Page 59 of Smoke Season

“You go take a final check,” Claude said, his breath labored, nodding toward the house, “and then let’s go!”

But Sam shook his head. He didn’t need a last glance inside to know his revelation from earlier still held. Everything that mattered was already in Claude’s truck.

Gasping and coughing, he eased himself in next to his girls and Claude, all of them squeezed onto the single bench seat. It wasn’t until he had groped in the dark and smoke for his seat belt that he looked up through the windshield and saw what had struck new fear into Claude: the Flatiron Fire. Not on the ridge. Not on the slope on the other side of the road.

Right here.Upon them.

CHAPTER 27

Mel had never seen Carbon in such chaos. Even the old highway, usually underutilized as a bypass for the new interstate, was choked with oncoming cars. Vehicles made use of both lanes, north and south, in their exodus, and Lewis veered to the shoulder of the road and eased to a crawl, churning up dust along with the smoke.

“They’re gonna kill me,” the boy they’d picked up at the grow kept repeating as cars honked, people yelled, and arms flung out of windows, sometimes to wave others forward in an act of cooperation but more often in a show of anger or frustration as motorists cut in front of one another in an attempt to merge.

“I would worry more aboutthat, if I were you,” Lewis said, pointing at the billowing smoke toward the north, and at the sight, Mel tapped down a rise of bile in her throat. What did this second fire mean for Sam’s place, a.k.a. her daughters’ current sanctuary?

We’ll know when we know,she told herself in a desperate mantra. First, though, they had to get back to Carbon.Get there, get there, get there.She leaned forward against the dash, trying to see past the ash raining down, as if thrusting herself forward could urge their vehicle faster.

Lewis’s knuckles were white on the wheel. “You will be helping me record a report,” he informed the boy tightly, who hugged his scrawny knees to his chest, hunched between Mel and True. “And you’ll be talking to the DEA.”

“They’ll kill me,” he repeated. Mel wasn’t sure if he meant the Feds or Fallows, but he looked like he might puke, so probably the latter.

“We’ll get you somewhere safe,” Lewis told him, his mouth set in a grim line, “and go from there.”

But the closer they got to town, the closer they got to the fires, and the worse the congestion and panic became. Several cars were now driving on the soft shoulder like Lewis, careening in their direction in a confusing game of chicken.

“Watch out!” True yelled as Lewis slammed on the brakes to avoid hitting a deer leaping out in front of the vehicle, the animal intent on its own exodus. Mel glimpsed a raccoon running parallel to the road, loping in pace with the cars, a sight she’d never seen in daylight. Dogs barked, children cried, and people shouted.

“This is insane,” True said as a delivery truck laid on its horn and just wouldn’t stop. “Do they really think anyone can go any faster?”

But Mel only heardfaster. She nodded urgently. Yes.Faster. Faster, faster, faster.Her family depended on it. With a tiny register of surprise, Mel realized this title didn’t only mean her children. She needed to lay eyes on Sam, too.

At the Carbon city limits sign, several additional roads merged, and cars became bumper-to-bumper. One Carbon Rural truck had been haphazardly parked in the turnout by the sign, lights and siren going. Two firefighters attempted to direct traffic through the dense smoke. Mel didn’t recognize either of them in their full jumpsuits and N95s, but Lewis hit the brakes.

“Janet!” he called out the window, and one of the firefighters turned toward them, her expression glassy. “What’s the latest status?” he asked her. “Where’s this new fire burning?”

Janet shook her head and pointed to her ear, indicating that she couldn’t hear the question.

“Just ... report to White and Hernandez at the school,” she said, “if you can. They’re evacuating it.”

“The school?” Lewis shouted. “We thought thatwasthe evacuation site!”

Why were they quibbling over evac sites? Mel shook Lewis’s shoulder. “We have to go directly up Highline!”

But Janet shook her head fervently before hopping out of the way of a rogue Chevy pickup, and when Lewis hit the gas, navigating another block past the Quik Save, Mel understood why: the Flatiron Fire was a wall of flame directly across the road, fanning east.

The heat of it hit Mel’s skin even through the truck cab. Next to her, True’s face had gone white, and their Fallows grow passenger cried out and attempted to yank his door open; Lewis hit the child-lock button just in time.

“Knock it off!”

Where was the kid planning to go, anyway? People still trying to escape this block had fully panicked; abandoned cars had been left directly in the roadway, their inhabitants fleeing on foot, their vehicles immediately becoming obstacles to others. Horns continued to blare as people attempted insane maneuvers to get around the abandoned vehicles, bumping over curbs and onto sidewalks. More animals ran wild here in town: dogs clawing their way out of opened and abandoned crates, cats dashing between cars, more raccoons coexisting with the domestic pets, all driven to flee.

A half dozen additional fire rigs faced off with the wall of fire on the east side of town, where the combined efforts of multiple agencies seemed to be making slow but steady progress. Still, the fire had completely swallowed the East Carbon Apartments, and Happy Daze mobile-home park appeared to be next. Teams of hand crews dashed back and forth between vehicles, grabbing gear and assisting with hoses. It was terrifying to see the coveted privatized crews, so highly trained in wildland fighting, now scrambling to be of any use in the urban setting.

Lewis swung a left at the next intersection, his destination clearly Carbon High, and Mel let out a sharp yell of disapproval. “What about Highline?”

“You heard Janet,” he snapped back, his jaw set, his face dripping sweat.

“Lewis! Please!” She made a mad grab for the wheel.

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