by Leigh Bale
Katie nodded, her eyes wide with terror. She huddled there with Chrissy and their trust meant everything to Reese.
He set to work, building a fire line around the perimeter of the meadow. Without fuel, the fire would burn away from them. He used the lighter to set a backfire in the dried pine grass. A whoosh of air whipped the flames to life, fanning them across the clearing. Sprinting back and forth, Reese worked hard to keep the fire from jumping his fire line and getting into the tall trees beyond. His lungs burned from the smoke and he coughed. His muscles cramped and screamed for him to stop, but he kept moving. He knew what was at stake. His daughter’s life. And Katie, the love of his life.
Scraping back the grass to mineral soil, he toiled until the fire he’d set had burned the whole meadow. With no more fuel to consume, the flames died out. The blackened earth steamed as he raced back to his family. And that was when Reese became aware of the sound of a freight train rushing toward them.
He turned, then shuddered. The wildfire had finally arrived. He could see red flames flickering among the tree trunks at the edge of the clearing and dancing in the canopies of tall pines and Douglas fir.
For a scant moment, his PTSD threatened to take over. With determination born of faith, he turned his back on the fire and refused to allow his fears to undermine his purpose. He couldn’t lose it now. Katie and Chrissy were depending on him.
“Reese!” Katie cried. She stared at the scene, her face drawn with terror.
“Don’t look at it, Katie. Look at me.” He beckoned to her.
She gazed at him. Only him. Holding on to Chrissy, she pulled the child with her, accepting Reese’s outstretched hand as he took them to the middle of the burned-out meadow. Using the Pulaski, he quickly cleared away the blackened grass. Blasts of hot air struck him as he shook out his fire shelter, a safety device shaped like a sleeping bag and made out of fire-resistant materials. Used as a last resort, it was large enough for one man...or a petite woman and child. It couldn’t withstand sustained contact with flames, but it sure could protect them in a short-lived grass fire.
He helped Katie and Chrissy to lie down inside the shelter, their feet toward the blaze. Because there wasn’t room for him to crawl inside, too, he hugged up against the outside of the shelter, pressing his face, arms and legs beneath it to give him some protection from the intense temperatures.
“Daddy, it’s too hot. I can’t breathe,” Chrissy yelled.
“Press your face against the ground and cover your nose and mouth with your hand. Breathe through your nose. Air near the earth will be the coolest. And whatever you do, don’t get up until I tell you to,” he yelled back.
They lay just as he instructed. He’d done everything he could to protect them from the intense heat, taking the brunt of it himself. The roar of the fire filled his ears. His exposed back felt like it was aflame, his civilian clothes providing little protection against the blasts of superheated air. How he wished he was wearing his fire-resistant Nomex shirt and pants. He wanted to scream with pain, but he didn’t. He wanted to get up and run, but he knew that would mean certain death. Instead, he gritted his teeth and kept his face against the ground. Wearing his leather gloves, he gripped folds of the fire shelter so he wouldn’t be tempted to rise up and breathe scorching air that would burn his lungs.
They lay like that for what seemed like hours. Reese could hear Chrissy crying and it tore at his heart. And yet, in spite of the noise and pain, in the midst of the broiling fire, he felt completely calm. Certain he had done all that he could for them. He turned the rest over to God, finally prepared to accept the Lord’s will. And when the fire passed, Reese raised his head and looked around.
“Katie, Chrissy, are you all right?” he asked.
Slowly, they opened the shelter and lifted their stiff bodies to sit up. They looked around at the ruined forest, their faces, clothes and hair blackened by dirt, smoke and ash. Thin drafts of smoke drifted from tree branches devoid of leaves or any sign of life. But a sense of overwhelming gratitude filled Reese’s heart. They were alive. They were safe. Because God had answered his prayers.
Chapter Sixteen
“Reese, we’re alive.” Katie spoke with amazement, her voice sounding thin and watery to her ears. She couldn’t believe they’d made it through the firestorm.
