The Gathering

THIRTY-FIVE

I GRABBED THE BOTTOM branch of the nearest big tree and swung up. Daniel followed. As I crouched on the branch, I looked for Rafe and found him where I’d last seen him, just standing there with this weird look on his face, like he wanted to run but couldn’t. He glowered at the bear and his expression wasn’t shock or fear. It was defiance.

“Rafe!” I screamed.

That snapped him out of it. He blinked and saw the forest flattening in a path heading straight for him. His lips formed a curse and he backpedaled. The bear shot up from the brush, rising on two legs with a roar.

It was just a black bear. I say “just” because we do get the odd report of grizzlies swimming across from the mainland, and that’s a whole other level of predator. A black bear is no harmless teddy though, especially Vancouver Island black bears. When this guy reared up, he was taller than Rafe and twice as heavy.

“Go away!” I shouted. “Shoo!”

Daniel whistled and clapped. Usually that’s enough to get rid of them, but this one just stood there, snarling and waving his front paws, huge claws flashing. Enraged by the smell of fire or the smell of another predator, he wasn’t leaving.

Rafe glanced over his shoulder, looking for a closer tree, but nothing nearby would support his weight.

“Back up toward us,” I said. “Keep eye contact, and don’t turn around.”

He nodded, impatient. He knew that. It was hard to remember he wasn’t the city boy he pretended to be.

The moment he started retreating, the bear roared again, dropped to all fours, and charged. Rafe did turn his back then—to run for the tree. As the gap between Rafe and the bear narrowed, Daniel jumped to the ground, waving his arms.

“Hey!” Daniel shouted as he raced for the next big tree. “Over here. Come on!”

But the bear kept charging Rafe, tiny eyes blazing with rage. The overwhelming scent of musk filled my nose, making my brain shout mixed messages—to run, to stand firm, to help Rafe.

Then I remembered the elk.

Power over animals.

I closed my eyes and concentrated, telling the bear to relax, that everything was fine; we weren’t a threat; he had to leave, get away from the fire. But the ground kept quaking, and when I opened my eyes, the bear was right behind Rafe. The bear snarled and snapped, but Rafe shot ahead just in time.

I bent down to grab Rafe’s hand. He waved me back, and with a flying leap, caught the bottom branch in both hands and swung up. The bear hit the trunk and I lost my balance. Rafe grabbed the back of my jacket and hauled me up, flailing, until I could grasp the branch again.

“Climb!” he shouted.

The bear backed away, shaking his shaggy head, dazed by the impact. He looked at me, and I froze and I knew then what had stopped Rafe from running. When the bear met my gaze, any thoughts of escape vanished. Instinct said to fight. This was my territory, and no bear was going to take it from me. Stand firm and—

“Maya!” Rafe grabbed my jacket again and nearly yanked me off the branch. “Climb!”

That snapped me out of it, and when I looked down now, all I saw was a very big, very pissed off bear.

As I scrambled up, pain ripped through my foot, and something wrenched my leg. I looked down to see the bear’s jaws clamped around my shoe. Daniel was running toward the bear, shouting and waving his arms. Rafe grabbed me under the armpits and yanked. My shoe came off in the bear’s mouth as Rafe hauled me up to the next branch.

The bear shook my shoe, growling, then tossed it aside. As it did, it noticed Daniel, standing only a few feet away.

“Daniel!” I shouted.

He backed up, looking for a suitable tree. The bear only snorted at him, then peered nearsightedly up at us. It rose on its hind legs, front paws hitting the trunk hard enough to make the tree quiver.

I swung onto the next branch as Rafe did the same on the other side. I felt the bear’s hot breath on my stockinged foot and snatched it away as his teeth clicked together. He roared in frustration, then leaned on the tree and shook it again.

“Hold on!” Rafe shouted, like I was planning on doing anything else.

I clung to the tree, arms around the trunk, as it swayed. The bear swiped at us, but we were well out of reach. After a moment, he figured that out and backed down onto all fours. He eyed us for another moment, then, with a snort, lumbered into the forest.

“You okay?” Rafe said when the bear was gone.

I sat on a branch and pulled my foot up. My sock was ripped, but the bear’s teeth hadn’t broken the skin. I squeezed my foot and winced.

“Just bruised,” I said.

“Maya?” Daniel called.

I tried to see him but couldn’t through the thick evergreens.

“We’re fine!” I yelled. “You?”

He said he was all right, and I was about to climb down, when Rafe climbed over to my branch and crouched there.

