Though the unburned branches protected them from broken bones, Juliana’s face and neck felt scraped and bloodied from the dry, sharp pine needles. Her scarf had blown off somewhere in the fall. She had nothing to keep the smoke from her lungs or her hair out of her face.
“Can you run?”
She saw the smoke puffing through the tunnel. The fire would be on them in no time. “Yes.”
“We have to go down.” He pointed to the water below. “Tie up your skirt, run to the trestle, and start climbing.”
Her eyes went wide as she traced the trestle’s beams and bars. “That’s more than a hundred feet. I don’t think I can.”
“Either you do or you don’t trust me.” He took her face between his hands and made her focus on him. “I’ll go first. I’ll be with you the whole way. Just slide down each one and I’ll catch you before we go to the next.”
She nodded, tears pouring down her cheeks and her hair whipping all around them.
“We go to there.” He pointed over the edge to the earthen bank. “Not so far, right?”
She nodded she understood.
“Once over the edge, move in the direction of the bank. We can work our way down to the water hanging onto the bushes and trees.”
The roar of the fire grew closer, drowning out his last words. Fireballs sailed overhead like comets as the train shrank into the distance.
“What?”
“Now!”
Juliana grabbed his outstretched hand and ran to the edge of the trestle. She yanked the bottom of her skirt through her legs and jammed it into her waistband, creating wide trousers. Then after tying the shawl around her waist, she followed Lukas onto the first rung. She slid her foot until she felt his hand on her ankle, and he steadied her descent. Her low-heeled boots helped by acting as a hook to find the next foothold. Her hands were strong from two years of kneading dough. But that didn’t help the fact that she hung far above the river rocks, shaking in terror. Her waist-length hair blocked her view of Lukas. She froze in place.
“Faster, Juliana! We have to get in the water!”
The air sucked up, up into the demon above, pulling all her hair upward, twisting toward the sky.
Lukas motioned to her to start moving toward the side where the trestle met the built-up earthen foundation.
Her arms felt the strain and the insteps of her feet would bear the bruises for days, if they survived.
The fire laced fingers across the top of the tunnel, cresting the mountain as they neared the valley bottom. Juliana’s foot missed a rail and her arms gave out. She slid, smacking her chin on the next bar, until she landed in the circle of Lukas’s arms where he clung to the trestle a yard below.
“I’ve got you,” he soothed her as she pushed the hair out of her face. The fire leaped onto the trestle above. “Let’s go, three more rails.” They crawled down together to see flames curling down the hillside in front of Tunnel 28, as if blown by a dragon.
Lukas picked Juliana up and ran for the water. He jumped in feetfirst, splashing Juliana into the shallow stream onto her side. Then he rolled her to completely soak her clothing and hair. She came up sputtering as he dove down, doing the same to himself.
He was up in a split second, hauling her up with him. “Now we run! Stay in the water. We can keep dunking ourselves until we find safety.”
“How? How do we get to safety?” she yelled over the cacophony.
“We’ll follow the creek north to the next train station we can find. If we hurry, we might catch them at Moss Creek. They still have to pull uphill through Adair. That switchback takes long enough, we can get to them using the logging road, as long as it’s clear.”
They fought through the rocky stream, stumbling and coughing, with the fire chasing their heels like a hound scented on a fox. The animals, though, had already run for higher ground.
Juliana fell for what must be the umpteenth time. Lukas wouldn’t let her stay down except to soak her clothing again and again, the heat drying them too quickly. “My shawl is wool, Lukas. I can’t keep going with the weight of it if you keep getting it wet, too.”
“You have to keep it. That may mean life or death if the smoke gets so thick again.” He dipped it into the stream, wiped her face to clear the smoke and ash from her eyes, then tied it around his own waist. “I’ll carry it for you.”
She nodded and took his hand.