“Is it over?” Chrissy lifted her head and looked around, her expression still drawn with fear.
“Yes, sweetheart. It’s over. Are you both okay?” Reese moved stiffly, grimacing as though in pain. Katie wasn’t surprised. A glance at her watch told her that they’d been lying on the ground for over an hour.
He gave a deep, hacking cough as Chrissy nodded, setting her long ponytail dancing. Both Reese and Katie inspected her closely. Except for being covered by soot, the girl looked completely unharmed.
Tears of gratitude filled Katie’s eyes. “Yes, I think we’re all right. You did it. You saved our lives, Reese.”
He nodded, his shoulders slumping with relief. He looked at the burned remnants of the scorched woods and gave a disbelieving laugh. “No, I didn’t save us. The Lord did. He pulled us through.”
Katie couldn’t believe her ears. His words were completely unexpected. She never would have believed that Reese would give credit to God for anything.
“Reese! Katie! Is that you?”
They turned and stared toward the west, where the trail leading up to the cabin should have been. It was no longer visible beneath the macabre ruins of blackened trees and bushes. Two men stood there, dressed in full wildfire-fighting gear. They each gripped a Pulaski. One of them removed his red helmet.
Sean Nash!
“Man! Are we ever glad to find all of you safe. We figured you were lost in the fire.” Jared Marshall pushed back his white helmet as he smiled widely and walked toward them.
“Not half as happy as we are to see you,” Reese said, his voice sounding hoarse.
He coughed again, and Chrissy did, too. Katie felt a heaviness in her lungs and thought they must all need treatment for smoke inhalation.
She stood, her legs limp and shaky. She pulled Chrissy up with her and hugged her tightly. Tears of happiness ran down her face. They were safe. When Reese had asked her to trust him, she had prayed for help and felt strongly that she should follow him. The Lord hadn’t failed them today. They had so much to be grateful for.
“Look at the forest, Mommy. It’s all burned up,” Chrissy said with amazement.
“Yes, but it will recover. All that matters right now is that we survived,” Katie assured her.
Jared and Sean helped Reese to stand. He stumbled and she realized he was having difficulty walking.
“Your back is badly burned. Does it hurt?” Jared asked. The man lifted Reese’s tattered shirt and studied his blistered skin.
Reese groaned, his face twisted in agony. “Yes, very much.”
“I’m sorry for the pain, but that’s a good sign. No third-degree burns. Just superficial blisters. They’ll be mighty painful for a while, but you should be okay.”
Reese coughed again. “How...how did you find us?”
“Mrs. Murdoch lives a quarter of a mile down the road. She saw the smoke and called to report the fire,” Jared said. “The hotshot crew is out building line now. Because we had an early warning, we think we’ll have the fire contained soon.”
Reese smiled with cracked lips. His face, hands and arms were dotted with angry red burns. No wonder he was in pain.
Neither Katie nor Chrissy had any significant wounds. Because Reese had given them the fire shelter, he’d taken the heat and had sustained some ugly injuries. Her heart went out to him. She couldn’t believe what he’d sacrificed for them. And that reminded her that Jesus had suffered for mankind. His excruciating torment in the Garden of Gethsemane and then His death upon the cross had never struck her with such meaning until n
ow. And she knew deep within her heart that if Christ could forgive all her failings, then she must also forgive others.
She must forgive Reese.
“Are you really okay?” she asked as she reached for him. She found herself shaking like a leaf, weak and exhausted. They’d all been through a horrible ordeal.
“I’m in a lot of pain, but I’ll be fine.” He spoke through gritted teeth, giving her a half smile that looked more like a grimace. “I still can’t believe we survived. The Lord brought us through, Katie. He saved us.”
His words touched her heart. Reese was so brave. So strong and capable. Even though he must be hurting, he was still trying to be strong for them.
