“Hold on tight!” Sally shouted as they bore down on the now inferno-like blockage in the road.
Sam dropped behind the cabin now and then with horror his eyes fell on the still unused bottles filled with gasoline. It was too late for him to do anything about it now, all he could do was hope they didn’t catch fire or explode and he turned away and covered himself as best he could in case they did.
Chapter 36
Joe took the hose of the gas can in his weaker but functioning left hand, leaving the can itself on the surface. He sprayed a mist out into the closest trees and then took a step back. He would not be able to get much done like this with only one arm. The injured one throbbed and stung now with a strange kind of pain he’d never felt before. He looked to his pile of ammunition in the centre of the roof ruefully.
The fire he had going was probably not going to do the job as things stood. He would have to do better, and fast. Rushing to the gasoline, he took up three bottles in his good arm and carried them to the edge. After setting them down right side up he struck a new match — not an easy thing to do with only one hand — and lit them all at once. Then he lifted them one at a time, arched his left arm back and tossed the flaming bottles as far as he could.
The first one landed against the trunk of a tree about fifteen feet away and Joe was glad to see flames burst out over it. The second one sailed through some branches and then landed with a hiss in the snow.
“Goddamnit, it would have been easier to hit than miss with all the trees here!” he shouted angrily. He plucked up the next and threw without aiming and this time it hit a y-section where the trunk separated and two small fires started. That was something at least. Looking around, he could see that there were eight distinct fires going at the moment in the vicinity of the town but he didn’t know if it was enough to engulf the whole place later on. Down the mountain he could see that the fires Sam had started were growing and the amount of smoke told a job well done. Perhaps it would have been better if Sam had been the one to stay behind and try to kill this thing; he probably wouldn’t have set himself on fire and stacked the deck further against himself like Joe had.
No, now was not the time for negative thinking; there was a job still to be done. He wasn’t in the shape he’d hoped to be doing it and he wouldn’t be as effective as he’d envisioned either but he could still do it!
The trees were practically all white now and bending in towards all the buildings in Mercy in the same way as they had at Maul’s house. Joe ran to the spray can and pumped it once more before using his single hand again to spray a new long mist over the trees to the back of the building. He lit a new rag up and dropped it this time rather than placing it and watched the fire crackle up in the brush below and start spreading into the trees around.
“You can do this!” he said.
Glancing around he saw it might take a while for the fires to reach where he’d left the explosives. He could be dead by the time those went off. It wasn’t so important that he be alive when this happened, but he sure would like to be around for it. He supposed for now all he could do was keep tossing out these bottles into areas that weren’t on fire yet and hope they caught and started to spread. Again, he cursed his stupidity in hindering himself. He knew he could have thrown almost double the distance he was getting now if his right arm was still serviceable.
He went on a series of runs then from the middle back to the edges all around, placing the full bottles and the cans of gas around the rim of the tavern roof. Then lighting one of the rags he started a circle of what he’d just done lighting up a bottle and throwing it into the trees in all directions. Some lit up well, and he was gladdened to see the same kind of burst of flames that had hurt his arm. Others landed flat in the snow and petered out, but he had to take the victories where they came now.
Joe was almost out of bottles by this point and that was when over the noise of the fires he heard a new noise in the air. It was low level, but he knew at once what it was. It was the trees coming for him. They’d put up with enough of his fighting back and they would put an end to it.
“Come on you bastard!” he shouted out in fury, pulling one of the heavy gas cans back to the doorway. He opened the lid and let the can fall on its side. Pungent gasoline slicked its way down the stairs back into the tavern. Joe watched until he saw it had reached the bottom and then touched a flaming rag to it and watched as the fires rushed downstairs cutting off his only means of escape.
Joe also knew, of course, that the tavern would go fully up on fire too and would add to the intensity and power of the surrounding fires. He hoped dearly that this would be the last impetus it would need to really get spreading all over the mountainside. The noises of the gripping fingers of the white death gathered around the building and Joe stood up to face it.
Looking out he could not see where it was coming from but he thought he could tell the direction. His eyes bore into the trees waiting for it to arrive. He’d done all he could; it seemed as if this was to be his time.
Then a new noise came to his ears, and he turned and looked toward this interruption. A growling hulking mass erupted from the trees from the other end of Mercy. Joe saw with great surprise that it was Maul and not only that, he was on fire himself.
Maul moved and cut through more of the dead trees and Joe saw he was spreading fire wherever he went. The creature was stumbling and tottering and it wailed in what Joe felt must have been pain. He felt great pity for the sight he was seeing, of what the once powerful and fearless man had become. It was a good thing that he would soon be wiped from this earth, but it was a shame it wasn’t in a way more fitting to the way he’d lived his life.
