Crucible of Fire by Mel Odom

Author:Mel Odom [Odom, Mel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Supernatural Thriller, Fiction
Published: 2013-07-30T00:00:00+00:00

7

Inside the garage, Matt looked at the two vehicles housed there. One was a newer-looking midsized sedan. The other was a king cab Ford pickup with two four-wheelers in the back. The kids stood next to the pickup.

“Do you know where the keys are?” Matt asked.

She pointed at the pickup. “Daddy keeps them behind the sun visor.”

“What about keys for the car?”

“Mommy has those in her purse.”

Matt tried to remember everything in the living room. He didn’t remember seeing a purse, and he didn’t want to go back inside the house. He opened the pickup door, tipped down the visor, and caught the keys when they spilled down into his hands. There were three key rings. Two of them were to the four-wheelers.

“Okay, let’s take the truck.”

Matt strapped the girl and the boy into the pickup’s backseat, then dropped his gear into the pickup bed and clambered behind the wheel. He turned the key, listened to the engine turn over slowly for a moment as the wildfire coasted closer and closer, then breathed a sigh of relief when the pickup roared to life.

At the same moment, the wind shifted and the whole top of the hill seemed to ignite. Flames raced around the cul-de-sac, heading for the house and the garage.

Slipping the transmission into gear, Matt let off on the clutch and shot out of the garage. He stayed on the manicured yards, roaring past the houses, stopping at the first one, where he’d freed the dog. Setting the emergency brake, he slipped the transmission into neutral and jumped out. He sprinted over to the porch and picked up the chainsaw, knowing he was going to need it again before the night was over.

A shadow rushed at him out of the darkness, and he wheeled to meet it. At the last minute, he recognized the dog, panicked and frenzied. Unwilling to try to pick the animal up until he absolutely was forced to, Matt lowered the pickup’s tailgate. The dog leapt up into the pickup bed, shivered, sneezed, and wagged his tail.

“Good boy.” Matt petted the dog on the head when it came over to him, endured it licking the side of his face as he closed the tailgate again, and raced for the truck cab. Behind him, the wildfire surrounded the kids’ house, swarmed up it, and started devouring the structure.

Matt stabbed the transmission back into gear and let off the clutch once more. They roared down the blacktop.

“Mister,” the little girl called from the back.

Matt looked at her in the rearview mirror. She had her arms wrapped around her little brother. “Yeah?”

“Are Daddy and Mommy dead?”

God, I hope so! Matt didn’t know what to tell her for a moment, then decided the truth was the best way. Kids generally knew when they were being lied to about something big. “I think so.”

“Okay.” The girl seemed happy about that and snuggled down in the seat with her brother, wrapping them both in a blanket she’d found back there.

Matt drove,

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