Ring of Fire

by David Agranoff

  Robbins looked down the hill that gave him a clear view of downtown San Diego. The smoke spilled through the skyscrapers like flood waters. Sirens blared in all directions, horns honked as cars tried desperately to move people back to their homes. There they would lock themselves away, like fish in a barrel.

  He hated being right. In his heart every time he pulled out his notebook to write about the tipping point, he prayed he was crazy. He wanted nothing more than to be wrong. To be insane meant that this day would never come. Here it was. He was right all along.

  Chapter Eight

  “Vic! Wait!”

  She was running from her door to the minivan when Abbey came down the block. Abbey held a wash cloth over her nose. Victoria sat in the van and held the door open as her neighbor walked up.

  “I have to pick up the kids, I am not sure which school to go to first, I really can’t. . .”

  “What is wrong with the water?” Abbey’s face was overcome with panic. Victoria wanted to shut the door to leave. The falling ash was getting thicker, and the sky turned an unnatural orange since the last night she had been out.

  “I don’t know more than you.” Victoria looked up at the sky and back at Abbey. “I listened to the Mayor’s press conference just like you.”

  “You gotta know something.”

  Victoria shook her head. “Honestly, no.”

  “I made my coffee and oatmeal with it this morning.”

  Victoria thought about how many times she used water in the house that day. She washed her face, brushed her teeth, washed a spoon, made coffee. It wasn’t until she went to defrost the chicken that she smelled anything funny. She should be in just as much panic as Abbey. She couldn’t afford it. She had to get to both the middle school and the elementary school to pick up her kids. She could hear the honking of stopped traffic on the main roads.

  “I don’t know anything, Abbey. I gotta get Tiff and Damian.”

  Abbey stepped back. Victoria brushed the ash off her sleeve and pulled the door shut. She turned the key and the van came to life. The Willy-Billy show blared out of the radio and she flipped the radio off. She watched Abbey walking back home in the rearview mirror.

  She had her hand on the shift, about to put the van into reverse when she glimpsed unintentionally in the window of the house next door. She felt the rush of embarrassment when you lock eyes with a neighbor you shouldn’t be staring at. Stephanie Johnston stood in the large window but it took Victoria a moment to realize it was her. She was one of those women who rolled out of bed looking put together. Now she looked like a homeless department store mannequin. Her clothes were dirty and tattered.

  Victoria felt caught, as Stephanie kept staring. She put her foot on the gas and turned to back away. The image of her neighbor haunted her. She looked back again and saw the woman’s eyes tracking her. Her skin was pallid, her eyes bloodshot enough they could be seen at a distance. She had never seen Stephanie look as bad as she did.

  She paused, thought about going to make sure she was OK, but the ash hitting her windshield reminded her to keep her focus.

  “Go get your babies,” she whispered and pulled out into the street.

  ***

  Austin adjusted her gas mask out of nervous habit as she weaved between cars that were jammed in place despite a green light. The traffic was still gridlocked on most of the roads she passed. In Mission Valley the cars were trapped trying to get to the freeway that was moving like molasses draining from a bottle. She felt like laughing as she passed all the people on her mountain bike.

  Austin jumped up onto a curb and crossed the empty mall parking lot at a Target anchoring a mall. Across the parking lot, she heard screams coming from the front door of the store. Three police cars sat with their lights on in front of the door. She had passed a Ralph’s and Trader Joes and heard screams. Through the misty, ash-filled air, she watched looters jump into cars just to end up in the gridlock.

  She turned to look up the hill out of the valley. You couldn’t even see uptown. The smog of the fire erased the higher parts of town from view.

  A few buses were stopped in traffic. She had seen two empty left on the side of the road with blinkers on. The only form of public transportation not shut down was the trolley. That is where Robbins waited for her. She had to cross one more road disguised as a parking lot to get to the smaller strip mall where the trolley station was.

  The cars looked parked on the road. Austin weaved through them. The curb was high, so she got off the bike and lifted it to her shoulder. One man rolled down his window. “Hey, how much you want for that gas mask?”

