Page 66 of Love in the Time of Wildfires

When the bear stretched its neck to sniff the ground closer, she shouted, “No!” giving the bear a warning. Instead of running away, it appeared befuddled, huffing a heavy breath.

Nervous, River stepped back. Should she chuck her phone at it? She didn’t feel like she had enough time to grab a nearby rock or stick. She was only a smidge over five feet, so perhaps she didn’t seem big and threatening enough. River decided to jump up and down, waving her arms and shouting at the top of her lungs.

The bear’s ears went back, as though she’d lost her mind, and retreated a few feet. River continued jumping and shouting until the bear decided to turn around and shuffle away. The adrenaline continued bursting its way through her veins.

Oh thank god!

Only the final time she landed the jump, River suddenly realized she didn’t have as secure footing as she’d assumed, the loose dirt crumbling away beneath her.

River wasn’t prone to swearing. Her jobs had always been public-facing, dealing with families and kids. It was best to never get into the habit. But with her situation switching from bad to worse, every swear word in the world went through her head. Unfortunately, River wasn’t able to utter a single one before she slid down the steep side of the mountain edge.

It was a chaotic blur as she tumbled uncontrollably, not even having the ability to scream as she bashed against something hard, knocking the wind and sense out of her. She kept falling with no idea of when it was all going to stop.

Everything went black.

“Fuck!”

River woke with a start as though finishing the last thought she had at the top of the mountain. Her stomach sank at the pain she felt everywhere.

“Oh god,” she groaned, slowly opening her eyes . . . or rather one eye because the other one wasn’t cooperating. There were tall trees above her, as this area was more wooded than where she’d been hiking previously. River didn’t hear or see anything to make her believe there was a bear nearby, but she was terrified she’d been seriously injured as tears sprang to her eyes. Inspecting her arms first, she found they were scratched and bruised but seemed to be in good working order. She gingerly touched areas of her face. Her right eye felt swollen and possibly also her lip. The latter might have split, as she tasted something metallic, and she had blood and dirt on her finger when pulling it away from her facial inspection.

Now for the harder part. River turned her head side to side before attempting to sit. Although sore, she was thankful the pain wasn’t unbearable. She could power through it.

Okay, she could at least sit up. Maybe she’d gotten lucky. From here she could see that her bare legs were as beat up as her arms, except for a couple bloody gashes. At least there weren’t any bones protruding from anywhere, and she was in one piece.

River inspected her location, finding herself turned around and having no idea where she was. The area had a lot of manzanita shrubbery and didn’t look like it was visited frequently—there were no visible trails nearby. She at least had her backpack.

Rolling over, she got on all fours, trying to push herself to standing, but a sharp pain shot through her left ankle. “Shit!” River dropped to the ground. She was in real trouble.

Taking off the backpack, she dug through it, searching for her phone and hoping she’d get some kind of service—even if she couldn’t pinpoint her location. River removed her jacket, putting it on. She didn’t know what time it was, but it was at least late afternoon, from her glance into the sky. Digging through the rest of her backpack, feeling more frantic, until she remembered. The device had been in her hand. River scanned the nearby area, hobbling her sore body along on one leg and two arms, searching nearby.

There wasn’t any sign of her phone. It might have gotten caught somewhere on the side of the mountain.

Oh god, what was she going to do now?

River tried not to panic, imagining how mad Logan would be when he heard about this—if he heard. He was gone on a job. And he’d warned her before about her recklessness. She was upset at how absolutely single-minded and determined she’d been about this silly fox and her absolute confidence in her own independence. Now she was fucked.

River covered her face with a hand as she cried, before yelling at the top of her lungs. “Hey! HEEEEEEEEEEEY! HELP!” Maybe someone was hiking nearby that could hear her and help. After yelling until her voice grew hoarse, she didn’t hear anything except the occasional chirp from some nearby golden-mantled ground squirrel. Knowing it wasn’t Goldie made her want to cry more.

She couldn’t wait for some hero to come tromping through the brush to save her. It was going to get dark at some point. Even though the rule said to stay put, she wasn’t sure she had this luxury. She had a half canister of water, a small baggie of baby carrots, and a single granola bar. Plus, she was far off her original path.

Even though she’d told her sister she was going hiking, she hadn’t given any of the particulars, because she didn’t even know if this hiking spot had an official name. Her sister, and the rest of the family, were going to be so upset. Imagining this made her feel a hundred times worse. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered between tears. “I’m so sorry.” Hopefully, the universe would send some of her apologies to Logan. Oh god, he was going to be so angry with her.

River couldn’t sit and cry forever. She roughly rubbed her tears away with the bottom of her jacket sleeve, tucking her now loose hair behind her ears. She put her fox backpack, with the remaining supplies, back on. If she found a creek, followed it downstream, it stood to reason she’d find civilization at some point. Or perhaps a path that was in frequent use, even this late in the season. It gave her something to aim for. Although it might take forever since she couldn’t walk well.

River hobbled and dragged herself in a direction that felt right, hoping she wasn’t making another horrible mistake.

She was going to try for as long as she could.

Chapter Twenty-two

Fire camp, despite always changing physical locations, felt more like his real home than his own apartment in a lot of ways.

Except this time.

Logan’s new home was a place he wasn’t technically paying rent on. It was wherever River was and, as much as he had a job to do and needed to get it done, he hadn’t wanted to leave home this time. Logan couldn’t explain it. He had an uneasiness in his gut, like this wasn’t like all the other times and something bad was going to happen.

This particular fire beast, born from lightning strikes, jumped from newborn to full-fledged angry adult in less than a day due to the dryness of the area after a hard summer drought. It gobbled acres at a greedy pace, the high winds making it difficult to get a handle on. It had been bucking wildly for a week, with the firefighters claiming few victories as it remained at zero containment. It was to the point where decisions needed to be made on how many areas should be issued evacuation notifications. Wishing for a good fire was now giving them the fight of their lives.