by K. C. Crowne
Suddenly the resistance was gone as the foal slipped free, spilling out onto the ground, covered in a thick membrane. Most foals were able to remove it themselves, but in this case, I needed to make sure the baby was breathing. I ripped it open, found the horse's nose and quickly began cleaning the mucus from around it off. Sarah joined me, helping wipe the foal clean. I felt the ribcage, and it was breathing. The baby was breathing.
I fell backward onto the floor, relief washing over me. I was gross, covered in fluids that would disgust most people, but I didn't care. The foal was alive and that was all that mattered.
“What do we do now?” Sarah asked.
“Leave it be. Silver will know what to do,” I said. “She'll break the umbilical cord on her own when she's ready. But, for now, we leave them be.”
“We have to get them out of here,” Sarah said, looking over at Jacklyn. “We need to get everyone out of here.”
“We need to give them twenty or thirty minutes,” I said. “Let's load up the other horses first, and we can come back for them. We have time for that, at least.”
I stood, and for the first time, I saw the look on Sarah's face. Her eyes were wide and filled with surprise as she gawked at me. It was nice to know I could still surprise people now and then – especially someone like her.
“Owen, thank you –” Jacklyn started to say.
I noticed tears welling in her eyes as she continued stroking Silver's muzzle.
“I'm just glad she's okay,” I said.
“I don't know what we'd have done without you,” Jacklyn cried.
“Where did you learn to do that?” Sarah asked.
“We'll talk about it later,” I said. “First, I need to clean up. Then, we need to get the horses loaded. The fire's coming, and we need to get out of here.”
“Of course,” Jacklyn said, giving Silver a quick kiss on the nose before standing up. “Let me show you to the bathroom. You can grab a quick shower. I'm sure one of the guys has some fresh clothes for you to wear.”
Sarah stood up too, and as we walked across the yard and toward the house, she said something I never thought I'd hear from one of my team members.
“Good job back there, Owen,” she said. “You did good. Real good.”
Milo Bucknell and I were apparently about the same size. Thanks to him, I had a new pair of jeans and a long-sleeved, flannel shirt. I just needed the cowboy hat and boots, and I'd probably fit right in at the ranch. I'd taken a very quick shower at the house, and when I finished drying off, I heard another voice in the hallway.
A male voice.
Jacklyn was laughing, but I heard no sign of Sarah. I left the bathroom and walked down the hallway to find all three of them sitting around a kitchen table. There was a guy with them. A man with dark brown hair, and very dark, almost black eyes.
The scene was almost surreal to me. Beyond the windows, I could see the flames lighting up the nighttime sky, casting a red and orange glow over the world. It looked like the end times, and yet, in there, the three of them sat around the table like nothing was going on. Like everything was normal.
The world outside looked like it was ending, but they were sitting around chit chatting. The disconnect between the two images was stunning to me.
“Owen, this is Eric,” Jacklyn said, standing up to introduce us. “Eric, this is Owen. He's the one who helped Silver deliver her foal.”
Eric stood up and walked over to me, a friendly smile on his face. When he reached me, I noticed a strong smell on him that caused me to take a step back. Sarah was watching me closely, and I couldn't figure out what was going on.
“Sorry, I need to clean up. Truck broke down on the way back here,” Eric said. “Spilled some oil on me.”
It didn't smell like oil to me. It smelled more like gasoline, tinged with the scent of smoke. Then again, he had been outside, potentially not far from the fires themselves. It was easy to understand why he might smell like it. Still, I couldn't shake the way Sarah was looking over at me. Something was up, and I wasn't getting what she was trying to tell me.
“So you're a firefighter as well?” Eric asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “I work with Jacklyn’s sister.
“What do you make of these fires lately?” he asked. “Crazy, huh?”
“Very crazy,” I said. “Speaking of, we should probably get the horses loaded up and get out of here, with that one coming this way.”
Sarah spoke up. “Hey, Eric, do you mind hooking the horse trailers up? Owen's right, we really ought to get going.”
“I'll help him,” Jacklyn said.
“No, Jackie,” Sarah said, patting the chair next to her. “Hang out with me for a bit, please?”
Yeah, something wasn't right. I could see it in Sarah's face and hear it in her voice. Jacklyn must have heard it too. She looked over at her sister, prepared to argue – she was every bit as ornery and stubborn as her big sister, so I jumped in, hoping to head off whatever was about to happen before it actually did. There was no time for a sisterly spat.
“Yeah, we should check on Silver anyway,” I said to Eric. “You know her better than I do. We need to make sure she's fit to travel here pretty quick.”
Jacklyn turned to me, and she nodded. I'd convinced her to stay. Sarah shot me an appreciative glance as Eric nodded at me.
“Yeah, sure,” he said. “I'm on it.”
“Great,” I replied. “I'll catch up with you in just a second.”
Eric nodded again, then turned, and headed out the door. I waited until the door banged shut, and I saw him walking across the yard toward the stables before I turned to Sarah,and gave her the “all clear” sign. Jacklyn immediately rounded on her sister, a look of anger etched upon her smooth, flawless face.
