FINDING THE LOST, Jeanne Tody Beroza [reading tree txt] 📗

them to pick us up. The helicopter will keep dropping water on us to try and hold the fire off.”

Blaze was now at the bottom of the long climb up into the rocks. Cristi has started coughing. She could hear the guys coughing behind her. As she slowed to begin the climb Denny reached around her head from behind and tied a wet handkerchief over her mouth and nose. She raised her hand in thanks and wished she could put the handkerchief back over Blaze’s nose. The little dog was determined to keep following the trail, no matter what was happening around them. Cristi felt more tears fill her eyes and it wasn’t because the smoke was bothering them, although it was.

They followed cracks up into the rocks, climbing as fast as they had jogged through the trees. Cristi bent double at the waist and scrambled up behind Blaze, grabbing trees or rocks whenever she could. The helicopter passed overhead and dropped another load of water. This one was close enough that the spray caught and wet her completely as she ran.

Blaze climbed and climbed and twisted and turned finding ways through the huge rocks. The guys had started calling out Janie’s name as they ran. “Janie, Janie, they called. Holler out to us, Janie. We’re here to help.” Cristi didn’t have enough air left in her lungs to say anything let alone to yell for the girl. All she could do was follow Blaze and hope they found her soon.

They were at the very top of the climb when Blaze finally stopped and disappeared from sight. Following right on her heels, Cristi saw the little cave in the rocks. Right on her heels, Charlie pushed her to one side, pushed through the tight squeeze between two mammoth boulders, got down on his belly, reached into the cave and pulled the little girl out. Mike and Denny were looking around them for an escape route.

For the first time in this long run Cristi looked behind her. The entire forest was on fire. Embers rained around them and flames were torching the trees sprouting form the base of the rocks they’d just climbed. It would only be a minute, maybe two or three before the fire was upon them.

Panicked she started winding up the long leash attached to Blaze’s harness. She unclipped it and put it on the little dog’s collar and then picked her up in her arms. If necessary she was going to jump with her into the water. She knew that was dangerous. Everyone knew you never dove into the water in any of these lakes since the rocks were even bigger below the surface. But, she’d do it anyway if the alternative was burning and allowing Blaze to burn.

Charlie had the limp body of the little girl in his arms and had started to pick his way down the rocks towards the water. Mike grabbed her arm and pushed her ahead of him. “We can climb down part way,” he said into her ear. “Getting down below this fire is good any way you look at it. Fire goes up. If we can get down far enough, it might save us. Give Blaze to me, I’m stronger. Run Cristi. Get going.”

Another load of water exploded right behind them. It helped get Cristi’s feet moving. She slid and jumped and ran and fell down the rocks. She would later think no one had made a more inelegant or dangerous decent off a rock cliff than they did that day.

It took two minutes to reach a ledge that was not going to allow them to go any further. Mike put Blaze down. Cristi held her close. Denny dug a climbing rope out of his pack, while Mike got another out of his. “This is going to be rough,” one of them said, “ we don’t’ have time to set a proper anchor, but we’ll do what we can and hope for the best."

As she watched, both men put their ropes around a spire of rock, tied them off and threw the excess over the ledge. Mike threw Charlie a harness. He stepped into it while Denny and Mike attached rappelling descenders to each rope. “Give her to me,” Charlie told Cristi. She handed Blaze to him.

He tied Blaze to his chest with her lead, quickly forming an ‘X’ passing the rope first over one shoulder, down over her body, around his waist and back up over the other shoulder. He did this several times until it was impossible for Blaze to move. She was whimpering. Mike tied Janie to his chest in the same manner.

“Cristi, climb on my back and hang on tight.” Charlie said, “We don’t have time to do this one at a time.” She did as he said and he walked backwards over the ledge and then they were in what felt to her like free fall as he worked his way down the rope and into the water. Mike was flying down the other rope, the comatose body of the little girl tied to his chest while Denny came sliding down the rope as soon as Mike hit the lake.

Once they were in the water, Cristi and Charlie both held to their rope while Charlie held Blaze’s head above water. Denny and Mike were clinging to the other rope. Mike had pushed Janie up so her head was near his neck. “We should be safe here until they get to us,” Charlie told her. “Just hang on and stay cool. I’ve got you both.”

She could hear the fire roaring overhead. It had reached the top of the rocks. Embers rained down around them sizzling as they hit the water. Every now and then a flaming tree or branch would come tumbling down. The ledge deflected each and everything, keeping any flaming debris from hitting them. She did worry something might float over and burn them right while they were in the water but their movements seemed to be creating small waves that sent debris moving away from them.

