Fight Or Flight

by Amy Shojai

  A flash of something—another Karma whisper-tickle message!—filled her mind’s eye a split second before Mele’s shout. “Here, here, we here!” Mele’s frightened voice cut through the cacophony. “Īlio here, too.”

  Thank you God! “Hang on, I’m coming.” Lia shouted encouragement and prayed she hadn’t lied. She didn’t question the return of her fickle mental “gift” that appeared during life-and-death struggles.

  The inferno and an impenetrable wall of smoke surrounded the water tank, all but a narrow passage on the south-west side she’d been fortunate to find. Wind blew from that direction to the northeast, and might keep the fire at bay in that one spot. Maybe they could make a run for it.

  Conventional wisdom said to stay beneath the smoke. Inhalation of the gases killed more fire victims than burns. Water helped fend off heat, but the smoke remained an issue because it flowed in thick eddies even over the water surface. Lia took a careful breath through the bandanna, before she dove and swam toward the sound of Mele’s voice near the smoldering tree.

  She surfaced amid blackened witchy fingers that scraped her face. Mele screamed, and Lia saw the girl’s long hair caught in a smoldering branch. The submerged tree impeded swimming while the uppermost branches dribbled embers like a volcano raining fire. Lia weaved through the watery obstacle course to reach Mele.

  “Hold still.” She splashed water onto Mele’s head and hair. No time to untangle the mess, she just broke the branch and left it in the tangled tresses. “Where’s Karma? My dog, where’s my dog?” She felt Karma’s comforting presence, but needed the confirmation of her eyes. Then Lia couldn’t bear the heat any longer, and saw blisters erupt on Mele’s forehead. No time to wait. “Under! Under, now!” and as one accord, both Lia and Mele let themselves drop below the surface.

  A furry body brushed against her. Lia wanted to shout with joy at the physical confirmation that Karma survived. On her other side, Mele rose to the surface, and Lia followed the girl up, grateful for the wind’s brief respite.

  A doggy whine greeted her. Karma paddled hard to keep her head above water. Her scorched muzzle and blistered nose looked bad but she lived!

  “Good-dog, Karma, you’re so smart and brave. My good girl.” The Rottweiler whined and huffed under her breath, and Lia could imagine Karma’s tail pin-wheeling like a propeller beneath the water. The poor dog looked exhausted, though. Lia found a sturdy branch just beneath the surface, and guided Karma’s forelegs to rest across the floating ledge for buoyancy.

  The stopgap mattered little, though. They wouldn’t survive another blast if they stayed above water. Fire incinerated anything combustible. The sheltering tree would turn to ash, and them along with it.

  “Mele, listen to me. We have to breathe, but the fire or smoke will kill us. So we must stay underwater until the fire goes out. You’ve got to do exactly what I say. No questions, can you do that?” She waited for the girl to nod. The fire offered stark illumination that transformed the scene into hell on earth. Tears streamed down Mele’s face, but her eyes shone with resolve. “You need to help me with Karma, too, okay? I’ll show you what to do.”

  The girl’s lip trembled and then steadied. Made of grit, this girl, or Mele wouldn’t have survived this long.

  “I’ll be right here with you. Be right back.” Lia smiled, and let herself sink into the dingy water. She shed her billowing work shirt. This one shirt had to do the job for all of them. She kicked back to the surface.

  The wind blustered, building up to another firestorm. No time to spare, Lia gathered a branch dipping down and up in the water. “Help me, Mele. Take that side, yes, that’s right.” She handed the other edge of the soaked shirt to the girl, and showed her how to drape the sopping fabric over the rake-shaped limb. The shirt formed a shallow tent, enough to filter out the worst of the smoke. She prayed it would provide some protection from the fire. Otherwise, they’d cook. Two human faces and one Rottweiler muzzle must fit beneath.

  With a rush, the wind egged on the fire, a banshee-scream boiling toward them.

