Kat bent and scraped off the sticky mud with a twig, but two oblong strips of brown clung like glue. She reached down to peel the gunk off with a fingernail, but her hand leaped reflexively away from her skin, and she yelped. The slimy patch of brown had moved—had flattened itself against her skin—when she touched it.
“Oh my god.” She gagged, the constant fear she had carried all day instantly replaced by nauseous revulsion. Leeches were something you read about—a carry-over from the dark days of bloodletting or a plot twist out of The African Queen—not something that lurked in the mud of a North Carolina pond. Kat sank to the ground and covered her face with her hands. This was too much. Far too much. After everything else, undone by a blood-sucking parasite. If she had only been a spectator, she might have found some ironic humor in the situation, but this was too gross for laughter.
She couldn’t leave them attached.
“Kat, what’s wrong?” Lily sounded freaked-out, and Kat shifted her legs to block the children’s view of what she was doing.
“Nothing. Just trying to get my legs cleaned off.” Kat’s breath came too fast.
Ticks repulsed her, but these slimy creatures made her want to amputate her leg. She bit down hard on her tongue, swallowed a deep groan, and grabbed the first leech around its middle. Her fingers slipped on the slick body, and she tightened her grip, the leech stretching as she increased the tension, its mouth still embedded in her skin. When it finally loosened, she flung it far into the pond. She ripped off the second one fast, before she could stop to think about it. A pair of small red welts marked the bites, oozing thin rivulets of blood. Kat peered into the mucky pond water and shivered.
She got up, stepped back into her battered sandals, and picked up her shoulder bag. Her fists clenched so tight, her fingers ached.
“Let’s see how things look from the other side.” She prayed she’d find a more solid bottom at that end. Surely the water-soaked dam would provide some safety, the wood too wet to burn.
“What did you throw into the water?”
“A gooey chunk of mud.” If she ever said the word leech to Lily, she’d never get her into the pond.
Lily seemed to buy it. She groaned, but she started moving. Nirav got to his feet, took Tye’s leash, and headed down the trail. Juni came to Kat, nudged her with her wet nose, and whined.
“It’s okay, girl. It’s okay.” Kat picked up the dangling leash and patted the Lab, unsure whether she was trying to convince the dog or herself.
They followed the trail from the bridge, splashing through additional small trickles of water that fed the pond. When they reached the beaver dam, Lily gestured toward a sturdy log beside the trail.
“Dad and I sat here and had a snack.” Her voice wavered, and Nirav patted her awkwardly on the arm.
At least people had been here recently, and they stood now on a real trail, a trail marked on a map somewhere. The thought made Kat feel less adrift.
The abandoned beaver dam spanned the gap between two massive granite slabs, which helped explain how the dam’s thirty-foot barrier could create a far larger pond. Long logs formed the original dam, their pointed ends gouged with dozens of teeth marks. Broken branches and random debris had piled up against the original dam, but the basic structure looked solid.
The pond itself was clear enough at this end for them to see a rocky bottom. Toward the middle of the dam, where the water was deepest, a few boulders looked large enough to stand on. “This will work. We can go into the pond here if we need to.”
“What about the dogs?” Lily asked.
Kat had a sudden vision of cowering in the deep part of the pond while Juni and Tye burned on shore. “We’ll help them onto the dam. They’ll be okay.”
Nirav bent low and said something in Hindi to Tye, and he gave the dog a hug. The scarred area on his arm glistened, and Kat admired his ability to stay calm—or at least hide his fear as well as he did. He had more firsthand knowledge of fire than she could even imagine.
“When is Dad coming?” Lily asked. “How is he going to find us?”
“They’ll find us.” Rescue seemed an unlikely dream, but she certainly wasn’t going to admit it.
“But how will he find us?”
Kat pulled a leaf from her hair and pretended she hadn’t heard. “Didn’t you say you could see the valley from somewhere near here?”
“There’s a clearing with an overlook that way.” Lily pointed farther along the trail, which zigzagged up to the low ridge that bounded this hollow.
