Chapter 8- From Bad to Worse

"Propwash Junction to Dusty. Come in, Dusty!"

I jolted awake at the sound of Skipper's voice on the radio. Dusty jumped too, backing into the shelf behind him, sending some supplies to the floor and a box onto his canopy.

"Hey Skip! What's up?" Dusty yawned, jerking his canopy to get the box off.

"Is everything okay?" I wondered. "It's pretty early."

"Did the gearbox come in?" Dusty guessed excitedly.

We were met with silence. "Well, we… we…" It was obvious that Skipper didn't know how to tell us whatever it was. That was when I become aware of sniffling and hiccupping in the background. It was Celeste, I could tell. She was crying.

My stomach dropped like I was on a roller coaster (or, at least. what I imagine being on a roller coaster would feel like; I've never actually been on one). What had happened? Was something wrong with Susannah and/or the baby? Had something happened to my mother? Who had died?

"What?" Dusty had also picked up on the fact that something was wrong.

"So… Dust…" Sparky began.

"Sparky, I'll… I'll tell him", Chug spoke up, sounding uncharacteristically downcast. He took a deep breath. "It was the wrong one."

I know it's awful of me, but I have to admit, I actually breathed a sigh of relief, hearing that. No one had died. Although, my relief was short lived as Chug kept talking.

"The crate... It was mislabelled. We've called every parts supplier, repair shop, and junkyard in the country. Nobody has your gearbox."

Dusty looked beyond devastated.

"Dusty?" Skipper ventured, as the orange and white plane had said nothing.

He sighed. "I'm here."

"I'm sorry", Skipper murmured.

"We all are", Mom added sympathetically.

"It's okay, guys", I assured them. "I'm sure you did the best you could. I'll look after Dusty."

Celeste drew in a shaky breath and let it out slowly. "So, I guess that's it then."

Dusty sighed again. "I gotta go. Thanks." He released the pedal and the sad call was over.

"It's gonna be okay, Duster!" I tried to comfort him.

"How?!" he demanded. "How could you possibly know that?!"

"I mean, if you get certified, you'll have something else-"

"First of all", he interrupted me, "I would never expect you to understand! You have no idea how much racing means to me! Second of all, I'm not sure I'll ever be certified! Blade hates me! He loves you, though!"

I scoffed. "That's ridiculous!"

"Is it?" Dusty countered in a perfect deadpan. "Have you forgotten how Blade spoke to each of us yesterday?"

"Well, maybe that's your own fault!" I blurted out before I could stop myself.

Dusty narrowed his eyes. "Excuse me?!"

"I didn't mean to say that-" I began. That was true; I hadn't meant to say it, but I did mean the actual words.

"You wouldn't have said it if you didn't mean it."

"Well", I tried to explain tactfully, "you don't always follow the instructions-"

"You're right! Unlike you, I can think for myself! And I saved the Smokejumpers doing it"

"And unlike you, I can follow orders, so I don't get killed!" I retorted.

Our argument was interrupted by Patch's urgent voice. "All aircraft! We've got two fires!"

"Hey, Crophopper, Hazelwood!" Maru called, appearing in the doorway. "Get this: Cad's fancy jet VIPs flew in too low over the burn area last night, blew embers in all directions!"

"Just what we need!" I groaned.

"Champ! Hazelwood! Let's load and go!" Blade ordered.

"Copy that!" I responded before facing Dusty. "I need to get ready. From now on, whatever you choose to do around here, do it without me!"

"Finally!" Dusty exaggerated a sigh of relief. "That's what I've been wanting from the second we got here! I wanted to come alone!"

"It's a good thing you didn't!" I countered angrily. "If Propwash Junction's fate was in your wings, we'd all be in serious trouble right now."

Dusty let out an exasperated grunt. "I can't believe I ever wasted so much time being friends with someone like you!"

"And the feeling's mutual!" I shot back as I hurried off.


"Fire broke containment and split in two", Blade reported as made our way towards the two fires. Not only were there two fires, but we'd been informed that two campers had been reported missing. "Windlifter, you and Dipper take the Coil Springs fire. Me and the trainees will take Whitewall Rapids."

