Balancer Page 3

  With another series of racking coughs, Amy carefully crossed about halfway through the water where the dog had just easily traversed. She was now knee-deep in water. The smoke made it increasingly harder to see, and her progress across was slowed by the knowledge that she could slip on a rock or trip and twist her ankle. After she was safely a few yards into the stream, Amy decided it was safe enough for her friend to join her.

  “It seems like it’s OK here where Charlie dove in. The ground is a little uneven, but it’s not as slippery as I thought it might be.” Amy reached down into the water, pulled out a grapefruit-sized rock and tossed it into the smoky blackness. “Just watch your step for loose rocks. I almost twisted my ankle on that one.”

  With Amy positioned in the middle of the stream, Nicole cautiously lowered herself down to the edge of the water and gingerly placed in one foot while trying not to jostle Elise. Nicole gave a yelp as the freezing stream soaked through her socks.

  “I know. Really wakes you up, right?” Amy joked, and Nicole couldn’t help but laugh.

  With great care, Nicole used the visible tree roots and large, exposed rocks as footholds until she got to Amy’s supporting arms in the middle of the stream.

  A glance down at Elise told her that the little girl had sunk back into unconsciousness. Nicole knew that to stop her from going into shock, she should keep her awake, but this part of the journey could be more dangerous and scary for her anyway. She decided to wake her on the other side.

  “Steady.”

  Amy led the way slowly to the other side of the stream, constantly testing the ground for the most stable footing. Nicole was careful not to hold on to Amy too tightly, just in case she lost her footing.

  The group made it through the final few yards to the other side of the water without any trouble.

  They were now ready to climb up the embankment. Amy scrambled up the side first to join Charlie, then held out her hand for Nicole to grasp. After a count of three, she pulled Nicole to help with her difficult ascent with Elise. With only the tail of Elise’s sweater wet from the stream, the little girl was safely on the other side of the bank.

  Amy fell to her knees, wheezing, while Nicole laid Elise down for a moment, taking in the luxury of a few seconds of respite. Charlie seemed to say it all with his excited barks and jumps.

  Amy appeared to have used up all of her energy to help guide Nicole and Elise across the water. With her adrenaline subsiding, her throat and lungs started to fight against her, and her breathing became unsteady.

  “Do you need a rest?”

  “No,” Amy said after several shallow breaths. “Let’s just keep moving.”

  With Elise back in her arms, Nicole started up her frantic pace again. Charlie was running on ahead and barking, Amy was behind Charlie, and Nicole was bringing up the rear and returning to her mantra of forest floor and Amy once more.

  Surely they’d reach safety soon?

  With less oxygen, Nicole began to feel dizzy. It was like she had spun around in circles too much, and the world around her seemed somehow blurred, as though she was a little removed from this reality.

  She half shut her eyes to focus on Amy’s ahead. That’s when her mind began to drift, like it did during boring school lessons or when she was a passenger on long car trips. It was as if she couldn’t exactly feel herself in her body, even though she was aware of the pain in her throat and the tightness in her chest. They were there, but now — now she was someplace else.

  She began to hear footsteps and a different kind of chanting replacing her own. Suddenly she wasn’t carrying anyone in her arms, yet her hands were not free. They were bound. There were shackles on her feet. With every step, the sound of chains jingled around her, and the voices and clamor behind her became louder.

  A large man dressed in torn rags held the other end of the rope that held her wrists. He looked filthy, and judging by his appearance, although he was strong, he was extremely ill with some type of disease. His skin was pale and covered with sores. His hands were swollen and torn, and his face was distorted. Nicole felt like a dog being dragged to someplace a dog wouldn’t want to go. Whenever she paused, the large man would shout something unintelligible at her and then yank the rope to force her to keep moving.

  She looked over her shoulder to see at least twenty or so people following a safe distance behind her in the darkness. They all held torches, and some carried sharp farm tools. But they weren’t carrying them as if they were about to do farm work — they were holding them like weapons. Some of their expressions carried rage, some carried pain, and some carried fear.

