California

by Jamie Lee Grey

  And if that were the case, they should announce it publicly as soon as possible. So people didn’t start thinking it was shot down or something.

  Nadir rubbed his chin.

  Soon, he would find out if one of his uncle’s terrorist cells had shot it down. He would dine a celebratory dinner in Iran with his uncle, and he’d get the full story. All the parts and pieces he was just guessing about now. It’d be good.

  He couldn’t wait.

  ***

  Katie turned on the Ford’s lights as twilight darkened into dusk. She glanced at her gas gauge and felt a little sick in her stomach. Would it be enough to get past the fires?

  Maybe. She bit her lip.

  She could still hear a lone siren in the distance. It seemed a little louder than before. So it was approaching, either from behind or coming from the opposite direction.

  Looking again for flashing lights, she found them – perhaps a mile behind her. They were easier to see now, as daylight faded.

  And so were the wildfires. The dark foothills of the Sierra Nevadas made the perfect backdrop for the red and yellow flames. They reached skyward like hungry dragons, rising, snapping at the air, and falling back toward earth before rising again.

  Her stomach ached. Nerves? Hunger? The fig bars hadn’t settled well?

  Whatever. It would pass.

  Unlike that emergency vehicle way back there, who had barely made any progress over the past hour, as far as she could tell.

  It looked like he was blocked into the middle lane, with big trucks on both sides. The driver must be fuming. It was hard to tell what kind of vehicle it was – police, ambulance or fire? But whoever was waiting for his arrival would be waiting for a long time.

  She crept up on the accident scene that had stopped traffic. A black SUV with tinted windows had struck a little red coupe. The sports car looked expensive. A middle-aged woman in heels and a dark suit leaned against the back of the coupe, glaring at the SUV and at every vehicle that drove by her.

  Including Katie.

  “Uh, yeah – I didn’t put you in that situation,” Katie said aloud. “I had my own, thank you very much.”

  But at least her pickup was still drivable. It was hard to tell if the little red car was or not. Poor thing had pretty extensive damage to its rear end.

  The offending SUV didn’t look too bad, though.

  After getting past the wreck, traffic speed ticked up a little. Clear up to five miles per hour, according to the truck’s speedometer.

  “Now we’re making progress!” Ironic, but still true.

  In her side mirror, she saw the emergency vehicle make its way into the left lane. From there, it hugged the median, driving on the left shoulder. The wailing siren grew louder as vehicles in the left lane squeezed to the right to let it get by.

  Until some jerk in a black pickup decided to use the same tactic to get past the snarled driving lanes. He moved into the left shoulder area and snuck by one car, then another.

  Red lights came on ahead of her, and Katie slammed on her brakes to avoid hitting the motorhome.

  Oh, that was close! Too much time looking behind her had almost caused her second accident of the day.

  Their lane came to a complete stop. Again.

  Her gaze shifted to the mirror, where the black pickup jerk crept past a delivery truck. The emergency vehicle was on his tail now, and he wasn’t moving over. Creep!

  And then another vehicle moved into the left shoulder, and another one.

  They were carving out a fourth driving lane, slowing the emergency responder. And just as they were all approaching the area where the freeway narrowed to two lanes each direction!

  Plus, it looked like a California Highway Patrol vehicle, so he was probably responding to the little red coupe’s wreck, and he’d need to cross three lanes to reach them!

  His siren grew deafening as he approached, still driving in the left shoulder area.

  The jerk in the black pickup came past Katie, and the CHP rig was right behind him. The patrolman had driven past the accident, not trying to get across traffic to it. Why?

  Maybe he was heading to a worse accident, or he was on some other mission.

  In her passenger side mirror, Katie saw the red coupe’s owner wave her arms wildly, then throw her hands up in disgust as the CHP officer continued on down the shoulder.

  As more vehicles moved into the left shoulder behind the officer’s SUV, Katie’s lane began moving forward again. Finally.

