A/N: Remember that this is a story being told/revealed from shifting character POV's so while the prior chapter ended at midnight for Jack…this one actually takes place on the same day as the prior two chapters' events only this is from Danny and Martin's perspective---confused? Don't be.
Medley:
Chapter 8:
Hello:
Playground school bell rings again
Rain clouds come to play again
Has no one told you she's not breathing?
Someone to talk to hello
If I smile and don't believe
Soon I know I'll wake from this dream
Don't try to fix me I'm not broken
Hello I'm the lie living for you so you can hide
Don't cry
Suddenly I know I'm not sleeping
Hello I'm still here
All that's left of yesterday
Evanescence: Fallen, 2003
The next morning when Danny roused himself from his sleeping bag he was feeling more than a little uncomfortable after having slept the night on the ground inside their two-man tent on the side of the mountain. Noting that Martin was still burrowed inside his sleeping bag Danny rolled his up and exited the tent and, after doing his part to ensure there was nothing smoldering under the ashes and completing a quick wash up which consisted of throwing water on his face where there were buckets of water set for just such a purpose, he returned to the tent finding his normally energetic partner slowly dragging himself from his sleeping bag.
"Hey, sleeping beauty," Danny teased, "It is well past time to be up and about, the sun is thinking about showing itself in probably the next, oh, half an hour, we have a fabulously ashy landscape spread before us and we're looking at another day of trudging about on this scorched, cold and deathlike mountain before we get to hitch a bumpy, spine rearranging ride back down to Base Camp where we can enjoy a three minute shower and all the canned SPAM in the world, so rise and shine, amigo."
"You're way too happy, bro. Who put jet fuel in your coffee?" Martin said as he slowly rolled up his sleeping bag.
"Come on, man. We're almost done and that means back to civilization, back to New York and—"
"Yeah, back to New York." Martin muttered as he tied off his bag and helped Danny disassemble the tent.
"Martin, seriously, are you even getting any sleep?" Danny noticed that not only did Martin's eyes look bloodshot but his voice was a bit raspy which it usually got when he was really tired.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I'll be right back." Martin headed off to take care of his personal needs and, when he returned, he found Danny waiting for him with two plates of food and a couple bottles of water.
"Come on, you can't say I don't treat my dates right, I even got you breakfast." Danny waggled his eyebrows at Martin and was happy when he got a grin and a chuckle in return. Martin sat down next to him and the two men dug into their breakfast of ham and cheese sandwiches on thick bread.
After a few minutes of eating in quiet and watching the rest of the camp slowly begin to pack up, Danny looked over and saw Martin thoughtfully staring at the terrain around them.
"I'll give you a peso for your thoughts, I'm sure I've got one here somewhere." Danny teased pretending to pat his pockets for said item.
"Okay, okay. I'm using this trip to try and get some things straight in my head and in my heart and I—I'm just trying resolve myself to some things." Martin offered.
"Like what?"
"Like it's time I stopped living as if I were dead."
Danny sat quietly letting his friend gather his thoughts.
"This may surprise you, Danny, but sometimes I need a map drawn or to be hit upside the head or have the metaphorical piano fall on my head before I finally see the obvious." Martin sat still and waited knowingly and willingly giving Danny a wide open door.
"Really? You don't say. I hadn't noticed. Wow, I never would have guessed that about---"
"All right, all right smart-aleck." Martin glared at Danny who pasted a innocent looking smile on his face and stared right back. As Danny looked at Martin he noted a calmness that was showing through the obvious exhaustion.
"So, who dropped a piano on your head, did it leave a bump?" He reached over and started to poke Martin's head only to have his hand swatted away.
"Keep your paws to yourself, Taylor. Geez, just 'cause I've willingly shared sleeping accommodations with you for the last two nights and you're missing Elena doesn't mean you get to get all fresh with me. It's going to take more than a couple nights at this smoky, hazy resort and a ham sandwich before I give in so easy."
Danny sighed deeply and feigned injury to his pride before he settled down and gave Martin time to begin speaking again.
"No, this, all this," Martin indicated the devastation around them. "Between Putnam's and Christian's comments yesterday about all this being nature's way of rejuvenating the land and that while it all seemed lost now, give it a few years and it will come back more beautiful and alive than ever before, well, maybe I'm starting to think some things out and make some decisions."
When Martin paused Danny let the silence stretch for a few moments before he leaned against Martin nudging him with his shoulder and prompting, "And?"