"Windlifter copies", Windlifter confirmed as he and Dipper headed off in a different direction than us.

As if having not one but two fires and two missing campers to deal with wasn't bad enough, the flames were slowly but surely creeping up the hill. Right on the other side of the hill was the lodge.

Blade must've realised how serious it was because he got on the radio. "Maru, come in."

"Yeah, Blade?" Maru responded quickly.

"It's worse than we thought", he declared. "Get on the horn down to the lodge. That fire is about four hours from their front door. They're gonna have to evacuate."

Unfortunately, Maru had more bad news for us when he got back on the radio a couple of minutes later. "Cad won't evacuate", he reported.

"You gotta be kidding!" Blade growled. "Why not?!"

"You have met Cad, right?" Maru pointed out. "Now, answer your own question."

Blade groaned. "If we're gonna save the lodge, we've gotta keep this fire from cresting the ridge. I'll drop, then you tag on and extend. And make it a split load. That way we can double up..."

I listened carefully to Blade's instructions, but I couldn't help that Dusty was not. I knew what he was thinking about: his gearbox. Dusty, one problem at a time, I thought.

"Copy that?" There was no answer from Dusty. "Hey!" Blade barked. "You copy that?"

"Yes. Yes! Copy that", Dusty fibbed.

However, he was quick to prove that he hadn't listened to a word Blade said when he dropped his entire load of retardant.

"You gotta be kidding me", Blade groaned. "Was that your whole tank?"

"Yeah", Dusty replied, completely unfazed.

"You just wasted all of it!" Blade reprimanded.

"I was just following your orders!" Dusty protested.

"I said 'split load'", Blade corrected him. "We were going to make a secondary line to protect that lodge."

"It'll be fine", Dusty insisted. "I can reload at the lake."

"Negative! Return to base!" Blade ordered.

"What? No, there's no time. Let's just get this fire out!" Dusty disobeyed, diving towards the lake. Unfortunately, despite my request at the base, he had to make this stupid decision with me, I was riding on him.

"Hey, hey!" Blade called. "You need to listen to me!"

"I'll be fine!" Dusty insisted.

"This is exactly what I was talking about, Dusty!" I spoke up. "You're gonna kill yourself! You really are the most reckless person I have ever met!"

"These crosswinds are too strong. Return to base!" Blade repeated.

"This is what you trained me to do!" Dusty reminded him.

"Not under these conditions!" Blade pointed out.

"If we're gonna get this fire out, I've gotta reload", Dusty persisted.

"Pull up!" Blade yelled. "That's an order!"

"No! I can do this!"

With those words, Dusty hit the surface of the lake hard. The crosswinds threw him off balance and went down nose first before being brought back up by his pontoons. Fortunately, the pontoons also kept him- and me- afloat in the water.

I raised an eyebrow. "You were saying?"

Dusty ignored me. "I've taken in too much water. My engine stalled."

"Stalled?" Blade echoed with a groan. He flew above us, keeping a close eye on us. "Keep your pontoons downstream. I'll keep ahead of you."

"I'll get out on my own", Dusty insisted.

"Dusty!" I hissed, having had enough of his arrogance.

"Really?" Blade asked sceptically. "How you plannin' on doing that?"

"I'll restart my engine."

"Just hang on", Blade told him. "I'm gonna pull you to shore."

Dusty revved his engine. "Got it!" he shouted as his prop started to spin again.

Just as Blade threw the hoist, Dusty hit a rock, sending his front end below the water. The helicopter couldn't get the hoist onto Dusty's tail and we were swept downstream.

"Are you all right?" Blade called to us.

"I'm okay!" Dusty assured him.

"So am I", I added.

"There's too much coverage. Don't worry! I'll get you at the next clearing."

"Right!"

When Blade got to a clearing, he tried again to get us out. However, his hook was caught on a log.

"The hoist! It's caught!" Blade tried to yank it out as Dusty and I were bounced around in the current.

"Blade!" Dusty yelled. "Blade!"

"Help us!" I pleaded. I knew he was doing everything he could, but I was starting to panic. I was fighting to remain calm, but it wasn't easy.

