Fire in the Night
Dinner that night was about the same as usual, Tommy and Maria had cooked the handful of dishes they usually prepared. During dinner Tommy and Joel were quiet the first ten minutes satisfying their hunger. Maria only spoke when Tommy or Joel addressed her, otherwise she was silent. After Joel and Tommy had eaten enough food and finished their first pint of beer they finally began to speak.
"It's a shame all of the deer meat had to be wasted" Tommy lamented.
"Yea I know, but when something like that happens, you have to be wary, could be hunters lacing the meat with poison" Joel agreed.
"So did all of you ever figure out what caused them to come so close to our town and die?" Ellie asked curiously.
"Nope, that too is a mystery" Tommy shook his head.
"They didn't seem to have any man made type of injuries" Joel commented.
"I must say though, it really looked like something scared the living shit out of them" Tommy added.
"Yea you would of thought they saw a ghost" Joel laughed. That comment drew Maria's and Ellie's attention.
"Around this place you never know…" Maria remarked clearing her throat.
"Oh…Speaking of which…an ax fell on a horse's leg at the stables this morning" Ellie mentioned.
"Sounds like they need to find another place to put their axes" Joel said finishing his meal.
"Actually, the ax wasn't hanging in the stall. Someone obviously has a disgusting sense of humor" Maria chided in.
"Wait a minute, I thought you said it fell on the horse's leg" Ellie asked a bit confused.
"It did fall on the horse's leg, I'm just implying that the ax had a little help" Maria explained.
"So someone had to have done it late last night?" Ellie asked.
"Obviously" Maria answered bluntly.
"Do y'all have any idea who done it?" Joel raised an eyebrow.
Maria took a sip of her hot tea and looked up shaking her head no.
"Where are the axes normally kept?" Joel asked with interest.
"We have a separate area at the end where we keep all of our grooming supplies and various tools" Maria replied continuing to sip her tea.
"Yea, she told me earlier there wasn't any sign of forced entry or otherwise" Tommy added.
"It doesn't make sense to just injure one horse's leg" Joel remarked.
"Too many strange things happening lately, first the deer and this" Tommy agreed.
"I think it may just be someone's idea of a sick joke" Maria commented.
"If it is a joke that's one twisted son of a bitch" Joel nodded finishing his last beer.
"We'll just have to keep our eyes peeled for anything suspicious" Tommy nodded.
Ellie got up and began clearing the table.
"Don't worry about it, I can get it" Maria waved Ellie away.
"Are you sure?" Ellie offered her help again.
"I'm sure" Maria said holding an arm full of empty plates disappearing into the kitchen.
"Don't pay her any mind, I'll help her" Tommy winked.
"Tommy, what happened to the gypsies that used to live here?" Ellie finally asked in a low voice when Maria left the room.
"They were coerced into leaving" Tommy answered quietly.
"Was it because of what they were doing? What was the real reason?" Ellie asked.
Tommy looked toward the kitchen. "I'll tell you another time ok?"
"Yea baby girl, I think we'd better call it a night" Joel shook his head as he got up while Tommy began helping Maria finish clearing the rest of the table.
"Ok" Ellie shrugged with some frustration.
It was a little chillier than usual as they walked outside. Ellie couldn't help but feeling more than a bit frustrated with Maria. Joel picked up quickly on the tension at the dinner table earlier but didn't say anything. He and Tommy were aware of the strange happenings, but thought not much more of them.
"Go easy on Maria, I don't quite think she's made of as tough of stuff as you are" Joel spoke up.
"It's just frustrating…" Ellie shrugged helplessly.
"What is?" Joel asked lighting up a cigarette.
"It's just that Maria…I think she could shed more light on these happenings but…" Ellie was stopped in mid-sentence when Joel interrupted her.
"Wait a minute…smells like something burnin'" Joel began looking around suspiciously.
"Now that you mention it…" Ellie paused looking around.
"Down there!" Joel quickly pointed and took off running towards the source of the smoke.
"Oh no!" Ellie exclaimed not saying anymore dashing after Joel.
As they arrived parts of the house were going up in flames. Two men were already pumping water from the well through a hose to quell the flames as one of them kept calling out to someone.
"Becca! Becca!" one of the men kept repeating trying to douse the flames near the front door.