  What have I done?

  The leader of the mob was a middle-aged man dressed all in black except for a white collar. He clutched a cross in his hand and shouted words of hatred in Nicole’s direction.

  She felt abject fear course through her, and even though she knew her steps would be woefully short because of the shackles, she continued to walk as fast as she could. Her wrists and ankles were in pain and bleeding, and she knew she couldn’t continue much longer.

  The wooded path soon opened up to reveal a small stone building covered with moss and overgrown with weeds. Its roof was thatched with grass-like material. But before Nicole could examine her surroundings any further, the diseased man grabbed the rope that was binding her wrists and violently dragged her toward a circle made of stones. She was being led to a deep and dark hole.

  A terrifying thought came into her mind. The thought was in her voice, but it wasn’t her own thought. Not the water again.

  Nicole heard herself cry out to the mob, “I was just trying to help! You don’t understand!”

  The diseased man gave a nod to the priest to let him know he had control of her. The priest nervously paused for a moment before accepting the diseased man’s assurance that the situation was under control. He hesitantly moved forward, raised his open palm toward Nicole, and proceeded to chant a prayer in a foreign tongue. Latin?

  “Please just let me go! I won’t hurt you ever again. Just please let me go!”

  The diseased man tugged hard on the rope and covered Nicole’s mouth with his hands. The priest continued the chant, but something changed when the man covered her mouth to silence her. A powerful energy seemed to explode through her veins at that moment, and she felt her fear turn to rage.

  The diseased man sensed something had changed in his victim, and he released the rope and backed away.

  “Not again!” Nicole heard herself scream.

  The man continued to back away. He watched his shadow on the side of the building change. He watched his own death as the shape of his shadow transformed from that of a human to a cloud of dust.

  The mob screamed as they watched the diseased man crumble, and suddenly Nicole heard a familiar voice in the distance.

  “I see lights.”

  The voice snapped her out of her vision.

  Her senses were still distorted, the way they are when you wake up from a horrible nightmare. To her enormous relief, though, Nicole found herself back in the forest. Elise was in her arms, and Amy was tugging at her arm, an expression of pure joy on her face.

  Amy beamed. “Nix, are you listening? It’s a clearing. I see lights!”

  Nicole felt her heart leap.

  Sure enough, the cooler blue light of a distant clearing now veered into view.

  They had made it.

  Tummy Rub

  Amy began to cry tears of relief at the sight of salvation. As they neared the edge of the forest, glimmers of silver caught their eyes. These turned out to be people wrapped in shiny, silver blankets.

  Then came the unmistakable sound of emergency vehicles, and as they got closer, they could see the flashing lights of police cars, firetrucks and ambulances.

  At last.

  It was Amy who first saw the iconic brown and yellow uniforms and the helmets of the firemen. Three large men were making a beeline to them. She gave a breath of pure exhaustion, having just whee
zed her way through a smoky, dark forest. Knowing that they had finally reached safety, Amy sank to the ground.

  Nicole collapsed beside her, Charlie barking furiously and Elise still in her arms.

  The firemen rushed toward them, and Nicole felt the painful burden lifted from her arms. The ache remained, but it was now accompanied by a feeling of relief at the lightness of having no precious cargo to carry.

  As Amy was being stretchered away to the paramedics van — unconscious — Nicole allowed herself to be supported to an awaiting ambulance by a tall fireman who introduced himself as Steve. Charlie the dog would not leave her, and he remained at the fireman’s heel all the way to the van.

  The next few moments were a blur, but through the relief and the exhaustion, one event was very clear: Nicole could hear Elise’s name being called, over and over. She craned her neck to see that the desperate anguish of a waiting mom and dad was now over.

  Nicole watched feebly, using Steve’s arms to support her, as a slight woman emerged and was reunited with the daughter she’d feared was lost in the fire. Charlie was barking at the sight of his pack back together again, and Nicole smiled for the first time in what seemed like an eternity.

