9:12 P.M.
MARCO TURNED ON THE flashlight on his phone, illuminating the paper sign duct-taped to the middle of the gate.
Trail closed due to fire.
“Why did the helicopter pilot tell us to come here when the stupid bridge is blocked?” Jason gave the gate a shake. “He trapped us.” No one had confronted him—or greeted him, either.
Adrenaline zapped through Natalia. Behind them the sky glowed orange, and it wasn’t just from the remains of the sunset.
“They probably have no idea this gate’s even here,” Wyatt said. “I’ll bet in the last couple of days some ranger threw this up to keep people from taking the Cougar Creek trail on the other side. They didn’t realize there was going to be another fire. And now the first responders must be scrambling, trying to figure out who all’s in the woods and where to tell them to go.”
The gate did look improvised. They must have been limited by what they could carry up here. It was really just two pieces of chain-link fence, each about six feet high by five feet wide, overlapped and then chained together in the middle. The fencing had been anchored to the narrow bridge by more chains threaded through the handrails. The ends of the makeshift gate stuck out on either side of the footbridge.
Taking baby steps, Natalia got close enough that she could look down to the bottom of the narrow canyon. The others crowded around. It was a straight drop, far deeper than it was wide.
And then suddenly someone shoved her hard from behind. She shrieked as she fought to keep her balance. Pebbles skittered out from under her boot like marbles, then disappeared over the edge. Leaning back desperately, she pinwheeled her arms.
And then hands grabbed her.
“Careful!” Jason shouted, dragging her back.
“Whoa there!” Darryl said.
“Are you okay?” Wyatt’s face was drawn with concern.
Before she answered, she put about twenty feet between her and the edge. “Someone pushed me!”
Her heart was a bird trapped in the cage of her ribs. Her gaze jumped from face to face. No one looked guilty, just puzzled.
“Why would anyone do that?” Marco asked.
“I didn’t see anything,” AJ said.
Already Natalia’s certainty was evaporating. Someone had definitely pressed her hard. Not just a press, but a shove. But maybe it had been an accident, a person losing their own balance who now didn’t want to admit having accidentally touched her. After all, why would anyone want to hurt her?
She decided to let it go. “I felt this pressure on my lower back. Maybe I overreacted to someone touching me. I was already anxious being so close to the edge. I just wanted to see if there was another way across.”
Seemingly unfazed by the drop, Jason leaned over. “Maybe we could climb down, cross over, and then climb back up the other side.”
“And how would we do that?” Ryan didn’t bother to hide his sarcasm. Ferns and moss had managed to find footholds in the steep rock, but there was no way a person could. “We don’t have rope or carabiners or climbing harnesses or basically anything. And even if we did, that’s freaking white water down there.” He held up his bandaged hand. “Half of us would never be able to get down, let alone up.”
Beatriz tilted her head back. “Could we climb over the gate?”
“Same problem, B,” Marco said. “Some people would have a real hard time getting over.” He gave the gate a shake. “And it seems kind of wobbly. If anyone fell off while they were climbing over and missed landing on the bridge…”
Wyatt raised his hands, linked his fingers on the chain links, and then gave the gate a hard shove. It groaned in protest.
The sound woke Trask, who had been asleep on Wyatt’s back. He started crying and kicking. “Mama! Mama!”
Both parents hurried up. “I’m right here, honey,” Lisa said. Ryan patted Trask’s back with his unburned hand.
The sight of the little boy rubbing his fists against his eyes made Natalia feel like she was fracturing. For the past six years, she had avoided toddlers the way she avoided fires. And now here she was with both.
“Can you set him down?” Lisa asked Wyatt. “He’s not going to stop crying unless I can hold him.”
Wyatt unbuckled the waistband of the child carrier, and Lisa helped him maneuver it off, Ryan awkwardly trying to help with his good hand. After unbuckling the child safety strap, Lisa lifted him out and held him on her hip, pressing his face to her chest. Trask was wearing baby overalls, the kind that unsnapped at the legs for diaper changes.
Wyatt started examining the chains and locks, pushing and pulling on various pieces. Everyone else took a break, setting down heavy packs, taking sips of water, or surreptitiously nibbling on trail mix. The air was thick with ash. Still coughing, Marco pulled the inhaler from his pocket, shook it, and took another puff.
“Where are we?” Susan scanned the group, looking confused.
“We’re at Sky Bridge, Susan,” Natalia said.
The older woman started. “Who are you?”
“I’m … I’m Natalia.” Maybe it was just hard for her to make out people’s faces in the dim and smoky light.
Susan wiped a hand over her face. “Oh, right, honey. Sky Bridge.”