  “Now! Mele, under the shirt, go-go-go! Hang on to my belt!” Lia clutched the submerged tree trunk with one hand, and looped her other arm around Karma. She pulled the dog under. She saw red-rimmed canine eyes brim with tears, and felt Karma lick her own eyes. Lia filled her mind’s-eye with calm, with trust, with love, imagined it surrounding them all in a blue-cool safe bubble...and neither Karma nor Mele offered any struggle, trusting that Lia knew best.

  Chapter 48

  Karma gasped with relief when Lia held her underwater just a few seconds. She blinked but couldn’t see anything. Her nose, still clogged with smoke, could only scent musty water, Mele’s fear, and Lia’s comforting smell. They breathed the same stale air, cocooned beneath a sweat-impregnated cloth. The choking taste of ash diminished, even as fire roar grew deafening.

  She tried to stay brave, but couldn’t help a whimper. She peed, too, the warm rush a strange sensation under the water, grateful Shadow didn’t know. She wondered where he’d gone. Had the fire made him dead? Her whimper became a sob.

  Lia’s arm tightened around Karma’s neck. “Good-girl, Karma, you’re a brave good-dog, you know that?”

  The crooning litany made Karma feel better. She licked Lia’s face again to tell her so. But nothing seemed to help Mele. On the other side of Lia, the girl sobbed and her shaking made the dark water ripple.

  Lia shouted when fabric overhead sizzled, and a bright spot appeared where fire nibbled through. “Under again, now!” Lia shouted again, and Karma didn’t understand the words, but intuited the action when Lia’s arm tightened around her neck. Mele and Lia took big breaths, so Karma also filled her lungs with too-hot sooty air, and let herself be dragged down, down, down.

  They huddled together for more heartbeats than Karma could count, until a good-dog’s chest ached with the need to gulp air. Lia’s arm drew her closer and closer, trembling with tension, and Karma knew she also struggled to deny herself breath. Finally, Karma could stay still no longer. She’d risk fire rather than let water end her life. She twisted, tore from Lia’s grasp, and thrashed until she broke the surface several yards from the sheltering, smoldering tree.

  Gasping and choking, Karma had to blink many times before sore eyes could see. Fire had passed their meager shelter, devoured everything, and left blackened twisted trees and smoking ground everywhere. The prone tree Karma had escaped still puffed dark clouds high above, but gusts of hot wind broomed clean the air below.

  She twisted, paddling in a tight circle, watching for Lia. With fire roaring away into the distance, they could safely leave the shattered tree. Maybe Lia didn’t know? Underwater muffled sounds, and people couldn’t hear the same as dogs.

  Mele popped up, choking and sputtering. “Piholo, piholo, piholo!” She screamed the strange words over and over as Karma paddled to her, still expecting Lia to appear. When Mele grabbed her harness, Karma lengthened her stroke to tow them both to the shallow edge of the tank.

  “Hey there. Lia Corazon, you there?” A horse thundered up to the edge of the tank. Karma recognized Fury, but not the athletic woman riding him.

  She swung out of the saddle in one smooth motion. Black mud and soot colored the horse from hoof to flank, and the rider’s bandanna covered her nose and mouth so Karma couldn’t read her face. She ran to reach Mele when the girl struggled out of the water. “Aloha Mele. And you must be Karma.”

  Karma tipped her head when the stranger called her name. She stared, brow wrinkled, waiting for the black water to give up Lia.

  Mele launched herself at the stranger. “Piholo, piholo, piholo!” She jabbed a finger at the half-submerged tree.

  “Drowned? Not today, she won’t drown!” The woman scooped Mele into her arms, carried her to the waiting horse, and set the girl high on the creature’s back.

  Karma didn’t trust the big animal. They smelled different than dogs, and ignored a good-dog’s invitation to play. But when Karma follo
wed Mele out of the water, she recognized Lia’s lariat looped and hanging from the saddle.

  Lia made magic happen with the rope. She’d whirl it around and around her head and tossed the lariat far away to catch and fetch. Would this stranger use the lariat to fetch Lia? Karma danced with excitement, eager to make something, anything happen so Lia would come out of the water again. She could feel Lia there, under the water, knew it because of the itchy-odd sensation inside her head.

  But the woman just talked into the phone that people always seemed to carry.