  Up ahead, though, they’d all have to merge down to two lanes.

  She was really looking forward to that!

  ***

  Alana leaned back in her chair and watched the horrifying scenes play out on the enormous television screen across the room. A steady scroll of chyrons paraded across the bottom of the newscast of the California fires. The worst ones, so far, were in the southern part of the state.

  Night had fallen on the west coast, and the darkness served as the perfect canvas for the blazing brilliance of the wildfires’ red and orange flames. Outside the Los Angeles metro area, they stretched sixty, seventy, one hundred feet in the air, barreling down slopes at ninety miles per hour into hapless neighborhoods and helpless communities.

  Alana’s hand flew to her mouth as she stared at the inferno. Her chief of staff watched over her shoulder.

  “Looks like hell has come to earth,” Jason said.

  “Are there still people in those houses?” Mae Hepburn asked, her suave, experienced demeanor finally burned away by the horror on the screen. “They got out, right?”

  “Probably some of them,” Jason answered.

  “I can’t watch this.” Alana’s national security advisor turned away from the images, her face ghastly white. Tears filled her keen green eyes. “I feel like I’m in a horror movie and I can’t get out!”

  “Why don’t you take a break, Mae?” Alana suggested. “Get some air, drink some water.”

  The woman rose from her chair, looking as frail as Alana had ever seen her. Mae was only sixty, but her thin, angular frame looked suddenly aged as she walked toward the restroom.

  It kind of reflected how Alana felt inside. Wilted. Withered. Beat.

  But this was a long way from over.

  She stood, stretched her back, and poured herself a cup of coffee, waiving off the attendant. As she stirred in the cream, the president announced that she finally had the California governor on the line. Alana took a sip and went back to her chair as Gov. Omar Abdullah’s voice filled the room.

  “I’m just about to evacuate.” His words were rushed. “I need to leave within minutes.”

  In the background, the familiar whup-whup-whup of helicopter blades filled the call with a sense of urgency.

  “Where are you headed, Governor?” Basilia asked.

  “Nevada. Reno, I think.” He was nearly yelling into the phone. “Fires have reached the outskirts of Sacramento. There’s nothing more I can do here.”

  “Do you have any leads on who did this?” the president asked.

  “I can barely hear you!” Omar yelled over the helicopter din.

  Basilia raised her voice. “Do you have any suspects?”

  “We’re still working on that!”

  The president opened her mouth, but before she could speak, the governor’s yell came across the line.

  “They are loading us now! I have to go!”

  A moment later, the call ended with silence. Basilia rolled her head back and stared at the ceiling. Alana took a sip of her coffee.

  It was hot and good.

  And she needed all the caffeine she could get in her bloodstream. Her moment of reflection was broken by Basilia’s hand slamming down on the table.

  “We need to do better than this! I can’t get any information!” She glared at the assembled team. “C’mon, people! Work your sources. I want answers!”

  People began moving, if just in an effort to look busy.

  Alana turned to Jason. �
��See if you can track down Bob Osgood, director of CAL-FIRE. Or Thomas Abrams, the state fire marshal. Maybe one of them can give us an update.”

  Chapter 18

  Nadir’s stomach lurched as the CHP helicopter lifted into the air. He rubbed his damp palms on his pants and glanced across to his father, who was illuminated by small lights in the cabin. His face seemed to have aged a decade today. Now, it was drawn into a frown, and wrinkles creased his forehead and his mouth.

  As the chopper climbed, the fires came into view.

  They were huge – even bigger than he’d imagined – and they had begun burning into the eastern edges of the Sacramento metroplex.

  His father looked over his shoulder and yelled at the pilot.

  “Take us to the fires!”

  “We don’t have time, sir,” the officer said.

  “They will hold the plane for me! Take us.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The helicopter began a slow turn away from the airport. Nadir leaned toward the window.

  It was truly a sight. The flames were twice as high as the tallest trees!