"Ellie!" Luke came up to Ellie shouting.
"Luke! Go ring the bell and alert the others!" Joel shouted. Luke nodded and ran off toward the bell.
The flames were blocking the door way and the two men were both manning the manual water pump connected with a hose. The water pressure was only slightly stronger than that of a garden hose, but it was the only water source they had. The fire responded with hissing and smoke.
"Ellie! My mom and baby sister are in there!" Timmy panicked running up to her.
"I'll get them, Ellie you just keep everyone calm out here!" Joel said scanning the house for an entry.
"What are you doing?" Ellie asked him.
"Just do as I say!" Joel shouted back as he ran around the house.
"Is that your dad Timmy?" Ellie asked him quickly as she watched Joel disappear behind the house.
"Yea…we gotta help them!" he said helplessly watching his dad and another man try to fight the blaze as one man pumped and the other launched the water to gain re-entry.
The bell in the center of the town started ringing out loudly, but people were already rushing to the fire to help with buckets of water and bags of sand. Ellie didn't waste another second, she darted off after Joel.
"He won't be able to get Timmy's mom and his baby sister without some help" Ellie thought.
Once she ran around the house, she spotted a window that was open but had intense heat and smoke coming out of it accompanied with a flickering flame. Ellie took off her jacket and covered her head and hands; then, she quickly climbed inside. It felt like a furnace as she entered and the house was filled with choking smoke. Luckily Ellie was still fairly short enough to just have to duck a little.
Joel had his coat wrapped around him as he crouched trying to avoid the smoke. The house fire was worse than it appeared on the outside as the crackling and hissing embers flew out from all around.
"I got to hurry up and find whoever else is in here before burning timbers start falling!" Joel thought as he was trying to look and listen through the smoke filled house. Finally Joel turned a corner in a smoked filled hallway where he saw a woman wearing a red house coat lying on the floor next to her bed with a crib in the corner of the room.
"Mam!" Joel called out to her as she lied there not responding.
The smoke began to get thicker as he bent down to scoop up the unconscious woman until he could hear the crying of a baby. Joel looked across the room to see a crib with a baby in it. Just as Joel was about to crouch over to the crib, a beam fell blocking his way.
"Oh shit!" Joel cursed trying to figure out how he was going to get both the baby and the mother out of the house safely.
"Dad!" Ellie shouted as she kept her nose and mouth covered with her jacket.
"Shit Ellie!" Joel panicked when he saw her at the doorway as the smoke was getting thicker.
"You didn't really think I was just going to stand around and do nothing?!" Ellie said incredulously.
"Fine! Can you get to the crib on the other side of the room?" Joel asked shouting.
"Leave it to me!" Ellie said almost crawling now. The beam was blocking the way as embers flew while it burned ferociously. The heat was becoming more than unbearable. The flame wasn't burning too high yet, so Ellie dashed and jumped over the flaming beam to the crib. The house snapped and cracked in response to the fire loudly.
"Hurry Ellie!" Joel yelled carrying the woman to the doorway watching Ellie with concern.
A very small baby lied crying barely moving its tiny hands and feet in response in the crib. Ellie quickly wrapped the baby in a shawl and took it out of its crib. The snapping and crackling became louder.
"Ellie!" Joel hollered as a loud crash sounded just down the hall.
"Go! I'm coming!" Ellie shouted back as she prepared to jump over the now higher flame on the beam.
She wrapped her coat around her face and blindly jumped over the now knee high flame. She could feel the instant heat almost singe her pants as she launched herself over and through the flame.
"This way!" Joel yelled as the ducked and crawled down the hall. Joel saw the way ahead was blocked by burning furniture and debris from the house beginning to buckle under the heat.
"Turn around! We can't go this way now!" Joel choked seeing what the crash was.
"Ok!" Ellis choked out trying to crawl, carry the baby, and breathe.
"There's—too—much—smoke!" Joel coughed.
"I think I see-a window ahead!" Ellie shouted back wheezing.
Another loud crashing sound alarmed them as they quickly began crawling forward as quickly as they could while carrying another person. The smoke was becoming worse by the second and the heat was beyond uncomfortable.
"Come this way!" a voice shouted out just ahead.
Joel and Ellie both quickly crawled as the sound of shattered glass and more cracking and snapping continued.