Sean got on his radio, calling for help. Tessa soon arrived with a first aid kit. By the time she had bandaged the patches of burns on Reese’s body and treated them each for smoke inhalation, four other men appeared with a stretcher.
“Let’s move it out.” Sean waved his hand in the air.
The men loaded Reese on the stretcher and carried him up the hill, with Tessa close by to lend medical aid. As Katie took Chrissy’s hand and followed at a slower pace, with Jared by their side, a trillion thoughts zipped through her mind. So many words she wanted to say to Reese. Words of appreciation, love and trust. But now wasn’t the time. They needed care. Before she did anything else, Katie wanted Chrissy checked out by a doctor. First things first.
They arrived at the cabin and she was stunned to find it still standing, though the surrounding area had been scorched by flames.
“How is it possible the cabin didn’t burn?” she asked.
Jared shrugged, as if the answer was obvious. “You cleared a defensible area around it.”
Katie’s mouth dropped open. “Reese did that, weeks ago when he first arrived.”
“Well, it made a big enough difference that we were able to save the place.” Jared nodded as the men set Reese’s stretcher on the ground.
Harlie and Dean headed down the hill to retrieve a Forest Service truck.
“Should we have stayed at the cabin instead of lighting the backfire down in the meadow?” Katie asked the men.
She thought about all that they’d gone through to survive the burnover and wondered if it had been necessary.
Sean shook his head. “No, definitely not. The cabin might have burned if Reese hadn’t set the backfire. The combination of burning up the fuel in the meadow and clearing a defensible area around the cabin made all the difference. The backfire probably caused the wind direction to shift, taking the fire south of the cabin instead of directly over top of it. It also slowed the main fire, giving us time to set up our pumper trucks to fight the flames. Without Reese setting the backfire, I believe the cabin would have burned. If you had taken refuge here, you would have died.”
Katie covered her mouth with one hand, realizing that Reese had definitely known what he was doing. He truly was a hero and had saved their lives. His actions had saved their cabin, too. The Lord had truly been with them, guiding Reese every step of the way.
She looked at him again. Lying flat, he had his face pressed against the stretcher, his mouth and nose covered by an oxygen mask. His eyes were closed, which frightened her.
Tessa touched her arm, whispering softly for her ears alone. “I gave him something for the pain, but it’s not strong enough. He’s hurting pretty bad.”
Oh, no! Katie hated to think of what he was going through. Crouching beside him, she touched his shoulder gently with one finger. “Reese?”
He opened his eyes. He must have seen her worried expression, because he gave her a wan smile through the oxygen mask. Thankfully, Katie and Chrissy seemed to be breathing well enough on their own. And they had Reese to thank for that.
“I’ll be okay. I won’t accept anything less,” he said, his words muffled by the mask.
“I’m so grateful for what you did today. I can’t even find words to thank you enough,” she said.
“Me, too, Daddy. You’re my hero,” Chrissy said. The girl leaned forward and gently kissed his forehead.
He smiled and lifted a hand to reach for them but then let his arm fall limply to his side. He was in no condition to touch anything right now. “I never wanted to be a hero, but I admit I kind of like being your hero.”
Katie laughed, thinking how hard he had fought to stay out of the limelight. Within the past two months, he’d survived two firestorms. “I hope you’ll let me write a story about what happened to us today. It’ll be the last article I ever write for the Minoa Daily News.”
He arched a singed eyebrow. “The last one?”
“Yes. As soon as I’m feeling better, I’m going into the office to give Tom Klarch our story and my resignation. I just quit. I won’t work for that man anymore.”
Reese gave one stiff nod. “I know you never gave him permission to publish the article about my hotshot crew. And honestly, your story was a beautiful tribute to their lives. I’m sorry I ever doubted you. From now on, you can write whatever you want. I trust you completely, Katie.”
“And I trust you,” she said.
He turned his head slightly, his gaze locking with hers. “Do you really mean that?”
