Fishing In Fire by Trent Reedy

Author:Trent Reedy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Norton Young Readers
Published: 2023-01-13T19:23:09+00:00

CHAPTER 9

“I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining. For real,” said Kelton. He pulled the bottom of his T-shirt up to wipe his sweaty face. Walking on the hard hot pavement in the late afternoon August heat, coupled with the smoke hovering thicker and thicker in the air, punished all of them. “And I know the short answer is basically ‘really far,’ but how far are we going? What’s our plan here? I know eventually this road curves way around the mountains and heads south again.”

“He has a point,” Annette said. Of course, the most important consideration, at first, was to simply get away from the fire. Who cared about a plan when it was a desperate question of survival? It was still a desperate question of survival. “Obviously we need to keep moving, but it’s not like we can walk all the way north to Coeur D’Alene or something.”

“There’s going to be a bus,” Swann said.

“What are you talking about?” Hunter licked his lips, then took a long pull from his drinking tube.

“We’re going to find a bus,” Swann said. “A real nice one. With a fridge inside it packed with ice water and soda.”

“And air-conditioning,” Annette added. To get out of this heat, even for a few minutes. To be able to rest without the constant twist of fear deep inside her, to relax and let others take care of everything. “Kelton’s right to ask. Where does this end? How do we get out of this?”

Hunter stopped. He leaned over, exhausted, with his hands on his knees. He made a little whimper sound, almost like he was crying. Was he about to collapse?

Without thinking, Annette put her arm over his shoulders. “Hey, you’re OK.”

“No, I’m not,” Hunter said quietly. “We’re not. And however we get out of this, it’s not this way.” He pointed to the north.

Annette’s legs nearly gave out. She wanted to drop to the pavement in despair. “Oh no.” This couldn’t be real. Up ahead, another thick column of dark smoke rose into the sky. “It’s not . . . maybe it’s just a cloud.” She turned around on the road, saw the smoke to the south, and spun back to the north. More smoke. Mountains to the east and west.

“We’re trapped?” Swann whispered. “Are we trapped? I mean, what do we do? Where do we go?”

“It’s OK,” Kelton tried to reassure her. “We’ll be all right.”

Annette watched the smoke in the north. Standing in the blindingly bright sunlight, it was hard to tell, but she could have sworn she saw a flash, a spark. And above a line of trees, an orange glow. “Is that . . . Look—” Annette pointed toward the glow. “Is that fire? Right there with those trees on that ridge?”

Swann did a kind of stutter step, like she wanted to run, but didn’t know which direction. “What do we do?” There was panic in her voice, a loss of control Annette had never witnessed in her before. This was ultra-cool Swann Siddiq.

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