"Come on smash it open!" another voice cried out. Suddenly the shattering of a window and wall sounded.
"Come on Ellie!" Luke's voice shouted.
"Joel…just a few more feet!" Ellie said suddenly feeling her adrenaline spike.
"Don't worry about me—just keep going!" Joel choked out.
Finally Ellie was able to make it through a dark cloud of smoke and able to breathe the fresh cold evening air. It took a couple of moments for her to catch her breath. Ellie saw Timmy's father frantically go in behind her and help Joel with the unconscious woman. A few seconds later the trio emerged from the smoking house coughing and wheezing heavily. Finally a four by four truck arrived with a huge water tank and hose. Powerful blasts of water were used to douse the flames.
"Becca!" the grown man shouted.
"She's not breathing Joel!" Ellie shouted cradling the baby.
"Mom!" Timmy cried.
Joel checked her breathing as Tommy and Maria arrived on the scene.
"Get back" Maria said immediately administering CPR as everyone backed away to give Maria space. Maria applied some pressure and began breathing for the woman.
"We need oxygen now! Take her to the infirmary!" Maria shouted around.
The woman's husband and one of the community fire members carried her into their makeshift fire truck with Timmy tagging along. The fireman quickly took her on the other side of the Jackson settlement where they had a makeshift hospital set up. The flames on the house had been quelled leaving a smoldering smoke hanging around in the air with half of their house charred.
"What the hell started this fire!?" Maria demanded
"Honey, calm down, we won't know anything until we talk to the occupants of the house" Tommy reasoned.
"I can't! Not when we got so much stuff to deal with!" Maria said with much stress.
"Maria go home and get some rest, me and the guys will handle the rest" Tommy suggested.
"Yea Maria, we'll take care of this" Joel added.
"No, I'm going down to the infirmary and checking on that woman and tomorrow we're investigating the cause of this fire!" Marie answered sternly storming off.
"What's with her lately?" Joel whispered to his brother after she was out of earshot.
"I think it may have stemmed from what happened in the west side of the dam…she's been all strange and stuff since that incident" Tommy explained.
"She takes that stuff pretty personally doesn't she?" Joel asked.
"She's got her ways, what can I say?" Tommy shrugged.
"It's going to be a long night…" Joel ran a hand through his hair.
"Sir, we can take care of everything from here" a swarthy man walked up with salt and pepper hair.
"I sure hope everyone is ok…" Tommy took another survey of the area satisfied the fire had been put out.
"Joel, Tommy, we have another problem…" Ellie finally walked up to them with Luke.
Both Joel and Tommy saw Ellie holding a crying baby wrapped in a blanket in her arms.
"The baby?" Tommy said a bit confused as what to do.
"In the panic they forgot about the baby" Joel frowned.
"We got to get this baby to the infirmary to its mother" Ellie said carefully handling the baby.
"We're not going anywhere, you're going home and so are you Luke" Joel scolded.
"What are you talking about?! You couldn't have gotten both the woman and the baby out without my help!" Ellie retorted.
"It's a long walk across the compound Ellie" Joel said trying to discourage her.
"No dad, my mind is made up and Luke is going with me. I'll see you back at the house" Ellie said matter of fact walking away with Luke.
"She's a hard one to tame" Tommy remarked after Ellie and Luke walked away.
"Lucky for me…" Joel laughed a bit.
"How so?" Tommy asked a bit confused.
"If that was the case I'd be dead" Joel shook his head.
"I see…well it looks like we're no longer needed, let's go have a beer and wait for Maria and the others to get back" Tommy suggested letting the awkward moment pass.
"Suits me just fine" Joel nodded as they walked away.
XXXXXXXXXXX
The rest of the settlement had some of the people out and about seeing what all the commotion was while town deputies were urging them to return back to their homes telling them everything was fine. A plume of smoke was wafting over the town from the fire long after it was put out. Ellie was busy trying to keep the baby pacified while Luke was taking everything in as they walked. They continued for almost fifteen minutes without saying a word to each other.
"Does your father know where you're at?" Ellie finally spoke up.
"No" Luke answered looking around nervously.
"You're not going to get in trouble again are you?" Ellie said a little carelessly.
"No…but what do you mean again?" Luke asked not even looking at her as they walked.
"Well…um….it seems like you get in trouble all the time for everything, that's why" Ellie quickly responded.
