Ring of Fire

by David Agranoff

  “Maybe play a game? Temple Run?” Her six year old rolled his eyes at her and walked away.

  “I hate Temple Run now.”

  How could she keep up? She saw him play the game the week before. Victoria grabbed the TV remote. She heard Tiffany’s door open and her feet stomp to the edge of the stairs. She cringed knowing what was coming.

  “Moooooom!” Tiffany screamed. “Fix the internet! I am like literally dying up here.”

  Victoria bit her tongue. Her gaze went outside to the smoke and understood that some families were losing their homes right now. The Johnstons just across the driveway were losing their child, and poor Stephanie understandably was breaking under the pressure. She wanted to tell her spoiled daughter to just shut up. The other part of her was glad her children had no idea what hardship was.

  “You have a room full of books, sweetheart.”

  “Give me a break.” Tiffany stomped toward her room. “I’ll die of boredom up here.”

  Victoria flipped on the cable box. A screen came up with the message, “Satellite signal is out. Please try again in a few minutes.” She made fun of Jake when he put together a disaster kit. The problem was she didn’t know if it was in the basement or the shed. Reflexively, she pulled her phone out.

  No bars, no signal. She would just have to find it herself.

  Chapter Eleven

  “Back after a quick break on San Diego’s sports leader AM 690.”

  The station identification sounder played. Will had to pee for close to ten minutes at this point. Alex was on the landline during the last minute of the broadcast. He had been a bit worried that he would miss the break but he would’ve pissed himself otherwise.

  Will slammed his headphones down on the counter and ran for the door. Alex came out of the booth and ran to catch up.

  “Will, we gotta talk.”

  “You’re gonna have to do it while I piss. Did you not look at the clock? We haven’t hit a break in twenty five.”

  Will opened door at the bathroom, he barely made it to the urinal, unzipped and felt immediately relief as his piss hit the porcelain. He sighed deeply with the relief of letting go.

  “Did you hear me?” Alex stood by the sinks.

  Will hadn’t really heard him. He zipped up and decided he just had to admit it.

  “Nah, dawg I gotta be straight, I really had to piss.” Will pushed him out of the way to wash his hands. “I’m missing my oldest’s soccer game tonight and my youngest has her Bat mitzvah in two months. I have the hall but—”

  “We are the only station on air in the county.”

  Will looked at him in the mirror, as he shook out his wet hands. “What do you mean the only ones?”

  “It is a long story, but we are the only station with an entirely analog backup system. The fire took out the central hub for all the fiber optic cables that—”

  “Stop, stop. That is impossible. It is the 21st fucking century. The internet doesn’t go down because of a fire.”

  Alex pulled his hoodie sleeve up over his watch. The actual time didn’t matter. It was just the signal that they needed to head back. Will pulled the door open and for the first time realized how empty the sales floor was. The office was never this dead on a weekday. Will slowed enough to see the front desk had been left abandoned, some computers were left on. Will reached down and picked up a chair.

  “Where is everyone?”

  “State of emergency, bro.” Alex started towards the booth. “It doesn’t make sense to me either, but the mayor’s office called.”

  “On what?”

  “News department has a radio for talking to the traffic copter.”

  Will laughed. “You’re fucking with me.”

  “No way, we’re it.” Alex pointed at the studio.

  Will nodded, the realization of the moment fully hitting him. He stepped back into the studio as a commercial for Sports Clips he and Billy pre-recorded was fifteen seconds from ending. Will slapped on his headphones and pulled the microphone back into position.

  “The mayor? Or a flunky?”

  Alex got in his seat “His team. Look, they want you to talk to Carly on NBC Sky 7. I think I got the patch working.”

  Will perked up. The commercial ended and the station identifier played. “The hot traffic chick?”

  “Yeah, to discuss the fire.” Alex then pointed and the red on air light flipped on.

