CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
This was bad. Really fucking bad.
They were supposed to be out. But the wind turned. Now Benny and Zach were stuck with nothing but static coming from their radios and flames filling the sky.
“We need to move. Find a black zone.” Zach’s gaze went to the dry brush surrounding them. “We’ve got maybe a minute.”
Benny was already grabbing the fire shelters from his pack and shoving one in Zach’s hand. “Over there.” He pointed behind his friend. “There’s bare ground over that rise.”
One nod and they were running. Low and fast and trying not to cough through the masks that didn’t feel like they were doing what they were supposed to be doing anymore.
Flames were still leaping behind them. Smoke thinning the air and pressing down on his chest as he dropped to his knees and ripped open the aluminum foil blanket.
His heart was pounding. His mind racing. They could do this. This is what they were trained for.
Zach’s voice cracked through the smoke as he spoke again. “We can’t fucking die. I can’t fucking die. Libby’s pregnant.”
Jesus fucking Christ.
His mind went to Bethany. His woman. Would the guys call her? What if they didn’t? What if they did? Was she out there now, waiting for him? Was she scared...upset?
No. Focus.
But his thoughts were on Bethany. How could they not be? The look on her face when she’d spotted him on the highway flashed before him. Her whispered words that became his undoing, I’m yours. The thought of her scared. Worried. It was too much. Too painful to think about.
Then get your head in the game. Make sure you stay alive.
“We’re not gonna fucking die,” he shouted back, willing himself to believe it.
Placing his boots on the edge, his face went down, his feet facing the flames.
Zach did the same before shouting, “Seal it tight and don’t move.”
The heat was immediate as he curled inside, sealing the edges with his gloved hands.
He tried his best to breathe through it.
The dry oven like heat. The flames licking the foil.
The earth vibrating beneath him. It was the longest twenty minutes of his life.
He spent them thinking of Bethany. Her beautiful face.
Her husky laugh that made his whole body warm.
The addictive scent of her rose scented bodywash that lingered on his bedsheets long after she left.
His woman. The love of his life. A life that had only just started.
Benny’s eyes were getting heavy. It didn’t take a genius to figure out he was severely dehydrated now, and he’d inhaled way too much smoke. But he needed to stay awake. He needed to fucking survive. For her. For Zach. For Libby.
The faint sounds of boots crunching and muffled voices was the only thing that kept him from collapsing.
Just hold on a bit longer.
He could do that. He would do that. Zach could, too.
Please God, let Zach be okay.
He felt the shelter peel back, his eyes trying their best to readjust as more smoke hit his lungs. Forcing a cough from him that was hard enough to cause him to hit the ground.
“Fuck. You scared the shit out of us.”
Luke’s gruff voice was the last thing he heard before everything went black.