“Seems that control-over-animals thing doesn’t work so well with the animals we really need control over.”

“No kidding, huh?” I said.

His head tilted as he scanned the forest. When he glanced back at me, I thought he was going to say something, but he only nodded toward the ground and said, “We should go. Fire’s still coming. I can smell it.”

I twisted to kneel on the branch, so I could lower myself to the next one. As I did, I glanced up and realized we were in the biggest tree around. Which gave me an idea.

“I’m going higher first,” I said, “to look around for Annie.”

“Good idea.”

I called down to Daniel to say what we were doing. Rafe was already two branches above me. I scrambled up after him. The faster I went, the faster he did, and I thought it was just coincidence until he grinned down at me.

My heart sped up and I raced after him, trying to catch up, cursing when I couldn’t. I forgot about Annie and the fire and the bear, and everything that happened before that—and it was just us again, climbing a tree, the bark rough under my hands, the sharp smell of pines surrounding me, the sound of his breathing pulsing through the air like a heartbeat. I didn’t even notice I’d caught up until I was right beside him and he was leaning around the tree, smiling at me.

“Gotcha,” I said.

“Uh, no. I stopped.”

He waved overhead and I realized we were as high as we could safely go.

“Damn,” I said.

He laughed and I looked into his eyes, then swallowed hard and turned away to look for Annie. As I did, my hip bumped the trunk and something jabbed into my hip. I pulled out his bracelet.

“You’d better take this,” I said.

He shook his head. “I still need to take off, track down answers. Keep it.”

“But it’s important to you.”

“Proving I mean it when I say I’ll be back.”

My cheeks heated and I pressed it into his hand. “Please. I don’t want to lose it.”

He took it. Before I could pull my hand back, he caught my wrist and tied the bracelet around it.

“Problem solved.”

I tried to glance down at it, but his fingers slid under my chin, eyes closing as his mouth moved toward mine. Our lips brushed. Then his eyes snapped open and he pulled back fast.

I jerked away. “Right. Bad idea. We—”

“No.” He pointed. “That.”

I twisted to see a wall of smoke heading straight for us. Rafe started scrambling down the tree, shouting to Daniel below. I stayed where I was and got my first good look at the fire. To the north and south, the forest was clear and calm. There was just one huge swath of smoke heading our way.

“Maya!” Rafe tugged at my foot. “Come on.”

I took one last look, making sure I was seeing right. One patch of fire heading straight for Salmon Creek. That didn’t seem natural.

Rafe yanked again, but I was already coming down, calling for Annie as I did. There was no sign of her. Gone to safe ground. Or so I hoped.

Once my shoe was back on, we ran. Within minutes, the ash began to rain down again. We kept calling for Annie, staying close together now, running full out toward town.

Rafe heard the sound of an engine first and shouted, “Someone’s coming. Where’s the road?”

I waved to the north, but Daniel shook his head.

“We’re too far from it,” he said. “We should be almost in town now.”

In other words, no time—or need—to detour. A few strides later, though, we hit a strip of empty land.

“Road!” Rafe yelled. “It’ll be quicker than running through the forest.”

It used to be a road, back when our town was just an empty space for logging camps. Then the St. Clouds came and the loggers left, and this road no longer led anywhere. The forest had crept in on either side, weeds stubbornly poking through the packed earth. But the diesel fumes I was smelling weren’t fifteen years old.

As we stepped onto the winding road, I noticed a truck going the other way, barely visible through the trees.

Daniel followed my gaze. “We’d never catch it. It’s heading away from town, anyway.”

“But why? There’s nothing over there.”

“Doesn’t matter. Just keep moving.”

We’d just rounded the next curve when I heard the rumble of an engine behind us. I turned to see the truck heading back our way.

“They must have spotted us.” Rafe started to lift his hand.

Daniel stopped him. “Let’s be sure first.”

We moved into the alder bushes at the side of the road. When I looked over at Daniel, he was focused on the truck like a hawk watching an approaching cougar. I’d seen that look before. When I touched his arm, he didn’t respond. I knew he wouldn’t.

“What are we—?” Rafe began.

“Shhh!” Daniel hissed, still staring down the road.

“Um, okay,” Rafe said. “Maya, what are we doing? We’ve got a fire bearing down on us, and a rescue truck coming—”

Daniel hit my back so hard he knocked the wind out of me. “Down!”

I dropped. When Rafe didn’t, Daniel pushed him to the ground, too.

“What the hell?” Rafe said, rolling out of his reach.

