Firestorm (2 page)

“Have you got
the walkie-talkie, Lucas? You need to take it just in case.”

Grandpa huffed
as he snatched one of the handsets from the kitchen counter.

“Yes, Martha.
I’ll take it just to make you happy. Now stop worrying and have fun
with our girls. I’ll see you at supper.”

Meagan and I
walked with Grandpa and Don down to the lake where the small wooden
boat was tied onto the dock. When I saw it I understood why Nana
was worried, and so Meagan and I helped them bale out about six
inches of water from the bottom before they could get in.

“Gees, Grandpa.
This isn’t just a tiny hole. Are you sure you want to go out in
this? I mean, do you really feel that safe in it?”

“Sarah, we do
this all the time. And don’t forget I’m a good swimmer and so is
Don so even if it did have problems, we can swim to land. Now, you
two go back and help Nana finish packing up those last closets. And
when I get back, I’ll meet those two knights in shining armour that
you both keep talking about.”

We returned to
the house and spent the next several hours packing up some closets
that were filled with linens and boxes of Christmas decorations. By
one o’clock a large grey van from the storage company arrived and
it took the many boxes that we had packed over the last week.

Meagan
collapsed onto a kitchen chair and drank a small bottle of
water.

“Nana, I don’t
understand why you’re sending all this to the storage unit. The
moving van is coming here to get your furniture anyway.”

“I don’t know
why either. Grandpa thinks it’s foolish but we have a lot of things
we saved over the years and I don’t want to lose them. Besides,
we’re having a big open house next weekend to sell most of the
furniture because I want all new when we move.”

Just then the
front door bell rang and both Meagan and I jumped up and shouted at
the same time.

“It’s the
guys!”

I raced her to
the front door and when we opened it she dove into Ali’s arms and
he turned in circles on the front doorstep as he held her tight.
Brad stood there with a big smile on his face as he opened his arms
to me. I wasn’t quite as free as Meagan and our relationship was
still in development, but I knew I didn’t want to miss this moment.
I stepped up to Brad and put my arms around him and the alluring
fragrance of amber and musk filled my nostrils as a warm, loving
sensation flooded my body.

I knew Brad was
the love of my life, and I loved being with him. It’s just that he
still made me nervous because we’d only been together since the
last hike at Snake River. I had a mad crush all year on our
school’s football icon while Brad had spent the entire year trying
to get my attention. It wasn’t until he helped me through the
horrors of that hike that I realized what a wonderful and caring
guy he really is. We spent a lot of time together in the weeks that
followed, right up until last week when Meagan and I came here. And
that’s when I really knew how much I cared for him.

We introduced
the guys to Nana and then sat around the kitchen table telling her
all about the horrific experience with the mudslide. It was a
wonderful hour that we shared with Nana and she made the guys feel
very welcomed. But when the clock struck four o’clock she became
edgy that Grandpa wasn’t back yet.

“Well, I’m sure
he’ll be along shortly. He’s probably just taking his time today
because he knows you’re here to keep me company.”

Then around
4:30 there was a loud crackling from the walkie-talkie on the
kitchen counter. Nana grabbed it right away.

“Lucas? Lucas,
is that you?”

There was more
crackling and then a few seconds later his voice came through but
it was breaking up and hard to understand. Nana shoved the handset
into my hand.

“What’s he
saying? Sarah, you talk to him.”

A second later
we heard Grandpa again.

“Ole… boat…
king…elf bite…leeding.”

Nana gasped
loudly as she put her hand over her mouth.

“Oh no,
something about the hole in the boat.”

A second later
there was more crackling and then it went dead.

“Grandpa?
Grandpa?”

My insides
became jittery as I turned to Meagan.

“What do you
think he means?”

“I’m not sure.
Let’s go outside.”

She opened the
back door and we ran down the back yard towards the lake, while Ali
caught up with us and Brad walked with Nana. When we got to the
water, everything was so quiet. No birds chirped. Nothing
moved.