“They’re here,” Denny finally said. “They’ve reached the other side of the lake. They’re putting the boats in the water. The lake’s not very wide at this point. Shouldn’t take them long to get here.”

Cristi was never so happy to see anyone, as she was to see her teammates coming towards her across the water. The ice rescue boat was not designed to be rowed across a lake. It was just a plastic foam board mounted to two air filled pontoons. It was meant to be pushed across the ice and be maneuvered into the water if necessary to drag someone aboard, but two of her fellow search and rescue members were paddling madly, perched on the plastic deck between the pontoons.

The inflatable reached them first. Charlie pushed and the man and woman inside the boat pulled her up and inside. Next they pulled in Charlie and Blaze. He landed on top of Blaze but she didn’t say a thing. Poor little girl was traumatized and trusting them to not kill her. “Where’s Janie,” she asked as Charlie unwound the rope holding Blaze to him and pushed the shivering wet dog into her arms. Just then Mike pushed the little girl over the side of the boat and into Charlie’s lap, then he turned in the water and made his way to the ice rescue craft.

One of the people manning the inflatable draped a blanket around Cristi’s shoulders and then put another around Charlie and Janie. Her fellow volunteers had already started paddling for the opposite shore. She looked behind her to see Mike and Denny scrambling onto the platform of the Ice Rescue Boat while their two rescuers hung onto pontoons and swam, pushing the boat ahead of them while Mike and Denny paddled.

“They’re going to get tired,” she said. Charlie looked at the other craft and said, “They didn’t just run over a mile with a fire chasing them. They can handle it.”

He wrapped one arm around Cristi’s shoulders and whispered into her ear, “You were a sight to behold back there, running with Blaze the wonder dog. You and she are heroes. You know that don’t you?”

Tears steamed down Cristi’s face as she said, “Oh Charlie, we still have to run for the ATV’s when we reach the other side. Save your breath for the next run of our lives. This thing will probably hit the end of the lake and come after us on the other side. As she said that the helicopter was already dropping water at the end of the lake hoping to turn the fire so it would not do that. She could also hear fire engines roaring in on the access road, coming as far as they could to start digging a fire line. They were wetting down the trees around the way out.


CHAPTER EIGHT:


Friday night, Cristi pulled on a pair of new, tight black jeans and a form-fitting pink cotton sweater and drove to the Hitchrail Bar and Restaurant in Pringle. She had a date to meet her best friends for drinks and dinner.

Everyone was there. Dave and Jana had returned from Pine Ridge full of stories of their adventures. Mike had brought his wife, Mattie. She listened to all the talk about fires and running for their lives and said she was glad to be working in the hospital taking care of everyone her husband and his teammates had sent to her.

“We should ask Denny and his wife to come next time,” Mike suggested and they all agreed to do that.

There was a tiny dance floor in one corner of the bar area, between the pool table and the jukebox. Charlie fed a bunch of quarters into the machine and asked Cristi to dance. He held her tight. They swayed to Conway Twitty crooning Slow Hands, and she thought of his hands moving slowly over her body. She shivered.

“You cold?” he asked.

“Nah,” she said, “just thinking.” She thought they made a pretty good pair. Her with her ash blonde hair and blue eyes. Him with his light brown hair and grey eyes. Both of them slim and toned, dressed in jeans that hugged their butts, relaxed and having fun. They were ass kicking, hotter than hell search and rescue volunteers. They had saved three little kids, all of who were in the hospital recovering from their ordeals.

Mattie had told them the doctors thought Janie had hit her head somewhere in the rocks. She had a big goose egg on her temple and had probably suffered a concussion but she’d recover. “It might have been a blessing for the little girl,” she said. “Unlike the other two children, nothing too traumatic or abusive happened to her. She remembers a big bad man, running through the woods away from the fire and waking up in the hospital.”

The other two were not so lucky. Both had been sexually abused. Both would be in treatment for a long time. The feds were still trying to locate their parents.

Charlie picked up the energy and rocking rhythm of Blue Bayou by Linda Ronstadt. Turning her round and round he held her tight and whispered in her ear. “You know I would have picked you up in Hot Springs. You didn’t have to drive.”

“I know but I thought maybe I should have my own ride in case you were called in to work.”

“I’ve got the pager turned off,” he replied and kissed