air but, now that the sun was high in the sky, they couldn’t see any sign of the fire itself.
Still, the memory of the orange glow they’d seen on the horizon that morning spurred them on. They each crunched on a bite of pine nuts, and then they set out again, hoping against hope that they’d find rescue around the next bend.
Isa had started the day refreshed and ready to take on the world, and she was ending it exhausted and terrified. The glow of flames they’d seen that morning had made their situation real in a way the smoke somehow hadn’t.
A forest fire was coming.
If it caught them… It was too horrible to even think about.
“Maybe we ought to keep walking,” she said after Nate suggested they start working on a shelter. “Maybe we shouldn’t stop tonight.”
“I don’t know, Isa.” He wrapped an arm over her shoulders, looking up at the rapidly darkening sky.
“We’ve kept pace with the fire today, but if we stop for the night, we’re giving it lots of time to catch up to us.” And she’d rather be tired than burn alive.
“And if one of us falls and breaks a leg in the dark, we’ll be sitting ducks.”
She pointed. “Look, the moon’s almost full tonight. Let’s at least walk for as long as it’s up.”
“Fair enough,” he agreed. “And if we’re going to keep moving most of the night, we should fuel up.” He sat on a tree stump and opened his duffel bag, pulling out the can of baked beans.
“I’ve never liked baked beans,” she said. “Until right now.”
“At least they have a lot of protein.”
She nodded as she sat beside him. She opened her backpack and set out a handful of food for Maya. Only one, maybe two handfuls remained. And after they ate these beans, their only remaining food was a snack-sized bag of potato chips.
They ate quietly and quickly, then packed up and kept moving. Every bone and muscle in her body ached. Fatigue pressed over her, slowing her steps. But they had to keep walking. Their lives depended on it.
Nate seemed to be feeling the same. He walked slowly, almost gingerly, beside her, his mouth set in a grim line. Maya, on the other hand, trotted ahead, scoping the land before returning to them, over and over again.
“Do you think she ever gets tired?” Isa asked.
“Doesn’t seem like it. What I wouldn’t give for a fraction of her energy right now.”
As night fell around them, the forest came alive with new sounds. Owls hooted, and from somewhere in the distance, a coyote howled. Isa shivered.
“Better put on our jackets,” Nate said. “It’s getting cold fast now.”
They paused to put on their jackets, and her gaze caught on the ominous orange glow behind them, visible again now that the sun had gone down. “Oh God, Nate. I think it’s closer now than it was this morning.”
He followed her gaze. “Yeah. I’d say you were right to keep walking.”
“What if it catches us?” Fear gripped her chest, squeezing all the air from her lungs.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. Right now, we’re just going to keep walking.”
“We could walk right past a trail tonight and never even know,” she said as they struck out again. The moon cast a silvery glow over the woods around them. Any other time, she would have been scared out of her wits to be walking deep in the Sierra Nevadas after dark, but right now, her every thought was consumed by the fire on their tails.
“That’s a risk we’ll have to take,” Nate said.
She picked her way carefully over rocks and around trees, feeling with her hands to keep from running into anything. Even so, branches slapped at her face, scratching her cheeks and snagging in her hair. Maya stayed close, and her presence was Isa’s biggest comfort. If anything scary lurked nearby, Maya would alert them.
“I’m so tired,” Isa muttered as she stumbled over a rock she hadn’t seen, bruising her shin.
“Me too, sweetheart. Even Maya looks like she
’s slowing down.”
The dog walked beside them now, head down and tongue out. Isa’s eyes stung with fatigue—or maybe it was just the smoke, which seemed to grow heavier all the time. As they struggled on, the moon dipped below the treetops, and the darkness around them deepened. Her shoulders ached from too many hours spent wearing a heavy backpack.
“This is where we stop and rest for a few hours,” Nate said softly beside her.
“We can’t stop…” she whispered.