Then suddenly,
I jumped as a loud shrill from hundreds of birds broke the silence
and burst through the forest in the skies above, and flew off into
the unknown behind us. Squirrels were jumping from the trees and
running frantically past the house in the same direction as the
birds. The grass path was flooded with big and little ground
critters and they ran frantically in mixed groups towards the front
of the house.

Nana screamed
and held her hands over her mouth.

“I knew it. I
knew it. That stupid boat. They’re probably yelling for help and
scaring all the animals.”

Suddenly, the
hairs on the nape of my neck tingled and sent a spike of fear up
and down my spine. It was the same icy chills that I felt when I
hugged Grandpa, and the same fear that hovered over me in my
dream.

Nana began to
cry uncontrollably into her apron as she repeated over and over
that she knew this would happen. Meagan put her arms around her and
kept telling her that everything would be all right, but I could
tell by the stressed look on her face that even Meagan was
struggling to believe her own words.

The guys ran
ahead to the dock and were talking between themselves for a couple
of minutes as Meagan and I tried to keep Nana calm. A few minutes
later they ran back to where we were standing on the back lawn and
Ali shook his head.

“The river
turns to the right just over there and becomes really wide. We have
no idea how far up the river they are and with so much brush all
around, it’s going to be impossible to get over there without a
boat. All we can do is to run the river bank and hope we spot them
from this side – if they’re on this side.”

Brad agreed and
pointed to the house.

“Why don’t we
just call for help? Someone around here must have a boat that we
can borrow or maybe they even know where they are.”

Nana pushed
Meagan away and talked in between the tears.

“Our phones
aren’t working and all I have is this walkie-talkie. You have to
go. Please, girls. You’re hikers, you can find him.”

Ali interrupted
and pointed to the house.

“Mrs. Davies,
we can use my cell phone to call for help.”

“Anyone I know
will be at the fair today and they don’t carry portable phones like
that and we can’t wait for them to get home. You have to go in and
look for Grandpa now while it’s still light.”

Nana had no
idea how intimidating these trails were for us. Meagan and I had
ventured out a bit each time we visited, but we’d never gone beyond
the first mile or so and we really didn’t know where the trails
went or what kind of challenges they carried. And what’s worse, we
had no idea where Grandpa and Don might be. But Nana stared at me
expecting me to say something.

“Nana, we can
go along the trail over there, but it’s going to take us a while
and I’m not sure if……”

Suddenly,
another flock of birds came screeching from the forest and flew
behind us. Ali looked at Brad and then at us and we all just
nodded. I pulled on Meagan’s arm and pulled her towards the
house.

“Come on, Meg.
Let’s get our hiking boots on and at least try to find them.”

They guys ran
with Nana who followed us as quickly as any elderly and stoutly
woman could, and by the time she got to the house Meagan and I had
already scooted upstairs and changed into our blue jean shorts and
t-shirts and had grabbed some clean socks. We were by the back door
pulling on our socks when she opened the back door and stared at us
with a very annoyed look.

“Oh, girls,
this is not the time to be fashionable. You didn’t need to waste
time changing your clothes, you could just go the way you
were.”

I understood
her frustration but I also knew that she’d never gone hiking into
the woods and had no idea what it was like.

“Nana, the
paths are stony and rocky and it’s uneven. We can’t run in sandals,
okay? We need our boots so we can move fast.”

Brad looked
around the kitchen and asked Nana if she had a first aid kit that
he could carry it in his backpack just in case we needed it.

“Yeah, there’s
a box of band aids and some rubbing alcohol. Here’s an elastic wrap
from when Grandpa hurt his knee. Oh, and here’s a small box of
tissues. There’s blankets in the hall there in that box.”

