Chapter 16: Wildfire

"There it is!" Rose squealed with excitement and urged Mesa forward. It had been two days since Patrick and Seth met them at the train station with their horses to make the last leg of the journey home.

Jamie smiled at her from beside Patrick and felt the same excitement tug his heart. It was wonderful to see the top of the windmill come into view, welcoming them home.

Teaspoon came into view not long after the windmill, galloping to meet them. Rose and Kid both picked up speed to meet him.

"Welcome home you two," He beamed, then turned more serious and looked at Kid, "Find everything you were looking for in Virginia, son?"

Kid sighed and recalled the emptiness he'd felt after leaving Point Lookout. "Almost everything," he said quietly and Teaspoon, who'd escaped the Alamo a day or two before the attack and lived with the guilt his whole life, understood completely.

"Well, you've got a regular welcome back committee from the looks of it. Cody is here. Buck's still here too…if you ask me Buck may be settling down for good at the Bar M. Jennifer Tompkins showed up back on town...might have something to do with it…"

"Well," Lou observed riding up, "I suppose we can either sit here or go home, huh?"

"I vote home," Rose said impatiently.

The weeks of spring gave to an early summer, and a hot one. On one such cloudy day Rose sat bareback on her horse in the pond, her feet dangling in the water as Mesa snorted and splashed water playfully with his nose. She squealed in delight when cool droplets showered her face and arms. From the bank, Jamie watched her from under the brim of his hat, fishing rod in hand.

"I'm never going to catch anything with you two splashing around in there you know," he pointed out, hiding a smile.

"Well, then come in and join us. Looks like you might be getting wet soon anyway," she pointed at the low clouds rolling over them, "Besides you never catch anything big enough to eat anyway."

Jamie sighed and turned his face up, squinting at the gray sky and choosing to ignore her comment about his lack of fishing ability. "Well, we need the rain, that's for sure. At this rate the pond won't be here much longer."

"So come enjoy it while you can," Rose urged him and rode Mesa around the bank and where he was sitting, turning the horse back and forth several times, and doing a good job of soaking him thoroughly.

"Dang it, Rose!" Jamie scolded her, standing up and wringing the water from his shirt, "I was trying to stay dry."

Thunder rumbled overhead and Rose laughed, "Well, I don't think it's to be."

"You want me to come in there, huh?" Jamie asked, leveling blue eyes at her, and raising his eyebrow so high it almost was lost under the lock of hair that lay low on his forehead.

"Yes," Rose agreed, smiling sweetly, "For your own good."

He grinned with mischief and plunged into the water, right up to Mesa's side, grabbing Rose's arm and dragging her off the animal. She shrieked in surprise when the rush of cold water covered her to the chest.

"Jamie!"

He laughed at her suddenly blue looking lips and leaned down to steal a kiss from them. Rose smiled gently into his eyes as he neared her. Then, with a swift strike of her leg, she knocked his legs out from under him, and he slipped under the water, coming up with a lung full for his troubles.

She was laughing and desperately trying to pull herself up on Mesa's back to escape, but slipping off the horse. Jamie approached her calmly, knowing he had plenty of time. He grabbed one slim ankle and yanked. She too, plunged face first into the water.

She came up looking fit to be tied and splashed him heartily.

Soon, they were engaged in all out war. Mesa chose to wander up the bank and eat grass rather than be an innocent victim of the conflict.

"Uncle!" Jamie finally cried breathlessly, laying back in the water and looking up at the sky that was growing darker by the minute.

"I win!" Rose announced pointlessly, and looked around for her horse, "Well, looks like Mesa's heading for the homestead."

"I don't know how you plan on getting back," Jamie gasped, raising his head from the water and looking around.

"I could always drown you and take Lady," She said reasonably.

"True enough. Come here and kiss me and I'll die a happy man."

Rose laughed and did so, leaning over him while he floated, then before she picked her head up, she placed her hand on his chest and dunked him under the water once more for good measure.

He surfaced sputtering and wiped the water from his eyes, "You're a mean, mean woman."

Rose laughed, choosing to construe it as a compliment. She was deliriously happy with him, and loved the courtship that had developed.

Certainly not a typical courtship…she doubted any of the girls in Boston, or even in Sweetwater for that matter had water fights with and tried to drown their beaux. She loved the stolen kisses in the aisle of the stable, the night rides to check the pasture for any cow that might be having trouble, the lazy sunsets sitting on the porch. It was the happiest time of her life thus far, and she wished it to last forever.

