by Xander Hades
I responded with the only thing I knew how.
“You’re my ol’ lady and I am not having my lady go off somewhere and she could get hurt, injured, or worse.” Yeah, that sounded convincing.
“Old lady? I'm your old lady! Let me tell you something. I care about you and you’re important to me. Hell, you’re terrific. But no matter who you are, no man, woman, or whatever, is going to tell me how and when I can do my job, be my own person, and do what I was put on this earth to do.”
She took a breath.
“I did not work my way through that school, working two jobs, and hustling pool every night to pay for my skills to turn away people just because there might be a fire danger and because I’m somebody’s old lady, that I need to stay home and sit and spin on my thumbs. I am not doing that!”
She pushed her hair out of her face and put it in a ponytail. She was so angry, her face was almost the color of her hair.
“I'm only going to be gone for a few hours and I should be home by dark.”
“I'm telling you, you can't go.”
She hitched her bag onto her shoulder.
“Watch me.”
And I did. Watched her cute, tight ass walk right out the door. Quinn 1, Elijah 0.
Chapter 11
Quinn
On the entire drive to the Ranger station, I couldn't get the argument with Elijah out of my head.
On one hand, it was horrible and I hated it. On the other, I was not about to have him tell me what I could and couldn’t do. Wasn’t that how it was with Steve? The constant “I know better than you” made me question everything about myself. Never again.
As I thought about the hurt look in Elijah’s eyes as I told him I was not going to listen to him, I didn’t know how I was going to fix this. I nodded to myself. Fixing things is what I’m good at and I would work this out. Somehow.
I thought of what life without Elijah would be like and all I could see was a vast landscape of empty. I so didn’t want that. But did he still want me with my faults, faults that can run deep? Did he want my anger, my temper, my love?
Love? I quirked my head. If this was what I felt, this joining of both of our souls when we’re together and the cold wasteland when we’re apart. I shook my head as I drove through the Hills.
About an half hour later of this back and forth in my head, I arrived at the Black Hills Ranger Station. Ranger Frank must have heard me coming because he stood out to on the front porch. The parking lot seemed pretty empty.
I got out of the truck and walked over to Frank. He was a smaller man with a voice that did not match his size and large hands. He shook my hand and guided me around back of the station.
“Thanks for coming, Doc.”
“Looks pretty quiet here. Where is everyone?” I asked.
“Fire call. The French Creek fire took a turn.” He waved in the air at how heavy the smoke had gotten.
I hadn’t even noticed it, being as consumed as I was with my own issues. The “fog” that had thickened while I drove up to the station wasn’t fog at all. The smell should have given it away. Had the fire changed direction like Elijah was worried about?
I didn’t have time for things that hadn’t happened and that I could do nothing about.
“Where’s the calf at?”
“We have a paddock for wildlife at back of the station.”
He walked into the enclosure and the sixty pound calf came out. She was limping a little bit and her lips were searching for the food that Frank had out for her. As he stroked her when she got within arm reach, she seemed to calm down as she nibbled on the corn. With his big hands and comforting voice, the calf settled. He waved me in. I ran my hands over her and down her legs. I could see the torn flesh where the trap had held her. She was really lucky. If she had jumped around or pulled away, the damage would have been massive and she would have had to be put down.
“How was she when she was found?”
“It couldn’t have been too long after it happened. She was just laying on the grass.”
“That’s good. She’s torn that leg up pretty well.”
I took out a shot of antibiotics.
“This should help with infection. I’ll leave some with you and instructions on how to use it. When your specialists come back, we can coordinate getting the girl to a rehab center and possibly to be released or rehomed.”
We went back to the ranger station and went inside. I gave him the bottles of antibiotics with what he needed to do until his crew came back. I thought at how gentle of a man he was with the elk and my thoughts strayed back to Elijah. How gentle he was with me. I’ve seen him handle horses, livestock, men and how he knows where to push and where to back up.
I missed him. I wanted him with me. I missed his hands on me and his soothing voice.
“Doc?”
I shook my head clear.
“So sorry, Frank. I must have drifted off there.”
“I’m sure you’re thinking of the trip home. If you stay to the main roads, you should be okay. It’s not here yet.”
“Excuse me.”
“You must have really been wool gathering there, Doc. The fire. It’s not near us yet, so if you leave now, you should just follow the main road out til you get to the highway.”
“Thanks, Frank. Can I have your cell phone if I get lost?”
We exchanged numbers.
“If the cell towers go down, we won’t have any reception clear up here. So just come back if you need to instead of pushing through. Smoke can get pretty tricky.”
“Thanks, Frank.”