  She ignored him and kept walking until she was across the street. She was risking a lot to come meet Robbins. She often thought he was as crazy as everyone else did, but he was as close to family as she had left in town. She thought about Lindsey, the fight forgotten, she started to worry. She felt the need to find her, make sure she was okay. The roommates would think she was looking for a place to stay, so she promised herself when she found her she would go back to the shelter. She just had to know Lindsey was safe.

  Traffic inched forward as she got back on her bike to cross the parking lot. She saw two cars pulling into the parking lot. They were giving up on the roads. The cars weaved into the parking lot at a dangerous speed not following the lines. The commuter train pulled into the station.

  There was no telling how long it would stay or when it would come again. The cars almost crashed into each other. The faster car, a Honda civic, pulled up to the curb, bounced and crashed into a trash can.

  The doors opened to the train. She could just see it through the haze. The train was packed, but no one got off. The man driving the civic got out and waved. His young children jumped out of the back seats. He pulled on them forcing them to run toward the train. The second car stopped at the curb. A woman jumped out of the driver’s side, a teenage boy with her. They also ran to the train.

  They were leaving their cars. The train made the beeping noise it did when it pulled out of the station.

  “Stop! Stop!” The desperate father yelled. One of his children fell. Even from the distance, Austin could see the man’s confusion.

  The train inched from the station. The father dropped his other child’s hand and ran along with the train smacking it over and over.

  “Stop! Please!”

  The man fell. His older child ran behind him, also smacking the train. Austin was close enough now to see the shocked look on the faces of the people packed like sardines in the train heading east. The train picked up speed and pulled out of the station. Austin looked at the poor man on his knees. Robbins crossed the train tracks.

  He didn’t seem fazed by the two children comforting their distraught father.

  “Where you been?”

  Austin lifted her gas mask up on to her head. It was the first time she had taken a breath of the outside air in more than hour. She coughed immediately. Behind them, the father with the hacking and coughing children turned back to their car. The mother with the teenager had collapsed and cried.

  Robbins looked down the tracks. You could hear the sound of the trolley but it was invisible in the mist. It was heading in the direction of the fire. Straight toward it.

  “Next train in fifteen!” Robbins yelled at them. “But that is right into the teeth of the fire.”

  The father gathered his children and they walked back to their car. Robbins pointed to a bench and sat down.

  Austin stared at him. “How about where have you been?”

  “Getting answers.”

  Austin rolled her eyes. “I saved you a spot at the shelter.”

  “Where’s that?”

  “The hockey arena.” She nodded. “It’s OK, sober requirement that’s all.”

  Robbins shook his head. “I can’t go there.”

  “Why the fuck not?”

  Robbins looked around. He shook his head. “It’s here. Tipping point.”

  “It’s a big wild fi
re.”

  Robbins laughed. “You saw the fish in the river. This goes way beyond the fire. Did you hear the mayor’s press conference?”

  Austin knew Robbins carried around a small radio and listened on headphones. She had heard about the state of emergency, it was the talk of the shelter.

  “You didn’t, did you?”

  Austin shook her head. “I got the gist, don’t drink the water. Don’t breathe the air. What does that mean?”

  “The earth can only take so much. The cancer clusters was a warning, we are reaping what we have sown. Have you heard anything I’ve said?”

  “So, come to shelter.”

  “What comes after the tipping point?”

  Austin knew what he considered the correct answer. Her mother believed in Robbins. She sacrificed everything because she believed.

  “This is not the reckoning.”

  Robbins held out his hand to catch the ash falling from the sky.

  “How can you doubt it now?”

  “It is bad, I get that. A disaster for the whole city. It will pass, they will contain the fire any day now. . .”

  “Stop it! Your mother would be disgusted by your denial.”

  “My mother?” Austin felt ready to boil. She chuckled. “Why don’t you talk to her about it?”

  “She sacrificed everything for you and your brother.”