"Hey you two!" A third voice boomed and Jamie and Rose both jumped in the water, turning to find Seth sitting on the bank, long legs crossed casually and his horse standing right behind him.

"Good thing I ain't a party of wild indians, or I'd have a pretty red scalp and a not so pretty brown one on my belt by now."

Jamie took a deep breath to steady his rapidly pounding heart, "You sneak up like that on me many more times, all the fun in scalping me will be gone cause I'll be dead."

Seth shrugged, then got down to business, "Kid sent me out to find you all. Said the weather was looking to be nasty out to the west and he's a little worried about prairie fires. Wants y'all back at the station where he can keep an eye on you."

Rose shivered suddenly, despite the heat of the day. She'd seen a prairie fire once, long ago while moving with her mother from town to town. They'd been traveling with a small party of ranch hands, and all of them would have been killed if they hadn't run across a river. Rose had never seen anything move so fast. It had been terrifying, and the thought of seeing another one didn't appeal to her.

Jamie nodded, "Well, he's been worried about it for a month now, but he's got good reason. Further north of here there's been two already. One a few weeks ago almost took Willow Springs off the map."

Seth nodded, "Driest summer I ever seen. And with this storm coming up, we're gonna get some lightning or my name ain't Seth Stewart. I'd bet my eyeballs on it."

"Well, at least we have the ditches started, in case," Jamie said.

"Didn't see Mesa on the ride out here did you?" Rose wondered.

Seth shook his head, "No, but I came from Sweetwater. Kid was buying supplies when the storm rolled in and sent me."

"Well, Rose, looks like you're walking," Jamie grinned and clamored out of the water. Rose dunked under the surface once more to smooth her hair away from her face with the water, and then slowly walked out of the water.

Jamie didn't miss the way Seth's eyes fell on her in admiration as she pulled her boots on. Maybe dragging her into the water hadn't been such a good idea given the way her clothes clung to her curves. Before Seth could offer, Jamie rode Lady over to her and extended his hand for her to climb up behind him.

"I hope Mesa got home okay. I don't want him out in this storm," Rose mumbled, looking around a last time for her horse.

"I'm sure he'll be there when we get there, Rosie," Seth said quietly.

Rose nodded, but felt uneasy as they loped toward home.

"He's not here, Jamie," Rose called down the stable to Jamie from in front of Mesa's empty stall.

The uneasy pit in her stomach grew deeper.

"He'll turn up, lass. Probably found a good stand of grass somewhere in the pasture…not much left anywhere. Couldn't resist it I'm sure," Patrick said, patting her shoulder gently.

A few minutes later, Kid and Cody rumbled up in the wagon. From the looks of the mule pulling it, he'd come fast. Kid's eyes were wild, his hat had fallen off and dangled behind him, "Jamie, Seth, Patrick, Buck!" he barked, and leapt from it.

"Bad news," Kid said, and Rose realized how pale he looked when Lou and Rachel rushed up to hear what was wrong.

"Fire?" Seth asked quietly.

"Well, a drifter just thundered into town from the West and said smoke was growing on the horizon last he saw. Looks like the lightning struck, best he could tell."

Rose looked over her shoulder. There was no sign of smoke yet, but she shivered anyway. Jamie saw her, and stroked her hair once before turning to his father.

"What can we do? We've dug ditches…but that won't be enough if the whole prairie goes up in flames."

Kid sighed. He'd always known the dangers of building a ranch on the grasslands. And the single most threatening danger was the one upon them now.

"I don't know…I want you all to get to work on widening the ditches. Start with the west side first…that's where the fire will come from. Lou, you take Rose and Cody and start moving everything with legs into the east corral. Throw down some grain but no hay to keep everything quiet. Thank God we brought in the cattle last week…" Kid said absently with the ability to remember small details in times of crisis. "Rachel, I'm going to bring a wagon around to the houses. Load up everything you want to save from both of them in case we have to try and make it to Sweetwater. Teaspoon's getting help from town, he'll be along shortly. If we don't stop the fire here it will take Sweetwater too. I'm going to hitch the mule and start plowing up anything that resembles grass around the buildings…maybe that'll save them."

"What if there ain't really a fire?" Cody wondered quietly.

