And then she stepped on a loose rock. Her right foot started to slip. As her arms pinwheeled, her stomach crammed into the back of her throat.
Natalia lurched to the right. Toward the creek. For a split second, she saw how it would all end, with her body tumbling down the steep slope to rest broken and bloody by the water far below.
Then Wyatt caught her wrist and pulled her back. “Whoa there!”
“I thought going downhill would be easier!” She was gasping.
“It seems like it should be, doesn’t it?” He gave her a sympathetic grin. “The trick is to keep your knees bent and take short steps. Try to keep your weight centered—don’t lean forward or back.”
They started off again. Natalia’s steps were now so short they were more of a shuffle. Whenever Wyatt realized she had fallen behind, he stopped and waited patiently. His gray T-shirt didn’t even look wet under the arms.
All of Natalia’s skin was slick. Sweat was actually dripping off the ends of her hair. She couldn’t wait to get home and jump into the shower. Maybe her parents were right. They thought being trapped in the middle of the woods without electricity, running water, or a car was reserved for survivors of the apocalypse or at least a plane crash. Certainly not something anyone with sense would choose.
Coming up the trail toward them was a dark-haired white guy in his thirties. He wore a black ball cap, dark cargo pants, and a black T-shirt that showed off his muscles and a long fresh scratch on one arm. He glanced back over his shoulder a couple of times, but the path behind him was empty.
Earlier, Wyatt had told Natalia that trail etiquette dictated whoever was going uphill had the right of way, so she stepped aside.
The other guy was moving fast, nearly jogging. Even though he was getting a late start, at his pace he would still have time to make it to the falls, admire them, and then turn around and beat Wyatt and Natalia back. As he passed, he gave them a nod, his eyes hidden by sunglasses. In one hand was what looked like the top to a bottle, but his other hand was empty.
When Natalia caught up with Wyatt for what seemed like the thousandth time, a scent tickled her nose. She stopped in her tracks. Smoke, but not from a cigarette. It smelled like a campfire. “Do you smell that?”
Wyatt sniffed the air. “The Cougar Creek fire’s still burning.”
At the word fire, a sour taste spread across Natalia’s tongue. Memories crowded into her thoughts, but she pushed them away. “There’s a fire?”
“It’s been burning for a couple of weeks. It’s about seventy percent contained. Didn’t you see the helicopters carrying those gigantic buckets of flame retardant when we were driving here?”
“I saw them but I guess I didn’t think about what they were for.”
“We’re in the middle of a drought.” Wyatt’s mouth twisted. “That’s why I was worried that sound might have been a rifle shot. A lot of people go shooting in the Gorge, and some of them aren’t that careful. But these woods are tinder-dry. If they use exploding targets or a bullet sparked against a rock, it could cause a fire.”
Despite the heat, Natalia shivered. Her hand went to the back of one pant leg. Through the cloth, her fingers traced the ribbon of scar on her left thigh. Trying to reassure herself, she said. “But it’s so green.” She waved a hand to indicate the dark evergreens, the brighter green ferns and plants.
“All this green can turn into fuel if the conditions are right.” He saw her expression. “Don’t worry. We’re almost back to the car. And that fire is several miles away.”
They kept walking down the trail, their boots thudding softly. Her stomach growled, despite the sandwiches they had eaten only an hour ago. Maybe they could stop at a drive-through on their way back to Portland.
Focused on her feet, she almost ran into Wyatt’s back. He had stopped short. His head was up, and when she stepped to the side to look at his face, his eyes were wide.
“What’s the matter?” Everything looked just the way it had before. Then Natalia realized it wasn’t what Wyatt was seeing. It was what he was hearing.
A rumbling.
“What is that?”
Instead of answering, he broke into a jog, disappearing around a turn in the path. More slowly, Natalia followed. The air was starting to look cloudy. Misty.
When she rounded the corner, she felt the heat on her skin. Now smoke was everywhere.
Natalia blinked, as if it were a mirage, but what she saw didn’t go away.
Several hundred yards ahead, the woods were on fire. The woods they needed to go through.
CHAPTER 3
TRUE BUT NOT THE TRUTH
6:59 P.M.
NATALIA PUT HER HAND over her mouth. The fire moved like a living thing, like a dancer, like water, like a torn and fluttering flag. It crackled and snapped as it crisped and then consumed ferns and wildflowers and plants she didn’t know the names of.
It wasn’t a solid wall of flame. Some spots were still green, while in others the fire was thick, flaring up as it found new fuel, filling the air with pale smoke. The flickering orange and yellow was a sharp contrast to the bright green ground cover. The flames were nibbling on the trunks of some of the small trees that bordered the trail but hadn’t leapt into the canopies. Yet.
Natalia’s throat was tight, her breathing shallow. For the past six years, she had avoided even the smallest of fires. Matches. Lighters. Birthday candles. Smoldering incense. And of course bigger things like firepits and fireplaces.
Now her nightmares had come to life.
Slowly, she became aware Wyatt was repeating her name. “Natalia. Natalia, are you okay?”
She was not okay. She was back to being eleven years old, gasping in the smoke.
“I’m afraid of fire.”
In her mind, she was again crawling across the flat tan carpet, coughing and gagging.
Wyatt put his hand under her chin, turning her head so she was facing him and not the flames. At first she resisted, the muscles in her neck rigid, before yielding to the gentle pressure of his fingers. Their eyes locked. This time when he grabbed her hand, he squeezed and didn’t let go.
“Listen to me. We’re going to be okay. But we can’t stay here. We’re going to go back to the falls. It’s got that rocky beach with no trees nearby. And all that water. We’ll be safe there.”
“But what about the fire?”
He surveyed the flames with narrowed eyes. “It’s not that far from the parking lot. Someone’s probably already called 9-1-1. If the Forest Service could divert a single helicopter with one of those giant buckets of fire retardant, they could nip this thing in the bud.”
But what if they didn’t know about the fire? Natalia checked her phone, but it still read “No Service.”
As she slid it back into her pocket, Wyatt said, “I think if I climbed up above the falls I might be able to get a bar or two.” He tugged her hand. “Come on, let’s go back.”
When they hurried around the bend, the couple with the toddler was coming toward them. The parents were slender, Asian American, maybe in their late thirties. The child had both his hands fisted in his father’s black hair. Looking at him, the smell of smoke in her nostrils, Natalia felt faint and far away, as if she were observing herself from above.