A Dog's Courage--A Dog's Way Home Novel

by W. Bruce Cameron

  Fifteen

  Lucas and Olivia were sitting together on a bench near the large soft-sided rooms, later that afternoon, and I was being a good dog lying at their feet. They both seemed tired—it was evident in the long periods of silence, the occasional sighs, and the way they gazed off as if seeing squirrels, when none were evident to nose or eyes. I did spot a few dogs. My people brightened, though, when a familiar figure approached us.

  I jumped to my feet, wagging. Mack!

  “Hi, Bella,” Mack greeted, kneeling and holding out a hand for me to sniff. I found the scent of people and some pungent, sweet food sticking to his fingers. If dogs had fingers, we would sniff them all day.

  “How are you two holding up?”

  Lucas and Olivia glanced at each other. “We still have a lot of unclaimed animals at the shelter,” Olivia answered wearily. “With all the cell towers burned to the ground, there’s no way to reach the owners, and even when we have addresses, the houses usually aren’t there anymore.”

  Mack nodded. “It’s been tough showing folks where their neighborhoods used to be. They’ve all been told to expect the worst, but I guess nothing can prepare them for this. What about you, Lucas? You okay?”

  Lucas smiled wryly. “I’m no longer the town doctor. We’ve got more than enough medical personnel onsite, now. I’m not sure what to do next.”

  “That’s why I wanted to talk to you. I’ve got a new assignment. We’re looking for remote areas that might have people stuck in ’em. They might’ve gotten trapped but survived the burn, or they may be south and think they’re safe. We need to evacuate them, bring them to Paraiso.”

  “Are they safe?” Olivia asked.

  Mack shook his head. “You didn’t hear? Uncompahgre Forest is burning now. Some idiot landowner thought it would be a good idea to put up a firebreak with a controlled burn. In this wind. The Forest Service is throwing everyone at it. Still zero percent contained, naturally. So”—Mack pulled a sheet of paper from his pocket—“they gave me this assignment and told me to see if anyone else wants to volunteer. I’m supposed to get to these fishing cabins down the way, check them out, radio in and evacuate anyone there. What do you say, Doc? They might need medical attention.”

  My boy nodded. “I’m in.”

  “And,” Olivia added, “they might have domestic animals who need help as well.”

  There was a silence. “Olivia…,” Lucas began.

  She held up a hand. “If you think I’m going to let you head off into a fire without me, you have the wrong girl, Lucas Ray.”

  I looked at Lucas and Olivia, sensing something pass between them. My boy looked to Mack. “What she said.”

  “Okay, then,” Mack replied with a smile. “I’ve got a minivan.”

  “I’ve got a Tahoe,” Lucas countered.

  Mack brightened. “Better!”

  Car ride!

  Mack drove and Olivia sat with him in the front and I stayed in back with Lucas. He cracked a window for me and I pressed my nose to it. I smelled smoke and trees but no animals.

  We soon passed a large group of Mack’s friends standing in the woods by the side of the road, all dressed like him, all holding the loud, snarling machines that brought down trees. I looked for Scott but didn’t see him.

  “Firebreak,” Mack explained as he slowed and waved at his friends. They waved, too.

  We drove up a long, long hill, and at the top, Mack eased to a stop. I wagged expectantly, but we did not get out of the car.

  “Oh my God,” Mack breathed. “Look at it.”

  “It’s black as far as you can see. Is that where we’re heading? There?” Olivia asked uneasily.

  Mack unfolded his paper. “No, uh-uh. The road curves south just ahead. I guess there wouldn’t be any sense in searching for survivors to the east. From here to Idaho Springs, everything’s gone.”

  “Look at all the smoke,” Lucas observed bleakly. “God, I’m getting sick of it.”

  We started moving again, and soon were heading downhill, slowing for turns. After a long time, I brightened because the tang of smoke was less invasive on the air. We passed fresh, unburned trees. A squirrel seemed a real possibility, so I remained alert. Soon, we turned on a bumpy road.

  “Just up here,” Mack informed us.

  We turned again and I wagged because I could smell a dog. A cluster of small houses hugged a riverbank. When a door of one of these buildings opened and a dog my size bounded out, black and with no tail, I growled a little, but I was also wagging.