Seeing as he was struggling free his hook, Blade gave us another option. "You need to start your engine. You got clear water, you can take off before the falls."

"Falls?" I gulped, eyeing a waterfall up ahead.

"It's your only chance!" Blade informed us.

"Right, right!" Dusty shouted. He got his engine going. "Got it! I'm good!"

"Now redline it!" Blade commanded. "Push your engine!"

Dusty pushed his engine to increase his speed as we approached the edge of the falls.

"Redline it!" Blade yelled. "You need more lift, redline it! Redline it!"

The warning light flashed as an alarm blared.

"Why are you holding back? Redline it!"

I felt like yelling at Dusty, but I didn't know what to say. What could I say? I was so sure that no matter what he did, a crash was inevitable. I screamed as we went over the edge of the waterfall.

I guess Blade managed to get himself free because the next thing I knew, he'd caught us. He dragged the two of us to safety in the middle of the forest.

"Why didn't you redline it?!" Blade demanded, still hovering above us. "You could've made it! What were you thinking?" He shifted his focus away from us and towards the trees.

"What? What's wrong?" Dusty wondered.

Already, I could see what the problem was: we'd ended up right in the fire's path. The flames were creeping closer.

"Uh-oh", I murmured.

"This ain't good", Blade confirmed my worst fears. I was counting on him to get us out of here. "Head down that path. Follow me."

For once, Dusty followed the order. I climbed off of him as we let Blade lead the way through part of the forest.

"Champ, come on!" Blade led us to a safe place. "In here."

"An old mine?" Dusty gave him an Are you crazy? look. "We can't go in there! We'll suffocate!"

"It's our only chance", Blade informed him. "We'll let it burn over."

"No", Dusty disagreed. "No, you go on. We'll keep moving."

"Dusty!" I exclaimed in exasperation from my spot inside the mine. "Listen to him!"

"What are you doing? Hey. Hey!" Blade blocked the way that Dusty was trying to go. "You can't outrun the fire."

"You know what? I'll find my way out", Dusty insisted.

"Like you found your way out of the rapids", Blade couldn't resist retorting.

"I didn't want to… push my engine…" Dusty stated weakly.

"Dusty, tell him", I instructed quietly, but neither one of them could hear me.
"And get in here."

"You didn't want to?!" Blade echoed incredulously.

"Blade, listen to me-"

"This isn't about you", Blade pointed out. "This about life and death. You need to follow orders. I told you 'split load,' you dropped it all. I told you not to reload on the lake, you did it anyway. I told you 'redline it,' you pulled power. You don't have what it takes! You don't!"

"Fine!" Dusty shot back, still trying to find his way out. "I never wanted to be a firefighter anyway!"

"Then go back to racing!" Blade snapped. "Go win yourself another trophy, Champ." He spat the last word out as if it tasted bad.

"I CAN'T!" Dusty exploded, turning to face Blade. "My gearbox is busted! All right? That's why I pulled power." His anger was quick to fade as the realisation of all of his goals seemed much less achievable settled in. "I'm never... I'm never gonna…"

I had no idea how Blade was gonna respond, but he sounded much more understanding now that Dusty was honest. "Life doesn't always go the way you expect it. But you came here to become a firefighter. If you give up today, think of all the lives you won't save tomorrow... So what are you going to do?"

Now seeing reason, Dusty rolled into the mine and parked next to me. A second later, Blade joined us, watching as the blaze closed in and debris showered around us. I kept my helmet on to prevent serious injury, noticing a couple of ceiling beams scratch Dusty's paint. I could feel a wall of heat, but when Blade moved to stand protectively in front of us, it was gone. By then, the ash, smoke and falling debris made it impossible to see.

In the dark, in between the embers, all I could see were the faces of my loved ones: Mom, Susannah, Celeste, Dottie, Chug, Skipper, Sparky, Dusty... even the ultrasound of my unborn child.

What am I doing here? I wondered. I should be at home, taking care of my pregnant wife! I could die here!

Even though my mother had done an excellent job as a single mother and I knew Susannah was tough and could do it if she had to, neither one of them should have to! I should be there for my family, my wife, my son. Maybe I should just forget about this firefighting and head home.

Although, I feared that it was already too late.