Three hundred yards more and they crossed onto the logging road. They ran as hard as they could into the clearing leading to Moss Creek. They didn’t have to go all the way to know they were too late. Everyone was long gone—or dead. The fire sizzled away the canvas, structure beams collapsed, burning like stacked campfires. No more trains were coming up the track through the wall of fire that chased them, consuming every ounce of life in its way.
“We cannot stop.” He grabbed her elbow and turned them due north, away from the fire rushing in from the south and toward the mountains ahead still unmarred by the dragon’s breath behind them.
The smoke, thick as heavy fog, burned Juliana’s throat as she tried to keep pace with Lukas’s long legs.
He looked behind them and scooped his arm around her, propelling her forward. “Keep moving.”
“If the fire doesn’t get us, I think my heart will give out.” She doubled over, hacking and wheezing as ash snowed all around, cinders setting off dry brush wherever it landed.
“Juliana.” Lukas stooped down and pulled the red kerchief off his face, close enough to shout over the storm and see her eyes. “You are my heart. If yours stops, then mine does, and I will not let that happen.” He brought her knuckles to his lips.
“I can’t keep going.”
“I’m not moving without you. So if we stay, it’s your choice. This is your chance to get retribution on a Montenegrin.” He took his hands away. “I surrender. Is that what you want?”
Flaming projectiles soared overhead. She screamed, “No! I want you to live!”
“Good!” He grinned, infusing her with his optimism. “I have plans for our future, and I think God gave them to me. Do you at least believe in God?”
She doubled over again, hands on her knees and nodded, her chest heaving.
Lukas ripped off an already torn sleeve, pressed it against the damp shawl at his waist, and then tied it around Juliana’s nose and mouth. “Look up there.”
She searched the area, following where he pointed to the swell of rocks of the mountain. A tunnel! Cool, fresh air!
“Let’s go.”
She straightened her shoulders. God had sent this man into her life to give her courage for this trial. She would trust God and trust the gift of a heroic man. If she should perish, at least she gave her all as he did for her. Juliana held out her hand. “Lead on.”
Halfway up the mountain, Lukas guided Juliana into the mouth of the tunnel. The beams held up boulders above the entrance. The tunnel had been blasted out of sheer rock. But the outside light reached a back wall. The air was already warming, though still fresh. For how long?
“Take a short rest, Juliana.” He removed their kerchiefs. “Then we have to head out.”
“What?” She leaned over the pack mule path they’d just clambered up. The fire below wouldn’t have fuel up close to the boulders around the abandoned tunnel. “We should be safe here, shouldn’t we?” She stumbled toward the inner sanctum, leaning heavily on the wall. The sweet air relieved the burning pressure in her chest.
Lukas bent over, both hands on his knees, and sucked in oxygen. He shook his head. “Not enough room in here to shelter us.”
As she recovered a bit from the run, Juliana knew he could make it out if it weren’t for her slowing him down. “Why did you come?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re educated, have manners, and can do just about anything. Why here?”
“Because I have responsibilities that require funding.”
“So this isn’t about getting rich quick for you?”
“No. It’s about helping my people.” He cocked his head, listening. “Do you hear that? There’s water in here.” He lifted a hand, feeling along the rock walls for weeping, moving deeper into the tunnel. “Why didn’t you go back to your family after your husband died?”
She pressed her hands to the rock on the other side of the narrow shaft. “My father told me that if I married James, I should not come back.”
“That’s harsh.”
“When I wrote home to tell them I was widowed because he was murdered by a Montenegrin, my mother wrote back that my father had died of a heart ailment.”
“So those men deprived you of your husband and then you were dealt a further cruelty of finding out your father died.”
Her voice cracked. “I’d broken his heart with my decision, and it’s too late to reconcile. I’ll never see him again.” She took another breath of air, though it seemed not as cool as before. “Then my mother said she was going home to Helena, Montana, and I should follow her there.”
“So you are going home.” He moved his hand back to squeeze her fingers. “That’s a good choice.”
“I was. We sent letters back and forth, communicating again. I was so happy.” She turned her hand palm up and held his, needing human contact. “My mother died last summer of the flu. I couldn’t get to her in time.”