  With the adrenaline ebbing away, she had begun to ache all over. As the emergency crew attended to her, she glanced over to see whether Amy was stirring, and then over at Steve, who was busying himself with Charlie. He seemed to be a natural with animals, and handled the dog firmly but tenderly as he bathed him and cleaned his wounds.

  A paramedic rested a hand on Nicole’s shoulder, and that was enough to tell her that it was OK.

  It really was OK now.

  The stream of oxygen breezed down into Nicole’s lungs, and the tension of the past hour finally began to ease. Her sense of smell — up until now numbed by the sharp tang of smoke — could detect the rubbery odor of the oxygen mask clamped over her face as she sat in the back of the paramedics van.

  She had gulped down the energy drink handed to her and took in her surroundings as her mind cleared. A crew of doctors and paramedics in the makeshift triage area was treating the young and old. Elsewhere, about thirty yards to the left, police were taking statements.

  Nicole had called her mom, who was coming off of her shift in the ER and had to be repeatedly convinced by Nicole that everything really was fine. She would already be on her way from Evergreens Hospital to pick them up.

  Another paramedic was spending a little longer with Amy, who had come off worse. The paramedic was tending to her cuts from the rocks in the ditch as well as from twigs and brambles in the brush. Amy was slowly coming to after having passed out, and the oxygen was already working its magic, the sparkle returning to her bright green eyes.

  The backs of Nicole’s legs and arms were tingling with the rawness of mild burns, even though they had now been cleaned and treated. Their flight through the forest had been so desperate that Nicole hadn’t noticed the heat affecting her in this way, focused as she was on getting through the fire with Amy, Elise and Charlie. The survival instinct, she reflected, had seemingly trumped all other sensations.

  They were, generally speaking, pretty worse for the wear compared with the others milling around in the foil blankets that Nicole had spotted earlier.

  Nicole noted that some sense of normalcy had been restored among those who had fled the campgrounds. With the panic faded from their eyes, she thought she detected a passing wave of shame as the adults realized that two teenagers and a little girl had been left behind to fend for themselves.

  In the distance, the rest of the fire crew was now extinguishing the wildfire, sending up a last cough of light gray smoke into the night sky.

  It was when Amy stirred and sat up on her gurney and after the paramedic had just finished treating Nicole that Steve uttered some unexpected words.

  “Well, I’ll be …”

  Nicole turned to see a yellow Labrador in place of the charred, wounded dog from earlier.

  Even more surprising, Charlie, bright-eyed again, barked and wagged his tail.

  “How is he?” Nicole asked.

  “He’s fine. Better than you in many respects.” Steve turned to address Charlie in an affectionate dog voice. “You were very lucky these young ladies found you. Yes you were!”

  “He’s OK?” Nicole leaned forward.

  “Yep. He looked like he’d been through hell and back, but there’s not a scratch on him.” Steve rubbed Charlie playfully, and the dog rolled on his back in expectation of a tummy rub.

  A shout farther away from one of Steve’s colleagues briskly informed him that now wasn’t the time to be playing with dogs. Steve smirked and replaced his helmet.

  “Nice work, girls. Take care, OK?”

  Nicole looked over at Amy, who was breathing deeply from her oxygen again, wide-eyed at the condition of Charlie.

  Nicole began taking deeper gulps of oxygen, too.

  Charlie’s fine?

  Mean Hot Chocolate

  It was some minutes before either Nicole or Amy could speak again, and even then, all they were able to utter were murmurs of incredulity.

  A burly old cop, who by the looks of things had been yanked straight out of bed, now approached them. He introduced himself as Officer Gillespie. “But you girls can call me Officer G. for short,” he said. He made a point of shaking their hands and offered them cups of hot cocoa.

  “You girls sure were brave tonight.”

  Amy replied with a smile, and Nicole shrugged shyly. Earlier, Nicole had watched the officer taking statements from people, every now and then grabbing another cup of what she thought must’ve been coffee to stave off the weariness that was clouding his face. She smiled at her assumption and sipped at her hot, soothing drink. It filled her body with the same kind of sensation as a warm duvet in winter. Officer G. made a mean hot chocolate.

