Matt held onto the can tightly as he crawled onto dry land.
Emily took off her life jacket, desperate to rid herself of as much wet clothing as was decent. She was astonished to see that a heavy, wooden picnic table had survived the fire. It stood alone in an open area, which had undoubtedly saved it. She limped over to the table and had a closer look. There were some scorch marks and the surface was covered with ash, but the table was as solid as the day it was built. She used her wet life jacket to wipe off most of the ash and went back to the beach.
Twenty-Three
To her surprise Matt had opened the can of beer and was guzzling it. “Are you sure you should be drinking that?” she asked. Emily didn’t know anything about beer, except that her mother thought that her father drank far too much of it.
“All I’ve had to drink in the last twenty-four hours is lake water that tastes like mud and smoke,” said Matt. “It’s disgusting, and I think it is making me sick. This beer is much safer to drink.”
Emily, who had also been forced to drink filthy water, sympathized. Her guts were still rumbling from the sludge she’d consumed in the swamp.
“I see another can,” said Matt, pointing. “Would you mind getting it for me?”
Emily walked to the water’s edge and fished out another can of beer, which she handed to Matt. “There’s a big picnic table just over there. For some reason it didn’t get burned. It’s a good place for you to lie down. The top is nice and warm to the touch. It will help you get those shivers under control.”
Matt put an arm over her shoulder and together they awkwardly limped over to the table. He gratefully stretched out across the top. Emily helped him take off his life jacket. She noticed with alarm that his shivering was not getting any better. Even Buttons seemed concerned. He nuzzled Matt’s ear.
Emily sat on one of the table’s benches and adjusted the strips of tarp on her feet. Some of them were in danger of falling off. The cooler, containing the knife and remaining piece of tarp, was on the shoreline where Emily had gone into the water to rescue Matt. She considered walking back to get the tarp so that she could cut off some more strips and rewrap her feet. The more she thought about it the less she liked the idea. It would take too long to make her way back to the cooler. Besides, she was worried about Matt’s health and wanted to find help as soon as possible.
“How are your feet?” asked Matt. He’d opened the second beer.
“Not good. I’m glad the campground isn’t very far away. Hopefully something survived. It would be nice if the van we came in hasn’t been destroyed. Maybe Big John or one of the kids left a cell phone behind.” She thought for a moment. “I don’t suppose you have a phone.”
Matt shook his head sadly. “Not working. I checked. I carry my cell phone on my belt. It didn’t survive the lake. Good luck finding a signal around here anyway.”
“I think I can see the path to the campground from here,” said Emily. “I’m going to head off now, while I’ve still got the strength.”
Matt closed his eyes and silently moved his lips. At first Emily thought he was praying, but he was just finding it difficult to speak.
“Emily, I know you’re exhausted, and I’m grateful for everything you’ve done so far, but I’m asking you to do me a huge favour.”
“What’s that?” There was an edge to Emily’s voice that even caught her by surprise. She wasn’t in the mood to go wandering through the shallows looking for more beer, which is what she thought he was going to ask.
His voice was so weak she had to lean close to hear the words. “Could you please take a few minutes to look for my father? It would kill me if I discovered he was close by, injured and calling for help like I was.”
Emily instantly felt shame at assuming Matt only wanted her to search for beer, but she was also irritated by the request. She had no idea where Matt’s father might be. Nor did she particularly want to find his body, if he was dead. The sight of the dead deer had unnerved her.
“I don’t know where to look,” she protested.
“Please. Just take a quick look in the area around the car. I know it’s a lot to ask.”
“All right,” she said, slowly getting to her feet. It was possible the missing man was still alive, desperately hoping for rescue. “What is your father’s name?”
“Sam.”
“What is he wearing?” Emily reasoned that if she knew the colour of Sam’s clothes it might help her locate him.
The question seemed to puzzle Matt. She wondered if his brain was fuzzy because of all the physical and mental turmoil. “He had jeans and a T-shirt.”
“What colour?”
Matt took a while to answer. “I don’t remember.”
Emily knew she shouldn’t be surprised. She’d noticed that men often didn’t pay any attention to what other people were wearing.
“I’m pretty sure he had denim jeans and a black top,” said Matt slowly. Then he brightened. “He was also wearing a new pair of orange running shoes. I remember making fun of them.”
“Orange is good,” said Emily. “They will really stick out.”
Emily slowly hobbled down the road toward the burned out Range Rover. Buttons followed, upset to be moving away from the campground. After every few steps Emily would stop and check both sides of the road, calling, “Sam! Sam, can you hear me?”
All the vegetation that might normally conceal a body in a forest was gone. The bushes and grass had all been consumed by the flames. Tall, thick trees had been turned into thin, black sticks. There was nowhere to hide. Emily could see a long distance into the charred wilderness.
As she shuffled along the road it dawned on her that the only sounds in the entire forest were her footsteps. There were no singing birds, buzzing insects, or chirping squirrels. It seemed that every living creature had either fled or perished.
After walking for several minutes Emily came to where a culvert ran under the road. She looked at it thoughtfully. She doubted that even a skinny girl like her could squeeze into it, but a desperate man might pull himself into it and get stuck.
