“We can fit four or five in here.” Rossiter met Chaska’s gaze, understanding passing between them. “I volunteer to stay. Anyone else?”
Chaska nodded. “I’ll stay.”
Old Man raised a hand. “I’m staying, too. This old man has had a good life.”
The remaining counselors glanced at each other, one in tears, some clearly on the brink of panic, some calm and focused. One of the women and most of the men volunteered to remain behind. In the end, Deputy Marcs packed six in her vehicle, while Kat fit five, leaving three counselors, Rossiter, Old Man, and Chaska.
There was no time for goodbyes.
“Go!” Rossiter slammed his hand on the roof of his own vehicle.
“There is no sheriff’s vehicle coming, is there?” asked one of the younger men.
“Probably not.” Rossiter’s gaze was fixed on his vehicle as it drove away.
The fire was dangerously close now, embers floating on the wind.
Chaska glanced around, at the camp. After all the hard work he and Naomi had put into this place, it was all going to burn. But he didn’t intend to burn with it.
“Now what?” asked one of the counselors.
Old Man turned and walked toward the tipi. “I gotta get the drum.”
“The drum?”
“It’s the heartbeat of our ancestors. I won’t leave it behind.”
“We’re not going anywhere, Grandfather,” said one of the counselors.
Chaska glanced up at the rock walls that surrounded them to the east and north, looking for a way out. It wouldn’t do them any good to climb the canyon wall because the fire would spread to the trees up there, too.
Then Rossiter pointed upward. “Is that what I think it is?”
Concealed behind an arete and a hundred feet above the ground, Chaska saw it.
A cave.
“Let go of me!”
A child’s voice.
What the hell?
Chaska turned to see Old Man carrying the drum—and pulling Dean along with him. “How the hell did this happen?”
He’d thought all the children were safe.
Rossiter stared. “Holy shit.”
“I found him hiding in the tipi.”
Dean glared defiantly up at Chaska, tears on his cheeks. “I don’t want to go home.”
Chaska’s heart broke for the boy. He would rather face the unknown horrors of a wildfire than go home. “Okay, you’re with us. But you have to do exactly what we tell you to do.”
Dean nodded.
Rossiter took off at a run.