"What if there is?" Buck returned, and that possibility was all the incentive they needed to get to work.

"Lou, Mesa's missing," Rose murmured with worry as they walked out of the stables with three horses each in tow. "He wandered off while I was down at the watering hole."

Lou sighed as she skillfully opened the gate and released each horse into the corral. "Are you sure?" She wondered as Rose led her horses in, "Have you looked in here?"

"I've looked everywhere, he's nowhere to be found," Rose said quietly, but her eyes showed her concern.

Lou patted her arm as they went to get the next group of horses, "He's got plenty of time before the fire gets here…the smoke hasn't even shown…"

Lou broke off suddenly as her eyes went to the western horizon. Rose followed her gaze, the lead weight of fear spreading through her stomach.

"Look at it!" Lou murmured softly.

The instruction was pointless, because Rose couldn't help but look at the billowing wall of smoke that was growing where the earth should have met the sky. Instead, the thick black cloud was rising like a dust storm, obscuring the mountains from view.

"Dear God," Lou whispered, feeling her hands tremble. This was what they were trying to battle?

She glanced at Rose, "Go get the next string of horses…I'm going to talk to Kid."

Lou jogged along the dirt, sweat pouring from her brow, eyes riveted to the smoke the entire time. It was unreal…as if a screen of black had been suddenly erected to reach from the dirt to the low hanging clouds.

She found her husband cursing the mule who was starting to spook with the impending danger. She could hear the cows lowing nervously and the horses' restless hooves in the paddock behind her.

They had the sense to be uneasy, even if the people around them kept doggedly at their tasks. Lou was with the animals.

"Kid!" She yelled over all the activity and the growing wind. Thunder split her ears. She ran beside the plow and pointed at the smoke, "Kid, we can't stop that! We have to pull out of here! We have to get across the Sweetwater River!"

Kid looked at her, shaking his head, "Lou, I'll be damned if I'm losing everything we've ever built!"

She saw the look of determination growing in his eyes, "Take Rose, Jamie, and Rachel…go to the river. I'm staying."

"I'm not leaving you! But Kid, look at it! There's nothing you can do!"

Just then Cody appeared beside them, shaking his head, "Looks like a bad one, Kid."

Kid contemplated leaving. He turned his back from his lifelong friend and wife and their smoky backdrop and studied the huge, freshly painted main house, the bunkhouse, the stables they were so proud of. He bit his lip and turned back around, sureness in his voice, "We can save it!" he shouted, "I know we can! We've just got to hold it off till the rain comes!"

"What if the rain never comes, Kid?" Lou shouted, "Then we'll all burn to death!"

"No! Listen…the fire can't burn dirt, and that's all that's around the buildings! We can hold it off! It will rain soon, Lou! I know this place. I know that sky! We can save it!"

Lou sighed and shook her head, "Kid, we'd still die from the smoke!"

"No we won't Lou! Trust me! Have I ever lied to you?"

"You'd bet your son and Jimmy's daughter's life on it Kid?" Lou asked him steadily.

Kid was taken aback, and his eyes sought Jamie, who was shirtless, his muscles rippling with strain as he heaved his shovel into the dirt time and time again. Jamie, Rose, Lou, Cody, Buck, Rachel, Patrick, Seth, and soon Teaspoon and half the town's souls rested on his next words. They could stay and fight the fire and risk losing, or run away and surrender everything they'd been building for over twenty years.

He wouldn't stake their lives on anything though."The Bar M doesn't have to burn!"

With a sigh, Lou reached up to kiss her husband,

"Okay Kid…I trust you."

Cody watched as Lou ran off then leaned close to Kid.

Kid jumped back and mustered a slight grin, "Don't you kiss me, Billy."

Cody snorted. "You should be so lucky."

Kid sighed with relief a minute later when forty men from town arrived with Teaspoon and eagerly jumped into the ditches with his boys. They'd save it, he decided.

They'd better.

Jamie looked up when someone slid down into the ditch next to him. Rose glanced at him fearfully, but said nothing, thrusting her shovel into the dirt and heaving with the best of them. Jamie sighed and went back to work, biting back the words to tell her to ride to safety. This was her fight as much as it was his, however nervous that made him. Mostly, he recognized the set of her chin. She wasn't going anywhere.

The sweat trickled down Rose's back and pooled in the hollows of her collar bone. Her hair was plastered to her skull, yet still she worked, keeping pace with the men with a determination that wearied her almost as much as the labor.

