Alyx pushed the vehicle as fast as it would go. Behind her Garrett swallowed hard and closed his
eyes, thinking she was nuts. It was pitch dark with rough terrain and she was driving like it was
blacktop with no one else in sight. At first the ride was violent, tossing them back and forth on
the seat, then suddenly it smoothed and he felt brave enough to open his eyes. He almost regretted
it. He was quite sure they were going far faster than the ATV was ever designed to. As it happened,
he was right.
Alyx was pushing the engine far past its design and was holding it together with her mind. She was
also smoothing out the ride so that they wouldn't get thrown from the seat. At this point she'd
rather Garrett got stuck with hours of high level debriefing than to let the bombs go off. If she
had to show him every trick she was capable of and invent some more to stop this she would. "Why
are you here, Garrett?" she shouted over the noise of the motor and passing wind. "It's too
dangerous."
"Why are you going?" he shouted back.
"'Cause I have to try," she said.
"And I have to help."
What could she say to that? She pushed the vehicle all the harder, hoping that they would be in
time.
Darien and Bobby got all six men into the Humvee and slowly retraced the route to Station Fifteen.
Luckily the trail they had made was quite visible, but neither of them had the night vision Alyx
had so it was going to take a bit longer than either liked. After being forced to tape a few mouths
shut, including the leader's once he had come to, Hobbes tried to radio the station to get the
warning out as soon a possible. When he finally got through, he also had Ranger Patterson place a
call to the Agency for transport the hell out of there. By the time they arrived at the station
they were told that back-up was on the way and would meet them at the Visitor's Building. She
handed them a map to get them there. The route they'd used the previous day had been direct from
Three to Fifteen cross-country. The map she gave marked out a route using the park's roads. Using
the term road very loosely, that is. It would be dawn or even later before they arrived.
They gave Ranger Patterson a hand packing her personal items into her jeep. She was under orders to
get the hell out of there. If the bombs did go off, this station was so remote that rescuing her
would be difficult, so they had her evacuate.
Once they had her stuff loaded, Darien turned to his partner. "Hobbes, I want to go back."
"Are you nuts? It's probably too late already. We have to get out of here," Hobbes said.
"She's our partner. We can't just leave her," Darien argued.
"Garrett's with her, right?" Patterson asked.
"Yeah," Hobbes answered before Darien had a chance to.
"Then she's with the best possible person. He knows this park like no one else. He'll get them
out," Patterson said trying to reassure both men.
"But..." Darien began.
"Partner, we have a responsibility to get these men turned over to the authorities. No matter how
much I'd like to see them burn in their own fires." He glared a the men as they sat on the ground
next to the Humvee. "Alyx can take care of herself. She doesn't need you running into danger out of
some macho need to protect her."
Darien didn't want to hear this. "But..." He tried again.
"Your partner is right, Agent Fawkes, and the longer we stay here, the less chance there is that
we'll get out. We need to leave now," Ranger Patterson said.
Darien sighed and nodded. They were right and he knew it. That didn't mean he had to like it, or
that his emotions weren't telling him to do the complete opposite.
The three of them got the men back into the Humvee and, after a quick radio check, they got the
hell out of there. They reached the Visitor's Center an hour after dawn. By then it was too late
for anyone to do anything but try to survive.
Alyx slewed the ATV to a stop, its engine smoking she had pushed it so hard. Pulling out of
Garrett's hold, she ran over to where she could sense the electronics of the device. Garrett had
followed her and was standing just a few feet away. The bomb was designed to spray the burning
accelerant in an arc in one direction and Garrett was in the pathway of the spray.
Alyx had no time to stop it. As she tried to insert her mind into the timer to deactivate it, it
reached zero and went off. She screamed and hoped for a miracle. Falling backwards away from the
device she reached out with her mind to stop the gel like accelerant from going anywhere. At a yelp
of surprise from Garrett she sat up and looked. She had received her miracle. All around the area
were flaming bits of accelerant hanging in the air, including an impressive display hanging only
inches from Garrett's chest.
