Asher reached over and caressed her arm until she let go of the wheel so they could hold hands. After all she’d seen and done, her emotions were less on edge than any time during her life, but the warped landscape forced her to fight back tears. She appreciated his concern.
“It’s still burning down here,” she said, when they passed Lewis Lake near the southern boundary of the park. The trees weren’t spitting out flames, but some trunks seemed to kick up fumes, as if groups of hooligans were puffing cigarettes behind them. “And it looks like no one has made any effort to put it out.”
“I don’t think anyone could, Grace,” Asher said in a respectful tone. “They all had to run from it, like we did. Emergency services were probably swamped or gone. Remember that little town we visited on our way to Beartooth Pass? We were the only ones in there.”
She sighed, squeezing his hand before reattaching it to the wheel. “I know. I also recognize no one could have put out a fire this big. I’m still trying to wrap my brain around how much we lost…” Her voice trailed off as they came upon a stopped convoy of burned-out vehicles.
“What the hell?” Asher remarked, looking ahead.
The red van continued into the opposite lane of traffic, which was empty. The driver slowed for a couple of seconds, but his brake lights turned off as he sped up. She figured the father didn’t want his kids looking at what remained of the people still inside the cars. “Ugh,” she blurted, aware of her stomach somersaulting at the sight.
“My God,” Asher added.
“We can’t stop,” she declared.
“No way,” he agreed. “Though I pray for their souls. What a horrible way to go.”
She shivered at how close the two of them had come to the same fate. If they’d been stuck above ground when the asteroid struck, instead of inside the abandoned geyser, they might not have made it.
After they’d passed the sixth burned wreck, she forced herself not to look behind. The forest around them was alien in how there was nothing but tall round stumps, a few fallen trees, and almost nothing else on the ground. “I think the asteroid skimmed overhead here. That’s why everything is burned away.”
Asher was speechless, though he managed to get out an, “Mmm-hmm.”
It took an hour to get out of Yellowstone and through the worst of it. Then they finally saw a bit of green. Fifteen minutes afterward, as more intact trees and bushes appeared, a new mountain range came into view ahead.
“The Tee-tons!” she drawled with relief.
The Teton range of mountains stood to the southwest. They were taller and snowier than the peaks inside Yellowstone and were famous for their picturesque arrangement along Jenny Lake and the flat expanse of Jackson Hole. They seemed to stick out of the earth like a line of pointy daggers. However, the only impressive fact which caught her interest was the existence of lush, green trees at their base, around the nearby lake, and alongside the highway ahead.
“We’re finally out of it,” she finished. If Teton National Park and the town of Jackson were both gutted like Yellowstone, she would have been crushed.
The red van slowed at a police roadblock ahead. When the authorities saw them, they waved the family to pass on through. When Grace arrived, they waved her by as well, but she immediately stopped.
“I’m a park ranger,” she said, wondering if what was left of her truck still showed any of the logo on its side.
“Collecting the stragglers?” the gray-haired officer inquired without much interest.
“Yeah. We came in through the north entrance looking for rangers. Can you tell me how bad the fire is? Did it get the whole park?”
He shrugged. “I think so. We haven’t seen anyone come out of there in days. It missed the town of Jackson, but the shooting star cut treetops and burned the forest to the east of here.”
“And it landed in the south, didn’t it?” She already knew the fragment was down that way. She and Shawn had planned to meet there. However, she sought insight into what the route would be like.
“Yulp. State troopers report it’s near the town of Big Piney, I think.”
“Is the highway open, or did it get messed up?” She figured the falling rock would have taken out the roads where it bounced on the ground.
“No idea. I haven’t heard.”
“Okay, thanks. Uh, what about other rangers? I’d like to link up with them, if I could.”
The man looked over to Asher, as if to confirm they were both rangers. He still wore his NPS uniform, though he didn’t have his hat on. While the officer checked him out, he gave a friendly ranger wave.
