Wildfire Smokejumper Trilogy

Chapter 6-1

Chapter 6

What’s with you, Akbar?” Two-Tall was scraping the soil line to clear it of burnable fuel.

The MHA Hoodies were working the line up in the Northern Cascades, just south of the Canadian border in northern nowhere Washington. They were using the international border, a swath cut twenty to fifty feet wide through the heart of the Okanagan Forest, trying to fire proof it so that the approaching wildfire wasn’t among the day’s exports.

The border here lay down in the trees offering only narrow views to the east and west. They didn’t have permission to do any felling where they normally would have on the far side of break. Americans cutting down Canadian timber was frowned on by the authorities, so they were preparing as well as they could to hold the line at the border. The terrain here was high, relatively flat, and almost wholly inaccessible by conventional equipment. So the smokies were on it.

Akbar kept his rhythm going. Nothing was showing, he was sure of that. He was right in sync with the rest of the crew. Ganged up in a line like this, they could clean a thirty-foot wide swath at the equivalent of a slow walk.

Krista set the line and used the wide flat blade of her Pulaski to drag three feet of loose surface crap, from left to right, past where she stood. Then she’d step forward and drag the next blade-width down the line.

The team followed behind her stagger step, each moving the initial detritus another two to three feet away from the fire and then scraping their own section clear with a second stroke. By the time the pile reached Akbar and Tim at the end of the line, the bulk could be pretty substantial, but that’s why they were the tail end of the line—the heavy lifters heaving everything as far as they could from the fire break’s edge.

Tim, reading Akbar’s silence as an excuse to continue his harangue did just that. “You been weird ever since we cleared Laura’s woods a couple weeks back. You still good with her?”

“Yeah, we’re still good.” And they were. Mostly. Wanting to tell the woman he wanted to spend his life with her had shocked the hell out of him. He could feel the “L” word looming somewhere on the horizon like a single wisp of smoke promising imminent disaster. The “L” word was one reserved for mothers and sisters, like “Love you, Dipwad.” It wasn’t meant for women he was seeing.

Seeing.

He’d smack himself for that one if both of his hands weren’t busy. “Seeing” is what you did with windsurfer babes. “Dating” is what you did in high school, except he hadn’t. A couple of one-time movie dates with other Chess Club or Physics Club members didn’t count as even that. He and Laura were…

And that’s where he got stuck in his head every time.

Tim was on a roll, though keeping his voice low enough so only Akbar could hear it. He wasn’t talking about the fire trying to burn a new passage from northern Washington into Canada, so Akbar did the best he could to tune him out. Last thing he needed to do was talk to Tim about his love life.

Damn it! There was that word again.

He clipped his boot with the edge of his Pulaski, putting a slice in the leather. Just that much sooner he’d be replacing these boots. Damn it to hell! He liked these boots.

Tim clunked him in the helmet with the butt of his axe. Akbar had moved too far forward, not waiting for his turn to move the scrap out of the fire break. He’d broken the rhythm of the line. The ripple went up the line with missed steps, awkward moves. The pace broke.

Krista, proving she was a smart leader, called a five-minute break by shouting, “Drink up. Fuel up.”

Everyone sat where they were and dug into their personal gear bag for energy bars and water. Ox pulled out an MRE and began eating it cold.

The high smoke was mostly blowing south, but the fire was flowing north following a gentle breeze and a generous fuel supply. The blue sky above the border cut belied the fire that was approaching from the south, but for the moment, it was peaceful and pretty. The choppers were fighting the battle well to the south and only rarely passed over their present position.

He half expected Laura and her train of horses to show up out of the trees and flash one of those smiles at him.

But he’d seen less and less of that smile all week. Tim wasn’t the only one sensing something was wrong. Akbar wished he knew what it was, he really did. He needed something he could reach out and fix. But he couldn’t find it. He’d long since run out of places to look.