Chapter 37
Susan’s sustained scream was drowned out by the shattering of limbs and the crackling roar of fire as the truck smashed into the barrier blocking their way to Emerson. Sparks and glowing embers and pieces of broken twig and branch rained down on the truck. Sam, feeling his ear burnt by one of these suddenly had a new fear and he dived on top of the gasoline pile covering it as best he could lest one of these small pieces should start the fire and explosions he’d been so worried about.
Maul had weakened the wall enough that the truck was making good progress and only slowing a little as it piled through. Sam could hear the hissing of the fire in the trees like they were wailing out in pain. The heat was intense, and he didn’t dare look up for fear of what might happen to his eyes. Whipping noises came from above his head and there was constant thudding and banging against the sides and roof of the ruck. Even without seeing Sam knew that these were the flailing tendrils fighting against dying or at the very least trying to take the occupants of this dashing vehicle along with them.
It may have only been three seconds since they entered the firestorm but to Sam it felt like at least a minute already. He hadn’t expected the wall to be so thick but at the speed it felt they were going, even with the slight slowdown, they must have already covered over one hundred yards. How deep could it be!
Susan was still screaming and Sally was shouting something, one long word it seemed that he could not make out. How much longer could it be before they were through? Was there an end to this?
A gust of cold air whipped over his skin and suddenly all the heat and noise rapidly diminished. Opening his eyes he saw the clear sky above him and he sat up to look around and fresh wind buffeted his face, snow tapping his cheek. He looked behind them, had they made it?
They were clear! He couldn’t believe it but at the same time a huge sigh of relief drew from him and he sat back on the bed of the truck, looking at the flaming forest they were now happily leaving behind them. Susan had stopped screaming and now both she and Sally were cheering and hooting happily in the front seats.
“We did it!” Sally shouted pumping her fist in the air out the window.
“Good driving!” Sam shouted not moving from the spot he’d slumped in to rest.
“Are you alright back there?” Susan
called back to him.
“I’m fine,” he answered but then his gut contracted at the sound that came to his ears. It was far off, but he knew at once what it was. “Sally, if you can get this thing to go any faster do it now!”
“What is it?” Susan asked trying to look behind. Sally didn’t ask but just made sure she was pressing the accelerator pedal down as far as it would go.
“Hold on, Sam,” she called back. “This road is thick with snow and things might get a little slippy!”
Sam didn’t answer, he was looking behind them waiting for what he knew was coming. The trees on either side of the road were spread out now, getting farther away from the road as they descended and the only white that showed on these was that of the snowfall of recent weeks. The attack would be coming from the forest they had left behind and if for whatever reason it couldn't catch them, they would be free and clean. Everything was on a knife-edge.
From the ever-spreading fire, thicker limbs than before crawled out like snakes and rushed down the centre of the road after them. For one beautiful moment, when all the limbs joined and came at them as one, it looked to Sam like they only matched the speed of the car and wouldn’t be able to close the gap between them. It was, however, only a moment, and he looked on with dismay as the thundering wood gathered speed in its wild pursuit.
Looking down at the last of the gasoline he didn’t see that it would be of much use in fending off this last attack. He looked to the side of the cabin where Susan would be sitting and then saw her reflection in the side mirror. She was looking ahead with that same fearful pained look on her face he’d seen earlier and his heart ached to think she was in such danger. He looked at the bottles and gas drums again and he knew what he would have to do. If he couldn’t stop it with the little amount of firepower he could throw in one go, he might be able to stop it by severing the head with all the firepower at once. He would have to work fast!
He pulled the gas cans as far to back of the truck bed as he could and the looked around for something to use to stuff the openings like they had the bottles earlier. There was nothing around but a length of old coiled rope and he picked it to see how thick it was. Sam could tell at once that it was not thick enough to fill the necks and stay in place but he had a new purpose for it at once. He ran it through the handles of all the drums and pulled them tight together before tying as good a knot as he could to hold them all in place. Then he unscrewed all the lids, pulled off his jacket and using his pocket knife tore off some shreds to dip in gas and stuff the necks.
Glancing back, he saw he wasn’t going to have enough time to get to all of them so he left it at the first two and poured some more gas over the top and sides of all the drums to coat them. He tied the other end of the rope around his waist and pulled hard, hurting his sides and he tugged the gas drums towards his back.
“Sally!” he shouted.
“Yeah?”
“Whatever happens, just keep going alright?”
“What are you doing?”
“Sam?” Susan called out in worry. He looked to her side and met her eyes in the side mirror. She looked so frightened it killed him.
“I love you, Susan,” he called to her. “I’m sorry I took so long to let you know how I felt!” He knew she couldn't feel the same way on such a short time together so he kicked the flap at the end of the truck down and saw the limbs were just about to catch up with them, tendril fingers reaching to the back of the truck.
“Sam!” Susan screamed as he set fire to the bottles in the box, picked it up and jumped into the maw of the white death.
The limbs gripped around him at once and as the gas spread and a huge fireball exploded out in all directions as the gas cans went up along with the last of the bottles.