"And it's been over two years since Sam and I broke up, and while she helped me along with you through my addiction and got me to get my head out of my ass and I'll never be able to repay her, or you for that matter—" Danny just nodded thoughtfully and Martin continued, "Maybe it's time to move on. It's obvious she's moved on, at least to other men and it's also obvious that her heart is and always will be tied to Jack but that doesn't mean I need to continue to allow mine to be tied to her—I don't know, maybe I—maybe I'm just trying to get it straight in my head and in my heart. I just don't know."
Danny stayed silent after Martin had finished speaking. He felt bad for both Sam and for Martin. He used to tease Martin for his crush on Sam when he first joined the team but truth be told, once he'd gotten to know Martin a bit, he realized this was a great guy and someone Sam could and would be safe with.
Unfortunately Sam had pretty willingly sunk that relationship and while he didn't truly know everything between them he would admit that he was pretty frustrated with her constant infatuation with Jack which now, in light of this new knowledge of their affair – jeez, some trained agent he was, how the hell had he missed that, it did explain her constant close proximity to Jack in any room, her subtle shift in voice when she talked to him or about him.
He also felt bad for Martin knowing how much his friend really did love Sam and now knowing that she not only had ruined her and Martin's relationship but now even two years after they broke up and, according to Martin, well over five years after her affair with Jack she'd asked Jack to be her Lamaze coach, well, he felt a surge of defensiveness on Martin's behalf, the man didn't deserve to be treated like crap.
"Well, man, while I know I teased you about Sam when you first came on board, I really was rooting for you to make it, but in light of what you've told me, maybe it's best you move on. You really do deserve happiness and, if moving on is going to help you find some happiness--" Danny left the comment hanging trying to gauge Martin's resolve.
"Yeah, well, I just don't know. I guess I'm trying the idea out loud to see how it sounds somewhere else than just inside my head."
Danny nodded in understanding and then in contemplative silence the two men finished their breakfast, rose, gathered their gear and headed towards the group that was just starting to collect in order to move further up the mountain.
By mid-afternoon Danny and Martin and the survey team had managed to wind their way slowly through the scorched earth. Along the way they stopped to clear out some snags and areas where smoldering was a possibility. The two agents used the opportunity to question as many of the other members of the hand crew as possible trying to pick up tidbits on the survey team, Braxton, as well their thoughts on why this fire had started.
Danny was examining an area of burned earth along with Zak Christian when suddenly he noticed the scorching of the earth seemed more extreme than other areas. Digging deeper into the earth he realized his initial thoughts appeared correct, having spent a fair bit of time the day before with other members of the survey team and peppering them with questions he knew enough of what he was looking at to know that, when the fire had burned this area, it had burned extremely hot.
"Martin," Danny called across the slope to his partner who was similarly examining the earth while chatting up another member of the mop up crew. Martin nodded to the team member he had been talking with and made his way across the rocky, stumpy, and tree strewn wasteland.
"What's up?"
"Look at this ground, tell me what you see." Danny pointed to the spot he had recently dug in and waited while Martin squatted down dug into it and looked closely. When he stood back up he noted Zak Christian making his way over, curious as to what had interested the two agents.
"Looks like this area was scorched deeply," Martin stated as Christian came into proximity.
Christian hadn't yet reached that section as he had been intrigued by some burned areas just below it but now hearing Martin's comment he knelt down and dug into the ashy, burned residue. Checking the depth of the soil and inserting some of his instruments into the ground he took measurements, collected samples and then quietly walked around the area for over 20 minutes, stopping periodically to dig, jot some notes in his pocket notepad, insert another instrument into the ground that recorded what, neither Martin or Danny knew, but they watched as the man did his job.
After he was done Zak came back over to them, "I'd say based on what I'm seeing right here that this is the point of origin for this fire."
"How is that possible," Martin asked, "There's burned terrain below this and this fire is moving up hill, how did it start burning here, go down the slope and then double back on itself and go back up the hill, wouldn't it die once it got to this area where all the fuel was already consumed?"
"That's correct it would, the area we were in yesterday we burned ourselves to ensure the fire didn't go back down the hill, it's a method called backburn. Once we recognized we had a fire on our hands we set that area on fire and backed it into this area to keep it from speaking down slope, this is where the fire started."
"Well, if you lit a fire below this and it burned up into this area, wouldn't this area naturally be overly hot because the two fires converged?" Danny asked.