Beatriz limped up to them. “Hey, Natalia, Do you have a Band-Aid I could have?”
Natalia looked down and winced. The sides of Beatriz’s heels were bruised and oozing blood. “It looks like you need more than that.”
“It’s my own fault for wearing stupid flip-flops instead of real shoes. We’ve been to the falls a bunch. But I never thought of it as, like, you know, the actual wilderness.”
Even if Natalia used up every Band-Aid she had, including the knuckle ones, they wouldn’t do much to protect Beatriz’s feet against further damage.
Ryan spoke up. “With your flip-flops, you’ve actually got the sole of a shoe. You just don’t have the vamp and the quarter—the top parts. But there might be a way to fix that.” He looked around. “Does anyone have an extra pair of socks Beatriz could use?”
“I do,” Wyatt said, surprising no one. After leaving the gate and locating his pack, he pulled out a pair of gray wool socks and handed them to Beatriz. “These might be a little big for you.”
“Big is good,” Ryan said. “I’m thinking if we pull them over Beatriz’s flip-flops they’ll stop sliding around. Kind of like a slipper sock, only inside out.”
Wyatt nodded. “You work on that and I’ll work on how to get us across.” He returned to the puzzle of the gate.
“Mind being my hands, Natalia?” Ryan asked.
“Not at all.”
The three of them sat down. Natalia pulled Beatriz’s right foot onto her lap and started using Band-Aids on the worst cuts.
Wyatt began pushing at the top of the makeshift gate. Marco joined in on the other side. “On my count,” Wyatt said. “One, two, three, push!”
They grunted, the chains squealed, and when they stopped thirty seconds later, it looked like they had managed to move it an inch or two.
Wyatt’s voice cracked with excitement. “I think if we keep pushing the top, we could pivot it from vertical to horizontal. Then we could crawl underneath.”
Darryl, AJ, and Jason joined them. Susan made no move to get up. She was sitting on a boulder, shoulders drooping, her face slack and vacant. Zion squeezed in next to his grandpa, but he was too short to reach as high as the others.
“Hey, buddy, why don’t you pull at the bottom?” Wyatt suggested to Zion. He counted again. “Okay, one, two, three!”
After covering up the worst of Beatriz’s cuts, Natalia tugged a sock over one flip-flop, working to get the sock’s heel to match the sandal’s heel. The other girl sucked in her breath but didn’t complain. Blue nosed her with a low whine. Beatriz put her arm around him and gave him a squeeze.
“He seems pretty chill,” Natalia observed as Susan reached out to pet him. Dogs usually made her nervous, but she was starting to relax around Blue.
“He’s the best. My sister’s kids like to dress him up, and he just sits there and lets them. Even when we all laugh at how ridiculous he looks.”
Natalia finished tugging on the second sock. As the guys worked on the gate, Beatriz got to her feet. She took a couple of tentative steps and then some more confident ones. “That feels good. Way more like a real shoe. Thanks, Ryan.”
“Slipper socks have the sole on the outside. I’m worried the socks will wear out too fast.” He snapped the fingers of his unburned hand. “Didn’t I see some duct tape in Wyatt’s first aid kit?”
When Natalia asked if they could use the duct tape, Wyatt nodded absently, focused on the progress they were making. She located it in his pack and held out the flattened roll to Ryan. “Do you think there’s enough?”
He narrowed his eyes. “It’s hard to say. Wrap the toes and heels first and then if there’s enough you can fill in the rest.”
Natalia tore off a strip. When she pressed it on she realized she hadn’t made it long enough to meet at the top.
“For the next strip, try unwinding some tape and using the back to measure before you tear,” Beatriz suggested.
Natalia did. Adding first a strip to the right foot and then to the left, she gradually wrapped up Beatriz’s feet. Meanwhile, the bottom edge of the gate had now been forced about six inches above the ground. It wasn’t yet big enough for even Zion to fit underneath, but they were definitely making progress. Everyone was panting from the pushing, so Wyatt called for a five-minute break.
After Natalia pressed the last piece of duct tape into place, Beatriz crowed, “Disco boots!” She leaned back and kicked her feet in the air.
“Just be careful,” Ryan said. “They’re probably slick.”
Beatriz squeezed his good hand in thanks and then hugged Natalia. One of Beatriz’s braids pressed into her cheek, and Natalia could smell the sweet, flowery scent of her shampoo.
As she looked over Beatriz’s shoulder, her gaze snagged on AJ.
Even in the fading light, he looked pale and sweaty. He seemed to be panting. And he had one hand pressed to his chest.
“Are you okay, AJ?”
“It’s just—my chest hurts.” His panicked eyes met Natalia’s. “I think I’m having a heart attack.”