There was no sign of the other Zullies, but that meant nothing. With the swirling smoke they could be feet away and they’d be lost. It seemed as if we weren’t making any damn headway, the line of fire closing in on us.
Another whoosh and a heavier boom vibrated the earth beneath us.
“What the hell was that?” Raptor threw out.
“Where are the backups? Where are the damn backups?” Denver screamed.
I backed away, trying to determine what the hell was going on, but unable to see anything but a goddamn wall of fire.
Feeling a presence, I barely glanced in Axe’s direction. “This isn’t good,” he gritted out.
“No, it’s not.” I sensed he had the full communication system switched off, allowing us privacy.
“Let’s get back to work.” Axe pulled me by the arm and we went back to what we were doing.
A horrific sound coming through the speaker was followed by a harsh scream.
“Jumper down. Jumper down.” The yell came from another smokejumper I’d yet to meet.
“Fuck. Pull back. We’re losing control.” Rock’s voice was clear.
His voice had started to crackle. The com systems could be compromised.
“This is nuts,” I snarled and stormed closer to the edge of the mountain. What I witnessed was perhaps one of the most horrifying things I’d seen to date. “Rock. What we’re doing isn’t effective.” While there was still a pathway, the fire was crowding in way too fast.
“Everyone, listen to me,” Rock barked, more out of breath than I’d heard him. “Stop all suppression activities. Head to the pre-identified safe zones. If you can’t get there right away, then leverage the black.”
Axe was right by my side and we stared at each other briefly. How the hell had the fire managed to get so out of hand? Leveraging the black was heading to an already blackened area.
“After that, utilize the escape routes.”
I glanced at Axe who shook his head.
We grabbed our gear, checking the map to ensure we knew where we were going. The wind continued to increase, rustling through the trees as if prepared for a raging thunderstorm, yet it never came.
The pathway would lead us to the safety zone, which was a full mile away. As we trudged through the forest, the sights and sounds became more ominous.
Wham.
Boom!
The constant noise of trees falling around us kept our feet moving. Another sound filtered off just up ahead. We stopped short as soon as we caught sight of a blanket of flames where there’d been nothing seconds before.
Embers continued to fall like shrapnel, covering everything, setting one fire after another.
We started jogging, still following the path.
Something triggered Axe. He threw his arm out.
“What?”
“Did you hear that?’
I stopped moving, even holding my breath as I listened for anything. I started to answer when a sound filtered in through the fog.
“That’s a dog. Jesus Christ. It sounds like a puppy. He’s barking.”
Fuck. Fuck! I turned in a full circle. There was too much at stake and nothing in my training had provided me with protocol on how to handle this shit.