“Sam, can you hear me?” she called.
There was no answer.
She slowly picked her way down into the ditch, crying out in pain when she accidentally stepped on a sharp rock. After reaching the culvert she took a deep breath, mustered her courage, and looked in. She could clearly see daylight at the other end of the culvert. There was nothing inside.
Relieved, she got back onto the road and wobbled toward the Range Rover. She’d already decided that was as far as she was willing to go. She’d travelled the section of road that lay past the wreck several times already. If Sam were lying nearby she felt she surely would have seen him.
After reaching the pile of melted plastic and metal that had once been a vehicle she searched both sides of the road. There was no sign of him. Perhaps Sam had managed to reach the lake after all. He may have drowned, or perhaps he was safe on the far shore.
Exhausted, Emily once again sat down on the overturned fishing boat. She fiddled with the strips of tarp that covered her feet, tightening and re-arranging them. Many were wearing thin and wouldn’t last much longer. She again thought about going back to where she’d found Matt. The cooler, along with the knife and tarp, were still there on the muddy beach. The remaining chunk of tarp could be used to rewrap her feet.
“Better get going,” she said, standing up. Buttons ignored her. The dog was pawing at the road and trying to get his nose under the overturned boat.
Emily watched the poodle for a moment and then gasped in horror. Her brain was racing. She leaped to her feet, grabbed a handle at the back of the skiff, and lifted. The boat rolled over, landed with a crash, and rocked back and forth on its bottom.
“Crap!”
Sam was lying on his side, an expression of absolute terror on his face. Emily stared at him, unable to look away. How did he get under the boat?
Emily noticed he was wearing black jeans and a
blue top, the exact opposite of what his son had thought. However, Matt had been right about the bright orange running shoes.
“Sam, can you hear me?” Her voice trembled. There was no response. Emily knew for certain the man was dead. Buttons sniffed the man’s face and whimpered quietly. The poodle seemed to understand that Sam was gone.
All thoughts of looking for the cooler were forgotten. Emily immediately headed back toward the boat launch. She’d kept her promise to Matt. Now she had to tell him what she’d found.
Twenty-Four
When Emily got back to the picnic table she thought she might have another dead man on her hands. Matt was lying motionless where she’d left him. He didn’t appear to be breathing.
“Matt! Are you okay?”
She gave his shoulder a squeeze and his eyes fluttered open.
“Emily, did you find my father?” He could barely get the words out.
There was no easy way to tell him. “I’m so sorry.” She could barely look at his face. “He didn’t make it.”
Huge tears left trails on Matt’s muddy cheeks. He struggled to sit up.
“Where did you find him?”
“Under the boat. After the crash he managed to get out of the SUV. There was probably fire all around. Maybe he couldn’t see a way out and hoped the boat would protect him from the flames.”
“Are you sure it’s him?”
For a moment Emily was taken aback by the question. Who else could it be? Then she realized she was dealing with a man who was in shock.
“It has to be him. He’s wearing orange shoes, just like you described.”
Matt’s body was wracked with sobs. His lungs sounded like they were about to explode. Emily put her arms around him, partly to offer comfort and partly to keep him from falling off the table.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered. She was so tired and overcome with emotion that she could barely stay on her feet.
“It’s my fault,” cried Matt. “If I’d done what my father wanted and stayed in the boat he’d be alive today.” It took several minutes before he could compose himself enough to say, “He had a bad heart. That’s probably what killed him. Hiding under the boat might have kept him safe from the fire, but the stress would have been too much.”
Matt held onto Emily for a long time, crying and cursing himself. Finally he let go and collapsed onto the tabletop. “Thank you for finding him,” he said. “I know this has been hard on you. You’ve been my guardian angel. When we get out of here I want to meet your parents so that I can tell them what a special girl they’ve raised.”
She wiped away some tears. “Oh, I’m nothing special. I think that’s been well established.”
Matt shook his head. “No, you are a very rare combination of courage and empathy.”
Emily smiled sadly. “I don’t think I’m very brave, but I have always tried to help others.” She didn’t say what she was thinking, that being kind and helpful wasn’t enough. Other kids seemed to interpret it as weakness.
She stood up, nearly fainted from a head rush, and had to hold onto the picnic table to keep from falling. Her last reserves of energy were nearly gone.
“I’d better get going to the campground,” she said. “Hopefully there’s somebody there. If not I’ll hike to the highway. Maybe they’ve opened it, or maybe there will be fire trucks going by.”
As she took a couple of tentative steps Matt watched with concern. “Are you going to be able to make it?”
“I hope so.”
“You can barely walk.”
“My feet are really sore. The plastic wrap helped a little, but it’s falling apart.”
Matt frowned. “You can’t walk through a burnt forest in bare feet. You should take my father’s shoes. He has average-size feet for a man. You’re tall so I’m guessing your feet are bigger than average for a woman. I’ll bet his shoes fit you. Even if they are a bit too big they’ll be better than walking across hot ground with rags around your feet.”