The truck sped on, the limbs stopped now and the distance growing and growing. Sally looked out through the side window and tears rolled down her cheeks. Susan screamed once and then fell sobbing into her own knees. The truck kept on going down the mountain towards the valley, no longer pursued.
Chapter 38
Joe moved the edge of the roof closest to where Maul was to call out to him.
“Maul,” he shouted, but this made no impression on the creature powering through the trees. Joe shouted his name once more, but the howling whining of the approaching tendril grew louder and coupled with the roar of the fires and Maul’s own noise he still couldn’t be heard.
Joe looked around in despair for something that might be loud enough to get his attention and then the answer came to him. He pulled his gun from its holster.
“Not much louder than a gun shot!” he said as he squeezed off the shot into the air.
This time Maul did stop, and he looked over and Joe met his eyes.
“You’re still in there,” Joe murmured with certainty now. “Go into the houses and set them on fire!” he shouted to Maul. The woody abomination made no indication that he understood what was said to him and went on rampaging through the trees.
“Fuck!” Joe shouted in frustration but then as he watched he saw how much fire there was and understood that Maul was, intentionally or not, joining up the lesser fires to add the power of the larger ones to them.
Joe bent and lit two more bottles as he saw the tendril come through the branches towards him. He stood his ground and shouted at the impending limbs.
“Not without a fight you bastards!” And even with all that was going on he got the sense of how insane a situation he’d found himself in and he laughed out loud at the surrealistic nature of it all.
The first of the limbs grappled with his legs and pulled them out from under him. Joe fell flat on his back but he’d seen it coming at the last moment and managed not to drop the bottles and only spilled a little. He sat up as quick as he went down and smashed one of the bottles over the tendrils and watched the flames spread. There was a whining noise like pain and it was very satisfying for him to hear at that moment. More tendrils were coming and just as those got to him he smashed the second bottle over them. Fire spread over them and they too made pained noises and Joe felt the power of them lessen and they cracked and fell apart in the fire. Pulling himself back, he managed to get clear and stand up once more.
Down below he saw Maul barge through where the limbs had been coming from and he heard terrible crashing and shouting and more of this whining agonized sounds.
“Go get em’ Maul!” he shouted and in his eagerness Joe picked up one of the half-filled drums and ran to the edge and tossed it into the trees that were already alight.
There was a loud hiss and then a huge fireball rose up and hot air blew back over Joe. He covered his face but when he looked back, he was delighted to see that this little stunt had spread the fire to a new section that had been untouched so far.
He knew his time was almost up now and this was about all he would be able to do, so he picked up another drum, heavier and fuller this time, and spinning like a hammer thrower tossed it out into those same trees. He jumped back this time knowing that the explosion would be bigger with the fuller drum.
The result was he hoped and when he could see properly, he saw the new patch of fire had doubled in size already. The joy at this soured quickly then when he realised this was the extent of what he would be able to do from the roof now. There were a couple of drums left and a few bottles but he wouldn’t be able to do anything with them with only his weak arm.
Maul erupted once more from the forest and now he was completely engulfed in flames and almost unable to keep on walking. Joe looked down at him and then around at the forest. Fire was raging all over and it was spreading. Down the mountain was ablaze and now Mercy was getting there. He thought he’d done enough; he thought they had done enough. Everyone played their part, even Maul.
“What a time for the town to finally all come together,” Joe said and the smile with this broke and tears began to run down his cheeks with the final acceptance of his fate.
As if on cue a section of the roof be
hind him collapsed under the fire and he fell over and then slid to the edge and over onto the street. He landed in a heavy bank of snow but it was soaked from the heat and from where he lay he could see that there was a thin stream running down the centre of the street from all the melting snow everywhere.
Joe’s arm hurt more than ever now and he rolled over and looked up the street through blurry eyes. As he did, the fiery visage of Maul Thorndean came flailing from between the buildings onto the main road. He looked at Joe for a moment and then ran on smashing his way into Susan Bloom’s old place.
Smoke blew at Joe and he coughed and felt a huge pain in his ribs. It was at that moment he knew for the first time that his legs were no longer working. He couldn't feel any pain that might explain this but it was the case all the same. He lay back on the cold snow and with the sound of Maul smashing up and laying fire to the buildings of the town, looked up at the sky, every now and then seeing the black blanket and the twinkling stars and wondering if anyone had made it off the mountain that night.
Chapter 39
When Sally got to Emerson in the middle of the night, she passed dozens of people standing in the streets outside their houses all staring up and pointing at the inexplicable sight of the forest on fire in the middle of one of the coldest and snowiest months the state had ever seen.
No one paid any attention as she slowly drove along the streets with the last bottle of gasoline rolling about in the bed of the truck. Susan was asleep, she’d cried so much at Sam’s passing and coupled with her own pain it was all too much for her. Sally thought her body had probably shut down as a defence mechanism. She was breathing steadily so Sally wasn’t too worried but she wanted to get her to the medical centre all the same.
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