“You’re an orphan and a widow. You’ve been doing this all alone.” He took two strides, pulling her to him and holding her tight. “I’m so sorry.”
Her cheek pressed to his chest, she nodded. “I still have an aunt and uncle there. But they can’t support me.”
In the hazy light, Lukas tipped her head back, searching her eyes.
“You know none of those men were on my crews, don’t you?”
She nodded. “The sheriff arrested the man who did it almost immediately.” Her lungs ached, but the anger and unforgiveness pressed harder on her soul. “I don’t want to hate anyone anymore.”
His palm caressed her soot-covered cheek as his lips touched hers, stinging and chapped, and yet electricity sang through her veins. She found herself as thirsty for his love as for water, and that shot panic through her body. She stepped back, feeling for the chiseled rock. Her fingers slid into a crevice, and water trickled over them. “I found it!”
Spinning around, Juliana cupped her hands, pointing the tips of her fingers into the fissure, funneling the cold water to her mouth. It ran pure, almost freezing her throat as it spilled down her bodice. Pulling away, she invited Lukas to share. “It’s sweet and so good.”
He did the same, taking turns with her until they had enough.
“Juliana, we have to go. The smoke is getting heavier outside the tunnel.” He pointed toward the front. “And the air inside is getting hotter. Soon it’s not going to be safe. The fire is going to feed on the air from this shaft and suffocate us. Get as wet as you can.” He knelt and splashed at the mud puddle on the ground while she pressed her body into the running rivulets. Then he took his kerchief, the makeshift kerchief from his sleeve, and her shawl, wetting them as best he could.
“When we get out of this, you’re marrying me.”
“No.” She shook her head. “I’ve saved for two years. I’m opening my pastry shop in Helena.”
He folded her back into his arms. “It’s all gone by now, Juliana, all gone.”
Everything destroyed. Her dream up in flames. “I’m lost, then. I have no future.”
“You have me, and you are my heart. We can rebuild our lives together.” He leaned down and kissed her. “Say you’ll marry me. Give me the hope to get us out of here alive.”
They’d never make it. Smoke already billowed into the cave. “I’ll marry you, if we get out of here alive.”
“A Montenegrin?”
“You have proven to me that a good man is a good man.” Hope sprang up in her at the joy in his face. She’d make good on that promise—if they survived.
He grinned, white teeth almost glowing against his dirty, soot-covered face. “God is not finished with us. If you will not trust me to save your life, then trust God. He put us on this journey toward each other. He’s not going to let it end like this. Yes?”
“Yes.”
Lukas tied their kerchiefs on. Then he put his arm around her again and let her lean into him as they moved into the path of the fire.
They saw smoking mountains, blackened forests, and a rolling cloud of smoke encroaching as the blaze flattened and scorched all creation. For a moment, neither could move at the sight of hell on earth coming to swallow them up. For Juliana, hope exploded like the massive cedars sending shreds of bark sparking high into the sky. Then she felt Lukas yank her from the ridge.
They slid and rolled down to a creek, smaller than the last, that flowed toward them. “We’re heading toward Wallace, Idaho.” As the haze shifted, Lukas and Juliana dunked as best they could.
“Don’t drink that.” Lukas blocked her as she cupped her hands. “It’s full of the fallout and getting too warm.” His eyes grew enormous. “We’ve got to move.” He pointed at the fire spreading into the trees about to circle their location. “There, head up again!”
Juliana’s thigh muscles burned and her calves felt like hot pulled taffy, but she kept moving. Lukas stayed behind her and splayed his hands around her hips, giving her momentum until the hill flattened out into a mule trail. Then her legs gave out. She hit the ground, rocks biting into her skin.
Lukas slipped his arms around her and lifted. “Arms around my neck. Press in as close as possible. I need your weight as close to center to help me.”
She squeezed tightly to his shoulders and whispered, “I’m so sorry. I have nothing left.”
“We’re going to make it.” He took off, following the trail. “There has to be a longer mine around here. You say the prayers. That’s going to keep us going.”