“I’m going to go check things out. See if the fire has calmed down.” Fires could burn out on their own, couldn’t they? Exhaust themselves. Or the wind could change direction. She didn’t believe in fairy-tale endings about cancer—or fairy-tale solutions for forest fires—but maybe just this once she would see good news. “Do you want to come with me?”
“Closer to the fire? No way.” Lily shook her head. Nirav took Lily’s hand, and after a moment, Lily stepped closer to him.
“Stay right here. I’ll be back fast.” Kat took a step down the path, but the sound of running footsteps on the trail above them froze her in her tracks. She and the children spun to face the noise. Someone or something was coming downhill, coming toward them, coming fast.
A tentative surge of hope caught in Kat’s chest. A fireman? A rescuer? A miracle?
But the man who burst into the clearing and skidded to a startled halt in front of them didn’t look like a savior. He was in his early forties, dark-haired, lean and fit. Dressed in jeans and a frayed yellow T-shirt, not a uniform. Carrying no equipment. Despite his rapid approach, he wore heavy hiking boots, not running shoes.
“What the hell are you doing here?” His incredulous tone underscored their danger. He gave a quick inspection of the three exhausted humans and two bedraggled dogs and zeroed in on Kat. “Turn back! You can’t get out uphill—the fire has spread too fast up there. It’s blocking the trail.” His breath came in rapid gasps, but he spoke as if he expected instant obedience.
Kat abandoned any idea that this man’s arrival meant instant rescue. “We weren’t heading uphill. That’s where we came from.”
The man bent forward and braced his hands on his knees for a moment’s rest, but after a few seconds he straightened and glared at Kat. “If you’re not heading up, then why are you standing still?” He glanced uphill as if the fire was close on his heels, and both children looked as well, their fear obviously escalating. “Come on. Now. You’ve got children to think about. Let’s go.”
“Go where? We saw the fire from higher up. It stretches along the entire mountainside. There’s no way past it.”
“There has to be a path through.” His tone implied that by saying it with emphasis, it had to be true.
Lily turned to Kat, her face anxious. “You said we should stay at the pond. What if he’s right? What if Dad’s down there?” Nirav straightened, his eyes fixed on Kat.
Kat hesitated. Fairy tales were out, but maybe this guy was right. Maybe they should keep moving. “I was just heading up to the overlook to see. Come with me.”
The man nodded and glanced at the children, but Kat shook her head. “You two, wait here. Rest up. We’ll come back for you right away if there’s a safe path down.” Lily looked doubtful, but both children nodded. Kat told Juni to stay. “We won’t be long.”
She started up the path, the stranger right behind her. “What’s your name?” she asked.
“Kevin. Kevin Harris. I was on the Appalachian Trail when I saw the smoke, and I saw this path down the mountain on my map. Dumped my pack—it slowed me down.” He came up beside her, his long strides hurrying her along faster than she liked. Every stone slashed her feet like razor-edged sheet metal, but she forced herself onward.
“I’m Kat Jamison. The children are Lily and Nirav. Do you have a phone?”
“No signal.” He tossed the words over his shoulder and forged ahead.
Kat followed, trying to keep up. The a
rrival of someone new had injected new energy into the situation, but it wasn’t yet clear it had actually changed anything.
If life were fair, she would be sitting on the front porch of her little cottage right now, a book in her hand and a glass of iced tea beside her, enjoying the view and avoiding all topics she didn’t want to deal with. Her biggest decision would be whether she should go into town for groceries next or take a walk. Her biggest challenge for the day would be extracting the cork from the wine she planned to have with dinner.
Instead, here she was, tottering her way uphill, hoping for miracles.
The higher they climbed out of the hollow, the more the smoke thickened. Kevin started coughing. The smoke permeated the forest with a new smell, too—a harsh, acid odor that stung Kat’s nose and irritated her eyes. Kevin slowed at the base of a rocky ten-foot scramble, waited with a look of tense impatience on his face for her to catch up, and helped her up the slope. They had reached the overlook—a swath of rough granite with a view of the entire valley. They stepped to the edge and looked down.