"Back away slowly," she said to him. "And watch that you don't bump any of them."
Garrett, his eyes rather large, nodded sharply and backed away cautiously from the flaming torch
hanging in the air before him. He made his way over to Alyx while she tried to figure out what to
do with the stuff before she was no longer able to hold it. She was already feeling the strain of
trying to hold dozens of flaming balls in the air.
"How are you doing that?" Garrett asked in an astonished whisper.
"Later," she managed.
She tried snuffing one by with drawing off the oxygen around it, but that didn't work. Apparently
the accelerant itself contained or gave off enough oxygen to keep itself burning until it was
completely used up. Standing, she walked over to one and, after quicksilvering her hand, tried
reducing the temperature of the gel. It worked, but took far longer to do than she had hoped. She
ended up with a lump of frozen gel that she dropped to the ground, thankful she no longer had to
hold it with her mind. She made her way around the area, snuffing them one by one. Some of the
smaller globules burned out before she got to them. Some fell to the ground still burning as she
grew tired trying to do too many things at once. She would rush to those and get them out as fast
as she could.
Garrett watched in amazement at what she was doing, not understanding most of it. The one thing he
did understand was that she had saved his life. If that accelerant had landed on him he would have
been engulfed in flames in moments, and even if she had managed to put them out, the burns would
have been more than enough to kill him. About half-way through putting out the balls of flame about
them, he noticed she was crying. Not loudly, not allowing it to distract her from what she was
doing, but the tears flowed freely down her face. By the time she was finished putting out the
fires, she was exhausted and folded to the ground. He rushed to her side to see if she was all
right.
"Too late," she said to him. "It's too late."
At first he wasn't sure what she was talking about then he felt it, the first breezes becoming
stronger moment by moment. The Santa Ana winds had arrived and somewhere out in the darkness five
other bombs had gone off, starting fires in a land parched from a year-long drought.
And they were on the wrong side of it. They would have to go through the fire in order to reach
safety, if any safety existed in what was coming.
Garrett helped Alyx to her feet. She was so tired her senses were swimming, but she knew they
didn't dare stay here. Already the tang of smoke was in the air, being blown by the swiftly
increasing wind. Going over to the ATV, she tried starting it and got a unenthusiastic cough from
the engine, which promptly died.
Kicking the tire with what little energy she had, she asked, "What's west of here?"
"Wilderness for way too many miles," Garrett answered, having already considered that option. "We
are not going to be high priority. All the resources are going to be put toward putting out the
fires." He ran his hand through his hair. "We'll have to make our own way out."
After a moments creative cursing in three languages Alyx said, "Okay, do we go for the other ATV's
or to the station and your jeep?"
Garrett thought for a minute. "The ATV's won't have enough gas to get us to safety so we might as
well head straight to the station and hope we beat the flames there. At the very least it has us
going in the right direction."
"I know I don't want to hear the answer, but how far till we hit someplace safe," Alyx asked.
"You mean to reach a rescue?" he corrected.
She nodded.
"Too far," he answered. "We'll have to hope we come across a fire crew that can take the time to
get us out."
Alyx shook her head. "Typical. Lead the way, ranger-boy. I don't feel like barbecue today."
"Ranger-boy?" he repeated, amused. He set a hand on her back to get her moving.
"Would you prefer something derogatory?" she said smiling.
"No. Ranger-boy is just fine," he replied.
For a long time after that there wasn't much to say. They never actually reached the station; when
they got to the top of a nearby hillside, they watched as the fire tower buckled and collapsed in
the heat of the flames surrounding it. The wooden building was a pyre and the jeep, the vehicle
they needed to have reasonable chance of surviving this, proceeded to explode as they watched. The
flames raced across the grassy area around the building and towards the trees and brush beyond. The
flames were rushing across the hillside towards them. In minutes it was as if the station had never
existed. Nothing could be seen through the flames and smoke that the wind blew inexorably to the
southwest.