  “No barks, Bella,” Lucas told me, obviously misunderstanding the situation. I was being friendly and I was not barking.

  When he opened his door, I jumped out to greet the new black dog, a female, while an older man stepped out of the same building from which she had emerged. My people left the car to greet him.

  I politely sniffed the new black dog while the people talked.

  “Your cabins were spotted by the park service drone,” Mack was explaining as New Black Dog and I joined the people. “Is there anyone else here with you?”

  The man shook his head. New Black Dog nosed his hand, so I went to Lucas, establishing who my person was. “Just me,” the man answered solemnly. “Had a party of six fly-fishers but they took off when the evacuation order came down.”

  “Are you okay? Any issues with the smoke?” Lucas asked.

  “No. It got pretty bad, but Jet here and I just hunkered down.”

  “Well,” Mack said hesitantly, “I need to tell you that there’s a new evacuation order.”

  “Oh. I think I’ll just stay here, thanks.”

  Something was wrong; it was evident in the way the humans all stiffened slightly. Both the new black dog and I reacted to it, looking up at our people.

  “Sir…,” Mack began.

  The man held up a hand and New Black Dog followed it with his eyes. “The first cabin over there was built in 1918. Still standing, and there’ve been a lot of fires. I think we’re going to be okay.”

  “In 1918 we didn’t have the beetle infestation,” Lucas pointed out. “Look at all the dead lodgepole pines along here. It’ll all go up in a flash.”

  The man shook his head.

  “Sir…,” Mack said again.

  “What about Jet?” Olivia interrupted softly.

  New Black Dog glanced at Olivia, so I did, too.

  “Your dog can’t make decisions for herself,” Olivia continued. “Sir, we’ve been in the fire. Right in it. When it comes, it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before. It jumps from treetop to treetop so quickly it’s like watching a train go by. If your cabins go, you’ll go … and your dog will burn with you. Do you really want that?”

  The man stared at her. Mack and Lucas glanced at each other.

  “Come back with us to Paraiso,” Olivia urged. “Please. Just until the fire is contained.”

  New Black Dog took a car ride with us! Now Lucas sat with the new man and we dogs sat in the way-back. New Black Dog was friendly but riding in the back of a car is no place to wrestle, so I ignored her overtures.

  Soon we were back at the grassy area with the big soft-sided rooms. The new man and New Black Dog seemed tentative as they climbed out of the car. Olivia guided them over to one of the soft-sided rooms while I watched suspiciously. Where was she going with a different dog?

  Mack’s telephone squawked. He held it to his mouth. “Ten-four.” He looked to Lucas. “Captain’s on his way to see us.”

  “Ten-four,” Lucas repeated. They grinned at each other and I wagged.

  With no one sitting next to him, I decided to take the opportunity to leap over and be with my boy.

  “Good dog, Bella,” he said. I licked him on the face and he turned away. “Okay! Enough!”

  I didn’t know what he was saying, but he had said it before.

  Before long, a man I knew, a man who still smelled like he had pockets full of chicken, approached Mack’s open window. I wagged but without much enthusias
m because this man had let me down before.

  “Captain Butcher,” Mack greeted.

  Chicken-pockets nodded. “Mack.” He leaned his head in. “Hey, Doc.”

  Chicken-pockets handed Mack a sheaf of paper but no dog treats. “There’s a squad of smoke jumpers south of here, found a boy’s camp they say’s got people in it. They’ve radioed for evacuation. Care to be my eyes on that, Mack? They’ve given me operational control over the local response. I’d feel better with someone I can trust. You’ve proven to be pretty nimble.”

  “Happy to, Captain.”

  Lucas leaned forward. “Operational control over the local response?”

  Chicken-pockets grinned. “We’ve got FEMA, state, regional smoke jumpers, volunteers from Canada, and five county dispatch areas. Kind of hard to keep it all straight half the time.” He nodded to the papers in Mack’s hands. “Location’s right there. Give me a sit-rep when you’re ten–twenty-three.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The man left, taking his chicken odors with him. I sat and yawned, more than a little disappointed.