  “Welcome back San Diego. And I do mean welcome to all San Diego. It is my understanding that 690 the sports leader is the only source of news left on the air waves. So, if you were scanning your radio and TV dials keep this in mind. It is a good thing our parent company are a bunch of cheap bastards, huh?”

  Alex put his head in his hands as he always did when Will said something to offend management or a sponsor.

  “I know what you are thinking, San Diego. This is it, our only source of news. That Neanderthal sports guy who gets fired every couple years for saying something dumb. Well, I hate to break it to you all, but San Diego’s sports leader is the station in the region that is fully analog. Don’t worry, I am sure NBC, ABC or KUSI will get their talking heads back on camera soon.”

  Alex spoke into his off-air line. “Carly on the hot-line.”

  “Don’t fear, San Diego, we got you covered and not just with the best national NFL coverage on the air year round. Live above the disaster is a far more trusted voice than my own. Carly Clark, the respected traffic reporter is coming to us live from Sky 7, our eye in the sky.”

  “Thanks for having me.” The connection was awful. Will gave a look of death to his producer who just stared back at him and shrugged. It sounded like she was calling from another planet. “I know the connection is bad. We are on the radio and my producer is actually holding a phone up to the speaker. As you know, many of the wireless towers around the county were tied into the same fiber optic network.”

  He didn’t know that. Normally, he would never let a call that sounded that bad on the air. He understood that the public needed this.

  “So, Carly my dear, please tell us the fire department, the forest service and our boys from up at Pendleton have this fire under control.”

  “I wish I had better news to report.”

  “OK, I know many of our listeners have been following all day, but let’s outline what we are dealing with.”

  “We have a series of fires that start in the south east of San Ysidro, but west of Tecate. The fire line is diagonal and moving west towards Jamul and Alpine where it jumped the 8 freeway.”

  “Is the 8 closed?”

  “East of El Cajon it is.”

  Will opened his phone and tried to pull up a map. No signal, he had forgotten. He mouthed the word ‘map’ at Alex who stepped into the office with an outdated printout from two hours before. He sat it next to his microphone.

  “Carly, thank you for talking to us, really, I don’t mean to challenge you, I just need to get this straight. I thought the fire started north of Lakeside in The Cleveland National Forest.”

  “Yes, the largest fire started in the national forest and moved along Highway 52, spreading west to Interstate 805 and east to Highway 125. All those roads should be considered dangerous but the only road with a complete closure is Highway 52. That road has been over taken.”

  “The 52 you’re saying is a no go?”

  “Absolutely, if you avoid coming east. We have smaller brush fires along the 8, as well. The fire has crossed every road in its path. You can still drive east, but it is very dangerous. You have to trust me, if you have loved ones in the path of the fire that military and the forest service are leading evacuations.”

  “OK, we understand East County is a disaster and I don’t mean to sound insensitive but it is biblical disaster out there. Those of us west of the fifteen . . . our air is a freaking mess. I mean, it looks like White Christmas with ash. That being said, we are OK, right?”

  There was a pause on the other end.

  “No, the S
anta Ana winds are gusting 25 to 35 miles an hour. It is not just ash being kicked up, it’s also fire embers. The fire is spreading under the roadways into Mission Trails Regional Park, very close to town. We’re seeing canyon fires throughout the green space around the city. They’re smaller but with forces mobilized out east we have unchallenged fires as far west as Balboa Park, the Presidio and the I-5 corridor.”

  Will leaned back, he let that soak in for his listeners. Alex put out his hands, silently begging Will to talk.

  “Carly, I am listening to everything you’re saying and looking at a map of America’s finest city, if these fires connect. . .”

  “When they connect.”

  “We’re surrounded.” Will let that hang a moment. There was no positive spin. “So, the mayor tells us to go indoors because it’s not safe to breathe and you’re telling me the fire is coming to us. It has to be sheer panic out there.”

  “The National guard, Navy and Marines are all assisting with getting folks home safely.”