“Shhh!” Daniel met Rafe’s glare with one of his own. “Something’s wrong. I can tell.”

“You can tell?”

“Cool it,” I whispered. “Both of you.”

I lay there, under the alder bushes, the branches poking into my back. Ash drifted down like snow now. Tendrils of smoke wafted over on the breeze. When I closed my eyes, I could hear the steady crackle and the occasional rumble and roar as fire consumed the forest.

I imagined the devastation, and my chest seized, tears springing to my eyes. My forest. My beautiful forest.

“It’s getting closer,” I whispered. “We need to go.”

“Just hold on,” Daniel said. “Let me figure this out.”

“Figure what out?” Rafe looked at me for an answer.

When I didn’t reply, Rafe turned away, tense and angry. I could feel that—bursts of anger that made me anxious, too, every muscle tight, telling me to run, just run, before the fire caught me.

The truck rounded the last corner. It was more like a cube van, yellow with some kind of crest on the side. I struggled for a better look. The air was getting hazy now. Invisible smoke stung my eyes.

“The fire department?” Rafe scowled at Daniel. “We’re running from a fire and hiding from the fire department?”

I could see the insignia now—a red crest with a lighthouse in the middle. An auxiliary vehicle for Nanaimo Fire Rescue.

Rafe started getting up.

“Wait,” Daniel said sharply, not a request but a command. I swore Rafe’s hackles rose.

“Just hold on a sec,” I said.

“No. I’m sorry, Maya, but this is nuts. I need to get to town and see if Annie’s there.”

“Go on, then,” Daniel said. “But don’t expect me to come to your rescue if you do something stupid again.”

Rafe stopped, crouching. “Stupid? What the hell did I—?”

“Standing up to a bear? Yeah, kinda stupid.”

Rafe’s face reddened.

“It wasn’t like that,” I cut in. “Rafe, just—”

The truck’s brakes squealed. We were still beneath the alder, but they could have caught a flash of color through the branches.

The truck was idling, less than twenty feet away. I caught the muffled sound of voices. Then a click and a slam as a door opened and shut, echoed by a second.

Figures walked to the front of the truck. Anonymous figures in dark blue jumpsuits and gasmasks.

Rafe started to rise again. Daniel caught his arm.

“They’re not from the fire department,” he whispered.

“Right. In a fire truck, wearing fire—”

“And carrying automatic rifles? Maybe that’s standard gear for rescue workers in the States, but no one carries those here. Not even the cops.”

I saw the guns now, slung across the backs of the two figures.

“Fine.” Rafe studied them, then said, “I still think they might be search-and-rescue, but we … shouldn’t take the chance.”

He stretched out beside us again, moving carefully to not make any noise.

The two figures still stood in front of the truck, looking around. Something stung my scalp and I jumped. Another glowing ember landed on my hand.

The ash was falling heavier now, flakes glowing with fire. When I turned to look over my shoulder, I caught a blast of smoke that filled my mouth and nose, and I clamped my hand over them, struggling not to cough.

“These guys aren’t moving on fast enough,” Daniel said. “We need to go. Back out slowly.”

“Back?” My heart raced. “Toward the fire? We can’t—”

I stopped myself. Struggled for calm. Glanced over at Rafe and saw him doing the same. He met my gaze, and mouthed, “It’s okay.”

Push past the instinct. That’s all it was. Animal instinct telling me to get away from the fire at all costs. Human reason had to overrule.

I crept backward. As we got into the thicker woods, Daniel’s foot slipped in scat. He stumbled. I tried to catch him, but he grabbed a skinny pine for support. The tree creaked and swayed. Dead needles rained down.

“Did you hear that?” a man’s voice asked. “Someone’s out there. I see white.”

Daniel glanced down at his white tee and swore. Rafe yanked off his denim jacket and tossed it over. Daniel tugged it on as we moved.

We were running straight into the fire now. A curtain of red shone through the trees. The heat blasted us. Ash and smoke filled our eyes and noses. The roar sounded like an oncoming train. I could hear shouts, though, and what sounded like an ATV.

I swerved to the left, where the trees were thicker. When Rafe started to follow, Daniel caught his shoulder.

“Split up!” he shouted. “That way!” He pointed in the other direction.

Rafe took off.

“Maya!” Daniel yelled.

When I glanced back, he coughed, struggling to breathe. I veered toward him.

“No!” he said. “Go on! Head toward town! I’ll stay close!”

I nodded and ran, circling back toward the road.