  Mack turned and looked over at my boy. “You want to come along?”

  “Might as well,” Lucas said. “Honestly feels good to get out of here, see parts of the world that haven’t burned up. What’s ten–twenty-three?”

  “It means ‘on location.’ What about Olivia? Think she’s going to want to come along?”

  “Oh, you know the answer to that one.”

  Mack nodded. “Yep, she’s a warrior. I met a lot of women like her in the Army. In fact, my division, the 101st, just started enrolling them for combat in 2018. Don’t let anyone tell you there’s a contradiction in the term female soldier.”

  I brightened because Olivia emerged from the soft-sided room, talking animatedly to a woman. New Black Dog was nowhere to be seen, though I could still smell her on the air.

  I wagged when Lucas lowered his window for me to stick my head out. “Olivia! Time to go!”

  Another car ride! I put my nose to the wind and let the fragrances come.

  It seemed to me the smoke was more pungent now than it had been that morning. My people did not seem concerned, though.

  After some time Mack slowed, and we swayed onto a much narrower road into the trees.

  “Camp Benally,” Olivia pronounced, “an Alpine camp for boys.”

  We proceeded a little farther and then Mack pulled over. I peered out ahead of us and saw several cars parked in the narrow road, blocking our progress.

  “I guess this is where we get out,” said Lucas.

  We went for a walk, and it was a nice place to be: nothing burning and the smoke wasn’t even bothering me, though I could still smell it, strong and all-pervading. We climbed steadily up a hill and then came out into a big grassy area with sparse trees and some wooden buildings. It was like a town, but with no streets, just footpaths.

  Lucas spread his arms. “Welcome to the boys’ camp.”

  A few people were striding in a direction away from us, but a man glanced over and waved. He headed our way and I guided Lucas and Olivia and Mack to meet him. His clothing smelled like smoke and his fingers had a turkey odor. It was an interesting combination.

  “Hey,” Turkey-fingers greeted us. “Name’s Henry Cox. I own this place. Where did you hike in from?”

  Lucas and Mack reached out and grabbed the man’s hand, then let go. “I’m Lucas Ray. This is my wife, Olivia.”

  Now Olivia grabbed his turkey fingers. She let go, too. “Nice to meet you.”

  “Mack Fletcher, Summit County Fire and EMT,” Mack said. “We didn’t hike, we drove down from Paraiso. Got stuck on your road a couple hundred yards down.”

  The man nodded. “We were all lined up to go when we got the order to hold in place, and that there were smoke jumpers on their way. They said the fire’s coming up from the south.”

  Mack and Olivia glanced at each other.

  Mack frowned. “They said that? The smoke jumpers? We heard it’s quite a ways out yet.”

  Turkey-fingers lifted his eyebrows. “Oh. That’s good news, then. The only way to get from here to Paraiso, or to anywhere, really, is to head south and then turn on 765. But you know that, if you just came from there.”

  Just like that, my tail itched right at the base. I turned and bit at it aggressively.

  Mack reached for the phone on his belt. “I’m going to radio Captain Butcher. I’ll get an update.”

  I watched apprehensively as Mack stepped away from us, raising his phone to his mouth.

  Turkey-fingers looked at Lucas. “We’ve got six boys and some staff that we couldn’t evacuate before they closed all the roads. Some smoke jumpers on foot joined us a couple hours ago. But if you came down from Paraiso, the roads aren’t closed after all, right?”

  Lucas shrugged. “We didn’t see any cars, though. And everything east is decimated.”

  Turkey-finger man frowned. “They told us not to leave.” He turned to look back at the small buildings. “I wonder if that was a mistake.”

  Sixteen

  Turkey-fingers gazed silently at the small wooden buildings for a moment. Lucas and Olivia glanced at each other. I waited to see what we were going to do next.

  “My mother started this camp,” the man finally said in the same quiet voice. “I was just a boy. My brothers and I thought it was heaven. They’ve all gone on to do other things—one’s a lawyer in Denver—but for me, all I ever wanted was to stay right here, taking care of things.”

  “It’s beautiful,” Olivia told him. “I love all the trees.”