  “Home to the dirty water. What the hell is wrong with the water?”

  “I don’t know Will.”

  “What about the reports of gunfire, looting?”

  “I wish I could say. We have seen no sign of violence from up here. Please, for your safety, get inside.”

  It took every ounce of reserve Will had in his body not to say we’re fucked. It was only a few hours ago when he was trying to figure out a way to get to his daughter’s soccer game. He never thought about the radio hosts on the air during Katrina. He was just starting in the business when 9/11 happened on the other side of the country. He was in the center of a city melting down. He wasn’t sure everyone listening understood what Carly was telling them.

  “Get inside, folks. Get to safety, get a drink, a bottled one if you know what I mean and let’s ride out this storm together. I hope we have a city left when this is all done.”

  ***

  The Humvee pulled into the Base camp and Rockwell held the door open for Scott and Riccardi. The last few minutes of the ride had been done in total silence. No one but Scott wanted to talk about the bus driver. Even after the ride his hearing was still not totally back to normal. He understood quickly that they were afraid to say something that would turn out to be classified. Scott grabbed his equipment. His lungs had taken a beating over the years so it didn’t bother him to get a few steps in before putting on his mask. They were not so far from the fire that the air was oven hot, but compared to the front they left it felt almost cool.

  Riccardi headed for their time out trailer where their lunch and water was laid out for them. His voice muffled by the mask. “Whatever the fuck it is, leave it alone, Rivers.”

  He only said Scott’s last name when he was serious. He thought about telling him that he didn’t see the wild look in the bus driver’s eyes, or the cracked open head of the woman on the bus. They both wanted to understand why they were not being allowed to actually fight the fire. Scott said nothing.

  Riccardi shrugged and disappeared into the thick haze. Scott was starved and feeling weak, he should have followed him. Not after what he saw on the bus. He had to talk to Annie. She was his best hope for answers.

  He walked past a tent where several soldiers were lined up. He slowed down a bit and watched. He was not a weapons expert but it appeared to him that they were exchanging magazines with automatic rounds. Reloading. Dressed all in cammos and wearing gas masks with the apocalyptic haze as their backdrop. It was quite the sight. The man doing the exchange had a twenty gallon trash can that was full of empty magazines.

  He had a flash in his memory of Goodwin shooting the bus driver. He shook his head trying to get the image out, as he stood watching a line of soldiers in gas masks drop empty magazines on the card table. He couldn’t make sense of it all.

  Scott felt suddenly ill, but walked on toward the command trailer. Rockwell and Goodwin were just kids, all the faceless soldiers under the tent were young. They didn’t know what they were walking into. Really neither did he.

  He walked into the command trailer and lifted his mask. The guard inside the door puffed up and clinched his rifle. Scott put up his hands. Annie nodded her approval. Scott looked around at the wall of screens. The network feeds were nothing but static and the number of feeds coming from helmet-cams had decreased. No Hot Shots were transmitting. They were still getting all the military feed, but it was a lot less eyes on the fire than they were used to working with.

  Annie was behind the command monitor. She nodded to the two star general who left to go back to his office. Their eyes met. Annie took off her headphones and pushed a strand of hair that fell out of her pony tail behind her ear.

  She walked towards Scott.

  “What the fuck were you doing ordering your best Hot Shots off of the front—”

  She grabbed his arm and pushed him back into the tiny bathroom off of the front door. The space was tiny, just big enough that they were basically hugging. Annie reached over to latch the door.

  “All those people are going to think we’re fucking in here.”

  “You better hope so,” Annie whispered. “They don’t know my preferences, and this is as private as it gets. Keep your voice low.”

  “We could’ve saved those homes, hell, if you had left us at the freeway we could’ve suppressed that outbreak. Contained it at least.”

  “I know, I was getting orders from the general. Pull back, pull back.”

  “I thought he had experience.”

  “He does, and it seems to me he knows what he is doing.”

