“They’re gonna be following us soon, you know. The bombers will cross at the bridge and they won’t take long to get on this path and get us. There’s no way of escaping unless we get on the boat.”
That brought the old shivers of fear spiking up my back again. Was Don really talking through his mind’s eye or was he telling us that the fire would soon be trailing us? And even though I was hoping that the rescue team would soon be here, what if the smoke got to us first…just like in my dream?
“Brad, do you think there’s anything to what he’s saying? He keeps talking about the bombers being behind us. You know, that there’s something back there?”
Brad was panting slightly as he held onto the stretcher with his one hand while holding his other arm around Don to keep him on the same path as the rest of us.
“I don’t know, Sarah. Could be but I don’t really want to stop and find out.”
We kept trekking forward but Brad was constantly turning his head as if he was listening for something behind us. I looked back a couple of times too, but I couldn’t hear or see anything. Then it got so that every few steps we took, Brad turned his ear to listen to the forest behind us, and every time he did, it sent waves of shivers across my neck.
“You keep looking back. You’re worried that there’s something back there, aren’t you Brad?”
“Yeah.”
Finally, he yelled out to Ali.
“Hey, can we stop a second?”
“One second, that’s about it. What’s up?”
We stopped and rested Grandpa on a grassy part of the trail. Brad and Don both immediately turned towards the path behind us and Ali moved in beside them.
“What’s up, man?”
“I don’t know, but I hear something. Listen.”
I held my breath because all I could hear was the echo of my panting that rang in my ears. Meagan jumped forward and grabbed my arm just as Brad put his hand up to tell us to be quiet.
“Shhh, I hear something. It’s like a crackling sound coming from way down there. Or maybe it’s just my mind playing games with me.”
Ali shook his head and then turned his ear to the path.
“Nah, I hear something, too. Yeah, there’s something back there. I don’t know what it is but I hope it’s not what I think it is.”
Brad stuffed the rope into my hands and then dropped his backpack onto the ground.
“Wait here, I’m going to check it out.”
He ran back down the path that we’d just trekked along and within seconds he disappeared into the dense forest behind us. We all looked at each other and Meagan moved in close and put her arm through mine. Ali squinted and stared down the path as he shook his head.
“I hope it’s not what I think it is. Gees, the smell of smoke is really strong but that may be just coming off the water.”
I swallowed hard as my mind began to imagine smoke surrounding Brad and choking him. I was aching inside with the fear that the fire just might be right behind us.
“Why, what do you mean? If it’s smoke he’s not going to run into it. He’ll stop before he gets to it.”
Ali shrugged.
“Well, for sure. But if it’s smoke then it’s coming at us a lot faster than we we’re ready for. We’ve got a ways to go and there’s no way we’re going to get through this if we have to fight smoke. These guys, especially your grandfather, won’t handle this well.”
Meagan was getting edgy and her voice was trembling.
“Yeah, well let’s wait and see what Brad finds before we give up. I mean, it could just be an echo from across the water that sounds like it’s behind us.”
We stood in silence waiting and watching anxiously as beads of sweat started dripping slowly drip down my face. I held on to Meagan and I couldn’t tell who was shaking more, her or me. My heart was racing so fast that I felt as if I would almost pass out. I held my breath and waited.
Several minutes passed by and Don began to repeat over and over in a monotone voice as he moved quickly from one footing to another.
“They’re after him, Pete. The bombers are after James.”
I turned to Don and growled at him.
“No, they’re not. He’ll be back, just watch. We’re going to get out of this.”
Meagan and I stared at the forest as Ali surveyed the surrounding areas over and over. We watched and waited and the minutes seemed like hours as my insides churned with anxiety. Then we saw Brad come bursting along the trail with the energy of a marathon runner. The fear of death was all over his face.
When he got to us, he panted loudly as he collapsed forward and rested his hands on his knees. He tried to catch his breath so he could speak but it took a few seconds and so we waited nervously for him. Then finally he spoke in a choppy sentence. I listened as my chest pounded in fear.
“Shooting…..ambers….. fire behind us…….coming fast this way.”
Chapter 13
The Race
Brad’s words brought my dream into the real world and it scared me so much that all I could do was hold my breath and bite my bottom lip. For the next few seconds we all just gaped at the forest behind us. No one said a word. Brad’s panting was the only sound that penetrated through the pounding in my ears. He stood up slowly and pointed to the trees behind us.
“The wind seems to be shifting. Sometimes it’s sideways from our right side to our left and that’s spreading the fire like crazy behind us, and then it shifts so it’s coming right at us. And everything is so dry, it’s coming at us faster than we thought. I couldn’t get back too far because everything is filled with smoke.”
Ali scratched his head and huffed.
“How far back is it?”
“About half a mile or so the other side of the bridge from what I could see. It was hard to get a clear view, but the smoke is a heck of a lot closer.”
The impression of my dream began to weigh even heavier on me and I couldn’t stop shaking. Meagan put her arm around me and rubbed my shoulder.
