Chapter 10- All In

I couldn't see much of anything for a while. That was partly because I was riding inside of Cabbie and didn't have much of a view, anyway and partly because there was nothing but smoke and embers and debris falling like little bombs. When we finally emerged from the smoke, I couldn't believe what I saw...

When we first met Blade, he had pointed out to Dusty that the whole world wasn't on fire. Looking down into the valley, though, it certainly looked like it.

"Oh, boy!" I murmured. For once reminding myself not to panic wasn't working. I was very frightened.

"We'll be okay", Dynamite told me, not sounding entirely sure herself.

"Hey! Check that out!" Dragon, who had a better view of outside, shouted abruptly.

"What?" Drip questioned.

"The lodge has water."

"YOU'RE KIDDING!" Avalanche yelled. I'm pretty sure he was mad, but with Avalanche, it's kind of hard to tell.

"You sure?" Macca asked.

"He's right", Blackout confirmed. "They got water comin' out the roof sprinklers."

"So?" I wondered.

"The base and the lodge run on the same waterline", Dynamite explained.

It took me a second to realise what that meant.

"Cad", I grumbled. "That turd!" I had never said that about anyone before, even if they deserved it.

"We'll deal with Cad, all right", Cabbie promised, "but right now, we got a job to do."


The train was blowing his whistle desperately as flames licked the ground nearby, creeping up the hill towards him. I could see lots of nervous-looking human faces pressed up against the windows of the train, trying to see what was happening. There was a long line of cars waiting to be free to move. From what we'd heard, the lodge's fire truck, Pulaski, had been trying to put out the fire while the guests evacuated (Cad hadn't evacuated; one of the rangers, the Secretary of the Interior and the rest of the lodge staff took care of that themselves), only for the wind to shift and send the fire directly to the main road. As if that wasn't bad enough, Pulaski's pump was busted by rocks. That's why we'd been called in.

Windlifter was first, spraying retardant over the flames blocking the cars' path. He was followed by Dipper, who dumped her retardant over the side of the hill. Finally, Dusty moved in and extinguished the blaze in front of the train, who pushed his way through and kept going on his way out of the park.

I jumped out of Cabbie along with the rest of the Smokejumpers. The first time I jumped out of a plane, I was terrified. This time, though, I didn't think. I just reacted to the situation.

"Let's clear this road!" Dynamite shouted.

We did just that. I helped Dragon and Macca toss logs aside to clear a path. I kept my fire extinguisher ready in case the fire came back over, which, thankfully, it did not. As we worked, I was vaguely aware of the guests and staff watching us firefighters in awe. From inside the train, the humans were clapping.

"All right now! Be careful!" one of the park rangers, Ol' Jammer, instructed as the cars made their way along the now-clear road. "Slow and steady! We don't wanna see any fender benders around here!"

"Well!" Dragon sighed. "At least we're gonna get everyone out now."

"We can't do more than that", Dynamite agreed. "Nice work, team!"

With no more retardant and the dangers of being out after sunset, there was nothing else we could do for the night. We got ready to return to base, proud of ourselves for a job well done.

But there was no time to celebrate.

"Windlifter, do you copy?" Patch's voice squawked through our radios.

"Go ahead, Patch", Windlifter responded.

"We've got two old RVs trapped in Augerin Canyon", Patch informed him.

"Two old RVs..." Dusty repeated, horror seeping into his voice as he realised who they were. "Oh no." He pulled up beside Windlifter. "Th- That's Harvey and- and Winnie! We met them earlier. They're looking for the place they had their first kiss."

"Augerin Canyon? That's at the other end of the park", Windlifter reminded him.

"I can get there the fastest", Dusty protested.

"I'll go with him", I offered, not about to let my best friend do something so dangerous alone.

"The canyon will be engulfed in flames and you have no retardant", Windlifter countered.

"I'll scoop off the river. There's a clear stretch of water." When Windlifter said nothing, Dusty added, full of confidence, "Windlifter, we can do it."

