Page 97 of Smoke and Fire
"Sure. I'll let them know."
24
BASTIAN
"She's going to try to make a run."
Mack, the hotshot Superintendent, pointed to a map with a sooty finger.
A red line behind his finger indicated where the fire had last been mapped. Not far away lay the highway that ran from Pineville to Jackson City. The beast had definitely advanced.
Mack stood in front of our squad with a plug of tobacco puffed against his bottom lip, near his teeth. Smoke filtered through the forest around us, blocking out sunlight with a dull, orange haze.
"She's a real witch,” muttered someone else.
Why, I wanted to ask,are fires always referenced as female?
"We shut down the highway between Jackson City and Pineville yesterday afternoon," Mack continued. "Last night, we did a controlled burn from the highway back toward the fire to get ahead of it. Squads have been patrolling through the night. No torching trees or sign of spotting on the other side of the highway yet, so it's doing its job so far."
A good sign. Burning before the fire arrived meant the fire would die down before it became out of control. Or so we hoped. Fire had a way of blasting through every expectation to do whatever the hell it wanted.
Mack pointed to the other side of the highway on the map, near Adventura. "We have structures at Adventura summer camp that were evacuated and protected last night." He spit a clear streak of juice. "It's empty."
Dahlia immediately came to mind. Because everything had to return back to her these days. The deep umber color of bark reminded me of her eyes. A restaurant she might like that we passed on the highway. A woman with long, wavy hair like hers. There was no simple act of forgetting a woman like Dahlia.
Not even when I tried.
With forced concentration, I turned my attention back to Mack's update for the tenth time. If Adventura was evacuated, then Sione would be safe. Dahlia would be tucked away in Pineville and I had no reason to worry over her.
Get out,I thought,of my head.
"The wind is blowing west to east and coming in fast," Mack continued. "We're anticipating growing gusts in the thirties to forties depending on slope and terrain. It's going to shift around mid afternoon and blow to the southeast and pick up speed, with gusts expected up to eighty miles at the higher altitudes."
"Right to Pineville," Nilla muttered.
I grimly agreed.
"Mandatory evacuations to the Pineville area should be going out soon," Mack continued. "We have volunteer fire departments and the Sheriff department working on local evacuations. In the meantime, you'll patrol the ground between the highway and Adventura summer camp to watch for candlesticks or spotting. Don't let the fire catch on that side of the canyon."
Mack nodded once, then faded back.
While the team broke apart to head back to the wildland truck, my fingers itched to send a quick text warning to Dahlia. I pushed the urge back. She'd sent a message but I hadn't read it yet.
Like the true coward I'd already shown myself to be when it came to women, I didn't want to read it. Didn't really want to know what it said inside. Probably something about the emails, which would be a disappointment and a relief. I wanted more even though I’d asked her for time.
Didn't deserve more, though.
My phone stayed safe in my pack while I loaded into the truck with the rest of the team, but my thoughts wandered far away.
Dad's neighborhood would be safe from the fire. The flames would have to drop into the valley, cross the river, and do impressive dancing to twist around to where he lived. I had no fear of that. He and Nessa both lived in Jackson City, which was a thirty minute drive north of the fire. They were safe.
Dahliawasn't.
That hobbled RV was up on the mountainside and right in the path of the oncoming inferno. If it came as hot and fast as the weather conditions would allow today, she wouldn't have time to fix the stabilizer jack and get out of there. Or would she? She’d mentioned working on it yesterday. Maybe it was already done. Did she get the parts? Did she need help? With evacs going out, Hernandez would be too swamped to help if she needed it.
I muttered a swear word under my breath. She'd figure it out. Sione might have already helped her get unstuck if he’d evacuated to Pineville. No doubt Pineville was already anticipating evacuations. With so much uncertainty around the fire, the Frolicking Moose would be as slow and quiet as ever. Maybe they'd even close it to let Dahlia evacuate her RV.
I silently hoped that whatever happened, Dahlia would ditch the RV and get the hell out of there.