  Time, no time! Karma’s lungs still ached from holding her breath, and Lia had been under far longer. She danced forward toward the horse, signaling “no threat” with averted gaze and oblique approach, but Fury sidled away. Another reason to distrust the confusing creatures. Karma yelped—she couldn’t help it—and that made the horse shy even more. Karma couldn’t reach Fury’s reins this time to stop him and the horse jumped sideways. Mele squealed, grabbed for purchase, and knocked the lariat from the saddle.

  Yes! Karma bounded forward, and grasped one end, and shook it like a stuffed toy.

  “What’re you doing, dog?” The woman scowled, and took a step toward Karma. She paused when Mele spoke.

  Karma paid no attention. She didn’t understand the words anyway, but Lia’s anguish cried out to her from the hidden spot under the water directly into her mind. Sometimes dogs knew what to do better than people. She shook the end of the rope again, and backed away, dragging her end into the water.

  It was up to her. Get the rope to Lia, so Lia could make magic happen and save herself. At the thought, Karma spun around and splashed into the cattle tank, ignoring the shouts of surprise from Mele and the stranger.

  Chapter 49

  Lia took shallow breaths, conserving the oxygen bubble still held by the canvas shirt. The tree had settled further in the water, trapping her in a prison of branches she couldn’t escape. Spending the last of her energy breaking through the barrier would speed her death, and the thought of burning terrified her more than drowning. Besides, Mele was gone, as was Karma. She could no longer feel the pup’s presence in her mind’s eye, and the absence left her bereft. She feared both had already perished in the fire.

  Tears welled. Her fault, all her fault. She should never have let Mele run away in the first place, or sent Karma after her. Fury killed, too, all because of her stupid pride. She didn’t bother wiping away tears. She couldn’t see anything anyway. Soon the fire would consume all the oxygen, leaving carbon monoxide and other gasses that could send her to eternal sleep. She’d join Karma and the others. And her mother. All her questions would be answered . . .

  Something hit her leg, and Lia flailed in reaction, only by chance avoided deflating her makeshift bubble. It hit again, and she felt Karma’s fur. She grinned in the darkness. The fire must have blown through. Either burned out or moved on. Maybe the girl had survived, after all!

  Karma’s domed head surfaced beside Lia. The dog cried happy little noises past the rope she clutched in her jaws. She pushed it toward Lia, insistent, in the same way she demanded games.

  Lia recognized the feel of the lariat, the familiar texture an old friend. Her breath caught. Someone had found Fury. Help waited beyond the watery sanctuary. Time to leave, before it became her tomb. “Good-dog, Karma.” She hadn’t taught this. The Rottweiler, like a true police K9, improvised for the situation.

  Her chest tightened, and black sparklies danced before her eyes. If she didn’t make a move, she’d pass out. “Karma, go out, vorhaus!” The move forward cue was the closest approximation she could offer to get the dog back to safety. No reason to risk Karma any further. Besides, there was barely room to maneuver alone.

  With a final slurp across Lia’s face, Karma sank beneath the water and disappeared. Lia prayed the dog could again weave through the confining branches. At nine months, Karma hadn’t yet reached her full size, while Lia’s frame couldn’t squeeze through. She’d tried until her healed ribs screamed in protest. Lia hoped whoever held the other end could pull her out.

  She looped the end of the rope around her upper chest, and hung on with both hands. Lia sucked in several more breaths of stale air, feeling dizziness begin to claim her, and yanked three times on the rope.

  The slack in the line grew taut. A steady tugging ensued, and Lia took a final breath before sinking beneath the water. She threaded her head and one shoulder between the widest, most spindly span of branches. Pressure on the rope increased, pulled with bruising force as Lia twisted sideways until her upper torso squeezed through. She kick-kick-kicked with both feet, and reached behind to press apart the scissor grip now tightening around her waist.

  Bubbles streamed from her lips as scraping pain flamed over hipbones. But with a final twist, the tree gave her up, birthing her into an open passage. The rope towed her to the shallows. Lia could hear Fury whickering with excitement as he pulled her out, while a woman’s calming voice spoke lilting words Lia didn’t understand.