  “Right!” Austin felt the anger burning inside her. “Don’t you say that. Don’t act like it was about us. She always told us that. No, she did it for the movement not us.”

  “How can you say that?” Robbins was disgusted.

  “If she cared about us, she would be here now.” Now the anger was melting the shields she put up. The years without a family. The years without a mother. She tried to stay tough, but the tears welled in her eyes.

  “The world is killing itself and she risked everything to stop it.”

  “Bullshit!” Austin couldn’t hear it again. Not now. “What did she stop? Because the end looks pretty fucking on to me.”

  “She loved you.”

  “You’re right, you know. She did risk everything.”

  Austin turned to grab her bike.

  “Wait,” Robbins said. “I gotta try to talk to the media.”

  Austin grabbed her bike and pulled her mask down. “They aren’t going to listen.”

  “The sports arena is a death trap. Stay with me.”

  “I gotta find my girlfriend. Make sure she is OK.”

  Robbins smiled under his mask. “Then you’ll meet me downtown?”

  The next trolley heading downtown buzzed into the station. Robbins backed toward it. Austin looked up at the haggard faces in the train.

  “I’ll call you.” Austin jumped on the bike and pedaled away. When she turned around she saw Robbins try to fit on the train. People made room but it was packed.

  ***

  The Humvee took a corner so fast both Scott and Riccardi fell over. The lack of window made them blind to what was happening. Scott looked out of the hatch between the front and back, couldn’t see the road or traffic through the haze. Thankfully, they were slowing down slightly. One soldier was in the back, he stared out of a slot open on the side of the vehicle, his rifle slung over his shoulder.

  Scott jumped through the hatch into the passenger seat. He saw that the young solider in the driver’s seat was following GPS on his phone attached to the dash. They might as well have been in a cloud, visibility was down to nothing.

  “Slow it down.” Scott leaned in to look at the name on his uniform. “Hey, slow it down, Rockwell.”

  Private Rockwell was a sweat-soaked mess, but he kept driving at a speed that would be safe in normal conditions. These were far from normal conditions.

  “I have orders to get you back to base camp ASAP.”

  “I am squad boss, I didn’t give any. . .”

  A car appeared from the mist. It was on the far side of the road and sped past, but it was enough to make them both jump.

  “Jesus!” Rockwell yelled as he slowed the Humvee down.

  “That a boy.” Scott leaned back in the seat. “Who gave the order?”

  Rockwell squeezed the steering wheel tighter. “General Redcrow, directly from him.”

  “I don’t take orders from him.”

  “Well, good for you, but I fucking do.”

  He had a point. Didn’t mean Scott had to like it.

  “So, wait a minute, private. You telling me you had orders to bring me and my buddy back to spike camp? I got the order from my commander Annie Halford.”

  “Straight from the general.”

  “We’re experienced Hot Shots. We spend days out there in the shit. What was he thinking?”

  “Hot Shots all over the red zones getting pulled back to camp.”

  Scott shook his head. “You understand how fucking stupid that is? Right?”

  Rockwell must have felt like he already said too much. They cut through the haze in silence for twenty minutes. It was a major road. All the stop lights they passed were blinking red. Cars were abandoned in the ditch every twenty or so feet.

  “This ain’t right, son.”

  “What ain’t right?”

  “I have been in fires up and down the western region I have never seen anything like this. Something is wrong. Very wrong.”

  The Humvee slowed and then Rockwell slammed on the brakes. A city bus that was turned was blocking enough of the intersection to keep them from passing. They couldn’t drive up around it because the sidewalk was blocked with an abandoned car.

  Rockwell laid into the horn. “Let’s go! Move your ass!”

  The haze was thick. It was impossible to see the houses off the road. They were close enough that they could see inside the bus. A woman sat in one of the seats on the lower level. Her head leaned against the window. Looking closer, he could see that the window was stained with blood dripping from the woman’s head.

  Scott got a sinking feeling. This just kept getting weirder and worse every second.

