They’d made it to land, although a more desolate and uninviting stretch of shoreline would be hard to imagine. The lake bottom was gooey mud, which Emily knew from experience was very hard to walk on. She decided to swim across it instead, lying flat on her stomach and using her hands to push herself to shore. Buttons was sitting on a large, flat rock. It seemed like as good a place to land as any, so Emily followed the poodle’s tracks through the muck.
After pulling herself out the mud flats and onto the rock Emily sat for several minutes and pondered her next move. The fire had burned right up to the shoreline and turned a lush forest into a black wasteland. The ground was littered with smoldering tree trunks. A large stump glowed red hot. It had been turned into charcoal. Walking along the shoreline wasn’t an attractive option because most of it was nasty-looking marsh and Emily didn’t have any shoes. Cutting through the forest didn’t look any easier. Judging from the plumes of smoke she could see rising from the forest floor, there were still lots of hot spots.
Emily felt as if she were trapped on her rock. Despondent, she pulled the raft of life jackets onto shore. She was starting to feel that bringing it along had been a waste of time and energy. She opened the cooler and took out her clothes. Once again the container had proven its usefulness. Everything inside was perfectly dry.
She waited long enough for her underwear to mostly dry before putting on her clothes. Her injured foot still throbbed, although it was no longer bleeding. She couldn’t reach clean water, and washing it in the mud seemed pointless, so she simply covered the cut with the biggest Band-Aid she had left. It made her feel a little better, even though it wasn’t likely to stay in place for very long, once she started walking across burned ground in bare feet. Buttons stayed beside her on the rock, although he constantly cocked his head and listened intently. Emily hoped the dog wasn’t hearing something dangerous, such as another bear. She cut off the dog’s primitive life jacket, which was obviously starting to annoy him.
Emily looked through her meagre possessions, wondering if there was anything she no longer needed. In the end she decided to take everything. It seemed doubtful she’d need emergency candles again, but she wasn’t prepared to take the risk. She decided she’d continue to wear a life jacket. It might provide some protection from sparks if the wind picked up again. The bright orange colour could also make it easier for rescuers to spot her. There was no doubt in her mind that search parties would soon start looking for survivors, if they weren’t already.
She opened up the package containing the blue tarp, wondering how to make use of it. It was made out of thick plastic. As she played with the tarp an idea popped into her head.
“Yes!” she shouted. “I think this could solve my biggest problem.”
Buttons stared into the distance, distracted.
Emily read the label of the package the tarp had come in. It was made of something called polyethylene. It certainly felt durable. Excited, she took the knife and used it to cut out pieces of tarp that were roughly the same shape, and just a little bigger, than her feet. Then she cut out a series of long, thin strips.
She stepped onto the foot-shaped pieces and used the thin strips to tie them onto her feet. Before long her feet looked like they belonged to a blue mummy. It wasn’t pretty, but her feet now had some protection. As long as she walked carefully, and avoided hot spots, she figured her wrapped feet might take her to safety.
“Hopefully the road to the recreation site runs right along the lake,” said Emily. “If it does we probably won’t have to walk too far to find it.” Having some foot protection had caused her spirits to rise.
With the poodle under one arm and the cooler balanced on her shoulder, she stepped gingerly off the rock and into the dismal remains of the forest. Every time she set her foot down it made a crunching sound and stirred up a small cloud of ash. The polyethylene wasn’t thick enough to provide protective padding. She certainly felt every rock she stepped on. Still, it was better than walking through the apocalyptic wasteland in bare feet.
After walking for several minutes Emily came across something very disturbing. At first she wasn’t sure what it was. Then she recognized the badly burned carcass of a young buck. It may have been the same deer that had shown her the way to safety the previous day. It was terrible to think the animal had almost made it to the lake, and possible safety, when the smoke and flames brought it down. It occurred to her that birds and animals of many species, especially the very young, would have perished in the inferno. She stood over the deer for a moment, thinking of what her own body might look like if she hadn’t escaped.
Emily was very careful about where she stepped and progress was slow. Buttons was extremely restless, complicating the task of carrying him. The poodle clearly wanted to be put down, but Emily could occasionally feel the hot forest floor through the primitive footwear and knew the dog’s sensitive paws would be badly damaged if he accidentally stepped on some coals.
Finally, after walking further than she’d originally thought she’d have to, she stepped out from between two huge blackened trunks and onto a dirt road. “We found it!” she cried, causing the poodle to start squirming again.
Emily ran a hand over the surface of the gravel roadway. It was cool to the touch. Except for some brush and grass along the sides there had been nothing for the fire to burn. As the angry camper had said to his wife back at Beaver Creek, “The road is made of dirt and dirt doesn’t burn.” The road promised the safest route out of the forest. It was rocky, and walking on it with poorly protected feet would be a challenge, but at least there didn’t appear to be any danger of stepping on a hot spot.
Emily tied a piece of rope to Buttons’ collar and put him on the ground. It seemed unlikely the dog would try to run away, but there was no point in taking chances.
“Which way should we go?”
Buttons yanked on the rope.
“I’m not sure why you want to go toward the boat launch,” said Emily crossly. “That’s where the access road ends. If we go there we’ll have to find the path that leads to the campground and it may still be hot. I think we should go in the other direction, where the guys in the SUV were headed. I’m guessing the road leads straight to a highway. I’d rather walk on a road than a path.”
Buttons barked and pulled hard. He hadn’t changed his mind about which direction to go. Emily started pulling on the rope but the dog dug his paws into the dirt. Exasperated, Emily gave up.
“Well, when we were in the lake you did seem to know where the shore was. Maybe you’re right about this too. If we do find the boat launch we’ll know for sure the campground isn’t far away. There probably won’t be much left, and I don’t think there will be any people around, but your guess is as good as mine, maybe better.”
Something was troubling the poodle. He would pull on the rope, then suddenly stop and cock his head, listening for something. Then he’d bark frantically for a few seconds. It seemed to Emily that the dog instinctively realized they were headed toward the campground where he’d been separated from his beloved owners.
“Hopefully we’ll get you there soon,” said Emily.
Although the road was easy to follow it was extremely rocky, making it hard to walk on with sore feet. Emily was very careful where she put every step, which slowed her progress.