Windlifter seemed to hesitate for a moment. "Go. And be safe."

Dusty only stopped long enough to pick me up and made a beeline for the canyon, which, just like Windlifter said, was engulfed in flames.

"David! Let me know if you see them!" Dusty commanded.

I nodded. "Copy that!" A second later, I had eyes on them. "There! On the bridge!"

"Copy that!" Dusty confirmed.

We could hear the two RVs' terrified cries for help, so Dusty didn't waste any time diving down to the river. As Dusty swerved and bounced around to avoid burning wood, I heard something else. Someone else.

"Dusty Crophopper?! Is that you?! Help us!" The voice wasn't Harvey or Winnie. It was a younger woman. It was...

"Kimberly?!" I gasped.

"David? David!" she shouted back.

I could see her now. She was sheltered in a small cave near the base of the hill. Harper was with her, both of their faces smudged with soot.

"Dusty!" I shouted. "Kimberly and Harper are in trouble too."

"What do we do?" Dusty demanded fearfully.

"You save Harvey and Winnie; I'll save Kimberly and Harper!"

"Copy that!"

I barely heard him as I jumped into the river. Despite the strong current, I was quick to swim to shore, my adrenaline pumping. Back in second grade, I had been too uncoordinated and afraid of heights to even climb the jungle gym on the elementary school playground, but now that lives were at stake, I was up in the cave in a matter of seconds.

On the surface, I was cool, calm and collected, as usual, but on the inside, fear was taking hold fast.

"Oh, David!" Kimberly sobbed. "Thank Chrysler!" Tears rolled down her blackened face. In her arms, Harper was also crying.

"Are either one of you hurt?" I questioned.

"No", Kimberly wept. "We just want to get out of here. I'm so sorry! We got lost on a hike this morning! We didn't know it was too dangerous. We didn't know-"

"It's all right, Kimberly", I assured her. "Don't worry about that now. I'm going to get you both out of here." Glancing around, I decided that the river was the best place to go. At least the fire couldn't go there. Taking Harper into my arms, I lodged my axe into a tree the side of the cave. It was quite a big drop from the bottom of the axe to the river and I had to aim myself just right to avoid the rocks. On top of that, I had to move fast. The flames were getting closer.

I took a deep breath and let go of the axe, letting myself fall and taking Harper with me. The little girl screamed the whole way down and, I must admit, I was tempted to do the same.

SPLASH!

I kept an iron grip on Harper as I swam with her back to shore.

"Are you okay?" I quizzed her.

She nodded through her tears.

"Stay here, all right?" I instructed, trying to sound as firm and serious as possible without sounding mean or angry. "I have to go back for your mom."

She nodded again as I climbed back up the cliff. On my way back up, I caught a glimpse of how Dusty was doing: not great. Due to falling debris, he couldn't get any water in his pontoons. To make matters worse, the bridge was collapsing. If he didn't act fast, Harvey and Winnie were going to fall. As it was, Winnie was half-hanging off the edge. Harvey held onto her and I could hear her begging him not to let go.

Just as I pulled myself up to the cave again, I could see lights and hear helicopter blades.

"Blade!" I gasped, feeling a mixture of emotions: happy to see that he was all right; relieved for the help; worried about him hurting himself even more and impressed by how tough he was.

Lightning fast, he used his hoist to pull Harper to safety into his hatch, instructing her to stand back. Then he headed to the bridge and used his cable to grab on to Winnie.

I wasn't sure how long he could stay like that, but I couldn't focus on that. I still had to save Kimberly.

It was all happening so fast. While Dusty lined up parallel to the waterfall, I was reaching out to grab Kimberly's hand.

"You still all right?" I questioned.

"I'm okay", she assured me.

"Good." I nodded. "Harper's all right, so let's get you out of here."

Right as I was about to help her down the rocks, something awful happened. My axe broke out of the tree. I heard a terrible creak.

"Quick!" I shouted, leading her back into the cave as the tree tipped over. The second it hit the ground, it turned bright orange.

