Page 35 of Ash on the Range
“Miss Eve.” A gripped Cassie tighter, towing her across the forest in a different direction instead of ploughing through the trees towards the Homestead, searching for the new voice as water streamed from my eyes. "Where the hell are you?"
She could cuss me out later for my language. Right now that seems less of an inconvenience to her. We needed to get out of this. Branches crackled and crashed around us at a not so far distance.ShitMaybe the fire was closer than I thought. Something sliced my face. I snapped twigs off as I went, creating a bear track of carnage with a little mini tornado flurrying behind me.
Cassie's barefoot stumbles rent at me but we couldn't stop. She hadn’t been able to locate her boots in the smoky hazy before we left and time mattered. We already lost minutes by tracking sideways through the trees rather than towards our destination.
"Eve," I hollered again.
"Will." The call came fainter but closer this time.
"Fuck." I stumbled into a small hollow and to my knees beside her where she crouched, her arms wrapped around her auburn head to block out the smoke as she coughed up what sounded like part of a lamb. “Christ, girl."
“Here." Cassie offered me her cardigan to wrap around her face. I took it gratefully, but that left Cassie with little protection as she kept her hands around her face, throwing her hair over her eyes but it was nowhere near enough to ward off the tendrils of smoke that wound their way into every crevice as she crouched next to Eve.
"Come on, Eve. We have to keep moving,” I encouraged her in a thin voice punctuated by her own slight coughs.
When Cassie glanced up at me, I offered her a slim smile, proud of my girl for her bravery. Proud that she wasn't focusing on her body on this day of panic and horrors. How many miles we needed to cover to get the hell out of this mess was both critical and a total mind fuck. Because suddenly my one burden that I might've pulled out of the forest had become two.
Cassie reached for us as I gathered Eve in my arms, and stopped when she coughed again. She fixed watery eyes on me. "Your shirt. Will, give me your shirt," she demanded, bringing me out of my daze.
I spluttered out half a laugh, half a cough in the fast thickening smoke. Fuck, if I didn’t get the girls out of here soon, we’re weren’t going to make it back to the house. Just how far we had to go settled over me in a chill that busted through the permeating heat of the smoke blanket, waking me up. I focusedon Casie’s sass, gathering Eve in my arms. "I don't think this is the time to request a show." I tried to wave away the smoke between us.
She shook her head. “I'm not trying to get you to display anything, cowboy," she sassed me back. “Give me your damn shirt.”
Frowning, I undid a few buttons and shucked it off over my head. She shook her head as I did the rest of the button then tossed it to her.
"Catch," I called, suddenly half naked with a girl in my arms and no shirt on. Embers began to flitter around us, tiny ones that bit into my skin. "Fuck. Shit."
"That language," Eve managed between coughing fits, her hands cupped around her mouth.
"Okay, we’re moving.” Making the call not to wait any longer, I hauled Eve to my chest, blown away by how light and frail she seemed when I lifted her.
At least I'll be able to run at full speed.She had to weigh in at less than forty kilos. I was pumped with adrenaline, and hopefully Cass would keep up by my side, we were gonna make it out. I was going to believe that, and we could do this.
“Here." Something wet and cold slapped me in the face, breaking into my impromptu pep talk.
"Ugh." I reached back in time to catch my wet shirt from sliding to the hazy forest floor. Cassie wrapped her wet cardigan over her face. “Sorry, I didn't have one for you,” she apologized. “That’s for Eve. She’s pregnant, Will.” Her words came out muffled but there were words all the same.
“She’s– fuck.” Something colder than a wet shirt hit me a gut level.
“Language.”
I smiled down at the muddy wet blob against my chest. Eve stopped coughing and breathed against my chest. "It's enough.Right now we gotta run, girl. You gonna do that for me?" I knew Cassie hated running, exercise of any sort, but right now we didn't have a choice.
"I'll match your steps."
"Good girl." I gave her the sort of smile that promised her a reward at the other end. When we got there. I looked down at the muddy blob and started to move. "Honey, I need you to sing to that baby in your belly.” The words seemed foreign to me. No wonder she’d been trying to get Archer back here.Fuck.I kept my opinions to myself. “I need you to tell me everything that you're gonna do with him and Archer when he gets here. Because he is coming back. You remember? You told me so. Last Christmas.”
Cassie's breath hitched behind beside me. That was a story we could talk about later. On the drive back to college, maybe. She deserved the truth of what happened here that year. "You like to sing, right? So sing to your baby, Miss Eve. Sing all the way back to the house. I know your voice is gonna hurt but it only has to be soft."
I needed her to talk. I needed the vibrations or something to tell me that she was still alive under there and not suffocating while I ran. I wouldn't have the breath to keep talking to her shortly. I walked fast as my pace picked up and I started to jog.
Cass matched me, footfall for footfall, as the smoke thickened and the embers showered us in a heavier rain, obscuring my vision. My lungs and my throat burned, and I knew I'd never get rid of that scent or that smell or the taste of ash on my tongue. Everything I ate from now on would taste burnt forever. Ash would coat everything from my blood to the dust and dirt at the rodeo.
Twigs and branches scratched my face as I ran. Pine needles caught alight from the floating embers, searing burns across my cheeks but I couldn’t raise my arms to stop them. Strands ofmy hair drifted past, the stink assailing my senses. They were probably no longer attached to my head. Cassie pounded the ground beside me until her steps faltered, and her footsteps fell a little behind.
"Keep up, girl," I gasped out, managing to control my next coughing fit. That’s all I had and I couldn't talk after that, pushing through burning lungs made up of the smoke and air that I swore combusted with every overheated breath.
The big house will be there. Travis will be there they'll be fighting. No one will stop.