  A parade of vehicle headlights flowing away from the fire zone illuminated the streets. People on foot carried whatever they deemed most important – including some television sets – on their mad rush west. Bicyclists careened through traffic and down the sidewalks.

  As Nadir watched, one crashed in the street and was hit by a car. Then the poor guy was lost to view as the helicopter plunged on toward the blazing inferno.

  A transformer near the front of the fire exploded, sparks flying everywhere. The power went off along the nearest street, then the next, then the next, until the entire neighborhood was lit only by the wildfire and the headlights of evacuating vehicles.

  He’d never seen so many cars in a residential area before, and it was amazing how many there were. It was like each residence had disgorged three or four vehicles, and they all clogged the streets until they came to a near standstill.

  Where did they think they were going?

  The interstate?

  Not a chance!

  The on-ramps were already full, and the vehicles on them would never get on the freeways, which were pretty much stalled out themselves.

  Still, the residents pressed on, inching away from the fires that were charging after them and racing up their tailpipes.

  “Enough!” His father yelled to the pilot. “Take us away!”

  The helicopter turned away from the fires, but Nadir craned to look back. A house burst into flames. Moments later, its neighbor caught fire. The block behind them was totally engulfed in flames, which rose to the heavens in a brilliant dance of death.

  It was amazing. Truly. And it had all been accomplished on the cheap, with some weed burners.

  As he turned to face forward, a loud ping rattled the cockpit. A second one smashed his window.

  “Somebody’s shooting at us!” His father yelled.

  Nadir gripped his seat and held on. Why would anybody shoot at a CHP helicopter?

  A sickening sound smashed into the aircraft. The chopper shifted left, then lurched right.

  “WHAT HAPPENED?” Nadir yelped, digging his fingers into the vinyl seat.

  “I think they hit the rotor,” the pilot yelled over his shoulder. “I’m losing control!”

  As the helicopter began a slow turn, smoke filled the cabin.

  “We’re going down!” His father yelled. “Brace yourself!”

  There was nothing to brace against. Nadir shut his eyes and clenched his jaw.

  This is how he would die? In a helicopter crash? On the day of his great victory?

  The helicopter tilted sideways. They only had moments left.

  He was going to die in a fiery crash?

  The irony. The irony!

  ***

  Up ahead, Katie could see taillights funneling from three lanes and the shoulder space into two lanes and a shoulder “lane” full of vehicles. And beyond that, she saw flames.

  They were still some distance away, but the fires were clearly growing larger. Trees burned like torches in the night. And the flames, rather than just burning upslope, were being blown downhill by the wind.

  A gust swayed the pickup. She took a sip of water from the nearly-empty bottle beside her.

  Her stomach rumbled. She’d had some snacks, but no real dinner. Hopefully, Zach had given Timothy something nutritious to eat during one of the times traffic had stopped.

  Her gaze dropped to the gas gauge. Ugh! So low!

  How far could she make it? The electronic display could give her a distance estimate, but she didn’t want to look at that screen. Didn’t want to see the bad news.

  It was better to hope.

  And pray.

  She took a minute to do both. Then she took another sip of water. It was warm.

  As the sound of the CHP’s siren faded up ahead, she heard something new – the distinctive chop of helicopter blades.

  Craning her head, she looked up and saw it pass by on her left. Was it a firefighting helicopter? An air ambulance? An evacuation?

  She didn’t see a water bucket trailing below it, but it was dark. Maybe it was there and she couldn’t see it. Hopefully that was it.

  Traffic slowed, then stopped. No doubt from the selfish jerks who’d created a fourth lane of traffic so they could get past the vehicles that had been on the highway longer. Now they had to merge back into fewer lanes again.

  After a few minutes, her lane began creeping forward. Two miles per hour. Now three.

  Would she run out of gas before she even reached the merge?

  A growl rose from her stomach. She should have brought some snacks back from the motorhome. Zach’s voice blared through the walkie-talkie.