“You can check the Teton ranger station. I’ve heard there are a few down there, though I have no idea if they’re the regulars or from your park. I do hope you find them, though. We all lost people in this mess.”
It was a start. “Thanks.”
She drove through the roadblock, heading south. Even if the rangers in the Teton station were from that park, it would at least establish she’d come out of the cold. Someone might be able to tell her who was in charge. From there, she didn’t plan on asking what a new park ranger such as herself could do to help out.
She was going to tell them what needed to be done.
Green River, WY
“So…” Ezra began. “You said your name was Calvin? How did you get mixed up in this?” He was uncomfortable sitting between the driver and the teen girl with the big handgun, but he figured it was better for him if he could glean some information during the ride. They were still in town but heading for the crowded highway.
The skinny Crow man looked over, but instead of answering, he turned on the radio. It was set on an AM station, and the woman talking was literally reading the farm report. He listened for about ten seconds as she listed soybean acres planted, agricultural machinery rentals, and stock prices of fertilizer companies. She also mentioned acres lost due to the asteroid-fueled combination of fires, crop-smothering gray dust, and the torrential rains. It was mind-numbingly boring, but it did tell him one thing: despite the impact of the asteroid pieces, life continued in the prime farming areas of the affected states. That was good for America.
If he could survive long enough to enjoy it.
He turned to the teen girl. “Is this your dad? I have a daughter about your age. Her name is Grace. I came here all the way from Kentucky to find—”
The girl didn’t have time to respond. Calvin Tames Horse tapped the brakes, which got Ezra to look over to him. “Grace? Did you say your daughter’s name is Grace? Is she by chance traveling with a nerdy guy named… I should ask you his name.”
Ezra nodded, glad he’d bought a phone to use on his ride across Kansas, Nebraska, and Wyoming. “Asher. She’s talked about him a lot on our phone calls, but I have no idea if he’s nerdy.” He chuckled, trying to gin up some mutual humor. This was his chance to definitively prove he wasn’t with TKM.
Calvin slapped the steering wheel. “Well paint me a sunset, I think you were telling the truth.”
“I was,” he said, believing he was in the clear.
“Your daughter was sitting in my other truck not too many days ago. They were at Crow Agency, up in Montana. So much has happened in the days since. I drove with my people into Wyoming to catch up to her and my nephew, then that boy stole my truck, wrapped it around a tree, then tried to tell me he was saving your daughter’s life. Crazy stuff, if it really happened the way he said. Anyway, I just saw her again, in fact. She was going to Yell—”
His voice was interrupted by what sounded like a gunshot. The truck lurched to the right. Calvin held on and guided them to the curb. The other trucks pulled behind him.
“A flat,” the driver said with dismay.
“Are you sure?” Ezra asked.
Butch banged on the sliding glass window behind him.
“Can I open this?” Ezra inquired, turning to do so.
Calvin had his door open.
Butch shouted. “Someone shot at us!”
<
br /> They all froze.
“Really?” Ezra said with confusion in his voice. They hadn’t driven far from the hotel, yet. The two elephant-like spires were on the ridgeline behind the town to their right, though about a mile back. Closer, there were a few businesses around them. A small shopping plaza. A fast-food building by itself. An auto-lube shack. Lots of places to hide. When the next shot came in, it was nearly impossible to know where it came from, but there was no doubt someone had fired a gun.
“Jump!” Butch ordered Haley to get her out of the exposed truck bed.
The sick crunch of metal resonated around him, as bullets struck the right side of the vehicle. That was when Ezra’s brain beat his adrenaline gland with the delicacy of a knee to the groin.
“Oh shit!” he cried out.
Since Calvin was already halfway out of the truck, Ezra grabbed the girl and pulled her toward the driver’s side before she tried to go the other way.
“Hey!” she squealed, surprised at being touched by the prisoner.