“What the hell is going on?” Jacklyn asked, crossing her arms in front of her chest, a defiant look on her face.
“Something isn't right with him, Jackie,” Sarah said. “I hate to say it, but –”
Jacklyn scoffed. “Of course you'd say that. You don't like anyone I date. You never have.”
“Not true. I've given my blessing for you to date Milo or any of the guys you work with,” she said.
“Yeah, except they're my bosses, Sarah, and that would be unprofessional,” she snapped. “You know that, and that's the only reason you gave your blessing.”
“Like this wouldn't be?” Sarah said. “He's a lodger, Jacklyn! And by the way, a guy you know next to nothing about.”
“Stop it,” I shouted, holding my hands up. “Both of you, just stop yelling for a second. I meant it, we need to check on Silver and the foal. Sarah, are you okay with horses?”
Sarah shrugged. “I've been around them a few times as a kid.”
“Think you could help load them to the trailers? We need to get everyone out of here, quickly. We have no clue when the winds might change and bring the fire closer to us. For all we know, it's already on its way. It looks like it to me.”
Sarah sighed. “You're right. I'm sorry,” she said. “I just worry about you, Jacklyn, and Eric sets off so many red flags in my head, that I –”
“Let's get everyone out of here,” I said, cutting her off before she could get rolling again.
“I'm going to check on Silver,” Jacklyn muttered as she left the room.
We both heard the door slam as she went out the back.
“Owen, you're with me on this, right?” Sarah pleaded her case to me. “Something isn't right about him. I can't be the only one who sees that.”
I hated to feed into her paranoia, but yeah, she was right. There were some red flags that even I picked up on. The trouble was, I just couldn't put my finger on what it was. The smell on him was the most obvious though.
“We'll keep Jacklyn close by,” I said. “Keep an eye on her.”
Sarah headed toward the door, and I followed close behind her. We passed by large windows in the living room that overlooked the front yard. Eric was hooking up the trailers, an
d thankfully, Jacklyn was nowhere to be seen. Most likely she'd gone to do what she said she was going to do to, which was checking on the mare and her foal. The hair stood up on the back of my neck as I watched Eric working though.
I got a real bad feeling about the guy, but it was nothing I could point to specifically. All I knew was that I needed to keep a close eye on him.
“Silver and her baby are loaded and ready to go,” Sarah said as I closed up the trailer. “Think we can finally head out of here.”
The plan was that Jacklyn was going to drive the horse trailer to another property the Bucknell Brothers owned further North of the city, away from the fires and heading in the opposite direction. She'd never driven one of the trailers before, but she was going to give it a shot. Given the fires and all, there probably wouldn't be a lot of traffic on the roads, so as long as she took it easy, she'd be okay.
Eric was going God knew where – I assumed he'd be with Jacklyn – though, I hoped he'd stay far away from Sarah's sister. He had his own car there, but he hadn't exactly elaborated on his plans. He actually didn't say much of anything since he'd left us in the house to hook up the trailers. He also didn't do much to help us either, besides hooking up the trailer. His presence was just awkward. Tense. Which made it a big relief to finally be done with everything.
“Thanks, guys,” Jacklyn said, wrapping Sarah in her arms. “The horses mean the world to me, and this means so much to me – and I know Milo, and his brothers will be thankful for all your help too.”
“No problem,” Sarah said. “Just wanted to keep my baby sister safe.”
Jacklyn thanked me, minus the hug – she offered me a firm handshake instead.
“I don't know how you knew what to do, but thank you,” she said. “You saved Silver's life. And her baby's too, of course.”
“Happy to help,” I said, squeezing her hand.
Jacklyn looked back over at Sarah and said, “You really should date this one. He's a catch.”
I laughed and Sarah turned a bright shade of red, but neither one of us said a word. No reason to argue or make things any more awkward than they were in that moment already. I had feelings for Sarah, she didn't have any for me. Nothing we could do about that.
Jacklyn set off and Eric headed out too. Once they were gone, I hopped behind the wheel of my truck with Sarah in the passenger seat. She pulled out her phone and punched in a number, holding it to her ear. A moment later, she looked at the phone, and grimaced.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Can't get a call out,” she said. “I was trying to call Austin to let him know where we were, but it dropped. The smoke and crap in the air must be interfering with the signal.”
I kept quiet as she called a few more times but had no better luck. I was done talking about Austin. I knew that if he found out we'd left without his permission, we were going to be in some deep shit. Even with that hanging over my head, I still felt good after everything that had happened. I managed to help Sarah's sister, and I saved a foal's life. I'd call that a win, and not even Austin could bring me down. If he fired me for leaving the base camp, he'd have to admit Sarah fucked up and fire her too – and I knew that was never going to happen in a billion years.
Sarah put her phone away and flashed me a tight smile as we headed down the long road out of the ranch, that would eventually lead us to the main highway. Her gaze lingered on me for a long moment, but she remained silent.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing. I'm just impressed by you, Owen. Surprised as hell, but impressed,” she said. “I had no idea you were that good with animals.”
I shrugged. “Like I said earlier, there's a lot you don't know about me.”
“Apparently so,” she said. “Maybe I'd like to know more. Maybe I should have made more of an effort earlier.”