"Not at all, in order for that to happen the fire would have had to stay in this spot, in essence waiting for the backburn to join up with it and fire doesn't do that no, by the time the fire we lit got to this area, the main fire had already moved up the slope, and truthfully, our backburn probably met this fire somewhere below us but it had no where to go once an area devoid of any fuels met another area equally devoid of fuels, once they joined together they burned out.
It's a control method and since this area burned itself out instead of being subjected to normal suppression efforts we can see that this is the point of origin. Also, I was noting the area at the other end of this section and there's a pattern. It's fairly neatly defined, in fact, it's unnaturally defined." Zak paused letting his words hang to see if the two agents caught his meaning; watching them he noted that they did.
"You mean it was deliberately defined." Danny voiced.
"That's exactly what I mean." Zak confirmed. "I've got to alert Chad to this, you guys stay here and I'll head up and tell him and bring him back down, okay?"
"No problem," Martin replied. "We'll take some photos for you and we'll guard the site, this is a crime scene."
"All right. I'll be back in about 20 minutes or so."
Zak set out straight up the hillside, clambering over felled trees and strewn branches leaving Danny to use his cell phone to snap photos of the site with its remaining batteries while Martin pulled his out preparing to call Jack. He hadn't the opportunity to dial when it started to ring and he noted somewhat bemused that it was Jack himself calling in, the connection wasn't great but he was able to hear him.
"Jack, Danny and I've discovered what appears to be a case of arson for this fire, and fairly sophisticated arson, this wasn't done by someone leaving a campfire unattended or dropping a match, this was planned."
Martin held his phone out so Danny could hear on the speaker setting and through some of the static and interference Jack's voice came through.
"I'll notify the local field office. They should get a team out there and probably bring in the ATF as well. In light of the news I have for you, I'm not surprised to hear this. We found David Braxton. He's alive and well and here in the city."
Martin and Danny exchanged looks that mirrored relief, it was always nice to have a case end positively.
"The threats we found were the cause. The man who was orchestrating the out of control burns was threatening Braxton and when that didn't get Braxton to back off his investigation but rather caused him to step it up, he kidnapped him."
"So, who was the mystery kidnapper?" Danny asked. "I don't like anyone on his team for it."
"Well, that's the part that we didn't know about," Jack continued, his voice suddenly coming in loud and clear. "Jeff Pierce is a member of Braxton's normal survey group, he doesn't show up on the manpower manifest simply because he's a freelance contractor and Braxton brings him on personally. Seems he had been trying to get Braxton to stop his investigation into the fires and when that didn't work, he took a more aggressive approach."
"Did Braxton have any ideas where this Jeff Pierce is right now?" Martin asked.
Jack's voice was obscured by a blast of static and then came back in faint but discernible, "--update the Utah office and get a team of agents out to you as soon as possible."
"We'll coordinate with them. I'm going to try to send you some pictures since I still have a little bit of juice left; they should get there soon." Danny stated.
"You two be careful; should be able to get you out of there in another day or so. We still don't know who is behind the fires or why." With that Jack disconnected.
Danny used the remaining power in his phone to transmit the images of the burn site; he hoped they'd get through. Until he got somewhere he could recharge his phone, it was just extra weight. Martin used the remaining power on his phone to snap some additional photos and as his batteries died he managed to send them to the office as well. With both their phones out of juice it was good they'd be getting out of here soon.
Standing there for a minute or so both agents noted the complete silence, similar to what they'd experienced before; this time however it was compounded by the fact that they were alone since the survey team had been moving steadily upward. A shift in the wind raised the ash and twirled it around in little dust devils at their feet that skipped and danced their way down the hill.
Neither Martin nor Danny paid attention to the fact that the wind had shifted until another moderate gust came down the upslope and brought with it more ash, some charred bits as well as settling a fine layer of smoke across the area. The arrival of the smoke and the immediate reminder it brought as well as a small bit of coughing on both men's part was followed instantly by the arrival of a man bearing the patch on his jacket of USGS survey team. He spotted the two agents and ran up to them clearly happy at finding them.
"Putnam sent me down to bring you two and Zak up. We're bumping up, the fire has started to loop around a bit and they need us to move up and help them contain the north line."
"Well, Zak just left us a few minutes ago to talk to Putnam." Danny replied giving the man a quick once over. He'd seen the guy with the group at dinner last night as well as on the trek up this morning but had yet to talk to him as he and Putnam were always deep in conversation.