Ali and Brad
instinctively dumped their personal things out of their backpacks
onto the couch and then Ali put the first aid supplies and some
bottles of water into his, and Brad stuffed two blankets into his.
Brad told her to stay by the walkie-talkie and then the second the
last boot was laced we hugged Nana, said goodbye and took off into
the forest.

Ali studied his
compass as we walked the first steps along the path.

“Okay, your
Nana said that he went this way which is north so we want to go
this way. And Sarah, you said that it was about two or three miles
in, right?”

Meagan and I
were running behind the guys.

“Well, that’s
what Grandpa said, that it was two or three miles this way. But Meg
and I have never been there so we don’t know exactly where it
is.”

We trekked at a
decent pace up and down the hilly trail and about twenty minutes
later we came to a fork in the path. Ali used his compass and
pointed in the direction that we should go.

“Okay, the
trail on the right takes us in the direction of the water which is
down there on the right, but we can’t see if it actually runs along
the water edge or if it stays up here and away from it. I think
we’re going to need to cut through all that mass of broken dead
trees and just get down to the river bank.”

Brad ran ahead
on the trail and came back a minute later waving for us to follow
him.

“I think this
trail takes us deep into the forest and possibly even away from the
water, but it also runs along the terrain. So maybe we should take
it until we can get to a point where we can cut through the dry
terrain and get to the water.”

We all agreed
and hustled along the path until we got to the dry terrain where
the heat waves just bounced off the dead grass and made it
difficult to breathe. We crossed the terrain of dry grass and rocks
and we were all dripping in sweat by the time we got to the far
side. After climbing a short stony ramp we looked down and could
see the water about fifty feet below us. I looked carefully and I
could feel my chest tightening.

“There’s no
path. This just drops right into the water.”

Brad ran up a
short hill to the left of us and then yelled for us to follow, so
we scooted up the uneven hill to join him. We followed him through
a mass of broken trees that looked as if a huge boulder had just
crushed them. Ali wiped the sweat from his forehead as we ran
along.

“Looks like a
lot of this brush just dried up. I don’t think I’ve ever hiked
where it’s been so hot and dry before.”

We stopped a
few minutes later and Brad told us that we’d been trekking for
about an hour.

“We have to be
getting close to them. The river’s down there and according to my
watch, we’ve reached the two mile point already, so I think we’re
going to need to get close to the water somehow. What do you
think?”

I found it hard
thinking about where we were going because the icy chills were
shooting up and down my back again, and all I could think of was
that Grandpa was in some kind of real danger.

“Meg,
something’s really wrong. I can feel it.”

“I know, Sarah,
I know. I’m scared, too, but we have to find them before it gets
dark.”

Ali turned back
to look at Meagan with a puzzled look on his face.

“So when does
it start getting dark around here?”

Meagan and I
looked at each and I could feel myself biting my lower lip again.
We knew that it always got darker in the forest first, and that’s
when the real fear of disaster began to creep up my spine.

“Usually around
eight, right Meg? But that’s in the house. By eight it’ll be black
in here.”

We found a
narrow pathway that led down towards the water and Meagan and I
yelled for Grandpa and Don in between pants as we climbed down.
There was no answer. We even stopped at one point just to listen
for any kind of response, but there wasn’t any that we could
hear.

Ali moved ahead
of us and then stopped to stare at the water with his hand over his
sunglasses like a visor.

“Do you see
that? It kind of looks like an inlet way over there. You said that
your Grandfather said it was a quiet place out of the way. So what
do you think? Should we try to get over there? It’ll take us about
half an hour.”

A few seconds
later we were standing beside Ali and trying to block out the sharp
rays of the sun as we focused on the tiny inlet on the far side of
the river. There was no direct path down to the water and no
visible way of crossing it to get there. That’s when Meagan grabbed
my arm and gasped.

“Sarah, we have
been this far before when we were little. Remember when Grandpa
took us along the trail when we were little and we crossed a sway
bridge?”

Meagan was
pointing up the path and I was focussing on a sway bridge that I’d
seen years ago.