“Hang on, buddy,” I shouted.

He turned his feet outward, slowing his descent almost to a stop. His hands braced against the ground and he looked up at me, his eyes wide with fear.

I let gravity do the work, pulling me down, and the friction from my boots kept me from sliding out of control. My heart beat hard in my chest and the heat of the day, the smoke, the fatigue in my arms were gone. Nothing. Unimportant. Adrenaline washed it all away, like icy cold river water.

I was going to get this guy out. Safe. I knew it.

So I wasn’t scared.

He was, though, and that was not good. Rescuing someone in a panic was always dangerous.

I slowed down when I got close to him and found a rock to wedge my foot against. “Hey, brother. Don’t move, okay? What’s your name?”

“Robby.”

“How long have you been on the wildland crew?” I asked, just to get him talking while I pulled a coil of nylon rope out of my pack.

“First season.”

“No shit?” Smoke billowed around us, stinging my eyes. “You’re going to have a badass story to tell when you go home. Chased down the slope by a runaway fucking chainsaw.”

His mouth started to hook in a grin but his eyes widened, and before I could take another breath—let alone reach him—his feet slipped.

Primal fear contorted his features as he fell backward.

I heard him hit the bottom. “Fuck.”

People shouted at me from the top. Probably telling me to climb back up. No one wanted Robby to die—whether they knew his name or not—but I was just one guy without proper rescue equipment, clinging to a too-steep slope with a raging forest fire below pumping smoke into the air.

“Robby!” I called.

“Here,” he answered, his voice distorted with pain. He was alive, but injured.

“Are you bleeding?”

A pause. “Uh, no. But I think my leg’s broken.”

Shit. That meant Robby wasn’t climbing out on his own.

We needed a rescue team. Now.

“He’s down there,” I called to Levi at the top. “Possible broken leg.”

“Get up here, Gav,” Levi called back.

And I was going to. I really was. A rescue team would come and they’d get Robby out. They’d do a better job than I would anyway, with the right equipment and—

A flicker of warmth against my cheek made me turn toward the burn.

It was coming. It was going to jump that dry creek bed and crash through the valley like a tsunami of flame, eating everything in its path.

Including Robby.

I met Levi’s eyes. He opened his mouth, probably to yell at me to come up. But Robby didn’t have time.

My decision made, I took hold of one end of the rope and launched the other toward Levi. He caught it, still yelling something at me.

But I was focused on one thing and one thing only. Getting Robby out.

I shifted my feet to slide down to the edge, where the slope dropped off. I let go of the rope, leaving it to dangle over the side, then slipped off my pack and let it drop.

Then I pushed myself away from the slope and jumped.

It was high enough that I knew it was going to hurt when I landed, so it was no surprise that it did. I kept loose and rolled as soon as I hit, but that didn’t stop pain from shooting through my shoulder and back.

I ignored it. Paused for half a second to make sure no sharper jolts of pain manifested—none did—and got to my feet.

Smoke was thicker down here, trapped against the valley wall. The head of the fire wasn’t far and I could feel the heat of it beating at me.

“Gavin, check in. Now!” Levi’s voice roared through my radio.

“I’m good. Secure the rope. I’m gonna get him up.”

Robby was on his back about ten feet away, reaching down to hold his thigh.

“I got you, man,” I said, picking up my pack and jogging to him. “You’re going to be fine.”

In an ideal situation, I’d have properly secured his leg before even thinking about moving him. But we didn’t have time for ideal.

“Robby, I’m not going to lie, this is going to suck ass. But it’s better than being crispy fried.”

Through the dirt on his face, he was pale, sweat gleaming on his forehead. But he nodded. “Yeah, okay. What do we do?”

I pulled a second rope out of my pack and tied it around him, fashioning a makeshift harness. “I apologize in advance to your balls, but they’ll thank me later when they’re still attached to a live body.”

Through his pain and fear, he chuckled. Good. He was tough enough to laugh. He’d make it.

I looked over at the burn. The trees were glowing red masts jutting into the air, the hot embers like a thousand mocking eyes. Deadly hot smoke billowed upward, polluting the pristine sky with gray. A wave of heat washed over us, making Robby flinch and raise his hand to shield his face.

It was coming.

The dry creek bed had plenty of debris. The burn wouldn’t stop until it chased up the cliff and hit our fireline. Until it ran out of fuel.

Not today, Satan. We were getting out of here.

“Can you stand?” I asked.

“I’ll try.”

I helped him to his feet and draped his arm over my shoulders. He used me as a crutch, hobbling as I kept him upright. We quickly made our way to the cliff wall where my rope still hung down. I gave it a tug and radioed Levi.

“I’ve got Robby harnessed. He has a busted leg, so you guys have to do most of the work to haul him up.”

“Jesus, Gav. Copy that.”

“He’s going to give me so much shit for this later,” I said while I secured the rope to Robby’s harness. “Of course, when he watches that fire run up this fucking cliff, he’ll know I was right.”

“Thanks, man,” Robby said, his voice shaking.

I put my hand on his shoulder and met his eyes. “You can do this. You hear me? Embrace the suck and get your ass to the top.”

He nodded. “Got it.”

“Levi, bring him up.”

The rope went taut. Robby used his hands and good leg to climb up the cliff face while they pulled from above.

Damn, that had to hurt.

But dying would be worse, so…

I backed up so I could watch Robby through the smoke. As soon as they got him secured up top, they could throw the rope down to me. Climbing this would be easy. I did shit like this all the time.

Not usually with a raging forest fire at my back, but hey, I loved new experiences.

The fire whispered behind me, the voice promising death. It would burn me to ash, reduce me to nothing. Wipe me from the face of the earth.

It was getting hotter, wasn’t it?

Slowly, I looked back over my shoulder, then radioed Levi.

“Bro, when did you say that helitack crew would get here?”

“They’re less than ten minutes out.”

Well that sucked. Because that was more time than I had to spare.

2

Gavin

“Gavin, get out of there,” Levi said through the radio.

My eyes darted around, looking for an escape route. “No shit, bro. I’m working on it. Anyone else got a rope up there?”

“Maybe. Hold tight.”