His panic made him do stupid things. He let go and tried to avoid looking at the barrel pointed at his face. “Sorry for grabbing you, but they’re shooting at us from that side. We have to go this way.” He slid out the door, hoping she wouldn’t shoot him in the back.
A bullet sliced into the dashboard, sending tiny shards of plastic all over the interior of the cabin. When she saw what the round did to the old truck, she lowered her pistol and scrambled toward him.
“Get out, Fern!” Calvin shouted to the teen.
It sounded as if a war had broken out. They weren’t only shooting at the blue truck in the lead position, there were other shooters laying into the vehicles behind them. As he crouched next to Calvin’s ride, he first made sure Haley and Butch were safe. Fern shoved him a little as she came out the door, making it necessary to focus on what was close to him.
“Sorry,” she said, sounding scared.
He caught Calvin’s attention. “You have to fire back.”
The thin man acknowledged him by chancing a look over the hood. When he came back down, he didn’t seem encouraged. “I would, but I don’t see them.”
Ezra turned to Butch. “What should we do?”
Butch slowly shook his head. “We’re pinned good and hard, E-Z. If we had enough professionals here, I’d say we pop smoke and try to get across the street into some hard cover. But I don’t have a weapon and there’s no way to coordinate with the others.”
Their guns were in the stolen truck, which was being pelted with lead three vehicles back. As Ezra watched, he noted how some of the men fired rifles at the threat, but it wasn’t long before those guys were singled out and hit.
Calvin slapped Ezra on the shoulder as he climbed back into the cab.
“Where are you going?” he asked with shock.
“I’m giving us a smoke screen. Just watch.” Calvin squatted low in the front seat as he started the truck again. Ezra moved back a few feet, not sure what he was planning.
The engine roared to life and the truck lurched, but it didn’t roll away since Calvin kept one foot on the brake pedal. The rear tire squealed and barked a few times, then broke free. It spun in place with a high-pitched whine, forcing Haley and Butch to hop away from the smoky wheel well.
“I’ll be damned,” Ezra said, watching smoke curl under the rear end and immediately obscure the view toward the shooters.
“It’s our smokescreen,” Butch said with admiration.
“I did this to impress the girls, back in my day!” Calvin yelled with pride. He had the tire moving at what seemed like a hundred miles an hour. The engine revved near the redline, creating a billowing pure-white cloud of smoke which reeked of burnt rubber.
Ezra was on the cusp of declaring victory when the shooters targeted Calvin’s blue truck with a vengeance. Bullets pelted off the engine compartment, forcing him to slink lower in his seat.
“Go!” Calvin yelled.
Ezra had picked out the parked cars he was going to have them run for, but he barely had time to get everyone’s attention before the engine sputtered. “Run for it!” he yelled, pointing to where he wanted them to go. He’d sprinted about ten feet when the motor suddenly died, as if a shot had sliced its jugular. The white cloud had nearly blanketed the truck behind them, but once the tire stopped, the plume of cover began to drift away. Ezra turned around and made a snap decision, again preventing the teen girl from going where she wanted.
“We can’t make it!” he advised her.
Butch and Haley turned around before getting too far, as well.
Ezra went over to Calvin. “Can you get it started again? That was exactly what we needed.”
“She’s dead,” Calvin lamented as he drained out of the front seat.
“Maybe the other trucks will do the same thing,” he said hopefully. If some of them could get in the clear, maybe they could find help.
But the other trucks weren’t doing any better than his. One of them toward the back had turned into a raging fire. It sent two men scurrying to get away from it, causing one to be hit while in the open.
“Shit, we’re losing your guys. What do you want to do?” Ezra scanned the avenue. There were a few moving cars, but none were close enough to flag down. Besides, he wouldn’t want to get any innocent bystanders hurt.
They had few good options.