“We have to, Isa. We can’t see a damn thing without the moon, and our bodies will give out if we don’t get a few hours’ sleep. It can’t be long until dawn. We’ll just rest until then.”
“Okay,” she conceded.
He knelt and started testing the ground around them. It was too dark to make a shelter, and she was too tired to build one in any case. She heard the rustling of cloth.
“What are you doing?” she whispered.
“Making us a bed. Come on down.”
She knelt, surprised to feel a blanket beneath her fingers. “Oh my God, I forgot you brought the bedding from the cabin with us.”
“Been carrying it all damn day. Okay, let’s sleep.”
She set her backpack on the ground and crawled forward, feeling her way into the bed Nate had made for them.
“I figure we’ll lie on the sheet and keep the blanket over us for warmth.”
“Sounds good to me.” She snuggled in beside him, relieved beyond words to be off her feet and beneath a warm blanket. “At least we don’t have much food left to attract bears…”
“Yep.” He rolled onto his side, wrapping an arm around her. Maya curled up in front of her, sandwiching her between warm dog and warm man.
And even though the ground was cold, hard, and lumpy beneath her, she dropped straight off to sleep, with flames dancing behind her eyelids. She woke what felt like moments later to Nate rubbing her shoulder.
“Time to get moving,” he murmured in her ear.
“But…” She started to say they’d just lain down, but as she opened her eyes, she saw that dawn was already brightening the sky overhead. She groaned as she sat up. Her body felt like she’d been trampled by horses during the night. There wasn’t one square inch of her that didn’t hurt.
“You sleep okay?”
“Yeah.” She struggled to her feet, gasping as she stared into the distance. A thick, black wall of smoke hung over the forest, and for the first time, red flames were visible, licking at the sky. “Oh God.”
“I know.” He started to roll up their blanket.
Maya whined, pacing anxiously around them.
Moving almost mechanically, Isa bent to feed the dog, then walked far enough into the woods for privacy to pee. Her brain was still trying to process this new reality. The fire was closing in on them. What were they going to do?
She hurried down to the stream to refill her water bottle. Nate met her there, duffel already stowed over his shoulder. He held the bag of potato chips in his hands.
“This is all we have left. We should eat them now, I think, to give us a boost before we head out.”
“Let’s eat while we walk,” she suggested, accepting a handful of potato chips from him.
He nodded, falling into step beside her. “We’re going to make it out of here, Isa.”
“I sure hope so.” She resisted the urge to glance over her shoulder. The fire was there. She didn’t need to see it to be reminded of it. Despite a few hours’ rest, she was exhausted. Her feet ached, and she was sure she’d find new blisters if she took the time to remove her sneakers and check.
“We’ve made it this far.” He took her hand and squeezed.
It was such a small gesture, but he’d held her hand through so much of this ordeal, and it was just so…nice wasn’t a strong enough word. Vital came closer to expressing the warmth in her chest when his fingers squeezed hers. Because without him beside her, she wasn’t sure how much farther she’d make it.
“I’ve lost track of the days,” she said. At this point, it felt like she’d been lost in the forest with Nate for years.
“I think it’s Friday.”
Friday. Only five days. How was that even possible?
She chewed and swallowed a potato chip. It was salt and vinegar, a flavor she usually loved. This morning, though, it burned in her mouth. So salty. So sour. She gagged as she swallowed.
“Really wish these were pancakes,” she muttered.
“Or a big Denver omelet.”
“My grandma made a mean omelet.” She twisted her right ring finger, remembering the butterfly ring she’d lost in the lake. “Our families must be so worried.” She tried not to let herself dwell on it, but her parents must be out of their minds with grief and worry by now. And her sisters…
“With any luck, we’ll be calling home before the end of the day.”
“But how can you say that?” Tears pricked at her eyes. “When we’ve walked for five days without finding a single damn trail.”
“That hunting cabin couldn’t have been more than a day’s hike from someplace, Isa. We didn’t know how to follow the trail, but this stream’s taking us somewhere. I can feel it.”