  Scott closed his eyes and let his head fall back against the wall. “It is like they’re letting it grow.”

  “It seems like it.” Annie reached up and messed up her hair. “Get some lunch. I am sending you back out as soon as the general isn’t looking.”

  “So, it’s true he ordered us back?”

  “All the Hot Shots from different crews. He is keeping you all from the front.”

  Annie reached down and unzipped his pants. He understood, zip them up when he walked out.

  “We have another problem,” Scott lowered his voice more. “They’re re-arming and we saw them gun down a bus driver. He looked crazy, but something else is going on.”

  Annie nodded. “I have heard the general say the word quarantine several times when he thought I was not listening.”

  “They’re making decisions that make zero sense.”

  “You’re right. We’re going to test them. See if they’re serious about fighting this fire.”

  “If not?”

  “We’re not sitting in the middle of a firestorm for a vacation. We’re getting in the cobra and heading the fuck out of here.”

  Scott sighed. “I can’t.”

  “Your brother and his family.”

  Scott nodded. “Whatever is happening is dangerous and I have to help them.”

  “Slowing down the monster burning down their county is the best thing you can do. Let’s try one more time to fight this fire.”

  She opened the door and made a show of fixing her hair. Scott stepped out and zipped up. He smiled at one young soldier and grabbed his pack from outside the door.

  ***

  Austin made the bike ride to Ocean Beach in record time. The sound of gunfire and screams decreased as she got closer to the ocean. OB was a neighborhood of San Diego, but it felt more like a hippie surf town. With a reputation for being friendlier to the homeless than some other areas of town Austin was a fixture in this neighborhood. The last apartment she shared with her mother was in OB and they shopped at People’s, the food co-op. OB had been a huge part of her life as long as she could remember.

  The smoke was lighter here, she even saw someone walking their dog. The traffic died down She even saw a car or two pull into driveways. Twice, she went around out of her way to avoid military checkpoints set up at stop lights.

  It had been easier to put Lindsay out of her mind when she was in other parts of
the city. Now she felt the urge to find her overwhelming. She had to pass the co-op on the way to Lindsay’s apartment. That was where she worked, so Austin figured she would look for her there first. They had met when Lindsay started working at the co-op. Before her laptop finally stopped working Austin used to spange until she had enough to get lunch off the hot bar and sit in the co-op using the Wi-Fi. She would do e-mail and social media until it started to get dark. Lindsay sat down one time on her break and asked if Austin minded.

  She didn’t mind. She was used to this kind of attention from men. She was glad that Lindsay was comfortable from the start. They had both been out for most of their lives.

  Lindsay was a total OB stereotype despite having grown up in Minnesota. Being from somewhere else was part of it all. Her parents back in Apple Valley Minnesota paid the rent while she went to UCSD. She taught yoga classes, worked at the vegetarian co-op. She could have been a stunning fancy lady if she had gone that route. Austin had beautiful bright blue eyes, and Lindsay had equally intense green eyes. She was smaller than Austin, a few inches shorter, thinner and cleaner.

  The only glitch in those first few dates was Austin avoiding the truth about her living status, claiming her apartment was far off in North Park. She was afraid to tell Lindsay that she was homeless. When she did tell her they were standing on Lindsay’s door step for the second night in a row.

  “We don’t always have to hang out at my place.”

  Austin told her the truth and expected her to be turned off. Lindsay already knew and didn’t say a word, just pulled her in for a kiss. It was the best sex of their relationship that night. As short lived as the relationship was, it was passionate. She had a love. She put all her energy into her. Suddenly she had a home. The tent stayed hidden. She tried to pull some weight cleaning around the house. Making her and her roommate’s dinner. But her roommate Britney didn’t like her. Told Lindsay over and over that Austin was just in it for the place to sleep. It wasn’t true. She loved Lindsay. Thought about her almost every minute of the day. Wanted to be close to her, do nice things for her.