Chapter Thirteen
The blast reverberated through the trees, shoving Aslen onto all fours.
Debris and rock pierced the soft tissues of her palms. Blood drained from her face and neck, holding her hostage in place.
Her instincts honed in on the direction the explosion had come from as the fire in front of her climbed higher, walling her off from the man stuck on the other side.
The campground. Her heart rate kicked into double time.
The arsonist… He must’ve rigged his RV to explode as a fail-safe.
Black smoke shot into the sky through the tree line, and it took everything Aslen had not to collapse completely. “No.”
Rebecca and her family… They could’ve gotten caught in the aftermath.
Every cell in her body screamed for her to move—to do something—as her body temperature skyrocketed.
The accelerant the arsonist had used added to the fire’s heat.
Cooking her blood in her veins. Backup was already on the way, but would they reach the campground in time? Would there be anyone left to save?
“Aslen, get out of here!” Murray’s voice choked off in a coughing fit.
One objective. That was all she could focus on.
Save Murray or help that family. Her stomach rolled for fear of failing them both, but her gut supplied the deep-rooted answer she’d never be able to live with if she made the wrong choice.
Murray. She couldn’t lose the one thread tying her to this life, the one who’d kept her going despite the rejections, the loneliness and hurt.
He was trapped. Losing oxygen as the fire closed in around him.
She caught a glimpse of him through the flames, his hand protecting his face as much as possible. But it wouldn’t be enough.
“Aslen!”
The walls were on fire. Too hot. Gravity clawed against her stomach and chest. The fire licked at the edges of her bed frame.
It was so close, but terror had frozen her in place.
Kept her from shouting out as her dad stormed into her bedroom.
That same terror contorted his face as he circled her room, going for her closet first then ripping back her sheets on her bed. He was looking for her.
But she couldn’t tell him she was here. Under the bed. She couldn’t tell him what she’d done. He’d be so mad at her. He’d stop loving her.
Her mom had told her matches were dangerous, but Aslen was so careful.
She’d blown them out before the flame had gotten all the way down to her fingers, but the last one had burned faster than she’d expected.
The fire had bit at her fingers, and she’d dropped the match on the carpet.
Right over the nail polish stain she’d tried to hide from a few weeks ago.
The entire carpet had gone up in flames in an instant.
So fast. She’d tried to stop it with her pillow, but that’d only made it worse.
Within seconds, her entire room had caught fire, and there was nowhere for her to go.
“Aslen, where are you!” Her dad dropped her bedding in the middle of the floor. “Aslen!”
Her whimper was lost to the crackle of flames as Daddy raced from the room. No. He couldn’t just leave her here. Sobs tightened her chest and throat. The tears dried almost instantly when met with the suffocating heat trapped beneath the bed frame and mattress with her.
She dug her fingers into Felicia’s soft body, her redheaded Cabbage Patch Kid’s face too pliable against her cheek. The fire was getting closer, nipping at her bare feet pressed against the back wall. A sob broke free. “Daddy.”
She couldn’t breathe. Aslen tossed Felicia from under the bed, her nails biting into the untouched section of carpet ahead of her to crawl out of her hiding spot. “Come back!”
He didn’t have to love her. He could hate her forever as long as he didn’t leave her here alone.
Crackles and pops sounded from her right.
The single window in her room shattered into a million pieces, and she ducked her face between her arms. Her scream barely reached over the roar of fire pillowing along the ceiling.
Black smoke raced toward the broken window.
“Daddy, I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Please don’t leave me. ”
She shoved her princess comforter out of her way, sacrificing it to the flames charging along the wall.
Tears blinded her as she grabbed for Felicia’s soft arm and lunged for the bedroom door.
Flames licked out from the doorframe and bit her arm.
Her scream was short-lived as the pain flared faster and spread to her shoulder.
Her shirt was on fire.
The whole house was on fire.
And Daddy was gone.
She lost her hold on Felicia as she slapped at the sleeve of her shirt, but it was no use.
Her shoulder bumped into the opposite wall, and she fell to the floor.
Her hair caught, curling in on itself in black threads.
The smell curdled her stomach and burned her nostrils.
Someone was screaming, and it took a few seconds to realize it was her.
“Aslen!” Her dad lunged from his bedroom into the hallway. His hands were all over her, shoving her down onto the floor and forcing her body to roll back and forth until the fire was gone. “I’ve got you. I’ve got you.”
But the pain stayed. More than getting shots at the doctor’s office or breaking her wrist last summer trying to skateboard for the first time like that boy down the street.
Daddy scooped her up into his arms, and suddenly they were moving. But the flames were everywhere. Following them. “It’s going to be okay.” Her body bounced in his arms as they jogged down the stairs, and she believed him.