  “How’re you doing back there?”

  “I’m hungry. I need to use the bathroom. I’m running out of fuel,” Katie answered. “Oh, and I’m getting grumpy.”

  “Yeah, you sound a little hangry.”

  “I’m fine. You guys okay?”

  “For now, yeah. Getting low on gas up here, too.”

  It was good to hear his voice. Just to know he was there. And he was in this with her.

  “How’s the little man?”

  “He nodded off a bit ago. And Duke is sleeping right here by my elbow.”

  Katie smiled. That big ole black dog never wanted to be far from Zach’s side.

  “How’s the merge looking?” Katie had a hard time seeing too much of it on the straight sections. She’d only been able to see it from a curve, where the motorhome wasn’t blocking her view.

  “Not so great,” Zach said. “The folks in the actual lanes are merging, but they’ve stopped letting in the drivers who sped past on the shoulders.”

  “Serves them right!”

  “Maybe so. But it could get ugly.”

  “What’re they going to do? Ram their way in?”

  “Who knows? Everybody’s out for himself today.”

  “And every day.”

  “But especially today.”

  “Yeah.” Katie sighed. “I can’t wait to get out of this. It feels like it’ll last forever.”

  “Being stuck in traffic?”

  “Mhmm. And trying to escape and evacuate. It’s like I want to run, but I’m in mud up to my hips.”

  “I hear ya,” Zach agreed. “Listen, something weird’s going on up there. I’m gonna sign off.”

  With that, he was gone. And Katie couldn’t see what was going on – all she could see was the tiny bit of black highway between her and the walrus motorhome, the vehicles off to her sides, and the wildfires consuming the hills.

  As they crept forward, her shoulders tensed.

  She’d have to let other drivers merge in between her and Zach. He wouldn’t get too far ahead of her – maybe a car or two – but she wanted him close.

  Well, she’d be able to see him, anyway. And she’d have a better field of view when the rear of the motorhome wasn’t right in
front of her face.

  A horn blared. A second one joined in. Soon, there were three.

  Katie’s shoulders inched toward her ears. What was going on up there?

  On both sides of her, vehicles were signaling to move toward the center of the highway. Luckily, she wouldn’t have to attempt to switch lanes again. She and Zach had been in that lane for hours.

  She’d have to let some of the traffic in, though.

  Letting the pickup coast put a little space between her and the RV. The problem was, both the orange Subaru on her left and the red pickup on her right started steering into the opening!

  They couldn’t both fit!

  But both drivers were trying to. And as they moved toward her, other vehicles began moving into the slots they vacated – so they couldn’t go back!

  Were they going to get into a wreck right in front of her?

  Were they going to cause a multi-car pileup in the middle of the freeway?

  Were they both nuts?!

  She slammed on her brakes to avoid hitting them, breathing a prayer for help at the same time.

  Suddenly, the Subaru braked while the pickup gassed it, nearly colliding with Zach’s bumper. The Subaru driver tacked his little SUV onto the red truck’s tail pipe and slid into the lane with inches to spare in front of Katie.

  Professional drivers couldn’t have pulled off a stunt like that without a collision.

  How did those idiots do it?

  As they’d jostled into her lane, more horns blared. She was tempted to signal her displeasure and frustration, as well, but thought better of it. Her nerves were shot. Everyone else’s must be, too. No sense making it worse.

  To her left, the vehicles that had sped by everyone by driving on the shoulder were now trying to weasel their way in. One tried to accomplish this by menacing a little VW bug right behind Katie. There was nothing she could do, so she tightened her grip on the steering wheel and stared straight ahead.

  BOOM!

  Was that a gunshot? She looked around wildly. Where had it come from?

  It was dark, so hard to see anything… but there, up ahead, on the shoulder… a hand protruded from a long, dark, drug gang-looking sedan – with a pistol pointed at traffic.