Forty-Four Box Set, Books 1-10 (44) (164 page)

“Whatever, Iceman. Anyway, talk about a highway to the danger zone, huh?”

I was glad to have the company. He started playing with the radio. I switched my watch to GPS mode, knowing that sometimes it liked to take its sweet time in locating a satellite.

We skirted the western shore of Elk Lake. A few minutes later another sign read, “Road Closed 1 mile ahead.”

I took a deep breath.

The road was blocked off at Devil’s Lake. The large lot was also closed. I found a wide stretch of shoulder and parked.

“Go time,” Jesse said.

“Yeah, go time,” I repeated.

I grabbed my pack and headed for the trailhead, where another sign warned that the area was closed and off limits.

It was already warm. Warm and smoky. The dusty trail began with a steep incline and I quickly found myself out of breath. I slowed down a little, trying to strike a balance between making good time and finding a pace I could sustain.

“Remember, it’s a marathon,” Jesse said. “Like Coach Pop says, ‘Don’t be in a hurry to win.’”

After a few hundred yards the path leveled out. Time began to pass quickly. Almost before I knew it, I had two miles behind me, the sun just now filtering through the dense trees and the smoke. I was making good time, alternating between fast walking and slow running.

At three miles I began to feel the weight of the pack as it cut into my arms and left my fingers tingling. I thought about leaving some water by the side of the trail for the return trip but drank some instead.

Along with the heavy load on my back, I was also carrying a burden of doubt. Was I on the right trail? And even if I was, would I be able to find the exact spot where the hikers took their fateful detour? Was the injured man still alive? And if he was alive and I was lucky enough to find him, what then? I didn’t want to think about what I would or could do if I couldn’t get phone reception.

Nothing looked familiar, but I told myself it was still too soon. The landmarks would be up ahead. I just had to have faith in my visions. And I had to keep going.

Jesse was shadowing my every step. Once in a while I would turn around and see an encouraging smile or a nod of his head under that baseball cap that he always wore.

The trail began to climb again but more gradually than at the beginning. The temperature was climbing, too. At one point the gravelly trail flattened out and left the forest, meandering past a large field of sharp volcanic rocks.

Soon after that I came to a field of wildflowers past their prime and wondered if it was the area that I had seen in the vision. There was a rocky barren ridge rising up to the right.

“Maybe it’s this way,” I said, turning off in that direction. “This might be where I first saw the guy.”

But as I neared the top, I saw that the angle was wrong. Broken Top was still too far to the north. I needed to be able to see the mountain when I looked almost directly east. I backtracked and picked up the main trail again.

 “You still there, wingman?” I said without looking back. “I was worried you’d be a little too flabby in the lungs for this kind of thing.”

“Speak for yourself, Craigers. I’m in the best shape of my life.”

“You mean, other than being dead?”

“Yeah, other than that.”

We were quiet after that and for the first time I noticed how still everything was. Aside from the sound of my breathing, there was only silence. There were no birds chirping, no squirrels flying off branches or scurrying up the sides of trees, no bees or even mosquitos. It was eerie, the air itself thick and ominous. It was like all the creatures of the forest knew what was coming and had cleared out.

It didn’t take long before the uneasiness turned to fear. It began deep in my stomach and began to grow. I hadn’t thought it through, I hadn’t thought about what I would do if I became cut off from the Jeep and couldn’t get back. Or what I would do if somewhere up ahead I came face to face with the flames.

My breathing became uneven and I felt myself starting to hyperventilate. I stopped by a tree, dropped the pack, and dug out one of the sports drinks. I took a few sips, hoping that Jesse hadn’t noticed that I was beginning to freak out.

“Good idea,” he said. “I could use a little break myself.”

I capped off the top and met his eyes. He was staring at me strangely. He had noticed, I thought, but then I realized he was staring at my hand.

At the ring on my finger.

He looked away.

“Damn,” I said. “I’m sorry, Jesse. With all that’s been going on, I forgot to tell you.”

I sighed and waited for him to look back.

