“I don’t know, sir. I can try.”
“Don’t push if you think it’s too dangerous. Find somewhere sheltered and hunker down if you have to.”
“Copy, sir.”
“We’ve got crews working their way to you, but the wind is picking up, I don’t know if they’ll get to you before the flames. Good luck.”
“I’ll do my best and hope to see you on the other end.”
“See you then.”
At the first wide spot, James jockeyed the truck around and headed back toward the ranch.
It didn’t take him long until the ranch house and barn were back in sight. Desperate to get to get back and do everything they could to survive, he stayed at top speed until the last minute when he slammed on the breaks and skidded to a stop in the driveway.
Chapter 11
On her way back to the barn from the lower pump house, Ally noticed a growing cloud of dust on the road. Someone was burning rubber to get out here and she wondered who. Not that she would take the time to go find out. If they were that fired up to see her then they’d come find her.
She’d made it less than half way across the meadow when a familiar figure rushed toward her. What was James doing back already? His quick return and the way he ran toward her warned her something was wrong. She looked around desperate to figure out what it was, but nothing had changed since he’d left, other than the water pouring from the two inch pipe a few dozen yards away.
“The fire’s turned. It’s heading this way,” James blurted as soon as she was in hearing range. “I don’t know how fast it’s moving, but I couldn’t get out. We’ve got to get to shelter.”
“The barn. Go turn on the spigots all the way around it. I’ll get the animals in.”
“You don’t have time to round them all up.”
“I won’t have to, just turn on the water. I’ll take care of this.” She headed for the barn, going in through the small man-sized door near the tack room and ducking into the small room in the corner. There, she grabbed the two metal scoops she used only for treats and filled them both before taking them out to the small corral she’d rigged outside the big door. She hadn’t had an emergency like this in mind when she’d taught her animals to come like this, but it was definitely handy now. She rattled both scoops, clanking them against each other as she whistled from the doorway, then took the scoops to the troughs inside the barn and dumped on in each trough, spreading the treats the length so they’d all get a chance at them. She clanked the scoops against each other once more then stacked them and looped the handles through her belt loop before wading through the animals who’d already made it in to check for stragglers and close the gate.
She ignored the mist coming from the sprinklers on the roof as she made a quick scan of the meadow. She was pretty sure they were all inside. They’d only been loose a couple hours and she’d kept an eye on them most of that time, she didn’t think any had wandered too far, but she didn’t have time to count now. She’d do that once everything was secured.
Ally herded the last of the animals into the building then pulled the rolling doors closed. James appeared in the small door as she secured the latches on the big doors, keeping the animals from pushing them open and escaping.
“What else?”
“How long do we have?”
“No way to know. It could be minutes, it could be hours, or forever. There’s no way to know.”
“Best educated guess?” Anything was better than nothing, even if he said the fire would be here in the next two minutes and kill them all. She didn’t know what she’d do if that’s what he said, but for some reason the image of her in his arms, his lips pressed against hers flashed in her head. His voice made the image vanish before she could push it away.
“Best guess is somewhere between half an hour and six hours. I have no way to guess wind speed out here, or how fast the fire’s moving.”
“So I’ve got enough time to go open the valve on the main pump to flood the meadow.” She headed for the door, careful not to let any of the animals out as she climbed the short wall she’d built to keep the sheep and goats out of things she didn’t want them getting into.
“Woah, woah. You can’t go out there.”
“I have to. I need to turn the water on. The lower pump will run dry in about twenty minutes. It may cost me a pump, but I’ll let it go, but it won’t flood the field. I need the main well for that.”
“How long will it take you?”
“I’d be half way there if you’d let me go.”
“Okay, one last thing. Will it cut the pressure on these?” He pointed to the ceiling and ran his hand in a small circle, indicating the sprinklers she’d put on the roof.
“Not significantly.”
“Significantly?”
“A couple psi, not enough to make a noticeable difference in the spray pattern.” She pushed past him again, desperate to make use of the time they had in the best way they could. Arguing about what was safe wouldn’t do that. It only wasted what little time they did have. He let her pass this time, but followed her outside. She ignored him and hurried to the small pump house. After she’d opened the gate valve to flood the meadow, double checked the fuel level in the generator then closed up the pump house again. She could leave the water on for hours, even days, without worrying about it, the only worry was electricity to run the pump. But she couldn’t worry about that now. That’s what the backup generator was for. She only hoped it worked like it was supposed to. The specialist she’d had come out to get it all set up swore it would, but she hadn’t thought to ask how smoke might affect it, as she’d gotten it to be prepared for when something happened and she lost power during storms, not something like this, though it shouldn’t be too different, as long as the smoke didn’t bother the engine too much.
