Page 46 of Embers of Love

Josephine could never fathom the amount of self-control she had to halt the rescue of her own daughter due to safety reasons. She wanted to wrench the radio out of her hand and order the firefighters to go in on foot to rescue Ember. The logical part of her mind won out eventually. Rushing in with no clue wouldn’t save anybody.

Josephine looked into the distance. The fire was growing. Watching the smoke rise high up into the sky inspired a certain level of hopelessness within her. How were they supposed to win against a force of nature? It seemed like a battle they were bound to lose eventually. Would Ember be one of the casualties it claimed?

“Please be okay.” she whispered. “I love you.”

The winds were starting to pick up speed. Josephine looked up, beyond the thick smoke, clouds were gathering in the sky.

11

EMBER

There was no word on old man Farcy. Ember had to move fast before it was too late. She turned to look around, they’d been largely successful with backfiring. Most of the ground around her was burned black by the fire. The strong smell of wet, burned leaves assailed her nose. They’d successfully put out the fire in this area of controlled burn and the trucks were refilling their water tanks before they moved off to other areas that might present greater risks.

She glanced up over the hill again. Most of it was blanketed in smoke, obscuring the skies above. Her mind couldn’t stop thinking.

“I’m going to check on Farcy.”

Jenna glanced at her. Perhaps she’d been expecting her to run off again, but Ember was genuinely waiting for the go ahead to move.

“We’ll need to go around, over the interstate to get to that side.”

“Not if I go on foot. I’ll cross the hill faster if I cut through the forest.”

“With all that gear?” Haley asked, incredulous.

“I can make it,” Ember said confidently.

“Alright, we’ll go around. That might take us a while.”

“Got it.” Ember broke off in a jog.

“Your mom won’t like this, you know?” Haley called.

Ember nodded to herself. “Yeah, I know,” she called back to Haley. They weren’t supposed to go anywhere alone, but Ember wasn’t going to force one of the others to go with her on this mission.

The others rushed to pack up and move. Despite her confidence, Ember’s lungs were burning with the effort by the time she crested the hill. She picked her way down carefully. She glimpsed Farcy’s house in the distance. Ember thought she saw his truck parked in the driveway in the distance, but it was hard to tell. Eventually, she descended into the forest, the tall trees obscured her vision. The fire had already spread this far. The trees around and above were already aflame. The wind had likely carried embers this way. What leaves that were left on the trees were already dry, waiting to serve as kindling.

Ember pulled her mask on to keep most of the smoke out. She was still huffing, but the descent into the forest had been less exerting than the climb.

She broke out of the tree line, getting a clear view of the old man’s home. His truck was still sitting in the driveway.

He never goes anywhere without it, Ember thought.

True enough, she found him attempting to wrestle an armoire out the door of the house.

“Farcy! You need to go!”

He glanced up at her in shock, blinking blearily.

“Can’t let the fire have it!” he protested and went back to fighting with the furniture.

Ember didn’t understand what was so important about it. It looked like an antique, probably very expensive. However, it was still furniture, nothing worth risking his life over.

“Come on,” she grabbed him by the arm, trying to pull him away.

“No!” the man refused, wrenching his arm away. “I can’t leave it!”

“We have to go!” Ember said urgently. “We don’t have much time until the fire traps us in here!”

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