She obeyed, closed her eyes, and prayed with her head tucked into his neck, her mouth just below his ear. “Lord, see us. Help us. Strengthen Lukas, and guide us to safety.” She repeated the same words over and over as he stumbled through the rough terrain. She tried not to cry out when he tripped.
Visibility dropped to a few yards. If Lukas couldn’t see, they’d likely run off a cliff.
“A horse! I see a horse, and someone is on it!”
She turned her face forward. A long line of men with picks and shovels shuffled ahead on the mountain trail. Firefighters! By the time Lukas caught up to where they’d been, they’d disappeared.
“In here!” a voice called.
Lukas spun in the direction of the thin sound, finally finding a man looking down from the mouth of a dark tunnel. “Juliana, look! If I put you down, can you climb that outcrop?”
He’d been carrying her. She could crawl up a bunch of rocks. “Yes.”
The voice called again, “Go back ten feet and come up there.”
A steep, overgrown trail tramped down by men and horses led right to the mine shaft. Lukas set Juliana ahead of him. They half crawled, half climbed the couple of yards to the six-by-ten opening surrounded by overgrown shrubs. Both collapsed from exhaustion.
A man an inch or so taller than Lukas leaned down and picked up Juliana from her knees. “Glad to see more alive. Let’s see if we can keep it that way.”
Lukas nodded but couldn’t stop coughing.
“Ed Pulaski. This here’s my fire crew.” Ed motioned him farther back. “Catch your breath and get your woman to the back where she’ll be safest.”
The tunnel ended in another dead end, but it’d been dug at least a hundred yards deep before abandoned. Heavy beams reinforced the ceiling. A few lanterns illuminated two horses and men strewn all over the floor. There was a small puddle here and there, but not much weeping water as in the last mine.
“Will we have enough air?” Juliana asked as tendrils of smoke snaked into view. Soon the black smog would follow.
“I don’t know. But it’s the best chance we have. The fire’s coming on too fast.”
At the entrance, Ed Pulaski formed a sort of bucket brigade. “Get any blankets you have out of your packs. Find the puddles and soak them. We gotta cover these posts and this exit.”
Men scrambled into action. While they worked, Juliana searched the saddlebags for canteens. Finding one, she found a slow drip high on the wall and held the canteen under it.
“Who has any tent pegs or horseshoe nails?”
Men produced anything they could find. Lukas grabbed an ax and helped pound tent spikes to anchor the makeshift door into the walls at Ed Pulaski’s instructions. “If that wood burns, we’re in trouble.” He turned to everyone. “Fill your hats with as much water as you can get and keep these things wet.”
With no hat or helmet, Lukas and Juliana turned to the injured men leaning against the tunnel walls. He found another canteen, dry as a bone, and started filling it as she helped a downed man sip out of hers. Then they switched.
The fire raged, sucking under the blankets at the clean oxygen and singeing them. Steam floated off the wool leaving dry patches. “No!” Ed yelled. He called for more water as he held the edges tight. “Get down low and stay down. The lower you are, the more likely you’ll survive!”
One of his men panicked and ran like he’d tear his way out. Juliana screamed. The horses tried to rear and break for the entrance, but Lukas grabbed one and a firefighter snagged another.
Ed had his revolver pointed at the terrified man. “You try it and I’ll shoot you down.”
The terrified man backed away. “We’re gonna die in here.”
“We’re going to live.” Ed kept his gun up, slowly aiming around the cavern. “I’m getting home to my family, and so are you.”
Juliana could plainly see the blisters and burn marks on his hands. His sleeves were blackened to his shoulders, moustache and eyebrows nearly gone.
“The next man who tries to leave the tunnel, I’ll shoot.” He stared them all down the way Lukas did his miners on the train. “The only job you have is to get water up here to keep this all wet.”
He stood there, guarding the door the rest of the night as the mountains roared like a thousand freight trains behind him, as far as Juliana could tell—until she passed out….