I shook his hand and told him I would call him in a couple of days to see how the calf was doing.
I got into my truck, waved to him, and saw him turn into the station. I headed out of the parking lot toward town.
I had maybe gone about five, ten minutes, slowly due to all the washboards and turns, when I made another turn. The smoke had gotten thicker and seemed to be sinking lower as I drove further from the station. I heard a crash and looked to my right in time to see a huge lodgepole pine come crashing down, burning in front of me.
I slammed on the brakes and smashed my head into the steering wheel. I turned around to see if I was blocked in. I wasn’t. Thank God for the little things. I did a K turn and headed back toward the station. I stopped and pulled out my cell phone.
I dialed Elijah. No reception. Frank. Ditto. Shit.
I headed back towards the ranger station as if the hounds of hell were after me, at least it seemed that way, but with the smoke getting thicker it was hard to see if I had gone miles or inches.
When I reached the station, I noticed the wind had changed direction and I heard a sound I had never heard before, a kind of snapping rumble of a sound.
I honked my horn as I drove into the parking lot. Frank came outside for me.
“I tried to call you,” he said as I ran over to him.
“Same here.”
“Cell towers are compromised.”
“So what do we do?”
“I just heard from the towers before the cell reception cut out and the fire shifted direction.” He cocked his head. “You can hear it.”
“Where I was, the main road was cut off about five minutes away.”
“The interesting fact with fires isn’t the fire as much as they create their own weather system which includes really bad winds and blowdown. With all that, we can’t get chopper support, even if they weren’t fighting the fire. I’m going to give a call to town for some assistance.”
We walked into the station.
“Call? How? What assistance? Cell phones are out.”
Frank grinned. “City girl, huh? There are other ways to let people know what is happening.”
“Smoke signals?”
“I like a woman with humor.”
My mind raced. Who is going to come all the way up here in here in the middle of a forest fire to rescue my sorry ass because I did listen to my old man? So much for
being independent. I’m about to be cooked Quinn.
We went to a door at the end of the hallway and Frank walked over to a short range radio.
“I’ll give a call over to Rapid and let them know what is happening. We have maybe a couple of hours before we’ll be over run so let’s see what solutions we can come up with. We have a couple of ATVs if needed.”
I must have looked concerned because Frank came over with his club-like hands and put them on my shoulders.
“We’ll figure something out.”
As he said that, a tree crashed in the parking lot, landing on my awesome truck.
Chapter 12
Elijah
I sat at the club bar trying to figure out what went wrong. I felt horrible. Trying to force on her how much I cared sure as hell backfired. Not only was I worried that I blew a hole in the water with how heavy handed I was being, she was in a fire zone. She was such an independent soul, putting restrictions on her would just make her run. I knew that and I did it anyway. I told Lance when I came in to let me know when, or if, Quinn came back from the ranger station and got some late lunch in the kitchen.
As I sipped my beer, those creepy crawlies came back and just won’t go away. I’d almost finished my sandwich and Danny came over. I think he called my name a couple of times before tapping me on the shoulder.
“Sorry, Danny, what’s up?”
“Elijah, we picked something up on the police scanner. You need to hear this.” I got off my barstool. I just know this isn’t good.
I started over to Lance’s office with Danny a few feet behind. As Lance looks over at me, the crawlies seem to go nuts.
“What’s up, Lance?”
“Listen.”
He turned the volume up on the scanner.
“This has been repeating for the last couple of minutes,” Lance said.
“Mayday, mayday. This is Black Hills Ranger Station. We have a situation here. Towers are down and fire is encroaching. Repeat, we need assistance at the Black Hills Ranger Station. Trees are falling and the fire is about a mile away. Over.”
I ran my big hands through my hair. What the hell! I told her not to go, told her to stay put until the danger was over. Why didn’t she listen? I paced the office and when a big man like me paces, it meant I walked over people.
It seemed my feelings must have affected everyone at the club. Bikers and their women were standing by the door. I knocked a table over with my hands, just wanting to do something with all the energy coming off me.
There was a rumble through the crowd.
“Let me through. Move your asses.”
Bryce muscled his ugly maw through the crowd.
“Bro, you okay?”
Lance got up from around the desk. “That would be a no, Bryce. Quinn went to the station,” he said.
Bryce clapped his hands on my shoulders.
“She didn’t listen to you. Imagine that.”
The scanner went off again.
“Mayday, this is Black Hills Ranger Station. We are going to find an alternate way off the mountain. Fire surrounding the station. Will keep anyone listening aware as long as communication holds. Going to channel 7.”
“They’re going to walkies which means they’re on the move,” said Bryce.