"There it is!" A terrified voice cried out from down the ditch and she and Jamie looked up quickly.

Rose took in breath sharply and shuddered. It looked as if Hell had come to swallow Earth. On the horizon, glowing through the haze of smoke that now hung over the entire space between, was a bright flash of golden fire. It covered a line that Jamie muttered had to be miles wide.

"No!" Rose suddenly screamed, and Jamie looked beside him to see her scrambling up the side of the deep ditch.

"Rose, what are you doing?" Jamie cried after her as she took off at a run toward the open prairie and the fire. He jumped and grabbed at her ankles, but was too late.

Jamie started to clamor up after her but Seth stopped him by physically dragging him back into the ditch, having not seen Rose run.

"Rose!" Jamie screamed, swinging at Seth, "She's gone out there!"

Seth looked alarmed. They both stood up to search for the girl. Jamie had heard of panicked horses running into fire, but he knew Rose had better sense.

"There!" Patrick cried as he scrambled up the bank, pointing "Look out there!"

Jamie looked beyond Rose, and gasped. He could just make out the shape of a horse, rearing and fighting wildly, his bridle tangled in the brush. "Oh no…Mesa. She'll be killed!" he cried and started running toward her.

"Kid! Kid! Rose has gone after Mesa!" Lou screamed against the busy hum of the station yard, having seen Rose charge out of the ditch, and then spotted the horse.

Kid looked up in shock, seeing the fire and knowing there was little time to spare. "Get me Katy!"

Buck ran up, leading the old paint mare by bridle only, "A step ahead of you Kid."

Cody appeared also.

"Let me borrow your gun, Cody," Kid said grimly.

Meeting his eyes, Cody wordlessly did so. He hoped Lou thought it was to prevent Mesa from burning if he was too injured to make it back, but Cody knew better. Kid would prevent himself, and Rose too, from meeting that kind of an end if the time came.

Cody's throat was tight as Kid swung up onto the only horse in the world he would trust to carry him to the edge of hell and back, met Lou's eyes with a thousand shades of meaning in them, and cried to Katy to run.

Katy took the ditch in one massive leap, incredible for any horse, many times more so for one nearing thirty. He pulled up briefly when he saw Seth, Patrick, and Jamie racing on foot, "Get back to that trench! I'll get her!"

"Dad!" Jamie began in protest.

"Jamie!" Kid roared, "If you want me to save her life, you go back! If not, I'll haul you back there myself!"

Jamie, seeing his father meant what he said, wordlessly nodded and started back to the station, casting fearful glances over his shoulder as he went.

Rose was gasping in the heavy smoke by the time Kid pulled Katy up beside her.

"Get on back!" Kid screamed, eyeing the wall of fire that was eating everything in its path at an alarming rate. It was ten feet high if it was an inch, he realized. Maybe taller.

"Kid, please! We have to save Mesa! He'll burn to death! We at least have to get a clear shot at him!" She coughed and choked on a sob.

Something in her tone spoke to him as he hauled her onto Katy's broad back behind him. Suddenly a memory flashed before his eyes…the memory of those words leaving his own lips and Katy trapped in a flaming barn. The same agony had invaded his heart at the thought of the beloved horse under him now burning to death.

He made his decision in a split second. Instead of turning back for the ranch, he urged Katy toward the fire and the horse nearly out of his mind with terror that was caught in its path.

"Where the hell is he going?" Jamie screeched, straining against Cody's arms, which roughly held him back.

"To get the horse. To save the damned horse," Cody growled, shaking his head.

"Pull your shirt over your mouth!" Kid screamed over his shoulder at Rose as the smoke became so thick they could barely see in front of them. The wind had kicked up and was full of debris that stung Rose's eyes.

"There!" Rose cried when she spotted her yellow horse. She leapt off Katy's back and ran to him.

He was transformed from the quiet animal she'd sat upon in the pond only a few hours ago. His eyes rolled back his head and he bared and gnashed his teeth at her when she approached.

She dodged a hoof and dove in to secure his bridle. He was lathered with a panicked sweat.

"Mesa!" She cried firmly, tugging down on the headstall sharply and looking the horse in the eye, placing a steady hand on his neck, "Easy boy!"

