Chapter 38
Trevor brought us a blanket to sit on and I brought pillows for us to lean on. His big surprise to me was something so sweet.
Candy is sort of a novelty item here in town because it’s just not on the priority list for our runner wolves who get supplies for our people every month.
I was glad after the storm the electricity was a quick fixable issue and that it didn’t interfere with tonight’s event.
When Trevor pulled out the bag of candy my face brightened with both surprise and appreciation before I gave him a quick hug of thanks and grabbed some of my favorites.
Melanie, Lyson, Jasper, and his buddy Matt were slightly off to the side of us doing their own thing. I didn’t realize who sat behind us until we were interrupted.
“Got an extra pillow for me?” Devran’s deep voice was unmissable. We both glanced over our shoulders and of course he was seated right behind us with Stella. I rolled my eyes.
I haven’t spoken to him since our drunken make out.
Stella glanced at her date and then between us and I could tell she suddenly felt awkward. Probably because she knows of our having been mates before.
“Uh, hey Alpha” Trevor awkwardly greeted him. “We don’t” was my only response to his request for pillows.
Devran tipped his nose to the sky and sniffed. “Who's doing bonfire tonight? That’d be a cool after event when the movies finished” he commented as if we were in as a group of four.
When I felt eyes on me I darted my eyes around until I caught gazes with Jasper. He rolled them and I knew everything he was saying without having to hear him say it.
He’s thinking the same thing I am.
Devran is making our date awkward on purpose. I just can’t find a justifiable reason for it. When you break a mate bond that link is gone forever. There wouldn’t be unresolved jealousy of possessiveness. It just doesn’t work that way.
I'd even asked Jasper to be sure of that fact and he agreed it’s suppose to be a clean cut. Sure, it can feel like a breakup, especially if you had some kind of relationship previous to the rejection but Devran and I had none of that beforehand.
We barely knew each other.
Our only interactions were based on either psychotic jealousness or his interrogations of me due to me being human...which he despises. So why mess with Trevor and I?
My only answer is that he hates me and likes making me miserable as his own form of entertainment.
I just quietly tugged on Trevor’s shirt to get him to turn around and face the screen again. The movie hadn’t started but I didn’t want to engage with Devran and open any sort of line of communication.
That would officially turn this date into a group thing.
Him and I spoke quietly amongst ourselves until the screen lit up brightly and the sun had officially set behind us. I popped a candy in my mouth and leaned slightly into Trevor which he seemed to like.
When Devran stretched his legs out he ‘accidentally’ kicked our blanket and shifted our unopened drinks around. I grit my teeth but said nothing as Trevor sat up slightly to fix everything.
Devran muttered a fake apology like he hadn’t meant to do that.
Before the film even really started I noticed people starting to look around at the air and I soon realized why. It was suddenly foggy. Or at least that’s the only way I could describe it at first.
Chatter broke out and for once Devran interrupted for a legitimate reason. “Does everyone smell smoke? I don’t think that’s a bonfire” he said, standing up to do whatever Alpha things he does.
His Beta and Delta stood without him even having to speak a word. A sense of nervousness started to flood me. What’s going on?
Not long after that three wolves ran into the town square and people started screaming. Not because of the wolves but because of what they mindlinked everyone.
“FIRE” someone called out.
I jumped to my feet and started looking around frantically at everyone. Trevor held my forearm and was looking around for something too.
“What’s going on? What did the wolves say?!” I asked frantically. This is when I hated being human and I had no connection to everyone else.
“A forest fire has broken out and it’s making it’s way towards us. We’ll need to evacuate” he told me. My stomach dropped.
People started running into their houses to grab their valuables or warn others who weren’t in town square with us.
“Alright listen up, everybody don’t panic. The fire is still far away but we will be hit by the heavy smoke which will decrease visibility so I want everyone to start gathering their loved ones and evacuating to the location Diego is going to be bringing you.
"Please don’t linger and if you are physically unable to walk the terrain stand over here and a wolf will come and assist you” Devran’s voice boomed over the buzzing crowd.
He had kept total composure but I was freaking out.
Trevor told me he needed to go find his parents and I told him to go and that I would be fine. I was looking for Jasper to be sure he’d be okay.
I'd heard he was going to be staying behind to go through everyone’s houses to be sure everyone has evacuated. I was scared to leave him.
Melanie called for me but I told her to go with her family.
Some people were holding babies or small children and because it is both night time and now very foggy it was going to be very hard to see where we were going. Which poses threats to everyone’s safety. Not to mention breathing the smoky air would be harmful to our lungs.
A pair of hands grabbed my shoulders and spun me around.
“Mira, go, get to safety and I’ll come check on you later” Devran surprised me by singling me out.
“Where is Jasper?” I asked him.
“We have the responsibility of getting everyone out. We will join you on the other side. Don’t worry” he looked me in the eye and nodded like it was a promise.
I saw Gran waiting to be carried by a healthy wolf to safety. I came to her to be sure she was alright. “Go on, sweet child. Be safe. I will see you soon” she patted my hands and urged me to go on.