"Oh…ok" Luke looked up at her then returned his gaze back to the ground.
"You know Luke, you've been acting kind of strange lately. You know you can tell me anything right?" Ellie suddenly replied.
"Why you say that?" Luke suddenly returned his gaze to Ellie as she returned her attention back to the baby.
"I don't know…you've been kind of distant lately" Ellie answered not really sure how to express it.
"Well Ellie to tell you the truth…I've been haunted with nightmares lately…" Luke shook his head seeing the infirmary ahead.
"About what?" Ellie asked curiously.
"That night, and…" Luke stopped again.
"Go on!" Ellie prompted as they stepped in front of the infirmary.
"I've had nightmares about that day in the west side and something horribly bad inside me doing horrible things and not having any control of what I do…" Luke said so quietly Ellie almost didn't hear him.
"What kind of bad things?" Ellie asked but was cut off from an answer as someone stepped outside for a cigarette.
"I'll tell you later…we'd better get this baby inside to its mother" Luke waved both of his hands.
"Yea! Sure!" Ellie said awkwardly as a thin woman dressed in a pair of jeans wearing a heavy sweater kept frustratingly trying to light a cigarette in the wind.
When they walked in, a despondent air seemed to be hanging over the place. A man and young teenage boy were crying in a corner.
"Hey that's Timmy" Luke whispered to Ellie.
The man saw them as they entered quickly getting up to approach them.
"Give me back my baby!" The man said ungratefully retreating to the back where some of the medical staff was.
"You're welcome…." Ellie replied sarcastically. Timmy got up from his seat in the makeshift waiting room and a sudden look of anger came over him.
"You better not tell any of the other boys about this! You hear me!" Timmy threatened Luke and Ellie.
"What's wrong!?" Ellie put her hands up in defense.
"Promise me!" Timmy said pointing with tears streaming down his face.
"Ok we promise!" Luke almost yelled back.
"I tried to save her but…it was too hot! My mother died" Timmy cried.
Luke and Ellie both opened their mouths in a shocked yet sorrowful response, but nothing came out. Neither of them could say anything that would make the pain any less but just stand there with sympathetic looks in their eyes. Ellie noticed a few bandages wrapped around Timmy from where he had been treated for burns. Even though Timmy was not one of Luke's favorite people, he still felt sorry for him.
"This is such bullshit!" a familiar voice shouted.
"Um…Luke, I think we should go" Ellie said grabbing his arm dragging him away.
"Where are you two going!?" Timmy asked accusingly.
"We're sorry for your loss Timmy…" Ellie shrugged as they stepped out.
Timmy just stood there looking at both of them resentfully.
"Why did you want to leave so suddenly?" Luke asked Ellie as they began jogging back towards their homes.
"That was my aunt and right now she sounds like she is on the warpath" Ellie said truthfully.
"Oh" Luke raised his eyebrows.
"So tell me about those nightmares" Ellie asked him again.
"Ellie stop" Luke said in a more serious tone.
"What is it?" Ellie asked as they stopped after they were out of site from the infirmary.
"I think I may have been directly or indirectly responsible for all of the strange events" Luke confessed.
"What!? How do figure that!?" Ellie regarded Luke a bit strangely.
"Each night I dreamed about the events the night before they happened from the perspective of the one who may or may not have done these horrible things" Luke sighed sadly.
"But they were only bad dreams, how can you accuse yourself of such things?" Ellie asked incredulously.
"I can't explain it, I've been feeling strange ever since that day and it frightens me, and I've slacked some on the report by the way…" Luke said sadly.
"Listen, you've got to tell me these things and that report is the least of my concerns" Ellie nodded.
"I'm sorry" Luke frowned.
"It's ok, you're my friend" Ellie said hugging him as he hugged her back.
"It's late, I'd better get home before my dad realizes I'm gone" Luke frowned again.
"I'll see you tomorrow, be careful ok?" Ellie reminded him.
"Ok" Luke half smiled and disappeared toward his house.
Ellie watched him disappear and then slowly returned home trying to digest everything Luke had just told her. She had no one to confide in with this problem.
"I've got to talk to Uncle Tommy without Aunt Maria present" Ellie whispered to herself trying to avoid talking directly to Maria about sensitive issues.