  Groaning, Lia braced herself on hands and knees, retching and coughing to rid herself of the sludge and soot. An ecstatic Karma splashed around her, and having found her voice, barked with joy at the reunion.

  “You must be Lia Corazon. That’s some dog you’ve got there. Makings of a great K9 officer.” The small woman held out her hand to help Lia up. “I’m Officer Tee Teves.” She hesitated.

  “You’re Hawaiian!” Lia wiped her face. “Sorry, that was rude. I wasn’t expecting you, is all. Where’s Mele?”

  Tee nodded over her shoulder and Lia saw the girl astride Fury’s broad back. “Some horse you got, too. Seems to know Mele needs gentling. She’s been through a lot.” She didn’t look at Lia as she took care to coil the lariat, treating it with respect, or something else. Caution, maybe?

  Lia took the coiled rope when the officer handed it to her. “Did you call for help? I lost my phone. Don’t think Fury can carry all of us. And I don’t want Karma walking in that hot mess. She’s already burned.”

  “Yes, Detective Combs has rescue vehicles on the way. He’s pissed I went all Lone Ranger when your horse showed up.” Tee hesitated, then added, “Where’d you get it? The lariat, I mean. It’s old. Looks like, anyway.” She still refused to meet Lia’s eyes.

  “Belonged to my mother. Part of it got chewed off in another rescue, but I had it repaired. I think it may have been a gift from my father, but I haven’t been able to find out much about it. See, I think that’s his mark on it right here.” Lia rubbed the embossed lettering, showing the W. Tex brand to the other woman. “I’ve not had much luck yet getting answers. Hey, since you’re from the Islands, maybe you could help me out—”

  Tee’s eyes widened when she saw the mark. She made a noise as though punched in the gut, and staggered a couple of steps backwards.

  “You all right? Hey, Officer . . .?”

  The smaller woman folded in on herself, and sank to the ground.

  Mele called from her nearby seat on Fury. “Maka’u, weli. She scared, ghost from past. I seen it, she one like me.”

  “Let me be, leave me alone. Just need a moment, yeah?” Tee buried her head in her arms, shuddering.

  Lia stood by, helpless, not knowing what to do.

  But Karma knew. The big dog padded to the officer, and pressed one black, warm shoulder against the woman’s side.

  With a sobbed gasp, Tee twisted and gathered the Rottweiler into a frantic hug. They were still entwined ten minutes later when Combs arrived with the EMTs.

  Chapter 50

  Combs took a calming breath before entering the room. Previous encounters with Dub Corazon hadn’t been easy, and he didn’t look forward to this interview.

  At least he’d gotten a reprieve with September, when Shadow came back. The black German Shepherd had more lives than a cat. They still had things to work out, though. He thought September might be the most aggravating, stubborn woman he’d ever met.

  Lia ran a close second. She sat n
ext to her grandfather, fidgeting, and her face brightened when he entered. Combs tried to ignore how that made him feel.

  “Please, Mr. Corazon, stay seated. This is just an informal talk, that’s all.” Combs closed the door behind him, and took a seat on the opposite side of the table. “Ms. Corazon. How’re you feeling?”

  “It’s Lia, remember? And I’m much better, thanks.” She turned to her grandfather. “See, I told you we don’t need an attorney.”

  “We’ll see.” He smoothed his white hair and fussed with the straw cowboy hat he held on his lap. “Could we move this along? Lia has an important appointment later this afternoon to test that police dog of hers. Of course, that’s assuming the pup gets released from the veterinarian in time.”

  Lia’s jaw flexed, and although she looked at Combs, she directed her pointed remarks to her grandfather. “You’d think after everything Karma did to keep Mele safe, not to mention rescuing me, that a test would be moot.”

  “Deal’s a deal.” The older man’s knuckles tightened on the hat.

  “You’ve already given your statement, Lia, we just need it to be read and approved.” Combs opened a folder and gave her several pages. “Please make any necessary changes or clarifications, initial them and sign.” He watched as she went through the formalities, scribbling a couple of notes but otherwise leaving the statement as prepared.

  “How’s Mele? What’s going to happen to her?” She shoved the completed paperwork back to him.