Garrett grabbed Alyx's arm and began to pull her away from the sight. They had to keep moving, had
to try to stay ahead of the flames, had to try and survive. Alyx was frozen in place. The sight of
the burning jeep had triggered another panic attack. Part of her was screaming for her to run, that
she'd be the one going up in flames next if she didn't move, but she couldn't respond. She just kept
seeing her parents in their car and feeling helpless, unable to prevent it, unable to stop it,
unable to do anything but watch them burn.
Garrett finally slapped her across the face after every other attempt to get her attention failed.
At first she didn't react and he moved to slap her again, but quicker than he believed possible her
hand came up and grabbed his wrist. She blinked once, twice, and then came back into focus on
reality. He didn't argue but shifted his grip and began pulling her away towards the southwest.
Alyx didn't fight his pull, didn't question his choice, didn't help.
For the time being they appeared to be in between two different fires, but he knew they would fill
in. He could only hope that they were ahead of the flames when they converged and not behind them.
By the time dawn actually arrived, not that they could really tell through the pall of smoke
filling the air, he knew they were in trouble.
They paused on the top of one of the ridges and Garrett took stock of the situation. South of them
were flames that had already moved west of their position. North of them, the flames were still a
bit to the east but had spread southward to be nearly behind them. He was worried about Alyx. She
was pale and covered with soot. At some point she had removed her long sleeved shirt and tied it
about her waist. She had a few blisters from wind-borne ashes that had still been hot enough to
burn. They both needed to rest, but couldn't really afford the time, so he split the difference and
figured ten minutes to recharge a bit and then move again.
He pulled the water bottle from her pack and handed it to her. "Alyx, drink."
She managed to focus on him. "Yeah." She took the bottle and finished off half of it, then handed
the rest to him, which he drank gladly. Shifting her pack, she dug out her cell phone and dialed.
All she got was dead air.
"We're still too far out." She nodded and put the phone away, making sure it was off first. It
would do them no good if the battery in it died.
"Are you all right?"
She got to her feet. "No. I'm not." She felt him put a hand on her shoulder. "If I panic again, go
on without me."
"Alyx, that won't happen," he said seriously.
She laughed bitterly. "It is happening, as we speak. You have no idea what this is doing to me."
"So tell me," he said, tugging gently to get her walking again.
She stumbled into motion, but once moving kept going under her own momentum. She tried. She really
tried, but the words would not come, just the memories that were as strong and vivid as the day
they had occurred. Her pace began to slow again as she found herself once again being trapped in
the morass of terror and despair that they inevitably pulled her into.
"Alyx," Garrett shouted at her as she began to fade away yet again. This time he didn't have to
resort to slapping her. He just touched her and she snapped out of it.
"Garrett?" she said questioningly.
"Max. Thought we agreed that you'd call me Max," he said, pulling her into movement again.
Alyx started moving, her mind spinning in a bit of confusion. Once again she had gotten a surge of
images from him, but they no longer included him dying in a pillar flame. Instead she saw him tired
and singed, but alive. It made her wonder what she had done. When she stopped the flying accelerant
earlier, had she really saved him, prevented that horrible death she had seen? Only time would tell
if what she was seeing now was true, but right now she needed to get a grip on reality or she was
going to be the one playing human torch.
"Talk to me, Alyx," Garrett said.
She took a deep breath and gave his hand a squeeze. "I'll try."
They walked on in silence for a while, trying to stay at the tops of the hills as much as possible.
The few times they had to make their way through a valley they were always shocked at the amount of
distance the fires had chewed up by the time they could see again. They got to the top of one ridge
and Alyx doubled over coughing, the smoke was so thick. The fire had jumped ahead of them, thanks to
the wind and burning embers.
"Rest," she panted. When she caught her breath she tried to filter the smoke out of the air around
them. It was successful to a degree in that they got to breathe clean air, but for some reason the
smoke built up about them creating a wall they couldn't see through within a few minutes. When she
released the filtering effect the smoke dissipated back to its original density.