She turned and scanned the horizon, looking for any sign of the fire. Nothing had changed. If she didn’t trust what James told her, she wouldn’t know the fire was headed her way now, any more than it had been for the last six days. The smoke was only a little thicker, but she suspected it would get a lot thicker, and soon. Not finding anything else she could do, at least not here, she headed back for the barn. Her hope was the water soaking the wood roof and sides would help filter the air. She had no clue if it would work, but it was her hope. If nothing else, she had several bandanas with her clothes, she could wear them like a mask, wet or dry. But she hoped it didn’t get that bad, she didn’t have anything for the animals and she’d hate to lose them to the smoke. Especially after she’d worked so hard to save them.
When she reached the barn, she went inside and found James looking around, seeming to make mental note of everything he saw.
“What are you looking for?” She pulled the door shut.
“Just trying to get an idea of what we’ve got.” He turned his attention to her. “You don’t happen to have a CB do you? I’d suggest we pull my truck in here, so we could use that one, but there’s nowhere to park it.” He glanced around again. “I should have grabbed a hand held before I left, but the battery wouldn’t last more than a few hours.”
Ally wasn’t sure if that last part was meant for her or him, so she ignored it, she didn’t have anything to say in response anyway.
“Come in here a minute.” She waited to make sure he’d heard her then led him into the tack room, where saddles, bridals, and yokes used to be stored, now she used it for feed and a few other things. “Is that something you can use?” Ally motioned to a large radio of some kind high on a shelf. It had been there when she bought the place. She had no clue how to work it, and would have had to climb to get it down, so since it hadn’t been in her way, it was still there, collecting dust.
She watched James as he narrowed his gaze and stared up at the box on the shelf.
“You have a radio.” He grinned at her a second before looking back up at it. “Does it work?”
“I have no clue. I don’t know how it works or even how to turn i
t on. It’s been there since before I bought the place. Pull it down and see if you can get it to work.” He looked at her for a moment, then blinked and started moving. She left him there, fiddling with it while she went out to check on the animals.
The sheep and goats seemed to be taking things in stride, they’d calmed down and seemed to be bedding down for the night. She didn’t blame them, the smoke and having all the doors closed made it a little dim in the barn. Ally was glad they’d calmed down as it gave her a chance to count heads. By the time she’d finished she let out a deep sigh of relief. They were all there. Relief strong enough to make her knees go weak washed through her and she sat on the rear fender of her riding mower while she closed her eyes and tried to recover.
“You all right?” James’ concerned voice made her open her eyes. He stood in the tack room doorway, a small box not much bigger than the lunchbox she used to take to school in one hand.
“I’m fine. What’s up?”
“Is this the only electricity in there?” He nodded back inside the room.
“No, there are a few outlets down here and a couple upstairs too.” She frowned, did he want somewhere else to plug that thing in?
“The loft is where you’re sleeping right? Mind if I go up there and see if I can make this work? The extra elevation might help too.”
“Not at all. Can you carry it up the ladder or do you need something to put it in?” She kept a bunch of canvas bags near the ladder on the ground floor because she had a hard time with the ladder if she had anything in her hands. She was afraid of falling, getting seriously hurt and not being found for weeks.
“I’ve got it.”
“Go on up, I’ll be right behind you.” Ally glanced around and couldn’t see anything she could do down here. Sitting up there, waiting for something to come along was going to be hard, but she didn’t know what else to do.
James had just disappeared through the small square at the top of the ladder when Ally started up. She hated having nothing to occupy her mind. She had plenty to do with her hands, the loft was where she stored the wool she hadn’t processed yet, but that was mostly mindless work. All she could do was hope James would be able to do two things at once and would talk to her while he figured out the radio.
At the top of the ladder she showed James where the outlets were and watched as he settled on the floor, setting up the radio and fiddling with it as he tried to get it to work. As he tried to reach his commander or any of the teams fighting the fire so they could have some kind of news.
Ally wished there was something she could do to help, something that didn’t make her feel helpless, anything. But electronics were not her thing. She hired out most of the tech on her website, so all she had to do was log in and fill orders or respond to clients. There were days she felt like even that was a stretch.
At a loss for what to do, she pulled out her phone and pulled up the inci-website to check for news on the fire, but it had nothing new. She wasn’t surprised. It was normally only updated once a day and usually in the evening. Not sure what else she could do, she went to her rocking chair and picked up the pair of carding brushes she kept nearby. The chair had been a pain to get up here, she’d ended up using the pulley system she used to get the bags of wool and other things up here to store them. She’d debated the wisdom of bothering, but found herself using the chair more than she’d thought. Now she was even considering leaving it up here once this was over. Assuming they survived that was.
She had questions, and with someone here to talk to, she wanted to talk but the furrow between James’ eyes told her he was concentrating, so she kept her questions to herself, at least for now. When he stood, and looked around, she couldn’t hold back any longer.
“What are you looking for?”
“It occurred to me there should be a door up here, we should be able to see outside without going back to the ground.”
“Yeah, it's on that end.” She pointed to the side where the rolling doors she’d let the animals in through was then set aside her carders and stood. “I didn’t even think to see if we could see more from up here.”
