Her eyes widened, “Oh no.” She rubbed her head as tears filmed her eyes, “Fire terrifies me.”
I said, “Stay with me. I won’t let you down.”
We hurried toward Mount Lee. Several more shots hit close to us. The area in front of us flickered from the fire’s light like someone waving a red-and-yellow beamed flashlight. The smell of smoke wafted over us, and Bodhi whimpered. Troy made a high-pitched, keening sound and wouldn’t stop.
When we reached the base of the mountain, I pointed up the slope and said to Bodhi, “Go up this way, and do it at an angle. We won’t make it if we go straight up. I’ll be right behind you.”
She nodded and we started the climb out of the canyon as the first flames became visible. They swirled and danced as if alive, forming a forward-leaning wall of flame and smoke forty feet high that rushed at us so fast I thought my heart would stop.
Moon and his two men became aware of it, and they hurried after us. One of the big men fired three more times.
I heard Troy grunt as the round hit him. He sagged, “I’m hit.”
The growing bloodstain showed low on his back. I looked at the fire and watched it spreading in every direction as if fueled by gasoline. Tall, curling, licking flames shot skyward and sent red cinders hurling with the wind to land in a hundred places, starting more fires. The fire’s loud roaring sound chilled my heart.
I bent and put Troy on my shoulders in a fireman’s carry. Bodhi hadn’t left, but stayed with me. I stood on quivering legs and said, “I’ll be behind you. Don’t stop for anything until you’re on the far side.”
Her eyes were large as she nodded. She went up the rise and I stayed on her heels, silently hoping I had enough strength. Ten minutes later, my heart hammered so hard that with every thumping beat it jiggled the drops of sweat hanging off my nose.
Bodhi turned to look at the fire behind us and gasped. She stepped backward, losing her footing. Tumbling and sliding towards a steep drop-off, Bodhi clawed for anything to stop her slide, but she continued down toward a hundred-foot drop.
I dropped Troy off my shoulders and hurried to her on wobbly legs. I caught her wrist just as her feet went over the edge. I sat down to keep us both from going over the side. I leaned back and pulled her to me. She cried and clung to my neck as I lay there. Knowing we couldn’t stop, I rose and motioned her up, but she couldn’t. Her left ankle swelled as I watched it, and she held her right knee. I lifted Bodhi up and carried her to Troy. The flames raced upward fast now, pushing the heat and smoke over us. I said, “We have to hurry.”
Putting Troy on my shoulders and standing was no harder than squatting with an elephant on my back, but I got him there and I straightened. I told Bodhi, “I’ll carry you in my arms, and you hold Troy on my shoulders.”
“That’s impossible.” She looked scared, very scared, and glanced at the flames every few seconds.
I had her sit up and bend her knees so I could pick her up, putting one arm under her legs and the other under her arms. My arms quivered with the effort. My back and legs screamed, and I felt the veins stand out on my neck and forehead. Black and red spots swirled in front of my eyes.
Bodhi helped by moving her arms higher on Troy so they pushed down on my shoulders, giving my arms a little reprieve. As I stepped forward, I saw her look over my shoulder at the inferno and whisper under her breath, “It’s so close.”
I could feel the terrible heat, but didn’t look, afraid of what I’d see. Every step felt robotic, but I pushed on for another ten minutes and by then the heat was blast furnace hot on my back. With my body between Bodhi and the flames, she didn’t have to endure much of it, but she still felt enough.
I heard a scream behind us, and turned. The entire canyon blazed with ugly red and yellow flames, and thick smoke swirled and raced the fires to reach us as the hard gusts propelled them.
I caught a glance of Moon and his men and watched one of the big men slapping his leg where a cinder landed. They climbed in a panic, not following us, but going straight up the mountain slope, clawing with hands and feet, sliding down every so often, fleeing the burning, red-mouthed monster devouring everything.
They weren’t going to make it. Moon climbed in front, and reached a patch of boulders, where I lost sight of them as the flames and thick smoke rolled over the spot. I heard shots, then only the sounds of burning, crackling wood and howling wind.
Bodhi tugged my sleeve, “Hurry.”
I put one leaden foot in front of the other and carried her and Troy up the mountain. The racing fire seemed to fly up the mountain, and so close now that I felt the hair on my bare arms singe. My skin burned from the heat, and every breath scorched my lungs. Smoke swirled around us like long gray, curling fingers and still I climbed.
A nearby tree exploded from the heat, sending showers of tiny, burning splinters into my legs. My eyes burned from the smoke and I blinked rapidly as tears streamed down my face, leaving snail tracks through blackened soot and ash, but I clutched Bodhi close to my chest and shielded her with my body. Minutes passed, as I pushed and struggled up the slope like a zombie, and always the fire burned closer and closer.
When the mountain disappeared in front of me, I thought I’d stepped off a cliff. My shirt smoldered, as did Troy’s, and the back parts of my jeans burned my legs every time they touched. I coughed and noticed blood on the front of my shirt. I would go twenty more steps, I thought, then lie down and let the fire take us, I was that exhausted.
On the next step, I realized I was on top of Mount Lee. The Hollywood sign appeared sixty yards to my left. As soon as I moved a few feet down the slope, the heat vanished from my back. I turned to look and saw smoke and a few flames peeking above the summit, but none on this side.
I descended another hundred yards, and then several firefighters spotted our movements. They hurried to us, taking Bodhi from my arms and lifting Troy off my back, then helped me go the rest of the way down. The paramedics waited at the bottom and gave us fluids as they treated our burns and scrapes, giving concerned attention to Troy’s bullet wounds. They carried Troy to an ambulance and sent him to the hospital.
Bodhi sat beside me and put her head on my shoulder. Her ankle looked the size of an orange, and now rested in a clear plastic blow-up cast. The knee wore a blow-up cast, too. I smelled of wood smoke and sweat. We faced the Hollywood sign and I wondered how we made it out alive. Everything in sight had a red tint from the fire. The clouds and smoke were scarlet scarves across the sky, the letters of the Hollywood glowed like rubies, and the large, full moon just above the mountain showed as a blood-red ball.
Bodhi said, “You saved us. I don’t know how you did it.”
I held up my fist and she fist-bumped me, then hugged my neck and cried a little. She resumed the earlier position with her head on my shoulder and said, “Do you think they died?”
“I hope so.” Right now my mind worried about Hondo, and I wondered if he made it out alive from his battle with the Kiowa.