"Okay, how did you do that? And how did you stop the explosion earlier?" he asked trying not to
cough as the smoke swirled about them again. Maybe the distraction of explaining it to him would
help to keep her moving. Focus her mind on something that was not terrifying to her. Even if he
didn't for an instant believe it.
She motioned that they keep moving and as they walked she gave him an explanation. "I'm gifted, I
guess you'd say."
"You're...what do they call it...telekinetic," Garrett guessed.
"No, although that's what they thought for a long time. I can sense and manipulate energy fields,"
Alyx said, trying not to cough again. She was afraid one of these times she'd start and not be able
to stop.
Garrett didn't really understand what that meant. "So that means, what? I'm sorry, it's not
something I've dealt with before."
Alyx laughed. "I'd be very surprised if you had. It means I can control the movement of air
particles, as an example." He gave her a blank look. "Since they're moving, they give off energy,
like water particles in a cloud building up a static charge. I can, to a degree, make them do what
I want."
"So that's how you stopped the flames in the air earlier," he said understanding at least partially.
"That, and the fire itself is a form of energy," Alyx added.
"Thanks," he said.
"For what?" Alyx asked, stumbling a bit.
"Saving my ass back there. I have a very good idea what that stuff would have done if it had landed
on me," Garrett said quietly.
"You have no idea. I saw what happened to you." Alyx got the sentence out in a rush, and when she
didn't feel the terror trying to close in, continued. "Remember when I trashed the mug?"
He nodded.
"Sometimes, when I touch someone, I get flashes of what they are thinking and feeling. Sometimes I
get more." She pulled him to a stop. "I saw you burning to death. Course, that doesn't come close
to explaining it. I get everything. All senses, live and in surround sound. It was not a pleasant
experience." She looked down at the ground unable to meet his eyes.
"Don't imagine it was." He brought a hand up to her chin and tipped her face up to look at him.
After searching her eyes for a moment, he leaned in and kissed her.
Okay, weird timing, but Alyx wasn't about to argue. She really did like this man and responded to
the kiss with all the energy she could muster. Her hands found their way up to his chest feeling
the pounding of his heart beneath her hand. One of his were cupping her face and the other resting
lightly on her lower back gently pulling her closer to him. It was wonderful, but no matter how much
she liked this man she knew he was not who she really wanted to be with. She pushed that thought
away as hard as she could. Still she managed to lose herself for a few minutes to the joyous
sensations that this man was able to create within her.
With a sigh he broke off the kiss and held her close. Now may not have been the best time, or the
best place, but it didn't matter. For a few minutes, the rest of the world had faded from
existence. He wished it could have lasted longer, but reality was quickly becoming a most pressing
concern. He looked about them as he held her noting that the route he would have followed was
swiftly being engulfed by the fires. The flames of the separate fires had joined behind them
cutting off any possibility of retreat. Giving her a quick kiss on the forehead he said, "We need
to move."
"I know," Alyx said and gave him a smile.
Together they trudged on.
Darien paced back and forth in the lobby of the Visitor Center. All park guests had been evacuated
as the seriousness of the situation became known. The team for the Agency arrived around nine am
and took the fanatics into custody. Ranger Alisha Patterson had been temporarily assigned to assist
them. Though how, she had yet to figure out. Information coming in was sketchy at best, and now that
there were fires burning in the park being blown by wicked Santa Ana winds, anything they might need
was placed far down on the list of importance.
Darien found himself staring at the big map of the park mounted on one wall yet again. "Hobbes,
what was it you guys saw?"
"Huh? Oh, all the burns were relatively minor and never in the same place twice. Always a different
region, a different tower area." Hobbes answered coming over.
"So?" Darien had not been enlightened by his partner's answer.
"So, they had been testing the response time of the fire crews." Hobbes said staring at the map.
"They knew exactly where to plant the bombs to get the worst response. Also, by planting multiple
ones they forced them to split their fire crews. Fewer men at each location. They've already called
for help." Hobbes looked at Darien. "It's bad, and it's only going to get worse."