I glanced over at her, smiling at the way her blue-green eyes sparkled. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, but strands fell free around her face. I knew she had to be tired, but she didn't look it. She looked beautiful, and I had to look away, forcing myself to focus on the road ahead of me instead.
“What would you like to know?” I asked.
“Well, for starters, where you learned to deliver a breech foal like that,” she laughed.
I chuckled, but all laughter and easy feelings came to an abrupt stop as we reached the end of the road. Jacklyn and Eric were stopped on the road ahead of us, and a pit opened up in my gut. I strained my neck to see – to make sure I was seeing things correctly. The smoke was heavier and thicker than before, and it only seemed to be getting worse. Ash and burning embers rained down from the sky above. The fires were getting closer, and they were heading right at us.
My heart stopped as the flames flashed above the tree line on the other side of the highway up ahead. As we sat there, looking at the nightmare in front of us, we heard a thunderous cracking noise. A moment later, a massive telephone pole came crashing down into the middle of the highway, flames crawling up onto it, like hungry animals devouring a carcass. Live wires hissed and popped, as they wiggled around in the middle of the road like live snakes.
Things had officially just gotten very, very bad.
“Holy shit,” Sarah said, leaning forward. “Think we can make it through there?”
“I don't know,” I muttered to myself. “But, if I had to guess, I'd say not. Not with the fire so close, and those live wires flopping around like that.”
We sat there for a few more minutes, trying to decide what to do, as the smoke grew even heavier, making it harder to see, and even harder to breathe.
“We need to turn back,” I said.
“No, we can't,” Sarah said. “Just keep going.”
I shook my head. If we went out on that road, we were going to be trapped. I pushed onward. The smoke became thicker, and Sarah started coughing. I watched as the flames seemed to be growing even closer than ever. A solid wall of fire that would consume us in a heartbeat if we let ourselves get trapped in it. Up ahead, I could see a line of fire blocking off the road.
Coughing and spitting, Eric came running back to our truck. His face was darkened, covered in soot, and his eyes were wide. He looked to be on the verge of a panic attack.
“We gotta go back,” he said. “Find another way out of here.”
“That's what I was thinking,” I said. “We might not make it on that road. Okay, we turn back and haul ass back to the ranch. Tell Jacklyn, then get back in the truck and get back.”
Sarah was already on her phone. “Dammit. Straight to voicemail again. I can't get through to Austin. We should just keep going, Owen.”
“We can't,” I said. “It's too dangerous.”
“We can't go back there,” Sarah said. “We'll be trapped if we go back to the ranch.”
“We're already trapped,” I said. “We may be able to find a fire road or something we can get through.”
“We can't go back!” Sarah shouted.
“We can't go forward either! Jesus, Sarah. What the hell do you want me to do?” I shouted back. “At least if we get back to the ranch, we'll buy a little time. We can call for help. We can't get through the fire alone, and I guarantee you if we hit the highway, we're going to be surrounded by that fire in no time flat.”
“We can, and we will,” Sarah said. “Just keep driving.”
“No,” I said. “I'm going back.”
“Listen to me, Owen –”
“We both know I'm terrible at taking orders,” I said.
I watched both Eric and Jacklyn turning their trucks around. I hoped the horses were going to make it through this ordeal okay, and that we hadn't signed our own death warrants by trying to save them. It was cumbersome and awkward, but I saw both trucks fall into place behind me, so I hit the gas and headed back toward the ranch, with Sarah arguing with me the entire way.
“Keep trying to get through to Austin,” I told her. “Tell him what's going on and where we are.”
Sa
rah tried calling several more times, but didn't get through, punching the dashboard with each call that didn't get picked up. I was too focused on watching the road, trying to get back to the ranch. If they could find some service roads or something, Austin and the others could get here quickly, and if they did, we were going to be fine. Maybe. There were no guarantees, but one thing I knew, driving into the middle of a fire was not the right thing to do. It would be suicide.
I understood she was worried about her sister and keeping her safe. But driving her out into the middle of that shitstorm wasn't going to get it done. More than likely, it would have gotten us all killed if we'd tried to drive through it. There was no way I was driving directly into that fire. Not alone, with just Sarah and no equipment. I may have been new on the job, but I wasn't an idiot.
The minute I parked the truck, Sarah was out and coming around to the driver's side. I was climbing out when she got to me, a look of absolute fury in her eyes. Eric and Jacklyn pulled the trucks into the barn, trying to keep the horses out of the smoke as best they could.
“Give me the keys,” she said.
“What?”
“You heard me,” she snapped. “Give me the keys. I'm getting my sister out of here. If you want to come along, great. But I'm not going to sit here and let that fire catch up to us.”
“It's going to catch up to you a lot faster on that fucking highway, Sarah,” I said. “I'm not giving you the keys. You're going to calm the fuck down, and we're going to think this through. Act like a fucking firefighter.”
“We don't have time,” she said. “That fire is coming.”
“Yeah, it is,” I said. “Which makes it all the more important we use our fucking heads if we're going to get out of this. We need maps or something – something that will show us where the fire roads out of this place are.”