There was no fairy-tale ending here. Flames consumed undergrowth, flames crept up tree trunks, flames leaped into dry upper branches. Distant trees burned like torches, tossing fire into the tops of the trees beside them. The wall of noise struck Kat as a physical blow, and her mouth tasted like singed evergreen. The tall tulip poplar in front of her, still unscathed, stood in eerie silhouette against the glowing red expanse behind it.
Hell is empty, and all the devils are here.
Kevin scanned the valley, his face tense. “There has to be a way through.”
Kat looked, too, but fire owned the entire mountainside. Death wasn’t a black-hooded creature with a scythe in its hand, but a red demon, shrouded in a billowing cloak of tar-black smoke, devouring everything in its path. It was coming for them now, its jaws gaping, hungry for anyone in its way.
There was no sign of life—no firefighters, no helicopters, no airplanes. Any animal that could flee had already fled. The fire was racing this way, and the hollow that cupped their pond wouldn’t remain protected for long.
Kat’s heart clamored against her ribs, trying to escape her chest, and she fought a wave of dizziness and the irrational urge to turn and flee, a pointless attempt to outrun a fiend.
“It’s worse than I expected. It’s going to reach us soon.” She hated the note of panic in her voice, but she was glad Kevin was with her. Just having someone else there to confirm her assessment was a profound relief.
He pointed off to the left. “There’s a rocky stretch over there that leads downward. The fire has already burned it. We could work our way in that direction, follow it downhill.”
Kat looked at the swath of tumbled rock he indicated and couldn’t believe he would even consider it. “The fire is too dense between here and there. How do you propose to get through? With two children in tow? And there’s no way to tell what it’s like at the lower end of that rockfall.” She and the children had already seen how treacherous those steep stretches of loose rock could be.
“I don’t see any other option.”
“The pond. That’s the other option. I thought … if the fire … when the fire … the water …”
She let the rest hang unspoken, because Kevin was looking at her as if she’d completely lost her mind. “Are you kidding? That pond wouldn’t even save a fish, not the way this fire is sweeping along the ridgeline.”
His words amplified Kat’s fears. Would the pond be big enough to protect them? A heavy tiredness made it hard to think, and she swallowed against a throat filled with gravel. Maybe he was right. Maybe the pond really was hopeless, and they were all doomed to die.
She wasn’t sure whether to argue more or give in. “We need to get back to the children.”
Kevin nodded. “Come on.” He led them downhill at an even faster pace. They arrived at the dam, and Lily and Nirav rushed toward them.
“Did you see anyone?” Lily’s words were clipped and anxious. “Are they coming? Is the fire out?”
Kevin snorted and began pacing back and forth. “Don’t waste time. Come on. We need to give it a try.”
Kat knelt and pretended to adjust the strap of her sandal as she struggled to find the right choice. These children had believed in her when she led them here. Of course. She was the adult. Come on, she had said. Turn here. This way. Don’t stop. Keep going. And she had led them to this pond, this teaspoon of water.
She looked up from her shoe. “It’s too far to see the firemen.”
“The smoke is getting worse.” Lily’s voice cracked. “We need to go.”
“Papa needs to come now.” Nirav sounded as freaked-out as Lily did, the composure he’d maintained all day suddenly gone.
Keven stared at them, his jaw tense, his body poised to take off.
Kat pulled both children into quick, tight hugs, but such gestures meant little at this point.
“It will be okay.” She spoke the slick lie with hardly a tremor, but she was shaking as hard as the children were. “It will be okay.” They clung to her for a few silent moments, and Kat flashed back for an instant to the long hug she’d shared with her daughter.
Sara. Be happy. Have a good life. I’m so sorry I’ll miss it.
Kevin threw up his hands. “It’s not going to be okay. You’re wrong. We have to keep moving down the mountain. Come on.” He stepped toward Nirav and grabbed him by the waist, lifting the boy as if he intended to carry him away. Juni growled. Nirav yelped and wiggled free, clinging to Kat’s side. Lily backed up, her eyes on Kevin as if she expected him to grab her next.
