Buzz slammed the door in his face and sprinted toward the airport office.
The news from the front lines wasn’t good. The winds were fanning the flames and driving the fire south at a devastating speed. The fire was burning out of control, consuming everything in its path like a voracious, bloodthirsty beast. It had consumed over ten thousand acres in two days. With no rain in the forecast—and another front grinding down from the north—there was no relief in sight.
Buzz spread the map out on the makeshift table and cradled the cell phone to his ear. “How far is the front line from Woody Creek?” he asked the firefighter on the other end of the line.
“The leading edge is parallel to Woody Creek and runs east for about twenty miles.”
Cold fear compressed his chest. “That’s impossible. I was just there yesterday afternoon.”
“The winds are pumping this fire along at an incredible speed. We’re probably going to have to let this one burn itself out or else wait for rain.”
Sick with fear, Buzz hung up the phone. He couldn’t believe things had gotten so serious in just a few short hours. Last night the fire had been under control. If what the firefighter had said was true, that meant Kelly was less than a mile from the front line. A fire like that could eat up a mile of dry timber in a very short period of time.
“Any place you can think of where we can go in and set a chopper down?” he asked the park ranger standing across from him.
The park ranger was a young man with a crew cut and shoulders like oversized hams. “Negative. You know as well as I do the only way to make an extraction at this point is a swoop and scoop. Anything else would be insane in these winds.”
Buzz cursed. The fear pressing down on him turned cold and ugly and thrashed inside him like a dangerous, wounded animal.
“There’s a woman stranded not far from Woody Creek. I need to get her out.”
“Firefighters aren’t going to want a bunch of yahoos going in there. They don’t have the manpower to pull together a rescue if some hero gets into trouble.”
Buzz glared at him. “I don’t have any yahoos working for me, and I don’t necessarily give a rat’s ass what the firefighters want or don’t want. I’m going in. You got that?”
The ranger’s eyes skittered down to the map. “Ranger station not far from there has an ATV.”
Buzz’s interest piqued at the mention of an ATV. “Can you drive me over there?”
“Sure. They’re about to evacuate, so I’ll call ahead. They can fuel her up and have her waiting.”
Buzz started toward the door.
Chapter 16
K elly couldn’t believe the rescue chopper had nearly crashed right before her eyes. She couldn’t get the image of the monstrous craft hovering, then shuddering and spinning wildly out of control from her mind. In those unbearably long moments, her heart had simply stopped because she felt certain her little boy and the only man she’d ever loved were going to die right in front of her.
Unable to tear her eyes away, she’d dropped to her knees, screaming words she couldn’t even recall, and watched the horrific scene unfold, certain God was going to take them away from her the same way He’d taken her father and brother.
She’d been giddy with relief when the chopper stabilized and gained altitude, laughing like a mad woman until tears streamed down her face. Even as the chopper had disappeared from view it didn’t cross her mind that she was being left behind. All she could do was thank God they hadn’t crashed, that no one had been hurt. That no one had died. She hadn’t had time to worry about her own predicament.
Until now.
She’d been waiting at the pick-up point for more than an hour. She knew Buzz would return for her. She had enough common sense to know her chances of being found were much higher if she stayed put. But as the minutes ticked by, and the smoke around her thickened, she knew staying wasn’t going to be an option much longer.
Kelly didn’t want to believe she’d run out of time. She could tell by the amount of ash falling from the leaden sky that the fire was close. Forest fires could travel at an amazing speed during the dry season. Dry wood and grass and brush went up like tinder, when the humidity was low and the winds were fanning the flames. She remembered her father telling stories about the fires outrunning deer and cougar.
She couldn’t believe that just a few short hours ago, the sky had been clear and she’d been within minutes of rescue. Looking at the same sky now, it seemed as if a storm had sprung straight from hell and was barreling down from the north to crush her with its black, oppressive weight.