“We’re going to make it, remember?”
Brad and Ali talked quietly together for a second and then Ali broke the silence.
“Okay, no more breaks. We have to huff it as fast as we can and not stop until we get out of here. So, here’s the plan. Brad and Sarah, you guys take the front of the stretcher and Meg and I will take the end and I’ll carry Don on my back until he gets too heavy, and then Brad and I’ll switch. He needs a break right now so I’m going to take Don first. This way we can move it and not have to slow down for him. Agreed?”
We all agreed and then Brad helped Don onto Ali’s back. Don was a very thin man and probably didn’t weigh any more than 120 pounds and since Ali was in top physical shape he had no problem carrying him. The only struggle was that Don wanted to walk.
“Put me down. You can’t do this. You don’t know where the grenades are.”
Don began to hit Ali in the head as he shouted for Ali to put him down. Brad reached over and grabbed both of Don’s wrists and pushed his face right against Don’s.
“Do you want us to throw you into that field where the grenades are?”
Don’s eyes opened wide and then he jerked back and I could see the fear in his eyes.
“You wouldn’t do that to me, James? If you do I’ll tell Lucas and you’ll be in real trouble. They’ll throw you in the stockade for it.”
“I won’t do it if you will just shut up, not move and let us carry you. You got that?”
Don lowered his thin grey eyebrows and scowled.
“You wouldn’t do that?”
Brad glared back and nodded.
“In a second. Now, you hit him again and we’ll…….”
“All right. All right. But he better know where those bombs or we’re all dead.”
We got in position and lifted Grandpa off the ground and then headed out of the forest as fast as we could. We were able to trek a lot easier now because we didn’t have to wait for Don, but even then, we weren
’t moving at record speed.
The trail was shaded and that was a blessing because the heat had already given me a pounding headache that was gnawing at my forehead. We had agreed that we wouldn’t look behind us so that we wouldn’t lose any time and that really did help. But it didn’t stop Don from warning us about the grenades and I couldn’t help but wonder why this was an issue with him.
It was no wonder that Brad was known as the walking history book in high school because he seemed to know a bit about everything.
“The soldiers planted hidden grenades around their camps and in nearby fields to protect themselves against the enemy who would try coming up on them while they were sleeping or resting. My guess is that Don’s command used this tactic or experienced it in some way during the war and when his mind slips back, he remembers the affect it has and he gets scared.”
“That’s awful. I mean, war is awful. So many people die and get hurt before it stops. I hope we never have to face that here.”
Brad looked over at me and smirked.
“Well right now I feel like we’re in a war and I don’t want this enemy to win.”
We trekked for about fifteen minutes before anyone spoke again, and that’s only because Grandpa began to cry out.
“It hurts so much. Please make it stop!”
Hearing Grandpa crying out like that made me want to cry, too. I didn’t know what to say and I knew we couldn’t stop to comfort him. At first he was squirming around a bit as he was weeping, but then he became still and his cries once again turned into pathetic whimpers.
We kept moving but it was a challenge because his distressful cries sent cold shivers up my back. I couldn’t feel him moving around much on the stretcher after that, and from the corner of my eye I could see that every once in a while he’d wave his one arm towards his wounded leg in an attempt to touch it. Meagan spoke to him in between breaths and told him that we were almost there. Her voice was soft and soothing and I hoped that that’s what had calmed him down and not because he’d passed out.
It wasn’t long before we came to a creek about ten feet wide that had a large broken tree stump strewn across it. It was too narrow for all four of us to cross at once so we stopped right in front of it and lowered Grandpa gently onto the ground. Don slipped off Ali’s back and Meagan held onto the rope that was still tied around him. Brad looked behind us as he removed his cap and combed his sweaty hair with his hand.
“Okay, we’re out of immediate danger so let’s take a second and figure out how to cross this.”
I stepped up to the stream and looked down at it and at the solid stump that had obviously been left there to act as a bridge to cross it.
“What if just two of us carry the stretcher, one in front and one in back? Don can walk and we can be across in seconds.”
Brad wiped his face with the bottom of his t-shirt as Ali and Meagan agreed. He appeared very antsy and was ready to keep going.
“That’s what I was thinking, too. Anyone know where we are in relation to the house?”
Meagan looked around and then cleared her throat in her effort to sound cheery.
“I remember that about half a mile up on the other side of this creek there’s another path that takes us up and away from the river, but I don’t know where it leads. And I think I remember seeing this about a half hour or three quarters of an hour into our trip down here.”
I closed my eyes and forced myself to focus on the earlier trail.
“Yeah, I remember that cut off, Meg, so if we saw it around half an hour in, then we can’t be too far from home. Or from having someone find us.”
Ali turned and his face was solemn.
“Yeah, so why hasn’t anyone come for us, yet? These guys have been missing for a day and no one’s come looking for them. By now the forest fire must be clear to everyone and yet no one has come looking for them. Doesn’t that seem strange to you guys?”
Meagan and I looked at each other and I was quick to answer.