She led him to the far end, around the bags of wool she’d stacked like a wall that divided the area.
“I’m not sure why this has a latch, it’s not like someone’s going to climb up to sneak in.” She undid the hooks on both sides of the door and rolled it open.
“It’s not for people it’s for the wind.” James stepped up to the opening and took a deep breath of the somewhat fresh air that came gusting in scattered with drops of water from the sprinklers still running on the roof. “A strong wind will push that thing open, then it will fall back with a heavy thump. Once or twice isn’t a big deal, but over and over will not just damage the doors it will disturb animals, especially horses. Why risk it when a pair of twenty cent latches will prevent it?”
Ally tilted her head as she considered that. Not having been around farm animals much as a child, some of the details still escaped her. Some things that people more familiar would think were obvious or just common sense, when you had no experience, or even limited experience, just weren’t as plain as they might be.
Letting the topic go, Ally stepped into the opening beside James and scanned the horizon in hopes of seeing something. There wasn’t much. She could see over some trees, but many were taller than the barn. Smoke hung low, seeming to settle on top of the trees like clouds or fog. But there was no sign of flames or the approaching fire.
“We’re facing the wrong direction. There’s nothing on the other end?”
“A vent. It's got wide slats across it. I don’t know if we’ll be able to see out, I never tried.”
“Is it a metal vent or wood?”
Ally opened her mouth to say metal but stopped. She had never thought about it. It hadn’t mattered so she’d never even paid attention. “I don’t know.”
“Let’s go see. Slide the door over.” He reached for the door and hooked his side while she hooked hers then they made their way back to the other end of the barn. She’d set up her temporary home near the middle of one side, hoping to avoid any moisture that might come in the ends from sprinklers or a storm. They passed the living space and continued to the end where there was a large vent, larger than she’d realized. It was about three feet square and built directly into the gable, not pre-fab insert like she’d assumed.
James grinned as he spotted it, then hurried across the final few feet to get a better look.
“This is good. Look.” He grabbed one of the wide, tilted slats and jiggled it a little before sliding it loose and setting it aside. “It was built so they could be replaced as needed, without much fuss. It means we can pull a couple and see out, then just put them back.”
She watched as he pulled a second slat then stuck his head out the wide opening and looked out.
“There it is.”
Fear raced through her. Ally had to fight the urge to go back to her rocker and go back to carding, but she knew ignoring the fire wouldn’t make it go away. Instead she forced herself to step up to the vent and look out the opening he’d made.
There it was flames licking above the tree line. Her stomach clenched and her heart thundered in her ears. The world seemed to spin and it took a moment before she realized James was talking, asking her something.
“I’m sorry. What was that?”
“Is there any power on this end of the loft?”
“I think so.” She backed away from the vent and the terrifying sight just outside, and turned her attention to what he’d asked. After a moment she found one about six feet away from the vent. It had taken her eyes a moment to re-adjust to the dim interior, that and her heart was about to jump out of her chest as she thought about how close those flames were. It took a couple of deep breaths before she could focus enough to look.
She stood frozen for a few moments while he fetched the radio and hooked it up. He set it on the antennae on the edge of the vent, she frowned and wonde
red if that was in hopes of getting a better signal and if it would even matter.
Ally didn’t know how much time had passed before she snapped out of it and was able to think again, but eventually her brain kicked in, and she was able to think again, but she avoided looking out the opened vent, or even toward it. That was a rabbit hole she didn’t need to let herself fall down again.
Chapter 12
James turned the tuning knob slowly, wishing for the tenth time in as many minutes the radio was just a little less antique. It seemed to be working, but he was having a hard time getting just the right frequency to tune into the crew communications. Still, even with the frustration of having to find the channel manually, he was glad to have a radio at all.
Finally, he heard the ghost of a voice. His stomach lurched as he slowed his already creeping twist of the knob as he tried to fine tune the reception, so he could hear what they were saying instead of just a bit of voice mixed with crackle and static. It seemed to take forever, but he managed it. He cranked the sound up so he could hear it a little better then looked around for Ally. She’d frozen for a few seconds after they’d spotted the flames and James thought he might have a hysterical woman to deal with on top of the fire, but after a moment she seemed to snap out of it.
Now though, he realized he’d been so engrossed in tuning the radio he’d lost track of what she was doing and where she’d gone. He didn’t see her and glanced down at the radio a moment, debating whether or not he should leave it and look for her. It wouldn’t take him long to find her, providing she’d not left the barn and the radio would be there when he got back. If he moved it he might lose the signal and who knew how long it would take to find it again.
He didn’t have to go far, as he found her just out of sight of where he’d been sitting with the radio, in her rocking chair with those wire brushes and wool again. He couldn’t blame her and in some ways, he admired that she could find a way to be so peaceful. There wasn’t anything they could do, other than wait, and she’d found a way to keep from losing her cool.
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