Darien swore. "We have to do something," he said feeling frustrated. He had to admit to himself
thought that he wasn't sure what upset him more--that Alyx was out there, or that she was out there
with Garrett.
"What would you like to do?" Ranger Patterson asked from a few steps behind them.
"Find them," Darien snapped. "Not sit here waiting."
"Good. Come with me." The two men looked at each other for a second and then followed the woman.
She led them to Garrett's office in the back of the building and showed them a map she had unrolled
on the desk. "Red is fire location, light red, burned but smoldering. Orange fire line. Yellow is
projected path."
The two men joined her behind the desk to get oriented properly and examined the map. "They're
going to be cut off, aren't they?" Hobbes asked.
"Unless they made it back to Fifteen and got the jeep, but I would have expected to have heard from
them by now. I'm assuming they're on foot," Patterson answered.
"Where would he go?" Darien asked, hoping her answer would bring good news.
"Assuming he would try for here, he'd head along this route." She took a pencil and drew a line
along the ridges of the hills in a
southwesterly direction from Fifteen.
"But they'll be cut off," Darien pointed out.
"That's the problem," she said running her hands through her hair. "He'll see it, but I'm not sure
where he'll go."
Hobbes had been looking at the map through the conversation and pointed to a particular feature.
"What's this?"
"A dead end. Cliff over a dry riverbed. Too wide to jump across." she answered.
"Could it protect them?" Hobbes asked a thought having appeared in his mind along with hope.
"How? They can't get across and the fire will jump it easily." She was unsure what they were
looking for.
"What if they went down to the bottom of it?" Darien asked catching on.
"They don't have the gear," she said shaking her head.
"Assume they do. Could it protect them while the fire passes over?" Hobbes said trying to keep his
excitement from creeping into his voice.
"Yes, maybe. They'd risk suffocating as the fire draws off the oxygen, but yeah, it could work. And
they could follow the creek bed out of the fire zone in relative safety." She was gaining
confidence in the idea herself.
"Will he think of it?" Darien asked Hobbes.
"Nah, but the kid will. If she didn't memorize that map, I'll eat that orange shirt of yours,"
Hobbes said. Then to Patterson, "Where would they come out, and around when?"
"Here is where they'd end up." She pointed to a spot on the map. "When, depends on the time they're
making. By morning at the latest, I would think. I'll alert the crews in that area to watch for
them."
"Can't we go look for them? Head up the ravine and try to meet them? Something?" Darien sounded
more than a little impatient.
"You care for her a lot, don't you?" she asked him.
Darien froze like a deer caught in headlights. "Of course, she's my partner."
"Ah," Patterson commented. "I think you need to at least be honest with yourself on this. I can't
see you running after Mr. Hobbes here that way. I think you'd trust his abilities to get him out,
if I'm not mistaken."
Darien's mouth open and closed a few times but nothing came out.
Hobbes rolled his eyes. "You didn't; you haven't; well, that explains a few things."
Darien finally found his voice. "No we...I...haven't, Bobby. Alyx'd hurt me if I did."
"True. Never seen anyone more standoffish than her." Hobbes hid a smile and allowed Darien to
think he believed him.
"Look can't we do something?" Darien said this time sounding irritated.
"You aren't going to give up, are you?" she said, shaking her head. "All right, I'll get some gear
together and we'll head out in an hour."
Darien almost bounced in joy. "Thank you."
"My boss is gonna fire my ass for this," she said, heading for the door.
"We don't want you to get in trouble," Hobbes said, putting a hand on her arm as she passed. "Who's
your boss, we'll clear it with him."
She laughed a bit ruefully. "Good luck. It's Garrett."
Hobbes dropped his hand feeling a bit stunned. "Garrett's your boss?"
She nodded. "Yeah. Meet me out front in a hour." She walked out of the room switching to a run as
soon as she was down the hall.
Hobbes turned to Darien. "This had better work, or the Fat Man is going to kill us for losing the
kid."
"It'll work," Darien said, staring down at the map. "It has to."
Alyx lay on the ground trying to breathe. They had been forced to give up walking the ridge tops.