Emily froze. The first thing that came to mind when she saw the orange shoes was that they looked like they’d fit. Then she’d thought about actually taking the shoes off a dead man and was repulsed by the idea.
“I don’t think I could do that,” she said in a low voice.
“I know dad would want you to.”
“I don’t feel comfortable taking them off his feet.”
“If you won’t do it, I will.” Matt struggled to sit up.
Alarmed at how weak he looked, Emily put her hands on his shoulders and gently pushed him back into a prone position. “The boat is too far away. You’ll never make it.”
Matt sounded determined. “You need to have shoes. If you won’t take them off Dad’s feet I’ll get them myself. Even if I have to crawl.”
Just the idea of touching a body made Emily anxious. The thought of taking the shoes off a dead person and putting them on her own feet sent shivers down her spine. Matt studied her face and seemed to understand what was going through her mind.
“Have you ever inherited something that belonged to someone else?” he asked. “Someone who is now dead?”
“My grandmother left me her pearls.”
“Have you ever worn them?”
“Yes. Just to try them on and see how they look.”
“Did it feel wrong when you put them on and looked in the mirror?”
She thought for a moment. “No.”
Matt reached out and took her hand. “Right now those shoes are far more valuable, and much more important, than your grandmother’s necklace. Those shoes could save our lives.”
He was right and Emily knew it. Her feet were already so tender it seemed unlikely she could go much further without proper shoes. Matt needed medical attention. The simple act of breathing was painful to him.
“Okay, I’ll do it,” she said.
Once again she got up and started limping toward the boat. Buttons watched, clearly perplexed by what was going on. It seemed to Emily that her companion was desperate to leave that desolate place. Buttons whimpered as he watched her move off, but elected to stay with Matt. The little dog was worn out.
As she shuffled along the stony ground Emily came to the conclusion that Matt was absolutely correct. She stood little chance of making it to Beaver Creek campground without some sort of footwear. Every step was torture. The tarp strips did not protect her toes, and at least two of them were bleeding.
As Emily walked she formed a plan. She decided the only way she’d have the courage to take the shoes was to do it as soon as she arrived. If she hesitated, even for a moment and thought about it, it was likely she’d loose her nerve.
When she rounded a corner in the road and saw Sam she briefly stopped and looked away. She remembered the tortured look on his face and didn’t want to see it again. After taking a deep breath she moved forward, keeping her eyes on the shoes.
Emily knelt on the ground and tugged at the first shoe. It came off immediately, which was a huge relief. The second didn’t come off as easily. She tugged several times, felt a rising sense of panic, steeled herself, and then untied the laces. The shoe came off.
With a shoe in each hand she walked over to the boat and sat on one of the aluminum benches. The first thing she had to do was take off the polyethylene strips. Some fell away with the slightest tug, but others were still tied firmly together. Emily had to pick apart a number of tight knots before all the ribbons tumbled to the ground.
The shoes were a little too big, but not so large that they were awkward to walk in. She took a few steps and revelled in the sensation of being able to walk over rocky ground without suffering excruciating pain.
“Thanks, Sam,” she whispered and once again set off for the boat launch.
When she got back to the picnic table Matt moved his head so he could see her feet. He smiled. He was barely able to speak, but still tried to make a joke. “Ugly colour and, knowing Dad, they were the cheapest shoes on the shelf. Still, they should get you t
o the campground.”
“I’m going to head off now,” said Emily. “Is there anything I can do for you before I go?”
Matt shook his head and closed his eyes. He seemed to be fading fast. Emily looked around for Buttons. The poodle had gone to the lake for a drink. Emily considered doing the same thing, and then remembered the water along the shoreline was muddy.
“I’m going, Buttons,” called Emily. “Are you coming with me or staying with Matt?” The poodle sat listlessly on the ground. He watched with sad, exhausted eyes.
Emily glanced at her watch. It had finally stopped working, after being immersed for the fourth time in two days, but she guessed it was early afternoon. She walked to where she thought the path came out of the forest and quickly found it. The fire hadn’t affected the hard-beaten earth, although parts of it were covered in nearly ankle-deep ash. It looked like the trail was going to be easy to follow.
Glad to have some good fortune for a change, Emily set off. Although her feet were bloody and sore, Sam’s shoes protected them and she was able to walk at almost a normal pace. To Emily’s surprise Buttons, who seemed to have found renewed strength, joined her. The dog appeared to understand they were finally moving toward the campground where he’d last seen his owners.
The path was wide and the hard-packed ground had cooled off. Emily felt her spirits rise, even though she wasn’t sure how far it was to the campground. When she’d tried to catch Buttons during the evacuation, and then run through the forest to escape the fire, she had no idea the path even existed. She hadn’t stumbled onto it until just before she’d reached the lake.
Emily noticed that Buttons was limping badly. She knelt down and inspected the poodle’s paws. One of the pads had a discoloured spot that looked like it might be a burn.
“No more walking for you,” said Emily, scooping the dog up in her arms. “I’m going to carry you home. Luckily I don’t think we have too much further to go.”
Buttons seemed grateful to be picked up and rested his head on Emily’s shoulder.
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