“Ty asked me to marry him. I said yes.”

Jesse nodded, played with his hat, and smiled awkwardly.

“Congratulations,” he said.

“Thanks.”

“I know he makes you happy. And that’s all I’ve ever wanted for you, Craigers. For you to be happy. To have a normal life. To get back what I took from you.”

I sighed again.

“You didn’t take anything from me, Jesse,” I said. “It’s time to move past that kind of thinking. No one’s at fault. It was an accident. Sometimes bad things just happen. Stop blaming yourself.”

He nodded slowly and I could tell he wanted to say something else, but he hesitated.

“What?” I asked, gazing into his large, intense eyes.

A few more slow seconds went by.

“It’s just that…” he began. “It’s been hard sitting on the bench.”

I gulped and waited for him to continue.

“I wish it could have been me,” he whispered. “I wish that it was my ring on your finger, that it was me in your bed at night.”

His words stunned me. Jesse never talked like this, and it released something inside, something that caused me to start shivering. 

He stepped toward me and took me in his arms, meeting my lips with his. Even though he was a ghost, I could feel them as if they were real, soft and tender and right. His hand slipped down my back and he pulled me closer. As we stood there kissing, the trail, the fire, the injured man, all melted.

When he finally pulled away, I began shaking again. 

“I love you, Craigers, I just wanted you to know.”

“I love you too, Jesse,” I said, forcing air back into my lungs.

“I always will, no matter who you marry or what you do in this lifetime. We belong together and I’m never going to leave your side. Not ever.”

I stared up into his eyes.

“All this time, since that day, since the accident, it’s the only thing that keeps me going. I died, but my love for you survived. It can’t be killed. It’s too strong.”

I took his hand and kissed it.

“Bad timing, huh?” he said, motioning toward the backpack with his chin. “Break time’s over. You’ve got work to do.”

We left it there on the forest floor, our kiss, in a heap of dead pine needles about to explode in the coming flames, about to turn to ash and scatter in the wind.

CHAPTER 25

I did my best to push away the avalanche of mixed feeling that Jesse’s confession and kiss had left snowballing inside me. I would sort it all out later I told myself, but for now I needed to focus.

The trail continued. The heat and the miles were starting to take their toll on my legs and I could feel the smoke deep inside my lungs now. It was getting harder and harder to breathe.

Suddenly I heard the sound of water up ahead. It got louder with each step.

“Jesse! This is it! I’ve been here before,” I said a minute later as we stood on the rocky shore of a rushing stream.

“You mean in the vision?”

“Yeah, I was here at this very spot. The man I was following disappeared into those trees over across the way.”

I scanned the banks, searching for rocks or a downed log to use as a bridge, but there weren’t any. The trail picked up on the other side, but there was no easy way of crossing the water without going in. It was fast and looked cold, but hopefully not too deep. I took off my shoes and socks and put them in the pack.

“Times like these I’m glad I’m a ghost,” Jesse said, looking at the foaming water.

I yelled the second I stepped in, the frigid water feeling like a thousand needles drilling into my feet and sending shock waves of pain up to my head. At its deepest point the water reached just below my knees and it was hard to stay upright. But I persevered, slowly sliding over the slick rocks at the bottom, keeping my arms out for balance and forcing myself not to rush even though the pain was outrageous.

When I got to the other side, Jesse was there waiting. I massaged some life back into my numb feet and let them dry for a few minutes before putting on my shoes again. I checked my watch. Five point eight miles from the parking lot.

If this was the place, and I thought it was, I must be getting close.

I hit the trail again. I felt a second wind and my heart started to beat faster, hope and dread locked in a fight to the death inside me.

A dark shadow began to fill the sky, chasing away the light, the sun eclipsed by the thickening smoke. I could barely make out the outline of South Sister to my right, but nothing beyond. Broken Top was the key. If I couldn’t see it, I had no chance of finding him.

Suddenly, a loud crash echoed through the forest somewhere behind me. I wondered if that was the sound of my bridges burning and whether there was any turning back now.

