3
Josh slept badly that night. It had been a brutal fire season so far, and it was only August. The hotshot crew had been working nonstop and everyone was on edge.
And he kept having that dream. The one where he was back in the fire shelter in Big Canyon, with the wildfire roaring over him. Over all of them. Fire and death raining from the sky. In the dream, the wind kept whipping the thin aluminum fabric away from his body, exposing him to the blast of the furnace of flames. Then it changed, and he was hiding under a bed and the howl of the fire turned into voices yelling. Familiar, beloved voices.
He woke up sweating and shuddering, and blinked at the sun filtering through the casement windows. They were set high on the concrete walls of the dorm, which was an old Army barracks that h