Bryce went around to the police scanner and moved Lance out of the way.
“Let the former Navy communications expert have a swing at it.” Lance moved into the hall with everyone else as two big men fill up his office.
Bryce messed with a couple of knobs. He puts the earphones on.
“This is MC Wild Wolves. Copy. MC Wild Wolves. We are trying to find the location of the fire. Copy.”
After a couple of tense seconds, I heard the crew leader of the fire on the line. “MC Wild Wolves. This is Crew Leader Whitebear. What are you doing on this channel?”
Sam Whitebear. Drank with him at Sturgis a couple weeks back.
“Copy, that. We have one of ours in the fire zone. What is the direction of the fire?”
Bryce motioned to the map on the wall. I tore it down and laid it between us.
“It’s coming off French Creek and with wind shift, it is heading NNE. Copy.”
Bryce put down the ears and we looked over the map. I pointed out to Bryce the ranger station and the fire.
“There’s a draw here,” I point on the map.
Bryce shook his head and pointed to another location.
“Frank is an old Marine and he’s been fighting fires for decades. He’s not going to take a draw up a mountainside.”
He pointed to another area.
“This logging road will take them down the far side of the mountain away from the fire and within communication range of the tower on Bear Mountain. This is where I would go.”
I looked over the area he was pointing to and nodded.
Bryce grabbed my arm. “Don’t worry about it, man. We got you covered.”
He looked to Lance. Lance nodded.
“Club always has club. And she’s family now.”
I gave him the eye. He shook me.
“Family always. And I got a new sister, too.”
I surveyed the hallway and all the men are nodding their heads. For the first time since I found out Quinn was in real danger, I felt the crawlies die back.
I circle my hand in the air.
“Let’s go, guys!”
A cheer goes up from the club.
Bryce gets that wicked grin on his face and copies my circle in the air.
“You heard the man! Let’s saddle up! We got some work to do. Gotta get one of our own back.”
Gareth barked in unison.
Chapter 13
Quinn
As Frank called on the radio, my heart sank. Why didn’t I listen to Elijah? Here I am in a smoked-filled forest with damn trees falling all around and little to no chance of getting the hell out of here without becoming barbecue.
Frank called up on the short hand radio.
“Mayday, mayday. This is Black Hills Ranger Station. We have a situation here. Towers are down and fire is encroaching. Repeat, we need assistance at the Black Hills Ranger Station. Trees are falling and the fire is within a mile away. Over.”
Frank finished up the transmission and came over to take me by the arm.
“Doc, there are a couple of things we need to do. First, we need to set the calf free.”
I shake my head in denial and he stops me with a look.
“That little girl has a better chance on her own than it will have with us trying to haul it around with us.”
I knew that. This would be the best shot for the calf. There’s no way I could carry a sixty pound anything down the mountain. I’d be lucky to carry myself down, let alone an injured animal.
I walk out the ranger station and to the paddock where the elk was being kept. I opened the door and the elk walked back into the shadows.
“I feel you. I really do,” I said to the calf. “It’s a lot easier to just stay put, but you’re the one who has to make up her mind.
“I’m preaching to the choir,” I mumbled.
I turned back toward the station, leaving the gate open. As I neared the door, I saw Frank put on a yellow helmet and he shoved one in my hand.
“We have to decide on our next move. Can’t stay here too much longer.” The whipping of the wind and the ash covered his face, punctuating what he was saying.
He pulled out a map and showed me an old logging road.
“It’s about ¼ mile away. We can take the ATVs. The other way is draw and we won’t survive that.”
I looked over the map with him. I really couldn’t see any other option myself.
Frank explained. “Load up the ATVs with water and first aid supplies. I'm going to get what I need and we’ll get on the road.”
We walked over to the garage located to the left of the Ranger station. He pulled the door up, exposing a small fleet of about five or six all terrain vehicles.
“You know how to ride these?”
“No, but I’m about to get a crash course,” I said.
“Won’t take too long, just don’t gun the engine.”
Frank showed me the basics in a quick student ATV tutorial. I took off around the smoking tree in the parking lot of the Ranger station and my obliterated truck. After a few moments, I felt I had a handle on it.
Frank walked over to the Ranger station. “We need to make one last call so whoever’s listening knows we’re heading out.”
Going to the current communication center of the ranger station, Frank grabbed a couple of walkies, turning them both to channel 7 and gives me one. I hooked it on my jeans. He walked over to the shorthand radio.
“Mayday, this is Black Hills Ranger Station. We are going to find an alternate way off the mountain. Fire surrounding the station. Will keep anyone listening away as long as communication holds. Going to channel 7.”