“There aren’t that many people who live around here. Grandpa and Nana lived up on the hill there, and Don down the street, but that’s all the houses for like miles. Everyone else lives in town and that’s at least fifteen miles away.”
Meagan nodded her head and agreed.
“That’s right. And Nana’s phone is out of order so she probably couldn’t even call anyone until today when they’re supposed to be working again.”
Brad turned to us and shook his head.
“No, I don’t buy that. Even fifteen miles away anyone with eyes could see that the forest is burning. I mean, gees, the smoke is covering the entire sky. These people look at the water and at the forest all the time, that’s why they live up here. They would have to see that it’s on fire. And if your grandparents are the only ones in this area, then surely someone from town would come out to check on them.”
Ali threw his hands in front of him.
“And besides that, what about the forest rangers? They’d know by now that the forest is on fire. Wouldn’t they check parking lots or ask attendants if anyone has parked and gone hiking in here? I mean, we can’t be the only people in the world hiking in this massive forest.”
I listened to them but I had to believe that help was coming.
“Well, just because we haven’t seen them yet doesn’t mean that help isn’t on the way. We still have to believe it for Grandpa’s sake, don’t we?”
Ali stared at Grandpa.
“We have to get him to a doctor, that’s what we have to and we have to do it soon.”
“Well, what about our Nana? She knows. She must have called someone.”
Meagan huffed.
“How, Sarah? No phones, remember? How’s she going to call anyone?”
Brad looked at his watch and took a deep breath as he surveyed the trees around us.
“She has Ali’s and my cell phones. Maybe she’ll figure out how to use them.”
Now I knew we were doomed. Nana was probably the least technically literate person in the world. She’s one of the reasons they don’t have any mechanical gadgets that have more than an on or off switch. Grandpa always said that modern technology was evil but we all knew it was because Nana was just too old or too afraid to use them.
Meagan huffed restlessly and I knew she was thinking the same thing.
“No, I doubt that. Don’t hold your breath waiting for her.”
“Well, I dumped my backpack where she could find it. Are you saying that she wouldn’t even try to use it to call for help?”
I thought about how this trip so far had been anything except the norm, anything except what we expected.
“If she finds it, Brad, she just might try pressing every button there until she gets someone. I guess it could happen. But she may also just look at it and get too scared and confused to even try. I know because I’ve bugged her jokingly about using mine and she really is clueless.”
Grandpa began to stir around again and groan. His leg was even more swollen and redder than it was a few minutes ago and I was really worried. I wiped the tears that were about to burst from my eyes with my sweaty hands, and that’s when Ali said we had to move. Brad and Ali would carry Grandpa across the log because it was easier to balance the stretcher between them than having us all try.
He picked up the front and Brad picked up the back and the two of them made it across the fallen log without any great problems. On the other hand, we had to get Don across and as usual, he had to make an issue out of it.
“I can’t cross that. I’ll fall in. Anyways, I have to pee.”
What?
Meagan’s patience was running away from her almost as fast as her sense of humor.
“Forget it! Get on that stupid log and start crossing now.”
“No. I have to pee.”
“Fine, then you can stay here and we’ll leave without you.”
“Why won’t you just let me relieve myself?”
I looked across the creek and Brad was
standing there with his hands on his hips, and then he threw them in front of him.
“Are you guys coming or what?”
Meagan slapped the rope on the side of her leg.
“Don has to pee.”
Brad jumped onto the log and within a few seconds he was standing in front of Don.
“You have to go now?”
Don just stared at him and then put his head down and he put his hand at his groin. He was old and he had to go but the timing was so wrong and as frustrated as I was, I felt sorry for him.
“Brad, can you just take him behind that tree or something? If we don’t let him go, it’s going to be a rough trip back and I don’t want to listen to him whining about it.”
“Yeah, okay. Let’s go.”
Brad led him by the arm to a large tree a few feet away and Meagan and I turned around to give him some privacy. But Don apparently just stood in front of the tree and we could hear Brad shouting at him.
“Now what’s the matter? No one can see you. Come on, just go.”
“Grenades. They’re all around this tree. We have to go to that one.”
I could feel the tension rising up inside my chest and I knew that the only way we could get around this was to let him go where he wanted. Brad followed him down the path and we turned around to see where they were but they had disappeared into the bushes.
We were sure that they’d be back soon so we grabbed the backpacks and crossed the creek to be with Grandpa and Ali. I was too nervous to sit, but Ali sat down on the ground and Meagan sat down beside him. He leaned over and pushed his shoulder into hers as he smiled at her.
“How are you doing? How’s your leg?”
“I’m okay, a little scratched, but I’ll be okay.”
“You know, if your Nana doesn’t call for help and we are on our own to get out of here, it’s going to take us at least an hour at this rate.”
Meagan slipped her arm around Ali’s and forced a smile.
“Well, at least we’ll get out and that’s the main thing.”
Ali huffed and clenched his jaw as he stared straight ahead.
Firestorm Page 11