Mesa snorted and danced, but didn't try to bite her again. Katy was prancing not far away, and Kid appeared at Rose's side, clenching the reins of his horse hard. If the horses got away, they were done for.

Rose and Kid screeched and grunted and hauled on the reins, but the frightened horse had them so wrapped around the deep rooted little tree that there was no way to get them out.

"Give me a boost onto him, then get on Katy. When you're on, I'll take the bridle off and we'll run for home," Rose said, coughing and gagging at the smoke. She could hear the fire's crackle now, feel the extreme heat it emitted singe her damp neck.

"Rose, no…he's likely to turn and run into the fire. Ride with me on Katy…we'll hope Mesa will follow!"

"We won't make it with both of us on one horse! It's the only way and you know it!" Rose screamed, "There's no time Kid!"

"Let me on Mesa! Katy will carry you back!" Kid cried back in one last effort.

"No! Mesa will run for me! I know it! Damn it Kid!" She finally half sobbed in desperation, and taking a handful of mane, leapt onto the horse herself. He reared and pawed through the smoke, but Rose hung with him, "Mount up Kid!"

Kid sighed, wondering if he was making the biggest mistake of his life, and leapt onto Katy. Lou had always wanted him to trust her abilities...Rose was like her in every way. The stakes were higher than they had ever been as he jumped on Katy's back.

Rose leaned forward and released the bridle.

Mesa reached for the sky, then bucked hard, spinning several times, and leaving Rose disoriented, but still clinging to his mane, legs clenched around him for her life.

"Easy Mesa!" Rose cried, and yelled at Kid, "Go! He'll follow!"

Kid took a long look at Rose, her red hair flying wildly, her face streaked with soot and tears, her eyes flashing with terror. Sighing, he urged Katy into a run, praying that Mesa would follow. Losing her meant losing not only a daughter but his son who would not do without her.

The fire was only twenty yards away and closing at an amazing speed. The smoke obscured Rose's view of Katy, only eight feet away, as the paint mare began galloping back to the station.

"Please, boy! Run!" Rose shouted when the horse spooked and skittered. She pressed her knees firmly into her horse's sides and reached back to smack his rump soundly.

It was all the encouragement he needed. With the fire thirty yards behind them, Mesa dug his heels into the dirt and plunged for home. Rose snapped backwards, unprepared for the speed of his start, and clamored for her balance. She was used to riding bareback, but not at such breakneck speed, and the churning of the horse under her as well as the sweat-slick hide made it a very real challenge to stay on him.

She couldn't see anything. Dust and soot flew into her eyes with the smoke and opening them was agony, so she didn't try. Mesa could be on fire under her, and she wouldn't know it...surely they were hot enough to be engulfed in flame. She listened for Katy or Kid, but she could hear nothing over the roar of the fire, the thunder of Mesa's feet, and the pounding of her own heart.

She cried out in pain when a tiny ember lighted on her arm and burned through her shirt, but didn't dare remove her hand from Mesa's mane to swat at it. She sighed in relief when the wind lifted it from her without catching her shirt on fire.

Finally she glanced behind her and through eyes half blinded with smoke and dust saw the fire leaning forward, coming to claim her in a glowing red wave of horror. The fire screamed and breathed with a life and a fury all its own, and Rose had never been more terrified in all her life…not with the drunk who cut her ear, not with a band of Indians on her tail, not with John.

She looked ahead for the station, but could see nothing. She only prayed that Mesa would see the ditch and jump before it was too late, or they would both go down. It would almost certainly be a fatal fall at their current speed. To break her neck or to burn to death…neither seemed a particularly pleasant death.

"Run boy! Ha!" She yelled at her horse, but might have been whispering for the roaring of the fire behind her. She closed her eyes and prayed fervently. Mesa's ears, already flattened, pressed closer to his head and she saw him bare his teeth, lower his neck and dig in harder.

Lou and Jamie stood side by side, their faces expressionless with shock as they watched the fire barreling toward the station, and no sign of their loved ones in front of it. Lou wanted to reach out to her son, offer him comfort, but she had none to give. She found she couldn't move, couldn't even blink.

A gunshot suddenly pierced the air, barely audible over the roar of the fire and Lou jumped as if the bullet found her heart. Had the fire finally caught Kid then, and he'd opted to end his life more quickly than the flames would? Tears rolled down Jamie's face at the sound of the shot. He bowed his head and let the grief take him completely.

