“We’re establishing a control line,” she says as she gets to work, quickly clearing fallen sticks and dead bushes. I look around and the other women are doing the same. “We can’t extinguish the fire, but we can choke it out and limit the spread. Clear that area over there and watch out for falling trees.”
Oh shit. I have to add falling trees to my list of things to worry about? This day is getting worse and worse.
The women around me are not afraid, or if they are, they’re hiding it very well. I watch them moving as fast as they can and I start to get energized. Convicts or not, they’re really something and I start to get inspired.
You can do this, Kennedy. Help them!
I’m no good with the axe, but I can shovel. I’m Canadian and shoveling snow is practically a requirement for citizenship up there. My parents could never afford a snowplow and I was always the one who had to shovel the snow off the steps when I was a kid while my father shoveled the driveway.
With my pulse racing, I toss the axe on the pile of tools and grab a shovel instead. I rush over next to the other girls and start digging a trench and adding to the control line.
I glance up every few seconds, looking for falling trees, but the trees around us aren’t on fire. Yet.
It’s hot and my throat is burning, but I dig and dig and dig. My arms cramp up, my shoulders ache, my hands blister, but I keep going.
I’m like a machine as I keep an eye on the fire in the distance. The wind is to our backs right now, but if it changes directions, this fire is going to close in fast and all the work we’ve done will be for nothing.
“Timber!” one of the girls shouts as she cuts down a huge tree with a chainsaw.
I look up with my adrenaline pumping as it comes tumbling down. We’re doing it. We’re actually creating a control line for the fire.
It spurs me on even more. I think about the people who live near the forest and are evacuating their homes right now, I think of the poor animals fleeing in terror, and I think of the trees that deserve a little more time on this planet. I think of all that and keep going.
But there’s more in my mind right now.
I think about the society that locked me away and threw out the key. How they were so quick to discard me. How callous and cruel they were in their sentencing even though there was such little evidence.
I think about how unjust it all is, but then I forgive it.
There’s a lot of bad in the world, but there’s a lot of good too. And I’m risking my life right now for the good.
I ignore the aching in my back and the pain in my shoulders and keep going.
“Let’s go down there!” the muscular girl who dragged me in shouts as she finishes filling her chainsaw with gas. “The fire is starting to turn.”
She looks up at the dark clouds coming in. They’re both a blessing and a curse. They’re bringing swirling winds which is spreading this crazy wildfire in all directions, but they might also bring some much needed rain. Hopefully, it’s enough to put out the flames.
I run to keep up with the girl as we leap over a fallen tree and begin to carve out a new control line at the top of a slope. If we can get this done, we’ll save all the forest down below.
“You’re doing a good job!” she says as I wipe my sweaty forehead with the back of my glove. “What’s your name?”
“Kennedy!” I shout over the crackling and popping of the fire.
She smiles. “I’m Angela.”
I’m about to say ‘nice to meet you’ but she yanks the cord on her chainsaw and it roars to life. “Let’s fuck this fire up!”
I watch her in awe as she begins slicing through a tall tree. She’s a natural in here. She’s definitely in her element.
Her enthusiasm is contagious and I get to work, helping her out as fast as I can. I rush over to a bunch of dry bushes and start ripping them up with my shovel.
That’s when I hear the chirping.
My blood goes cold when I spot three chicks in a nest crying out for their mother. They’re in the distance—a few yards away—and the fire is headed toward them. There’s no way the mother is coming back in this thick smoke.
I should just stay here. I should follow the plan.
But I can’t just leave them.
They’re trapped and helpless.
“Oh, screw it!”
“Where are you going?” Angela shouts as I toss my shovel and start running toward them. “You’re going to die!”