  “Lot of people caught out on the other side back there. We got some fire crews damping down the last of it right now.”

  “How’s Elise?”

  Officer G. considered his words. “She must’ve gotten a lot of smoke in her lungs, so it’s touch and go. It was a miracle you found her.”

  “Was anyone else hurt?” Nicole asked.

  “Thankfully, everyone else was kinda lucky tonight.”

  “That’s great.”

  “That’s amazing! It was so fierce!” The hot chocolate was revitalizing Amy, and she held her oxygen mask off for a second. “We saw so many people running past us.”

  “Yeah, well, wildfires are a scary business. Won’t need to tell you girls that. Bet you’re exhausted.”

  “Totally,” said Amy, replacing her mask.

  Nicole shrugged, painfully aware of how the escape from the fire had taken a toll on her body.

  Just then, static noise and voices buzzed over the police radio. Nicole could hardly make out a word that was said, but the officer seemed to understand it. At the point at which Nicole thought she heard “feds,” he rolled his eyes, and a seriously unamused look crossed his ruddy features.

  “You ladies excuse me a sec?” And off he went.

  Oblivious to this conversation, Charlie was now wagging his tail, bright-eyed and with a healthy-looking coat that belied the struggle of earlier. He was also chewing on some doggy treats Officer G. had sneaked him.

  Just as Nicole reached down to stroke Charlie, a text message drew her to her phone. The message made her heart sink a little.

  “Mom’s lost in traffic. The wildfire is causing gridlock because of all of the temporary detours. She’s having trouble getting here.”

  Amy gave her little muted hum. “There’s always something causing traffic to back up around here.”

  Just then, Nicole remembered her faithful Nissan. She wondered whether it had survived the blaze, and felt a stab of regret that it had to be left behind. A sixteenth-birthday present from her parents, the car had been parked outside her family’s house the night before her birthday, sporting a large purple bow.<
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  “You OK?” Amy touched Nicole gently on the shoulder, seeing that she was preoccupied. Nicole nodded. “Weird about Charlie, huh?”

  “Yeah. Really weird,” Nicole replied.

  “What do you think happened? ’Cause he was burnt, wasn’t he?”

  Nicole sighed. “I thought so. And I felt him bleeding. But maybe it was just soot and sweat?”

  “I don’t think dogs sweat.”

  Amy didn’t have time to say any more, as just then a shout went up across the makeshift triage area.

  Both turned to see a man of about Nicole’s dad’s age who was being followed closely by Officer G.

  “Charlie!” The man gave a whistle.

  The Labrador’s ears perked up and he barked, his tail thumping furiously against the ground. Still, though, he wouldn’t leave Nicole and Amy’s side. He sat rooted, as though waiting for them to give him permission.

  “Go on, boy!” Amy urged, gently patting his hind legs.

  Off he sprang, barking with all his might until he reached his owner. Charlie rolled over onto his back, and the man tickled his belly. It was a lovely sight, and Amy couldn’t help but poke Nicole affectionately, as if to say, Look. You did that.

  “These are the girls,” the officer said. “Nicole and Amy. Girls, this is Mr. Allerton, Elise’s dad. Charlie’s owner.”

  “I’m sure we’ll never be able to repay you for what you’ve done,” the man, bearded and tall with piercing blue eyes, effused. Nicole could see his brow was deeply furrowed with regret and shame.

  Still partly distracted by Charlie’s dramatic recovery, both Nicole and Amy listened to how the Allertons had become separated from Elise when the fire broke out, and how the fire crew had insisted the parents get to safety and allow them to do their jobs. Nicole could see that this evening would probably torment Elise’s parents for a very long time. The girls did their best to accept Mr. Allerton’s fervent thanks with grace, and they promised to visit the Allertons’ store in the mall to pick out anything they liked. Nicole suspected she and Amy had just made friends for life.