Chapter 36
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
HAILEY
“ T hey should have been back by now,” I mumble to the dark. It’s a good thing the crew is spiking out in this open field. I’d have tripped a dozen times anywhere else with my pacing.
“Everything okay?”
My whole body jolts, and I clutch at my chest. When I whirl around, a warm strobe of light shines in my eyes. I shield them with the back of my arm.
“You scared me.”
“Sorry,” my dad’s glowing outline says.
“No, it’s okay, I just… how are they still working in this?” I wave a hand in front of my face just to be sure my surgically enhanced eyesight hasn’t degraded. The chances of that are slim, but the alternative might be worse.
“It’s the storm. It can make things darker out here. I got a comm from Dean thirty minutes ago though. They’re on their way back.”
With a step to the side, I can see beyond his bright light, and a hint of concern sinks his eyebrows. Like a jack in the box, fear pops to the surface and gets my feet moving .
“I’m going to go find them,” I tell him, racing for my medic kit.
“I’m coming with you.” He unclips the radio from the collar of his shirt, tossing it in the air. Murphy catches it. “You’re in charge,” he shouts. “Make sure it stays on.”
“Sure thing, Supt. But what about you?”
“McCafferty has the extra radio. We’ll call if we need anything.”
Without the light of day to guide our movements, it’s a stumbly climb up the side of the hill. Even with our headlamps turned on, I find myself feeling around for branches and gripping on for leverage. Brush rakes over the palms of my open gloves.
Keeping track of distance is proving impossible too. With nothing but the sound of sharp stones grating against dirt where the terrain has been cut away, my mind swirls with the most outlandish possibilities.
What if they’re trapped?
What if they’re injured?
What if we can’t get to them?
We smell it before we see it, the air filling with thick smoke. We both climb faster, closing in on the cloud of billowing gray, and then… my heart plummets in my chest.
Fire. So much fire. It forms a giant arc around a channel of trees.
“I can’t see them from here!” I scream as I stumble closer. Trip and fall on a jagged rock. It pierces my left hand, and my palm stings as a sticky substance oozes from my skin. It’s so hot, so intense as I close in, but I can’t tear my eyes away from the orange barrier that’s keeping me from them.
Where’s the opening?
My dad’s in front of me, blocking the sea of orange I’m ready to fight. I think I hear “Hailey, stop!” but my feet, my hands, my entire body scream and pound against him, saying: Don’t you dare! Don’t ever stop until they’re safe from this!
He curses when he touches the spot his radio used to be. “We need a water drop.”
I dodge around his body. I can’t wait for him to figure out what to do next, and I refuse to believe that it’s too late. There has to be another way in.
I dive back down the hillside, and my dad catches my hand. I drag him with me. We’re both sliding now. He’s hollering something else, but the crackle and hiss are covering up whatever it is until…
Over there . I make out what he’s trying to communicate from the point of his finger.
A hot pink ribbon flutters from a tree branch. There’s a small patch of soil the size of a pillow beneath it.
As fast as our legs carry us, tripping over sticks and sage, we run for it.
Where the black line ends.