The smoke was just getting too thick; even shirts wrapped about their faces weren't helping much.
After this rest they were going up and over the next ridge to get an idea of what the fires were
doing. To see exactly how bad their situation was. The last time they had checked they were nearly
surrounded by flames and were pretty darn sure that the only way out would require crossing the
fire line at some point. Not an impossible task, but certainly not an easy one. And both of them
were quickly running out of energy.
"How old were you when you started college?" Alyx asked Garrett out of the blue.
He looked over at her, boot in hand as he dumped collected dirt and sand out of it. At first he
thought she had suddenly flipped, but she lay there calmly, her eyes closed as she tried to restore
some energy. "Ummm, eighteen. Why?"
"I was sixteen," she said, moving to rest on her elbows. She opened her eyes to look at him. They
were just as red and irritated as his felt. "First time on my own."
He put his boot back on and as he laced it felt her settle herself close behind him. "It was
euphoric. No annoying brothers. No parents. No responsibilities except for those I chose. I thought
it was heaven."
Garrett wiggled his foot about to make sure the boot was comfortable; they had a long way to go
yet. "Sounds like every other kid."
"Maybe. I wish it had lasted. Maybe I wouldn't be here today." She got to her feet and held out
her hand to help him up.
"What do you mean?" he asked, curious about where she was heading with this.
"Not important," she said, shaking her head, shedding accumulated ash from her hair in a cloud.
"Did you have nightmares those first few months you were at college?"
He thought about it as they began to walk uphill. "Not that I recall."
"I did," she said her voice dropping. "My parents..." Her voice choked off and it took her a
moment to continue. "My parents were coming up for Thanksgiving. Some relatives lived nearby so
they thought they'd visit me and have dinner with them."
"Makes sense. What about your brothers?" he asked.
"They were all off at college as well. Except my younger brother, and he had made plans of his own
for that weekend. I was convenient," she said. "I told them not to come."
They were nearly to the top of the hill and the smoke was getting nasty. Alyx stifled a cough and
pushed her self harder to reach the summit. When they arrived, Garrett swore. The route he had
planned to use was no longer viable. It was nothing but a mass of flaming vegetation. He wasn't
sure what to do next. Alyx grabbed his arm and pulled him along the ridge top. He resisted. "Wrong
direction. We need to head east."
"I've got an idea," she said, pulling harder.
"No. North won't work. The ridge dead ends at a cliff." His voice trailed off. Maybe, just maybe.
He nodded. Looking at the fires about them he knew it would be close, but at least they stood a
chance.
Alyx picked up speed. Up ahead you could see that this ridge merged with others, and from what she
remembered from the map they all dropped off into a dry creek bed. If they could make it there, it
was possible the fire would pass right over their heads. It would leave them free to follow the
creek out of the fire zone, but they had to beat the fire to the edge.
The wind gusted about them, blowing ash and dust. They stayed close enough together that they
didn't have to shout. Not that either had the energy to. Alyx swore under her breath as burning
embers once again began to fall about them, carried on the strong winds.
Anger was beginning to take precedence over the fear that was running under the surface of her
emotions. Until she saw the dry grass ahead of them burst into flame. She froze and it was several
steps before Garrett realized she was no longer next to him. When he did, he rushed back to her
side and tried to pull her along.
"Alyx we have to move now, before it gets any worse," he shouted at her.
"I can't," she said in a barely audible voice shaking her head. "I can't"
"You have no choice." He attempted to pick her up and move her, expecting her to remain
unresisting. Instead he found himself with an armful of violently thrashing woman, screaming at him
to let her go. "Alyx," he yelled, but she couldn't hear him. She was trapped in the past, trapped in
her memories, reliving the one memory she would gladly have erased from her mind forever. Garrett
refused to let go of her, but she did manage to get her feet back on the ground. He quickly found
himself on the ground, trying to hold onto a woman who was far stronger than he thought possible
given her size. "Alyx, you'll kill us both." He didn't yell. Just spoke quietly into her ear.