“Stop that! What are you doing?” Kat put a protective arm around the boy.
Kevin backed off, no longer trying to drag someone with him, but not at all apologetic. Impatience sharpened his tone. “We have to move—it’s our only hope.”
He took two steps down the trail, waving them to join him, expecting them to follow. He sounded so certain. So confident. So commanding. The overwhelming temptation to fall in line was a physical force that threatened to draw Kat forward down the trail. So much simpler to follow than to fight. After all, this was what Kat had wished for—someone else to make decisions and face the consequences. Someone else to take the blame if they failed.
It was painful to lock her knees and stiffen her resolve, to force herself not to move. She’d just seen what lay below, and no matter how desperately she wanted to hand off responsibility, she couldn’t ignore deadly facts. Not when the children’s safety hung in the balance.
“There’s no way out downhill. You saw it. We both saw it. The whole valley is in flames.”
The children flinched, their dismay at this news obvious, and she regretted her blunt words. But she had to convince this man. He might be in great physical shape and he might be accustomed to being right, but if he kept traveling downhill, he’d be killed.
Uncertainty hovered over all of them as thickly as the smoke.
Lily and Nirav stood together, even more frightened now. “Kat, what should we do?” Lily’s voice was a plea.
Kevin took another step along the path. “I’m leaving.”
“I can’t stop you. But when you realize there’s no way down, come back. This pond is better than nothing.” It was at least better than being burned like that poor rabbit.
He was already yards along the path, and her words bounced off his back. Perhaps he hadn’t even heard.
“When I make it out, I’ll let them know you’re here.” With that, he started jogging up the steep incline that led out of the hollow, his boots triggering small cascades of loose stones.
Lily grabbed Kat’s hand. “Are you sure? Maybe we should go with him.” Her face was pinched, her lips white.
Nirav looked at Kat, at the spot of yellow shirt that marked the disappearing Kevin, and back at Kat again, his eyes wide and frightened.
Kat took a deep smoke-tinged breath. She pulled up the scene she’d seen from the overlook and examined i
t one last time. The mountainside had been a solid expanse of flame. “We’re staying here. There’s no way forward. He’ll be back.”
The rock-scramble sounds of Kevin’s progress up the slope faded away. They were left only with the noise of the fire itself, its terrifying growl growing louder and closer.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
THURSDAY, 11:10 AM
Lou kept the helicopter hovering over the rockslide, then inched ahead along the path of the old roadbed. Malcolm leaned out as far as he dared, searching the area directly below and uphill.
Trees. Rhododendron. More fucking trees. Patches of rocky gravel. Two dried-up creek beds. Nothing moving. Nothing alive. The fire was closing in, and thin fingers of flame were already grasping sections of the old road. Malcolm’s fear and frustration escalated with every fruitless minute.
The smoke flowed and eddied, and the bright yellows and reds of the fire flared at the edges of his vision, tinting the smoke cloud an eerie orange. They dipped down into a valley, where fire had already engulfed the old road, and Lou hovered in place for a few moments. Malcolm searched the burned area foot by foot, praying to find no sign amid the flames. He didn’t realize he was holding his breath until it escaped his chest with a whoosh.
They rose slowly up the hill on the other side, once again traveling over terrain not yet burned. When they reached the crest, Lou hovered in place. “I can’t see any more road.”
She turned the chopper in a slow circle, and Malcolm seized a safety strap and leaned out even farther, coughing now, trying to find a path Kat and the children could have taken. The roadbed had given their search a defined direction. If they had to search the whole ridge …
Malcolm blinked smoke out of his eyes and redoubled his efforts.
The roadbed stopped dead here. A dense wall of rhododendron blocked it, impossible to penetrate on foot.
Pete unclipped the folded map and peered closely. “No help here.”
He handed the map to Malcolm, who tried to spread it flat on the deck one-handed. Scott reached over and helped. Malcolm leaned on it with his left hand and right knee to keep it from fluttering in the backwash that gusted through the open doors. His eyes darted back and forth, inspecting and reinspecting every detail of the map.
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