"I know, I passed him on my way down. I told him I'd get you two. Our team just got orders to bump up the line to the north. Seems the fire has started to curve around that way and we've been called up to supplement that portion of the containment. There's no time to take you back down the mountain and no one wants you further in harm's way so I'm to take you to the south a bit. We've got a strong line of containment that way as well as several spike camps with a bit of an easier route to get you all back to Base camp. Follow me and I'll guide you out."
Martin and Danny hesitated only slightly, again a rush of air rolled down the mountain bringing a heavier cloud of smoke, ash and charred materials and even some slightly red embers still burning, since they would be landing on scorched earth there wasn't much reason for worry but the affect was immediate, the two agents quickly reached down, slung their packs on their backs and set off after the man who was leading them at an angle up the mountain.
After about ten minutes of climbing the trio entered an area that was completely untouched by the fire. The change was shocking, after two days of nothing but ash covered landscape that was occasionally darkened by blackened hulks of trees the color was almost an assault on the men's eyes. In some manner the going got easier since they didn't have to pick their way around trees that were blasted down in the fury of the fire or concern themselves with stepping into possible depressions that contained smoldering tree trunks hidden under the ash. On the other hand, since the wind was still coming down on them, the smoke was getting thicker obscuring their vision and causing them to experience a greater difficulty with their breathing.
As if sensing Martin and Danny's uneasiness their guide turned around and motioned for them to come closer. With their shrouds tight over their heads, necks and faces plus the wind blowing through the trees it was hard to hear their guide.
"Keep going straight on this angle. I'm going to check behind us since the wind seems to have shifted a bit more in the last few minutes. I want to make sure that above us is clear or else I'm going to start angling us back down and there's a better vantage point behind to look."
Martin and Danny quickly followed the direction their guide had been taking them and came around the rocky outcropping that had been obscuring their view up the mountain. Both men stopped dead in their tracks at the sight that met them. The canopy made by the tree limbs was ablaze with tongues of orange and red devouring the fuel. The sky was all but obliterated by the cloud of smoke; the roaring sound of the fire devouring trees above them filled their ears deafening them.
Both men quickly looked behind them but all they saw was smoke and through it flickers of red and they knew instantly that their path up and back was blocked, going forward would only allow the fire to catch them sooner leaving down the best way to get to safety, but now that they were in an unburned section safety was a long way off.
Martin, remembering some of the markers on the map he had studied grabbed Danny and pulled as he plunged downward, if memory served there was another rocky section just below and if they made it around that formation there was a small clearing where some logging had occurred a few years ago leaving them with minimal overhead hazards. If they could make it there, they could deploy their shelters.
The two men ran as fast as they dared with Danny checking constantly behind them on the progress of the fire. Remember the safety instructions that Putnam had ingrained in them he grabbed Martin halting his flight and when Martin looked at him Danny quickly shed his pack, grabbed his shelter and nodded sharply at Martin to do the same. In another moment the two men were lighter and moving faster, both had shed their goggles as well as their hard plastic helmets remember those items would likely melt in the temperatures they were about to endure.
In another short burst of speed they came upon the site Martin remembered. Ducking around the rocks they positioned themselves on the downward side of the protective barrier and quickly deployed their shelters. Climbing inside Danny's eyes quickly found Martin's; the two men exchanged a quick message and then they both closed themselves inside to wait whatever hand fate chose to deal them.
As Martin positioned himself in the containment face burrowed into the bottom of the shelter, hands and feet anchoring the material to the ground his thoughts whirled in a myriad of emotions and patterns. The roaring around the shelter increased until it sounded as if a freight train was running overhead, the heat inside the shelter rose and he felt his body respond and the sweat begin to pour off him. Idly he wondered if he'd end up lighting himself on fire as he and Danny continued to wear their service pistols under their gear but then remembered the flash point of gunpowder.
Hell, he thought somewhat ludicrously, we'll boil to death before our own guns explode on us, wonder which way is faster.
Dismissing that less than comforting thought from his mind, Martin latched instead onto the next thought that flashed through his brain, Sam. Realizing at this very moment, the moment of impending death he wanted more than ever to live and to live like he was alive.
My Last Breath:
Holding my last breath
Safe inside myself
Are all my thoughts of you
Sweet raptured light
It ends here tonight
Closing your eyes to disappear
You pray your dreams will leave you here
But still you wake and know the truth
No one's there
Say goodnight
Don't be afraid
Calling me calling me as you fade to black
Evanescence: Fallen, 2003
