Page 49 of Carmine

“We gotta get him a safe distance down. The choppers won’t fly this close. Even though there’s not a lot of volcanic ash, some has been noted,” Bobby stated.

“Tanner,” Gunner turned to the fireman, “and Lex, carry him back and get him airlifted to the hospital, and then go to the command centre. We’ll continue searching for the others.”

“Not a problem. We can return,” Tanner offered.

“No, I don’t want you two getting lost looking for us. I’d prefer you to go to the centre, and we can meet there,” Gunner replied.

They finally nodded, and we loaded the wounded guy up and watched them set off at a pace.

“Move to where we were. It’s far too hot here,” Gunner ordered.

“These guys could be anywhere,” Lex muttered after we’d taken a break.

“Yeah, but we gotta find them. They’re here somewhere,” Savage complained.

I understood how he felt. My own temper was being stretched by the heat.

We continued, calling out for them, and after several hours, Gunner called for a stop.

“What’s your opinion?” he asked Savage.

“If the fuckers are here, God knows. The dogs not alerted once and they might be miles away,” Savage replied.

“If we finish this grid off and call in. Then, we’ll need to consider where they might have headed. The assholes would have wanted a vantage point to see the fissure and lava flow,” I said.

“Where do you think they went, Carmine? You were present when it erupted,” Gunner inquired.

“They’re either up here or up Buzzards Roost Trailhead.”

“That’s my gut feeling too,” Savage agreed.

“Finish this grid and then reassess,” Gunner decided.

We walked for another hour, looking for any sign of life, and discovered nothing. The friends who’d reported them missing had claimed they’d come this way, but we’d not found anything.

“Wait,” Bobby said as we turned back.

We all stopped and listened.

“Tia’s not alerting,” the handler murmured.

“There!” Savage muttered, pointing north.

“That takes us very close to the lava. Are you sure?” the handler asked.

“Yeah, but stay here with Tia. It’s too dangerous up there,” Gunner ordered, nodding at the dog.

“Gunner, I’m not sure. There’s four of you left and three missing hikers,” the handler pointed out.

“We’ll carry them out if we have to. Wait while we check,” Gunner stated, and we moved forward.

After ten more minutes of searching, we found them. Two were unconscious, while one banged a travel mug against a rock, creating the noise Savage heard.

Gunner quickly assessed their injuries as the conscious man spoke.

“It was a laugh. We didn’t honestly anticipate finding lava here. Not really, despite what the reports said. When we heard the explosions, we thought it was a joke, like someone was mining. We literally ran into the lava stream. Graham stumbled and put his hand right in it. He’s been unconscious since. Mike and I grabbed him and ran, but Mike fell and hit his head. I couldn’t leave them, and then the lava came closer,” the guy rambled.

The idiot wasn’t wrong. Through the trees, I saw the lava moving at a crawl. It was far slower than when Molly and I had seen it yesterday. That shook me up a little. It felt like we’d been at this for days, but we hadn’t.

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