The last thing Conrad had wanted to do was drivetowardthe fire, but he couldn’t let those kids die.
Ahead of him, Megs suddenly stopped, her brake lights flashing red, the color visible through smoke and dust. Conrad slammed on his brakes, stopping a few inches short of her back bumper. He half expected Ahearn to rear-end him, but he managed to stop on time.
Headlights.
On the other side of the road, a van and two other vehicles drew to a stop.
Conrad put his SUV in park and climbed out, engine still running, to find out what the hell was going on.
Naomi sat in the driver’s seat of the van, young children packed in behind her, fear on their little faces.
Conrad’s first reaction was relief. They’d found a way to get themselves out.
Thank God.
Then he heard what Naomi was saying.
“We’ve got all of the children except for Kat and Gabe’s kids. I don’t know how many adults are still there. Deputy Marcs and Gabe Rossiter pulled in after I left. I doubt they could fit everyone.”
“Chaska’s still there?” Megs asked.
Naomi nodded, her expression crumpling. “Grandpa Belcourt, Gabe Rossiter, Kat, and their kids, and several camp counselors and are with him.”
Shit.
“Get these kids out of here,” Megs said. “Scarlet Springs has been evacuated, so you head through the roundabout and straight down the canyon to the Boulder County Fairgrounds. We’ll get everyone we can and meet you there.”
“Thank you!” Naomi reached out, took Megs’ hand, gave it a squeeze.
“Go!” Megs turned and ran back to her own vehicle, shouting over her shoulder to Conrad and Ahearn. “Let’s get the rest of them!”
Conrad climbed behind the wheel again and followed Megs. The smoke was so thick now that it came in through his ventilation system, making him cough, burning his eyes. How were they going to spot the turnoff to the camp when they couldn’t see five feet in front of them?
Embers drifted through the air now like orange snowflakes, landing on his hood and windshield.
Flashing red and blue lights.
It was a Forest County sheriff’s vehicle, and it didn’t stop. Behind it followed an SUV, Rossiter’s wife, Kat, at the wheel, adults and children in the back.
Was that everyone?
They pressed on, embers falling thick and hard now.
Yeah, this couldn’t be safe.
Ahead of him, Megs stopped again, but this time she put her truck in reverse.
And then he saw.
Ahead, in what should have been the mouth of the canyon, was nothing but flame, and it was moving toward them. If they didn’t get the fuck out of hereright now, they were going to roast on the road.
“Damn it!”
In tandem, the three of them backed up, turned around, and headed back toward Scarlet with Ahearn in the lead this time, the fire running toward them.
“Fuck!”
Conrad looked down, saw that he was going almost forty miles an hour. If they’d been driving on a straight road, they would have been able to get away with no problem. Instead, the road curved, while the head of the fire was making a run straight eastward.