“I hope you’re right.” As she watched, a smoldering piece of ash drifted to the ground in front of her, singeing the pine needles at her feet.
12
Nate was trying like hell not to panic, but no matter how far or how fast he and Isa walked, the fire only seemed to draw closer. Combined with the fact they’d walked most of the night and eaten only a handful of potato chips today, he was running on pure adrenaline.
Ash fell around them from time to time, reminding them of the fiery beast on their tails.
“I’m so tired,” Isa mumbled as they climbed over yet another rock. Dark smudges pooled beneath her eyes, and angry red scratches marred her face from their hike through the night.
He suspected he didn’t look much better. “And hungry.”
“Yeah, that too.”
Neither of them suggested they stop to forage. They both knew there was no time for that.
“Around the next bend,” she muttered.
“One of these times, it will be true.” He kept his hand in hers, offering his support but also taking strength from the connection between them.
“Let it be this time,” she said as they rounded the bend, only to find another stretch of endless forest. “Shit.”
Smoke filled the sky ahead. Had the fire encircled them? Or was the wind just messing with them? A fist clenched around his gut. They were going to make it out of here alive. He refused to accept any other outcome.
They walked on, weaving their way through the forest as they followed the stream on its endless journey to…somewhere. Several times, they scrambled down steep slopes to stay alongside it. No time for detours today.
No time for anything except putting as much distance between themselves and the fire as possible. The duffel bag bounced awkwardly against his back, weighed down by the bundle of blankets. “I think we should consider lightening our load,” he said finally.
She looked at him in alarm. “How do you mean?”
“These bags are slowing us down. We’ve barely eaten anything in the last two days. We’re running on fumes, Isa. We need to do whatever we can to move as quickly as we can.”
“And we don’t need most of this stuff anymore anyway, right? Either we’ll make it out of here soon, or…we won’t.” She swiped a tear from her cheek, nodding.
That small action broke him to pieces. Through all this, Isa had been a fucking rock, and to see her cry now… He tugged her up against him and kissed her. “We’re making it out of here.”
“I want to believe you,” she whispered against his lips.
He wanted to believe himself too. They stopped and dumped out their bags, leaving most of their belongings behind. They kept their water bottles, the pocket knife, the blanket, and a few toiletries, putting everything into Isa’s backpack. It was m
ore comfortable than his duffel bag, and they would take turns carrying it.
With that done, they kept walking. As the sun began to slip down toward the treetops, Maya—who’d spent most of the day whining and pacing anxiously around them—took off into the woods, leaving them behind.
“She looks like she’s making a run for it,” Isa said quietly.
“She does.”
“Should we follow her?”
“No. She’s already gone.” The dog had disappeared into the trees.
“Good for her,” Isa said. “No reason for her to hang back with us slow humans. I hope she makes it.”
“I do too.” But the truth was, his conviction was beginning to waver. His exhaustion had reached the point where each step required a mental effort. He felt light-headed, and the heavy smoke made his eyes water.
“When we get out of here,” Isa said, her voice quiet but strong, “we’ll find her.”
“Damn straight.” He gave her hand another squeeze.
“What will you do first?” she asked, glancing in his direction.
“What?” He coughed.
“When we get out of here, what will you do first?”
“Kiss you,” he answered without thinking. “And then eat a really big meal.”
“I want a cheeseburger,” she said. “With mustard and pickles. And lots of french fries.”
His mouth watered at the thought. “That sounds like perfection.”
“And then a really long, hot shower.” She closed her eyes, smiling dreamily. “And then a bed.”
“I would love to join you for all those things.”
She gave him an amused look. “I would love that, but no offense…I need to actually sleep before I could sleep with you again.”
“I’ve never been this tired in my whole life, but I could probably still get hard for you, Isa. You turn me completely inside out just looking at you.” And it was more than just physical attraction. He loved being with her—even though they’d shared pretty much nothing but dire straits since they met. She made him laugh. Made him feel.