Haley pointed to the truck behind them, which was about two car-lengths back. “There’s still enough smoke to make it to their vehicle. I know it’s all shot up, with flat tires and all, but can’t you drive us out of here on the axles? My dad once told me if I had a flat in a bad part of town, I was to keep driving, no matter if the tire fell off completely.”
“That might work,” Butch added, ready to run into the dissipating smoke screen.
A man next to the second truck cried out. The pair of Crow men had taken cover on the driver’s side. They pointed at the little metal ball that had rolled under their truck and into the lane next to them. “Grenade!”
Time dropped into stop-motion speed. The men moved a foot or two away from the threat, one toward the front and the other toward the back, but it exploded between them. Shrapnel ripped into the nice crew cab Chevy and it sliced both men, tossing them like rag dolls. A black ball of smoke filled the space next to the vehicle.
A rush of air washed over Ezra, and shrapnel whizzed by.
“Down!” Calvin shouted.
Butch had Haley smothered on the ground.
He realized he’d lunged with Calvin to be in front of Fern, too.
Other explosions ripped into the little convoy.
He yelled over the noise. “Smoke or not, we’ve got to get out of here!”
Chapter 4
Teton National Park Ranger Station, WY
“I wonder what this is all about?” Grace drove down the long parking lot for the Teton ranger station. It was part of a large campground and RV park, so there were dumping terminals, general stores, and camping check-ins along the edges of the lot. However, there were no civilian campers in view. The lot was filled with park vehicles, tree-clearing equipment, and forest fire pumpers. “Why aren’t they out doing something?”
“Let’s find out,” Asher said, pointing to a gaggle of men and women in NPS uniforms standing in front of the log-cabin-themed ranger station.
She pulled up to the group, not caring there wasn’t a parking spot. The engine wheezed and a pulley squeaked on and off, calling everyone’s attention to the state of her Chevy Suburban. It struck her she was about to report in and would have to explain the damage she’d done to park property. Before she shut off the motor, she sat there for a few seconds thinking about it.
“You ready for this?” Asher asked, gently tapping her elbow.
Grace let go of the wheel and pulled out the keys, shutting it down. “Yeah, I came into the lot believing I was in charge and unafraid of anything, but now I think this may have been a mistake. What if they take our truck away? Then I
won’t be able to get south to my dad.”
Asher laughed with abandon. “Are you kidding me? No one is going to tell you what to do. Not after what we’ve been through. Not with all that we know.” He flipped from glee to seriousness. “But if they do try to take your truck, they’ve got another think coming. There’s no way we’ll give it up to them, or anyone.”
“Oh yeah. I guess I didn’t think about it all the way through. We’re here to get help and to tell them where to go to make a difference. They wouldn’t threaten us for that.”
“Nope,” he replied, edging away from her.
The rangers had gathered around her truck as if trying to solve a challenge. When she opened the door, it creaked on its hinges, adding one more data point to their analysis of her rig. Voices expressed disbelief it was really a park service truck until a woman pointed to the scratched remains of the NPS logo on her door.
“Damn!” the lady ranger said directly to Grace. “Did you just make it out of the forest fire? Because it looks like you only barely survived the Apocalypse.”
Grace took a few steps and turned around to look at the workhorse. Pockets of gray ash still remained where the rain and wind weren’t quite able to free it. The scorch marks from the flames of that first night might never come off. The dents from the buffalo and the airplane from the hanger in Billings would take some serious body work to repair. And, of course, all the windows in the rear were broken out. Even the wooden screen Calvin had fashioned behind the rear seats had been kicked down by Misha. If someone climbed on top, they’d see the huge bullet holes from Nerio’s machine gun. She was suddenly overcome with pride at getting the machine through it all.
She considered what she should say. Somewhere, deep in her memories, she recalled a training video about proper care of park equipment, and possible fines for misusing park resources. If she said too much, she might get stuck with the bill for the truck. While it was true some of it happened in the process of saving park visitors, the rest was done on her own time.
Impact | Book 6 | Dig Page 3