Jumping Feet First by Melissa Stevens

Author:Melissa Stevens [Stevens, Melissa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-05-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

James drove carefully, aware the conditions had probably changed on the road. It didn’t take as long as he’d feared to make it out to the highway, surprisingly while there were fallen trees and debris on the road, nothing badly enough he couldn’t get around it. When he reached the highway, he took a deep breath and pushed the truck faster. He was relatively sure they would have cleared the highway first, and wouldn’t have called him back if they knew the road wasn’t clear.

Nearly an hour after James left Ally’s little ranch, he pulled into the parking lot at the high school.

“There you are,” his commander said as he came in the door. “Glad to see you survived your captivity. We could have used you.”

“Sorry, sir. When I left, there was no sign the wind would change.”

“I’m not blaming you, just making a statement.”

“Still, I feel bad I wasn’t there.”

“Oh, you were there, right in the middle of it. Just not the way we’d like.”

“It’s one thing I’d never like to repeat.” He took a deep breath to buy a little time before he continued. “It’s a lot different to sit and wait, to have nothing you can do to fight, to stop to perhaps change what’s happening. It’s a lot harder than I’d imagined.”

“I’ve not had occasion to have to sit somewhere and have to wait out a fire, but I’ve heard similar from others who’ve had to wait one out. It’s easier to manage when you have something to keep you busy, something to think about. Sitting somewhere waiting, especially if you are used to dealing with dangerous situation, not sitting and waiting for them to pass.”

James gave him a chuckle. “I bet. They said you need me?”

“How rested are you after your night in the wild?”

“Not exactly in the wild, we were holed up in a barn it the middle of a meadow, but I’m as rested as after a shift on the cot here.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah. It wasn’t a bad night. The fire came in about three a.m. and woke us. That was unnerving, but we made it.”

“We need to double check all the units and status, I’ll add you to one of the units heading out to relieve them.”

“Sounds good.” James checked his watch. “Shift change heads out when? About an hour?”

The commander checked the time. “About then, yes.”

“Good, I’ve got enough time to grab a shower and something to eat, but I’ll have to hurry.” He headed for the classroom where he’d left his gear to grab clean clothes, then to the locker room where the guys had been showering. In some ways, a high school was a great place for an emergency shelter. It had showers, a cafeteria for feeding everyone and the large space to gather everyone in the gym, even if sometimes the food was served to one side and the gym was used as a cafeteria. That was more common in the rural areas, but still workable. They just set up tables for eating on one side of the room and organized the fighting operations on the other.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.