“What do you think that was?”

“Probably unrelated to the fire,” Jesse said. “A tree fell in the forest and we were there to hear it.”

I wasn’t sure if that’s what he really thought or if he was trying to reassure me.

The forest was heating up now, but it wasn’t the type of heat produced by weather. It was the fire. It was getting closer. I could feel it, like a wild beast chasing me, closing in all around.

I picked up my pace, running through the smoke, sucking it in, hacking it out, climbing higher and higher, pushing onward. I didn’t stop, not to catch my breath or to wash out my stinging, sweat-soaked eyes. I ran with everything I had, the beast nipping at my heels.

I ran and ran and at some point the feeling started to overtake me that I should have been there by now. At mile seven I left the trees behind again. At mile nine I left behind my second wind. I had no reason to think there would be a third one.

“Maybe we’ve gone too fa—” I said and then stopped.

There was another rocky outcropping up ahead and to the right.

Running on fumes, I sped to the top, stood on the edge. I could see the flames shooting up across the way. Trees going up like candles on a birthday cake. But there was no sign of the men.

They had to be back there somewhere. I must have missed the clues in the smoke and overshot them. The mileage felt wrong. Even with all the false detours I had taken, which added to my overall total, something told me I had gone too far.

I decided to go a little farther anyway before retracing my steps, hoping against hope that I wasn’t on a wild goose chase with no goose and no golden egg and no rescue at the end of it all.

I was back in the forest, walking now, stumbling at times, and then I fell. Not because I tripped, but because my legs gave out. They cramped and seized and I went down hard, face first.

When I hit the ground, I was too far gone to even cry out or groan. I became just another part of the silence.

“You okay?” Jesse said.

I didn’t answer.

“Craigers?”

“Yeah, I think so,” I said finally, slowly rolling over onto my back.

I stared up at the sky, confused and lost. Then the fear came back and I was swimming in it, drowning in it.

“Listen to that,” I said. “It’s like the trees are groaning. Like they’re being eaten alive.”

The forest was being consumed by an inferno and what was left was waiting to explode.

“We need to get you somewhere safe,” he said. “Let’s find a rock shelf, some place without trees, where you can ride this out.”

He looked like a ghost angel, bright against the darkness. He offered his hand.

I took it.

CHAPTER 26

I dusted myself off as best I could, inspected the scrapes on my left knee and the palms of my hands, and pulled out a water bottle. As I twisted off the top, I noticed that my right wrist was tender and sore. I must have hurt it in the fall. I drank most of the water and poured the rest over my head.

Another eerie explosion rattled through the woods.

“C’mon, let’s go,” Jesse said.

I placed one foot in front of the other and started up the trail again. I wasn’t thinking of the injured man anymore. I wasn’t thinking of anything. All I knew at that moment was that I had to get to a safe place, higher ground, away from trees and the fire.

I looked at my watch and saw it was 10:42. More than ten miles from the trailhead. It was hard to believe. I had come so far, felt so spent, but somehow it was still morning. I glanced back up at the trail.

And that’s when I saw it.

Another clearing, a few hundred yards ahead.

A hot breeze blew from behind as I made my way toward the top. The closer I came to the edge, the more the wind picked up until it was really blowing. I squinted across the way.

Suddenly the smoke gave way long enough for me to see it.

Broken Top, with its jagged peak poking up toward the heavens, was silhouetted in the firestorm behind it. This was the angle in the vision. This was the place. It had to be.

My heart drumming, I sprinted the last stretch.

“Easy, Craigers. Slow down.”

As I stood a few feet from the drop-off, something off to the side drew my attention. I turned my head and there, just a few feet away and propped up against a gnarled windblown pine, were two large backpacks. I got down on my stomach and crawled to the very edge, peering down at the large flat meadow far below me. There was a small creek cutting through it and I could see the trail to my left as it dropped down to meet it.

And at that moment reality become one with my dreams.

Nestled in the tall grass, at the bottom of the cliff, was a body.