10:03 P.M.
“HERE, I’LL TAKE HIM,” a voice said. Hands started to pull the toddler from Natalia’s arms.
With a start, she opened her eyes. Everyone was across the bridge now. It was an effort to relax her grip, to let go, to let Lisa take Trask. How long had she been standing there, eyes closed, half imagining she was holding her baby brother? Remembering a time that didn’t exist anymore, except in her imagination?
“He’s so relaxed with you,” Lisa said as she guided Trask’s dangling feet into the leg holes of his carrier. “Normally Trask doesn’t like strangers. You must have a lot of experience babysitting.”
“Actually, I don’t.” Natalia didn’t elaborate. “He’s probably just too tired to care.”
Even more than fires, she had spent the last six years avoiding toddlers. If a family with a little kid came into the Dairy Barn, she always let one of her coworkers wait on them. And she would never, ever babysit.
Not that anyone who knew her would actually ask. Who would trust her?
People were taking sips of water or buckling up their packs with stifled groans. Susan tucked her hat in her backpack and took out a headlamp. With the help of his own headlamp, Wyatt checked his map.
The sight of the headlamps reminded Natalia that she had also bought one at REI, in addition to the first aid kit. She dug it out, still in its packaging. Oh crap. It ran on batteries. Her panic was quickly followed by relief when she realized they were included. After opening the package, she pulled the band over her forehead. The moon was rising, but the huge disk the color of blood wasn’t providing much light. Natalia knew the color was due to the smoke, but it still seemed like an evil portent.
They were in a small clearing. Marco shone his phone’s flashlight on two carved signs nailed to a tree. One read, “Cougar Creek,” and pointed to the left. The other read, “Twisted Trail,” and pointed to the right.
Lisa looked up from the buckle she was snapping across Trask’s chest. “Cougar Creek? Isn’t that where the other fire is?” Her eyes were wide.
“Yeah.” Wyatt looked up from his map. “So we definitely don’t want to take that trail. Which leaves Twisted. The name’s pretty accurate. It twists back and forth.”
“How long until we get back to civilization?” Darryl rubbed Zion’s drooping shoulders.
Wyatt pinched off distances with his fingers. “It’s at least twenty miles before we connect up to another road.”
Twenty miles. People exchanged shocked glances. They had already hiked two to Sky Bridge. This was going to be like completing a marathon, only on steep trails. At night. With a fire at their back and the air hazy with smoke. By now Marco wasn’t the only one coughing.
AJ made a face. “That will take forever.”
“Probably all night.” Wyatt folded up the map. “The average person hikes about two miles an hour. And that’s in daylight and without an elevation change. Twisted is more of a, um, technically challenging trail.”
Natalia wondered if she was the only one who noticed the hesitation in his words. Her stomach churned.
“But you can’t really expect us to hike all night,” Darryl objected.
“I’m not sure we have much choice, at least not right now. Maybe we can rest a little farther on. But we still need to put some distance between us and the fire.”
“If that trail cuts back and forth, then why can’t we just ignore it and use your compass to go in a straight line?” Ryan’s face was drawn. “Wouldn’t it be faster?”
Wyatt shook his head. “It might seem like it’d be faster, but by the time you climbed into and out of some slot canyons, forded a few streams, and bushwhacked your way through some heavy brush, it would take a lot longer than just staying on the trail.” He looked back at the horizon, silhouetted by the fire. “My one worry is that the Cougar Creek fire could have spread all the way to Twisted. We don’t want to get caught between that fire and the new one.”
“That sign said Trail closed due to fire,” Beatriz said, tying her beach towel around her shoulders like a cape. “It didn’t say trails.”
Basing a decision on the lack of an s on a hastily scrawled sign did not seem like the best idea. Natalia pictured the two fires curling around them like the fingers of a fist. And then the fist squeezing closed. When she tried to swallow, her tongue felt like a piece of leather.
“I don’t think we have any choice.” Marco pointed at the flames, creeping ever closer. “One blown spark and the fire could jump the canyon.”
Natalia’s dread was expanding to include anything and everything. In addition to the fire, she was also afraid of the dark. Of tripping or slipping again, only this time really getting hurt. Afraid of getting lost. Of being abandoned. Of wild animals. Of deep water. Of watching someone get hurt and being unable to help.
Five things you can see, she told herself.
But the first thing she saw was Trask, rubbing his eyes, his little mouth bunched into a frown. She couldn’t look at him, and she couldn’t stop looking at him. Even so, she helped Lisa lift Trask’s carrier onto Wyatt’s back.
They had just set off into the cover of the trees when AJ abruptly stopped.
“Wait a minute.” His head swiveled back and forth. “Where’s Susan?”