Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
OSCAR
“Idon’t know how there are any fluids left in my body,” Ryan whines. I can hardly hear him over the sound of the chainsaw as I cut through the base of the tree in front of me. “I’m sweating so much I think I’m gonna get pickled in my own juices.”
“Dude, if you can’t handle the heat, then I think you picked the wrong profession!” Justin yells from further down the line.
We’re cutting a fire break to the east of the main blaze.
It’s hard, grueling stuff, but it should stop it spreading.
Yesterday we had to evacuate a ski resort four miles from here.
It was just staff left doing maintenance in the off-season, and none of them realized how close they came to the danger zone.
“Go to hell, Adams!” Ryan calls back.
“Aren’t we already there?”
There’s a loud crack as Mack brings down a larger tree a few meters ahead. “Can you two pack it in!” He shouts.
Ryan huffs, then continues with his shovel, digging smaller plants out at the roots. It feels strange, carving a line through the untouched landscape, but doing this will help save the rest of the mountain.
Jenna jogs toward our group, holding the sat phone.
“What’s the latest?” Mack asks.
“Not good,” she says gravely. “Water drops couldn’t get ahead of things, we need to cut another half mile to link up with the crew doing controlled burns, then we can clear out.”
“Shit,” he mutters. “Okay folks! We need to hustle!”
“I guess I’m not gonna make my date on Friday night,” says Ryan.
“You and me both,” says Mack. “I’ll have to take Joni out twice next week to make it up to her.”
We start pushing harder, clearing a path a few meters wide. Even Justin stops with the snide comments, only piping up to call out warnings whenever he’s felling something bigger. I run my chainsaw through branch after branch, breaking it up for the crew behind me to clear away.
Ryan’s not wrong. I don’t think we’re getting out of here for a while.
Shit, I hope Freya doesn’t mind keeping Harvey longer.
I haven’t been able to speak to her since we texted the day before yesterday.
We’ve either been working until the early hours, and then crashing back at camp, or there’s been no signal.
Mack caught me wandering around the forest last night trying to find enough connection to text her, he spent an hour teasing me about it, even though he was only out there to do the same.
“Heads up!” he yells, as another branch crashes to the ground.
The roar of a plane overhead makes it impossible to hear anything for a minute. I look up at the sky, just catching the long arc of water that the drop leaves behind. I swear I can feel droplets on my face.
Christ, it’s getting close. Helicopters circle above us, some of them mapping out the fire’s location and some dropping smaller loads of water onto targeted areas.
I catch myself spending too long looking up at the sky and refocus.
It’d be so easy to get overwhelmed with everything going on, the only thing I can do is to just watch my feet, make sure I don’t fall down, and keep clearing the path ahead.
I check to my left and see Ryan clearing a cluster of vegetation. “Go a little deeper,” I correct him as he digs. He tries again and I nod as he gets the plant out at the roots.
If we can get a line cut that surrounds the fire, then a mixture of water drops and the weather should calm things down. After that the mop up crews will go in and make sure every ember gets snuffed.
My lungs burn as we keep moving, my chest howling for me to take a break, but I can’t. I can start to hear the crackle of flames and I just have to hope that it’s the crew in front of us, and not the fire we’re trying to outrun.
“Masks on!” Mack yells as the air starts to get thicker. I slide mine over my face and see Ryan doing the same, he gets connected the way I showed him back at the station. No fumbling this time.
We keep moving, trying to make it to the half mile mark.
I don’t know how long we trek for. I’m lost in the sweat trickling into my eyes and the whir of my chainsaw.
A truck whizzes past us at one point, bumping across the uneven terrain as it navigates the trail back down to camp.
I catch the eye of one of the firefighters and shit, she looks like hell.
Soot covers her face and her eyes are glassy.
They must have come from somewhere closer to the blaze; all of them are slumped in exhaustion.
It must be bad in there.
I check behind us and the fire line looks clean, nothing obvious that could act as fuel.
We’re doing a good job. I take a second to shake out my arms, my fingers not wanting to unfurl after they’ve been wrapped around the chainsaw all day.
I flex them the same way I’ve seen Freya doing after she’s been knitting a while.
The stretch helps to release some of the tension.
Another plane flies low over our heads and I almost want to duck.
I have to shake myself out of the fog I’m slipping into as I keep going.
I think about that kiss as I force my feet to keep moving.
The look in her eyes, the way she trusted me, it was better than anything I’ve felt.
Having my hands on her, my lips. I could get addicted to the sensation of Freya Malcolm.
Maybe it was a mistake to kiss her right before leaving, because all it means is that I’ve been going crazy up here having to wait for another chance to do it again.
“How much further?” Justin asks, his voice muffled by his mask.
“Just a little more,” Mack answers. “If you shut up for a second, you’ll be able to hear it.”
I switch my chainsaw off for a moment and he’s right. I hear the sound of another crew just a hundred feet or so away. I let myself have a second to squeeze my eyes shut, relief flooding my system.
I’m going to sleep for a week once this is over.