Now, what? I wondered. I had my fire extinguisher, but there wasn't much in it. It would only keep the fire at bay for so long.

From my vantage point, I could see Dusty flying up the waterfall, filling up his pontoons. I could tell that he was redlining it. His alarm must've been going off, but he didn't seem to be paying the slightest bit of attention to it.

While I was looking up at him, I could see that there was a small ledge above us. Above that was an even bigger one. They were both out of the fire's path.

"Up here!" Ignoring the pain in my hands and knees, I scrambled up the first ledge and turned around to help Kimberly up.

"I don't think I can do this!" she cried.

"Yes you can!" I assured her. "Come on, Kimberly. It's okay. I'll help you."

Tentatively, she crawled out of the cave and tried to climb the rocks. I tried to keep one eye on her and one eye on Dusty, who was dousing the bridge with water, so Harvey and Winnie could get off after Blade helped them back on.

"You can do it, Kimberly!" I encouraged.

Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as the two RVs hurried across the bridge right before it collapsed, sending hundreds of pieces of flaming wood tumbling into the river.

Dusty!" Blade called as they made sure the RVs got to safety. "Good move, partner."

Meanwhile, Kimberly was still struggling. "I don't know about this!" She was hyperventilating.

"All right, all right!" I tried to calm her down. I stretched out my hand, but I couldn't quite reach. "Take my hand."

As she reached out to grab my hand, she lost her footing and screamed.

"No, no, no! I'm falling, I'm falling!"

"Kimberly, it's okay!" I assured her. "Just take my hand."

Blade dove down to help me pull her to safety, but two awful things happened at the exact same time.

The first was that we heard an awful screeching sound as Dusty's prop stopped spinning. Multiple alarms were beeping at him.

The second was, as she reached out to grab my hand, Kimberly lost her footing entirely and fell backwards.

"NO!" I yelped, watching her fall.

She screamed all the way down, her and Dusty both falling at the same time. I was vaguely aware of the latter smacking the trees. Blade had already disappeared to help Dusty, unaware of what had happened to Kimberly, so all I could do was watch helplessly as Kimberly fell. I cringed as I heard a dull thud when she hit the rocks.

The only consolation- although, it didn't feel like much of a consolation- was that she was dead the second she hit the ground. She felt no pain as the flames devoured her.

I felt like I couldn't breathe, like there was someone or something choking me.

"KIMBERLY!" I yelled, trying to stagger downwards. I slipped and landed hard on a rock in front of me. I barely noticed when I heard a crack come from my arm or felt blood ooze out of my forehead. All I could think about was the fact that it was too late. I lay on the rock, gazing out to see that there was pretty much nothing left of her.

"Kimberly..." I murmured, my tears starting to fall. This was all my fault!

I have no idea how long I stayed there before I heard helicopter blades. It made me look up. Blade was coming back. That wasn't the only thing I noticed: it was about to rain.

"Damn rain!" Blade groaned. Now that he was closer, I could hear sobs coming from inside. Harper. She was okay, but her mother was gone. How were we supposed to tell her?

"Isn't rain a good thing?" I wondered, trying and half-failing to keep my voice steady. "It'll put out the fire."

"Yeah", Blade acknowledged, "but it also means mudslides."

"How's Dusty?" I wanted to know.

Blade took a deep breath. "I think he'll be okay. Windlifter can't come until morning, though... You're hurt too", he observed softly.

"I'll be fine", I only just managed to utter.

"Where's Kimberly?"

With my good arm, I pointed in the direction of the body, unable to bring myself to look.

Blade's face fell. "You did everything you could."

I shook my head, unconvinced. "What do we do now?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper.

Blade sighed ruefully. "We wait."

That's right. I killed Kimberly off. It seemed important for the direction in which I wanted to take the story. It was kind of difficult to write that part because it was supposed to be happening at the same time as Dusty saving Harvey and Winnie, so it wasn't easy to go back and forth. I hope it was okay.