Then a cry went up, followed by another as cheers rose up in the smoke.

Then, scarcely daring to hope, Lou saw it…a faint outline emerging from the solid smoke wall. The large paint mare was nearly black with soot, as was her husband, but slowly their forms took shape. "Get back! Get away from the ditch!" Lou cried, running forward, understanding the shot had been a warning to clear the way for Katy.

The men stumbled backwards, and the smoke blew forward, obscuring Katy from view again.

Jamie looked up in surprise toward the smoke that seemed to hang in a wall just before the ditch.

And then, he was there. It was as if the smoke wall opened a door and Katy leapt out of it, flying through the air for what seemed like hours, before landing heavily and stumbling as she reached the freshly turned dirt of the station. A cry of relief went up as Katy came to a trembling, blowing halt. It had been the run of her life.

Kid turned and searched wildly as Lou's hands dug into his leg, needing reassurance he was alive.

"Where's Rose?" Lou shouted at him, panic starting anew in her.

"Rose?" Kid choked, his voice hoarse from the smoke he'd inhaled, "She's not here? I thought she passed me!"

"Rose! Where is she?" Jamie screamed, tearing up to his side and desperately clutching Kid's other leg.

"She was…oh no…no," Kid repeated, turning on Katy's back and searching the smoky landscape helplessly. The brightness of the fire stung his eyes, but still he watched.

He saw nothing but destruction. Had Mesa stumbled and fallen? Had the fire claimed Rose long ago, while he ignorantly rode to safety? Had her screams of pain and terror fallen on ears deafened by the roar of the fire and fear?

Wordlessly, they all turned back to the prairie and waited. The fire was towering larger by the minute, looking to be a tidal wave about to sweep the station. Kid didn't know if the ditch would hold it back, and he didn't care at the moment. Not if Rose had been pulled into it.

His heart stopped beating, he ceased to breathe. Beside him, Jamie's eyes searched the plain desperately. The fire would reach the trenches in less than a minute. If it did, Kid knew all hope Rose was alive would be diminished.

His fingers twined in Katy's mane as tears started running down his cheeks. He'd made the wrong decision. In saving the horse, he'd lost them both.

For seconds, no one in the station yard stirred. A strange sort of horrified silence filled the air, as if a bubble wrapped them from the roaring fire, and the only sound was of their own stuttering heartbeats. Agony prevailed as everyone waited, the seconds moving like hours.

Rose screamed as the heat from the fire at her back became unbearable. Surely it had to end soon. She wished it would. She could cling to the horse no longer.

And then, she was sure she'd died. It seemed that Mesa sprouted wings and soared into the sky. The smoke cleared a bit and she had a view of three faces…Kid, Lou, and Jamie, all stricken with grief as she was lifted to heaven. All fear left her mind as she looked down in amazement. The ditch was impossibly wide, but still Mesa flew.

She grew so relaxed that the impact of the landing jarred her arms up to her neck and she bit her tongue viciously. She fell for what seemed like forever, and the coolness of the dirt was welcome on her back, still stinging with the heat of fire.

Soon five faces bent over her. She smiled slightly at them all: Kid, Lou, Jamie, Buck, and Cody. They were all covered in soot, and the tracks their tears had made ran in zigzagging patterns across their faces that resembled war paint. She seemed unable to grasp onto the edge of a thought, and so she let her eyes drift past them, looking up through swirling smoke as Lou pressed a damp rag over her mouth, and instructed her to breathe deeply.

She clawed it away in irritation, and pointed at the sky, "Look at the moon. It's so bright tonight!"

All five faces looked up. The moon was nowhere in sight. It wasn't even nightfall yet. When Jamie glanced back at Rose, she was unconscious. He looked at Lou with worry.

"She'll be fine Jamie," Lou promised him, "help me carry her away from the smoke."

Jamie nodded numbly and stood up on legs that felt shaky suddenly, picking Rose up and following his mother.

He glanced back to see the fire had scorched its way up to the ditches, but for the moment was held at bay by the sudden loss of grass. It posed on the edge of the ditch, growing taller and more fearsome. It threatened to take the space in one leap and eat the men battling it from the other side with dirt, water, and whatever else they could find.

They certainly weren't out of danger yet. All they could do now was wait, and pray for the rain.

For himself, Jamie felt the girl lying alive in his arms was the only thing he had a right to ask for. The rest of the world could burn.