Tyler parked the car and they rushed over to the helicopter that had landed just a minute ago. He and Jules were greeted by Blondie and Denis, who helped them don their Kevlar suits.

“Off we go,” Tyler murmured to himself, his voice drowned out by the sound of the rotors.

He watched Jules slip the headset over her ears and did the same, the noise instantly dimming and providing him a way to communicate with her and the pilot. Tyler watched Jules face as they lifted off into the air, sensing a rare nervousness in her that he hadn’t witnessed before.

As they flew over the city and toward the mountains, he could see the growing smoke plume rising into the air. It looked massive from this distance, and the closer they drew to Sequoia, the bigger it became. Everywhere Tyler looked on the horizon it seemed to be lit up by fire.

“Wow!”

Jules kept watch out her own window and merely nodded. He reached for her hand and she gripped it tightly, communicating without words that this was bad. Really bad.

They landed and the atmosphere at the base of operations was tense. Nervous energy always simmered before they got into a fight, part fear and part excitement, but today was different. Tyler could feel the air crackle. Fear could be healthy, because it kept you from doing stupid things, but too much fear could paralyze a person, making it a very dangerous emotion.

He’d learned that as a city fireman, but out here it seemed even more important. Out here you were on your own, sometimes for up to a week and your comrades couldn’t just carry you out of the building and into the next hospital within minutes.

While Jules checked in with operations from the leading Sequoia hotshots, he made a body check with Denis.

“All clear,” Denis said. “How was your weekend.”

“Hot,” Tyler grinned at the memory of the heated session between the sheets this morning, “but I assume it’ll be getting a lot hotter where we go.”

“Yeah. Not good news. There’s four or five local teams already on-site working to get the head of the fire to lie down.”

“And our crews?”

“Two went in about an hour ago. The third one was just waiting for us to arrive,” Blondie said.

Jules came back from operations and gathered her crew of twenty around her. “Sorry guys you had to wait. Here’s the plan,” she showed them a map of the Sequoia national park and circled the location of the fire with her fingers. “There’s the head with the local hotshots fighting, then there’s two of our crews here…and here on the western flank. We’ll go here… on the eastern flank. It’ll be a tough walk up, I estimate at least one hour, maybe two.” She glanced around, looking at each and every person.

“What about air support?” Gunner asked.

“Smokejumpers from Arizona are on their way, but it’ll take several hours for them to get here. Operations doesn’t know yet where exactly they’ll jump. But we have slurry planes dropping flame retardant. They’ll radio in so we can get to cover.” The flame retardant might be a blessing to slow down a fire, but the pinkish red slimy liquid was a curse when it hit skin. It stung and itched like hell.

Once they’d reached the burning area, Jules gave everyone their assignments, and Tyler cringed when she assigned him to the squad making a saw line, leaving her and Kevin to go up the hill, circling to the head to connect with the other hotshot crews from their base.

His heart tensed at the idea of being separated from her, but this was the job and he couldn’t let emotion stop him from getting to work. He did keep his radio on and his ears peeled for information as it came in. The fire had started in very dry country with lots of ground fuel and stands of dead trees to help keep it moving and growing.

Hours later, Jules voice came across the radio notifying base command that one of her co-workers had been hit by a bullet-like branch from an exploding tree and needed an airlift out. Her location meant nothing to him without a map, and he and his fellow co-workers were in the middle of getting the better of a small finger of fire.

Sweat and soot running down his face, and his back, he tucked the information away, happy Jules wasn’t injured and continued hacking, sawing, and stepping out spots. His back hurt like hell, and his arms and shoulders wanted to quit moving…taking a break, stretching, sounded like paradise.

But it took only one glance at Blondie’s determined face working at his side to double up his efforts. Every now and then he took a big gulp from his flask and hours later, when he thought it wasn’t humanly possible to stay on his feet for another moment, he retrieved an energy bar from his pack, stuffed it into his mouth and continued working. The night had already settled, and his eyes burnt with the smoke when he ate the last bite of his provisions.

After twelve hours of back braking work that Tyler felt in every single cell in his body, relieve hotshot crews from other states arrived and Denis, their squad leader, called it a day and ordered them to retreat into the black to set up camp.

Air support had dropped food and drinks, since there was no way to get in by truck. Tyler and Gunner heated their MRE and downed at least half a gallon water each.

“Let’s wash down the water with something more substantial.” Gunner grinned and added a sachet of Ginger Ale syrup to his water. “Want some too?”

“Sure, why not? Have beer flavor?”

“You wish. Cola or Lemon?”

“Cola it is. I hope it won’t keep me from sleeping,” Tyler said on a yawn, although he was pretty sure, nothing short of a bomb explosion would keep him from sleeping tonight. He fought his drooping eyelids while eating.

Meanwhile the other squad of their crew had arrived at the campsite and raided the dropped provisions. Tyler walked over to ask, “Any news of Jules and Kevin?”

“Kevin returned to our position hours ago, but Jules stayed to get the injured man onto the chopper. She radioed in that she was on her way back to us, but the last we heard she had to retreat her steps because the fire was coming after her,” Castor, the squad leader of the other team said.

Tyler’s heart stopped, and his worry surged to all-out panic. “We have to go looking for her!”

“Calm down, Armstrong,” Castor said. “We have no idea where she is now and there’s no way to get through to her last known position. I’m pretty sure she radioed operations and they’re trying to get her from the back of the ridge.”

If she makes it over there. Tyler had seen the ridge; even from far away it seemed impossible to climb up. “We should do something,” he insisted.

“Until the fire moves on, we can’t really do anything. There’s too much burning land between her previous location and us here. We’ll have to go around the burned-out area to search for her. We have to wait it out.”

“There has to be something we can do,” he looked around for anyone who would join him in that assessment. “What about air support? We have to help her.”

“And we will, but for right now, you need to finish eating and get some rest. When the time is right, if we haven’t heard anything from her, we’ll send a search party out.”

“I want to be on that party,” Tyler all but demanded.

Castor laid a hand on his arm and nodded. “I’ll make sure of it, Armstrong. For now, go get some shut-eye. You’ll be no use to anyone otherwise. Not even Jules.”

Tyler gritted his teeth, but Castor was right. There was nothing they could do at the moment. He’d never felt more helpless in his entire life.