Right until the world ripped out from underneath them.
“Aslen, go!” Murray backed away from the wall of flames spreading and bearing down on them both, and Aslen couldn’t help but add a few feet of distance between her and a very painful death.
The flames had stripped the needles off the trees ahead of her.
Climbing higher and cutting her off from Murray.
She hadn’t been able to save her father that day their house had burned to the ground, not knowing that her mother had already suffocated from the smoke. But she was going to save Murray.
Training pulled her from the past and slapped her into action.
She’d dropped her gear back at her house, but the lack wouldn’t stop her from managing this fire as she had every other she’d faced.
Scanning the downed trees, dead leaves and boulders around them, she mentally discarded all of it.
Whatever accelerant the arsonist had used would ensure the fire burned beyond natural timing and temperatures.
She had to create a barrier between Murray and the fire.
Something strong enough to withstand those temperatures for just a few seconds.
The boulder to her right. It was large enough to add a break in the fire wall closing in on him. It could work.
Aslen darted for a felled branch of dead leaves nearly as wide and tall as she was.
The bark had so far been left untouched despite the proximity to the fire, and didn’t smell of accelerant.
It would work. It had to work. Dragging the tree carcass toward the ring of fire she laid it perpendicular to the boulder.
The leaves caught immediately. She might not be able to contain the fire, but she could manipulate it into going where she needed it to. “Murray! The boulder!”
His frame shadowed through the flames as he followed her voice. Arms protecting his face, he seemed to read her thoughts. “It won’t work! The fire. It’s blocking me from the rock!”
Acid charged up her throat. The past threatened to consume her as he backed off from wall of flames. No. This wasn’t the end. He couldn’t give up yet. Her eyes burned with tears and smoke. “You have to try! Please!”
She couldn’t lose him. He could ignore her for the rest of her life. He could hate her for leaving. He could never love her the way she’d wanted since she was thirteen years old. He just had to live to do it. He had to fight.
Murray seemed to still behind that wall that gave her mere glimpses of his handsome face, the crack and pop of the fire consuming the debris along the forest floor louder than the buzz in her head. “You have to leave, Aslen.”
“Don’t you dare.” The warped scars of melted skin running up her right bicep and over her shoulder seemed to burn all over again with remembered pain.
The muscles in her jaw ached under pressure as tears burned her nose and eyes.
“Don’t you dare leave me here alone. You promised to protect me. So fight!”
His outline was lost as the fire surged another foot in her direction.
Panic clawed up her throat. She was running out of time, and they’d already lost the one resource they had to get him out.
Wait. No. The reservoir. They were close enough—within a quarter mile.
Aslen stripped free of her jacket and T-shirt, clenching them both in her fist, leaving her in her sports bra.
If she could soak her clothing enough, she might be able to use it as a defense against the smoke and flames over their exposed skin. “You better be alive when I get back.”
“Aslen, no!” Murray’s voice bellowed over the roar of the fire. “You don’t know if he’s still out there.”
She ignored the pained plea in his voice and raced north, toward the reservoir. The chances of coming back with enough water in her clothing to help were slim at best, but it was worth the risk. Her life was worth the risk, no matter how many times he tried to tell her otherwise.
Her lungs ached with effort as she dodged a labyrinth of downed trees, sandpits and sharp rocks working to throw her off.
The muscles in the backs of her thighs protested every step, but she wouldn’t stop.
Not until she’d done everything she could.
Murray had saved her life. Not just physically.
Mentally, emotionally. He’d given her a home, a family.
A second chance when no one else would. He’d always sacrificed everything to keep his promise to her. This was how she repaid him.
Branches scraped at her exposed skin and drew blood, but Aslen only pushed herself harder. Firefighters were required to run three miles through woods just like this, weighed down with fifty pounds of gear. She could sprint the quarter mile to the reservoir and back without breaking a sweat.
Sunlight brightened ahead, and she glimpsed the shore and the surface of the reservoir.
Azure blue and untouched by the fire set this morning.
She could see it. Feel the cool breeze coming off the top countering the summer heat for the dozen families enjoying their vacation.
She was almost there. She could reach out and touch it.
Taste the fresh water from the edge of the tree line.
Pain seared across her scalp. Aslen wrenched backward, her feet coming out from underneath her.
Her jacket and shirt fell from her hand as she reached back to ease the tension pulling her hair into a fist. Agony reverberated up through her knees as she landed on a jagged rock trying to escape the floor of red sand.
Her scream was cut short by a hand over her mouth.
“Now where do you think you’re going?” A low voice pressed close to her ear. “I wouldn’t want you to miss all the fun.”