Pops laughed. "Ascertain. You always pull out those fifty-cent words when you're fibbing."
"I do not!"
A fireman in a yellow-striped jacket approached the front of the car, speaking into a radio. I felt relief for a moment, thinking we'd run into a whole team of firefighters. Then I saw it was Mike. He'd put on his hard hat and N95 mask. He paused at the hood, speaking into the radio. I had no idea what they were saying, but from his tense body language, it wasn't good news.
He finished and put the radio in a pocket. He stood there, looking out over the scene, and wiped a hand over his brows—a gesture which, to my eyes, read as we're fucked.
"I'll be right back." I opened my car door.
"I could be home right now watching a movie," Pops groused. I ignored him.
As I moved to the front of the car, the wind blew my hair into my eyes. I pushed it away in time to see embers skitter across the asphalt and disappear under the car in front of me. Oh shit. Not good. Then, on the left side of the road, I saw fire in the brush. The fire was right there. Looking up ahead at the road, all I could see were red taillights—in both lanes.
"Mike?" I asked, my voice sounding funny. Somehow I was standing right next to him, though I didn't recall walking there.
He turned to look at me, his face grim. "Let's talk over here." He took my arm and led me to the back of the car and a few feet beyond that, like he didn't want the other drivers to hear. He spoke low. "Listen, don't freak out, okay?"
"Uh… no? I absolutely reserve the right to freak out. What's going on?"
Mike grimaced. "There's a burning tree across the road. I ran into a guy who saw it. He says it's maybe fifty cars up, and it's not going anywhere without heavy equipment."
"Oh my God!" I looked at all the cars in front of us. "What… I mean… should we drive back to town, or….?"
His lips pressed tight. "No. We can't go back. I just called in, and the fire's reached the town. They're gonna try to get a tow truck here to move the tree."
"How can anyone get to us? Both lanes are full!"
"Yeah," he admitted reluctantly. "Opening up both lanes for outbound traffic blocks emergency vehicles from getting in, so it was a risk. But Chief thought there was time to run both lanes for at least an hour, try to clear the jam."
"Only the wind's picked up. And now there's no time." I finished the thought.
Mike visibly swallowed. His gaze was locked with mine. He'd gone pale, despite the heat, and his eyes looked scared. I couldn't help thinking how cute he was. And how we were probably going to die together. Which might sound romantic in a book but turned out to suck balls in real life.
I also remembered that he was a rookie. He'd been on the job—what had he said?—only two weeks. And here he was, stranded without his crew. I felt bad for him. For us all.
My chest grew tight and a tear ran down my cheek, practically sizzling. Fuck, it was hot out here. I coughed, hard.
"Where's your N95 mask?" Mike asked.
I waved a dismissive hand. "In the car. So if we can't get past the road block, and we can't go back to Crest Lake, what do we do?"
I tried to stay calm and not go all drama queen. But right now, having Mike here was the only reason I wasn't hysterical.
Mike reached out and wiped the tear off my cheek. "Okay, listen… the procedure in this circumstance is that you shelter in your car. It's not ideal, but it's better than being caught outside, where you have no protection at all."
"In the car!" Images of blackened, burned-out cars from other fires that I'd seen on TV flooded my brain. "Oh no. Oh God! We're gonna die."
Mike grabbed my upper arms. "Shane! Listen to me. You roll up the windows, close the vents, and get down on the floor of the car, as low as you can. Do you have any wool blankets? We can put those over us."
"I'm a Californian! And a college student! Why on earth would I have wool blankets in my car?" We were definitely going to die. I shook my head adamantly. "Cars burn! The gas tank will explode!"
He got a tiny smile. "No. Gas tanks don't explode. That's only in the movies. It's really rare for—"
"Rare?" I shouted. "Oh my God!"
Even if Mike and I could survive inside a car that was on fire, wouldn't it be like being in an oven? Wouldn't we be burned? And Pops… Pops would never make it.
"Excuse me!" It was Pops. He was leaning out his window. "I know I'm just the old guy, but I have an idea."
"What's that, Sir?" Mike asked, not sounding hopeful.
"The lake." Pops pointed to the right. "Before you two showed up, I figured if things got too hairy, I could roll myself down to the lake. Get in the water. We just passed the entrance to the state park. That road goes right to the lake."
"Oh, Pops! You're a genius," I breathed. Escaping into the water sounded really good about now. It sounded a hell of a lot better than being trapped in a burning car.
Mike hesitated, looking around. He was probably thinking that if we left the line now, and they managed to clear that tree, we'd miss our chance to escape, and he'd miss his chance to get back to work. But the woods to the left were on fire—and not just a little bit. The air was getting hotter by the second and there were embers flying around—a lot of them. Suddenly, I didn't want to be there. Not that I hadn't been frightened for the past few hours, but this was more like a bone-deep impulse. Run.
Maybe Mike felt it too. Because before I could open my mouth to say anything, he spoke up. "We're the last car in line. Let's back up and take the state park road. Check it out."
"Good idea." I was in the car in a flash, ready to go, but I had to wait while Mike walked to the front of the car and called out to the other drivers. "We're going back to the state park entrance to check out the lake as a possibility. I'll be back as soon as I can to let you know."
For some reason, that made me get out of my own freak-out enough to realize that it wasn't just about us. There were a lot of people stuck on this road—families, kids, old people. What had Mike said—the tree blocking the road was maybe fifty cars up? All those people were in trouble too. And Mike was the only authority in sight.
My mouth went dry at the thought. Holy shit. We had to do something.
Mike got into the back seat. I threw the car into reverse and gunned it. There was nobody behind us—one perk of being the absolute last to evacuate, and I was back at the state park entrance within seconds. I made the right-hand turn onto the empty park road, and Mable sped along like a bullet. Smoke was pouring out of the woods to the right and I saw flames. That section was on fire too. That meant the fire was on at least two sides of us. And it could so easily cross this park road. If that happened, even the way to the lake would be blocked off.
"Go right! Right," Pops shouted. "To the boat launch!"
"Why not the beach?" I asked, braking hard as I approached the turn.
"Canoe rentals!" Pops shouted, reaching over to grab the wheel.
Oh, yeah. They did have rentals here. I'd taken a canoe out once on a date. Hopefully, they were still there and not in storage for the winter. Only one way to find out. I swung to the right, following the signs for the boat launch. The road was narrow, but there wasn't a car in sight, only a few deer crossing the road, running full out.