  “Fuck,” Rockwell whispered it. He saw it too. “Hey, Goodwin.”

  Private Goodwin stuck his head through the hatch. “What the fuck?”

  “I need you to move that bus.”

  Private Goodwin wasn’t happy. He disappeared in the back. They heard the back door open, Scott opened the passenger side. Without his gear the toxic air burned his eyes and lungs quickly. Goodwin took a moment to mask up and ran with his rifle up. Scott wondered why he felt the need to be ready to shoot, and then looked back up at the bloodied dead woman. He wished he had a weapon, but it was too late now.

  They came around the front of the bus. No one was in the driver’s side. The lights in the bus were still on inside, the headlights and route sign were still lit although it read out of service. Goodwin pried the door open.

  “You know how to drive a bus?” he asked Scott.

  Scott jumped in the driver’s seat. Goodwin stepped into the bus. Scott watched him walk up to the dead woman in the rearview mirror, his rifle ready the whole time.

  “Looks like someone ate her face.”

  That got Scott’s attention, increasing his pressure to find the gear shift. He found a gear and took the bus out of park. He inched the bus enough to clear the path for the Humvee. Rockwell moved the Humvee forward and waited for them. Goodwin walked back to the front of the bus. Scott looked for a key or a switch to power down the bus.

  “I can’t find a fucking off switch.”

  “Fuck it, let’s go.”

  Scott was about to. A groan came from the back of the bus. Scott looked in the rearview mirror. The driver had been lying on the floor at the back of the bus. Goodwin turned in time to see him sit up. His flesh was pale, his eyes blood shot. Dried blood around his lips, it looked as if he dipped his face in a hands-free raspberry pie eating contest.

  The man was overweight, carrying more than a spare tire around his waist. That is why it looked unnatural when he jumped and ran the lengt
h of the bus with speed. Scott jumped up ready to run off the bus. Goodwin lifted his rifle and Scott covered his ears. The thunder of the AR-15 in the confined space kicked the shit out of Scott’s ear drums.

  He couldn’t hear anything. He looked up to see the one shot had knocked the bus driver back. Scott watched in the mirror. The bus driver, despite taking a bullet center mass, tried to stand. Goodwin ran to the bus driver and placed the rifle right against the man’s forehead. He put the second shot through his skull. Scott closed his eyes, not wanting to see this; it was too late. Thanks to his destroyed hearing this time the blast sounded distant.

  Scott turned to see the remains of the bus driver. Goodwin kicked the body as if to check it for death, but the head was in pieces around the bus. Scott couldn’t process what just happened, lunch began to crawl up. Shock twisted him inside. The man did run at him. There was a dead woman on this bus. Goodwin didn’t hesitate.

  The Humvee horn sounded. It sounded miles away to Scott. Goodwin turned and pointed toward the door. They stepped back into acrid air. With his hearing blown, all Scott could hear was his labored breath. The haze and ash without sound gave the world a surreal feeling. Scott looked out into the haze and saw movement. Out beyond the haze, he saw something run. He thought it was deer, but remembered he was in southern California, in the middle of city sprawl. He saw the movement again, a blur of something running. Goodwin saw it too. He fired high in the air. The haze cleared just enough that they could see a crowd of people run towards them.

  They opened their jaws to scream. Goodwin fired at their feet, they scattered still running. Scott jumped into the Humvee passenger door. Through the fog of his fucked up hearing he heard Goodwin.

  “Berserkers! Go! Go!”

  Scott stared out the window as they drove away. A man ran beside them for fifty feet, his eyes wild, unthinking. He looked feral, desperate to catch them.

  “Goodwin just shot somebody.”

  Goodwin stuck his head in the front. “I saved your life, motherfucker.”

  “What is wrong with those people?”

  “Above our pay grade. Classified.” Rockwell laughed. Scott was not amused. Scott turned to look at Riccardi. His longtime partner was shaking his head. They were thinking the same thing. This is more than a fire.