She stopped struggling. "No, just my parents." She tried to sit up but he still held her. "Please
let me go."
Garrett did as she asked and helped her to sit up. "What about your parents?"
Alyx got to her feet and backed away from him her eyes still a little wild. At least she was headed
in the correct direction. "They wouldn't listen. They insisted it was just a dream. They wouldn't
listen." Her voice started soft but rose with each sentence until she was shouting into the wind.
"They wouldn't listen." She broke and ran straight for the flames.
"Shit!" Garrett swore and followed her. He figured she had gone into a full blown panic attack and
was running blind. He shouted her name hoping she would at least slow down, but if anything she ran
harder. He was still several yards behind he when she ran for the flames. He was afraid to watch,
but couldn't turn away. As she neared the fire line at a flat out run the flames parted before her,
snuffed like a candle, allowing her to pass through unharmed. He was astonished for as soon as she
was through the flames returned, burning just as enthusiastically as before. Looking over the
situation he had no choice but to try and jump the fire line. He hoped that since the wind was
blowing almost perpendicular to the way he was going that the fire line was not very wide yet.
He ran trying to build up as much speed as he could and launched himself at the flames his hands
coming up to protect his face. Turned out to be unnecessary; the flames died around him as he leapt
and he came down directly in front of Alyx, who managed to catch him and slow his momentum. They
both ended up on the ground, far nearer the fire than he liked, but alive and relatively unharmed.
When she didn't move right away, he crawled over and looked down at her.
"Alyx?" he said, hoping she wasn't hurt.
"It killed them Max. They wouldn't listen and it killed them," she said quietly. "I killed them."
Garrett backed away as she sat up and then got to her feet. She was still fighting off the terror
the memories caused, but this time she'd used the adrenaline rush of a panic attack to her
advantage. She'd managed to hold herself together just enough to get both of them through the fire.
Now they had to outrun it.
Getting to his feet Garrett followed her as she continued along the ridge at a near run, the flames
following along behind them. It took about thirty minutes but they reached the edge. The drop was
far longer than she had hoped. Spinning about as Garrett came up behind her she said, "I have an
idea." She took off her pack and pulled out the dismantled bomb and held it for his inspection.
"A back burn. Brilliant. It should buy us some time anyway," Garrett said truly impressed. "Want a
job?"
She smiled up at him as she reassembled the device. "Got one, thanks." She completed the job and
checked the connections with her mind to make sure they were correct. Satisfied she stood up with
it. "How far?" she asked him.
"Couple of hundred yards should do," he answered after a moments thought.
"Good enough," she said heading away at a jog. When she reached the desired distance, she set down
the device, making sure that the explosion would be in the right direction and aiming slightly
into the wind to compensate. It took mere moments. She set the timer for five minutes and ran back
to Garrett.
"Done. Now we have to figure out how to get down," Alyx said, lying down on her stomach and leaning
out over the edge, hoping for a ledge or something not too far below them. She was pleased to note
very little in the way of vegetation down below. Less to burn. She saw some possibilities about a
third of the way down, but further down the cliff line she saw what she was looking for.
"Oh Max dear, could you give me your learned opinion on this," Alyx said getting his attention
immediately with her choice of words.
He lay down beside her and looked in the direction she pointed. "About a quarter mile south. Please
tell me it's a ledge."
"Looks that way. Stable? I can't tell from here. And the tree line goes almost to the edge. If the
fire reaches there before we get down we're..."
"Toast?" Alyx finished with raised eyebrows.
"That works." Behind them the device went off with a pop, barely audible over the wind. The flames
came up quickly about another fifty or so yards from where she had set it down. The wind had reduced
the distance the gel usually flew, but the back burn had been successfully begun. "Lets go," he said
helping her to her feet. "We've got a place to be."
"Max, no matter how this turns out, I want you to know I'm glad we met." Alyx waited for his
reaction.
"It's good to know a trial by fire is your kind of date," he said with a straight face.
"This?" she said waving a hand about. "This is nothing. You should see my disappearing act."
*****