With the wind shifting the smoke crawled in rapidly like you see with those fog machines when the smoke rolls in thick.
People started to panic and some wanted to start running instead of trying to follow a single file line led by Diego to what they deemed ‘safety’.
I started to follow the bodies, it was becoming increasingly harder to, and I hadn’t even gotten far yet. People were panicking and someone was even screaming out for their child who somehow got momentarily separated.
Something came to mind and instead of moving forward I ran back to town. I started tripping over myself but the visibility wasn’t completely gone yet.
The air smelt of pure smoke and fire. I can’t even imagine what the flames look like where the trees and land is being consumed by the raging fire.
“What are you doing?” I heard someone call after me when I ran back to town. I quickly made it to my cottage and got the neon tape that I hope will show through the smoke and leave a guided path for anyone who is too far behind to catch up to where we’re going.
“MINDLINK EVERYONE TO PASS THIS NEON TAPE ALONG. MARK YOUR PATH” I shouted to those at the tail end of the evacuation. I tied off the first tree right at the edge of town and passed the line along.
When I found a wolf about to pick up a child I asked that they run this other neon yellow tape further up the line so they can start passing it back and the two lines will meet somewhere in the middle.
I felt this would assure that people would be able to have a visible guide no matter how foggy.
“MIRA?! What the hell are you still doing here?!” I heard Jasper call for me. I told him what I came for and he said it was a great idea but he also scolded me and told me to hurry away from here because the forest fire was spreading pretty quickly.
I hugged my best friend tightly and told him to hurry up and to be safe. “I will. I’ll see you soon” he kissed the top of my head and sent me off into the smoke to follow everyone to safety.
I had such horrible nerves in my gut. The more I looked backwards the more worried I became that there would be total loss of visibility which is so dangerous for mountain terrain.
You could walk off a cliff or topple down a rocky hill if you slipped on something. A lot could go wrong. Especially for those trying to transport the elderly, the babies, young children, and people with mobility issues.
Some of the elderly couldn’t hold on well enough to the wolves and were having to stop which meant they were falling back into the thick fog. Some of us began coughing. It was getting uncomfortable for us to move through these conditions.
I was so afraid I would lose everyone I love.
I've made a family here and I worried deeply for them all. I never had too many people to worry about in life except for myself and my mother. I barely ever even worried about myself because I was always taking care of my mother.
Here I have Jasper, his family, my friends in the pack house and Mel and Trevor. So many people. I worried for Gran hoping she's able to hold on and get brought to safety without incident.
When I heard some scream in the distance my stomach dropped. “What’s happening? What was that?!” I asked anyone in front of me.
“A few people fell off trail. They’re trying to locate them and pull them up to safety without any of us falling with them. We have to deviate from the path” a female wolf voice told me.
I wasn’t paying attention to who. I worked my way over to the problem and looked at Ana, my fruit girl. “Who fell?”
She was gripping her hair and pointing down to where some earth had gave way to the slight drop that lead to a ditch. Too many feet had walked the same piece of land and it isn’t secure enough.
We’d have to go around to the other side of the pink neon tape and follow that way.
“A mother and child. Now the father is down there trying to help them up but we can’t see a damn thing. The guy who tried helping them just fell too. We can’t help from this side of things. A wolf went around that way to check for more stable ground” she was visibly shaking.
When I heard the child crying it broke my heart in two. Moon Goddess what do we do? Please, I begged her.
My mind kept wandering to Jasper. He hadn’t caught up yet.
“We have a broken leg down here. We need more volunteers. We need help” a male voice called up to those in the single file line that were moving forward towards safety.
“Okay, I’ll see who I can grab. Just hold on” I called out to them. I started asking some younger guys to help out but mother’s clutched their teenage sons and told me they wouldn’t risk their family.
A few people did stop and were trying to think of the best possible solution to this. The cries got louder and my heart was pumping out of my chest.
“Come on, grab that. Come on” I heard voices encouraging people to try and pull themselves up. I started coughing and looking up. I seriously couldn’t see a thing.
It’s nighttime and the moon is blocked by the thick dark smoke. Have you ever seen the amount of smoke a forest fire produces? I wasn’t prepared for something of this magnitude.
“It’s getting worse! Run” a voice called out.
I tried yelling for people not to panic but shouting started and I could hear feet slapping down on the hard ground as people scrambled to get away.
“WAIT” I tried again but I ended up getting knocked down on my ass when the poor visibility led to someone crashing right into me as they ran forward.
I heard someone else yelp and realized we might get trampled if this gets out of hand.
“Ouch, hey, wait, help me up! Wait” I heard a voice as people tripped over someone on the ground. I tried feeling around for her and pulled up a girl who ran just as soon as her body was upright.
Wind.
An idea came to me and instead of running forward I planted my feet in place and closed my eyes. I envisioned the forest right in front of me and moved my hands in an upward sweeping motion.
So the wind would blow the air upward and away from the ground where people would be able to see where they were going.
It wasn’t strong enough.