  Turkey-fingers gave her a rueful look. “I guess now the trees are the problem, aren’t they? Well, everyone’s gone to the cafeteria. I’ll show you the way.”

  Lucas waved at Mack and pointed. Mack nodded, but continued speaking to his phone.

  Olivia, Lucas, and I followed Turkey-fingers across the grass, passing by dense pine trees. I kept turning back to check on Mack. I did not like leaving him behind. Soon we approached a big building from which some nice food odors were emanating, detectable even above the sharp smoke. I trailed behind Lucas up the wooden steps and inside.

  The ceiling was high and long tables were lined up in rows. A small clutch of people, including a few boys, were gathered together up at the end farthest from the door. The boys turned and peeked at me excitedly, and I wagged at them. Sometimes I think children exist so that dogs have people who always want to play.

  A man held up his hand and people stopped talking. He was one of Mack’s friends, I could tell, because not only did they all dress alike, they all carried heavy packs on their backs, and they all smelled like they had been rolling around in ashes. This particular man had white cloth over one eye. When the cloth-eyed man pulled out a piece of paper, I noticed it trembled a little bit. “All right,” Cloth-eye began. “First, the bad news. As you probably know by now, we’ve got fire to the south of us.”

  People stirred and murmured, and he raised his head and regarded them gloomily with his one eye. “The Rocky Mountains are burning, folks. That’s all there is to it. With the winds coming straight at us, the fire is going to sweep right through this camp. There is no time to take out all the trees and try to build a firebreak. I’m afraid you’re going to lose all these buildings.”

  Several people groaned. Turkey-fingers dropped his head and stared at the floor. I didn’t see anything to look at, until, moments later, some drops of liquid fell from his face and splatted at his feet.

  “We’ve got a helicopter coming in, should be here in about fifty minutes,” Cloth-eye continued. “We’ll get all the kids out, and there’ll be room for a couple adults. Anybody have asthma or a lung disease?”

  A woman held up her hand.

  “All right, you’re on it. Who else?”

  The people began speaking amongst themselves. Lucas turned to Olivia. “I think you should take the helicopter.”

  “Oh, for God’s sake, Lucas.” She sounded an
gry. My boy bit his lip.

  I turned at a familiar scent and wagged, relieved. It was Mack. I strained at the leash to get to him, nosing his lowered hand.

  “He’s saying a helicopter is coming for the boys and a couple of vulnerable adults,” Olivia told Mack. “He hasn’t said what the plan’s going to be for the rest of us, though.”

  Mack gestured grimly with his phone and spoke in a low voice. “Just spoke to Captain Butcher. He says they were shown the wrong aerial photos before he deployed us here. Now they think the fire has cut us off from the south. We’re trapped.”

  “Wait, what? We just came from that direction,” Lucas objected. “How can we be cut off all of a sudden?”

  Mack shrugged. “It’s the latest intel, Lucas.”

  “Let’s get back outside, wait for the chopper, and make a plan,” Cloth-eye told the group.

  I did not like it when Mack left us to go speak to Cloth-eye, especially when everyone else trailed out of the building. I stuck close to my boy, doing Heel without being asked, because I could sense the agitation in the humans and it made me uneasy.

  I perked up when some boys came over to see me. There were no treats but I was hugged several times. Turkey-fingers petted me, too.

  “Are you okay?” Olivia asked him.

  He cleared his throat. “I guess the important thing is to get the children out.”

  Cloth-eye came out with Mack and the friends who were dressed like Mack. “Do you have a swimming pool?” he asked Turkey-fingers, who shook his head.

  “No pool, no.”

  “Show us around your camp, will you?” Cloth-eye turned and looked at the anxious, gathered people. “Folks, we’re going to work this out. Henry’s going to give us a tour so we can see where to set up our lines of defense. I suggest you all take a seat at the picnic tables. We’ve still got some time.”

  We wandered over to some outdoor tables and the people sat, but there was no food. I tracked Mack and his friends leaving with Turkey-fingers.

  A man and a woman came and sat with my boy and Olivia. They did not seem to notice there was a dog. The woman had long hair and she kept touching it.