Page 60 of Jackson

The words barely stung. He was all bark, anyway.

Quietly, I set the pack down and looked through the contents, ignoring Barker’s huffing as he repacked his own the way he wanted it. Judging by the contents, we were most likely heading out to the fire that was burning a few miles east from here.

The call had come in late last night, all of the firefighter’s radios blaring with the emergency signal. So far, the fire hadn’t spread rapidly, but it was burning enough to keep the property’s firefighters set up as reinforcements.

Mac had suggested for us to head over there this morning and using it as a learning opportunity for a once-in-a-lifetime deal at seeing how a real forest fire was dealt with. The excitement had been palpable among the rest of the inmates, excluding me, who were more than ready to actually put some of this training into action.

Now that we were all here and successfully piled off of the bus that’d brought us, Mac was explaining something that I tuned out completely. Even with us being a mile out from the fire, the air was hazy with smoke and the smell of burning wood.

“You coming or what, Gonzalez?” Barker said, throwing his pack over his shoulder. His fire-resistant coveralls bunched up at hisshoulders, making it difficult for him to straighten out the straps of his bag.

“Make sure you keep within the radius of the firefighters,” Mac called out. “If any of you stray off the path, use your whistle to call out and one of us will come find you. If you start to feel intense heat or thick smoke, fall back immediately and use your whistle!”

I sighed and zipped my bag up before tossing it over my shoulder and working my arms through the straps. It was heavy on my back but not to the point where it would slow me down. Luckily, we were only going to be getting close enough to observe from a distance and take some pictures that we would later observe back at the property.

There would be no heroics going on today, thankfully.

Just as I was about to follow Barker over to where our group was gathering, something grabbed my bag from behind me and made me halt in place. Without me even getting a chance to look behind me, something tugged at one of the loops at my waist, hooking something on it.

I darted my gaze down, spotting a familiar radio now clipped there.

My heart stuttered when I looked up again just as Jackson was moving around me and heading back toward the rest of the group, Roxy following closely behind.

What?

Ghosting my fingers over the radio and ignoring the way my chest suddenly tightened, I quickly followed after Barker whohad our camera looped around his neck. In a wide formation, we started in through the tree lines at a slow pace.

I wasn’t sure what the hell we were supposed to be taking pictures of, having completely checked out by the time we’d climbed onto the bus, but now I was regretting not paying attention. Especially, when Barker started to hiss at me once more.

“Can you keep up? I want to get good photos.”

“Why?”

Honestly, what was the point?

It wasn’t like we were receiving extra credit for any of this.

“Does it fucking matter?” he snapped back and kicked his way through a tall bush.

We were moving a bit of a distance away from the rest of the group, though I could still see them through the haze. The reflectors on their jackets helped with their visibility to me, becoming even more pronounced when I pulled my goggles down over my eyes to keep them from watering.

“I was just wondering,” I said.

“Well, if you have to know, I want to get as close a picture as possible. I overheard Browne talking about bringing some of our accomplishments to the Warden and getting us special privileges when we get back. We’re apparently the best group they’ve had so far.”

Somehow, I doubted that, but hey, if living in a little fantasy world kept Barker happy, then who was I to spoil it?

All I wanted to do was keep my mind off the very obvious thing plaguing it.

I brushed my hand over the radio again in disbelief.

Why had he gone out of his way to give it to me?

Setting me up to be caught with it was a possibility, but even Jackson couldn’t be that cruel. There would be no reason for him to do that when we were already actively avoiding each other.

He hadn’t even looked at me, either. Just gave it to me and dipped.

I hated how much that man haunted me.

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