She nodded. “I do.”
“That means a lot to me.” He laid his cheek against the stretcher and shut his eyes.
She rested a hand next to him, longing to be close to him. In fact, she was worried sick. What if the fire had been too much? What if his burns were worse than they thought and he had irreparable damage? What if he’d inhaled too much smoke and was unable to recover? They’d shared so much over the past weeks. She would love him no matter what, but she couldn’t lose him. Not now. Not after all that they’d been through.
“Okay, load him in the truck,” Sean said.
Katie stepped back, giving the men room to pick Reese up off the stretcher. She hadn’t even been aware that they’d returned with the vehicle.
Reese cried out and she flinched, knowing they were hurting him. But it couldn’t be helped. With no ambulance in this small town, they slid him into the back of Sean’s hotshot truck so he could lie facedown on the seat. Tessa propped his head with a blanket.
“I’ve used the radio to get word to your father that you’re safe. He’s been worried about you. He’ll drive your car and meet you at the hospital in Carson City,” Tessa said.
Carson City had the nearest medical facility, thirty miles away.
“Thank you,” Katie said.
Jared helped Katie and Chrissy climb into the front seat, then got in and drove them off the mountain. They spoke very little, the air permeated by repeated coughing as they tried to clear the smoke out of their lungs.
“Mrs. Murdoch said she saw a blue sedan drive by her place a few minutes before she saw the smoke from the fire,” Jared said from the driver’s seat.
“Oh?” Katie remembered that Bruce Miller drove just such a vehicle. Was it possible that he’d been up on the mountain, after all? She would never dare drive a car up on Cove Mountain. At the very least, the rugged roads would damage the muffler and throw the tires out of alignment. And that was if you took it slow. Bruce Miller didn’t strike Katie as the type of person to be anything but rude and impatient. But if he had damaged his car, it served him right for all the trouble he’d caused.
“Since this is a private area, Mrs. Murdoch was suspicious of any strangers on the mountain, so she took down the license plate number,” Jared continued. “I passed it on to Chief Sanders. The police will track it down and conduct some interviews. Once the investigation team discovers what started this fire, we may find out that the owner of the car was responsible.”
Katie nodded, thinking about the stinky cigars Bruce liked to smoke. She wouldn’t be surprised if he had tossed one out his car window and it had ignited the flames.
“What do you have there?”
she asked Chrissy, when she noticed she held something in her hands.
Chrissy held it up. “My compass. When I ran into the forest, I saw the smoke and got scared. I was lost for a while, but then I prayed and remembered what Daddy had taught me. I used my compass to find my true north, and that led me back to the cabin. That’s when you and Daddy found me.”
Katie smiled and looked over her shoulder at Reese. He lay perfectly still, his arms by his sides, but his eyes were open as he listened to their conversation. She caught his gaze and mouthed the words thank you. He gave a smile of contentment, then closed his eyes again.
Because she could see the movements of his breathing, Katie could tell he was just resting. But an urgency built within her. Reese said he was okay, but she wasn’t so sure. She’d feel better once a medical doctor gave him a clean bill of health.
* * *
Three days later, Katie sat at the reception desk in the motel. Charlie had taken Chrissy with him to the grocery store. They’d spent so much time visiting Reese at the hospital in Carson City that they’d ignored their home life and had no milk or fresh produce.
Since it was the first of the month, Katie was printing checks to pay their bills. If she hurried, she could get them into the morning mail, but she was having trouble concentrating. All she could think about was that Reese would be getting out of the hospital today and she might never see him again. When she’d spoken to him yesterday afternoon, he was doing well. It would take time for his wounds to heal, but he’d be able to work soon. Because he’d been in so much pain since the fire, she hadn’t yet talked with him about what was really on her mind.
She loved him. In fact, she’d never stopped loving him all these long, lonely years. But she couldn’t tell him that. Not unless he felt the same about her.
“Hi, there.”