James Axler: Ice and Fire

"I guess she... Oh..." He closed his eyes, taking deep breaths. "I thought I was going to throw up. You know, you were wrong, Ryan."

"How's that?"

"Killing people. You said it was hard. It's not. It's too damned easy."

Snakefish was in its final, scorching death throes. Every building in the ville was burning. Smoke soared ten miles high, shredded by the wind as it was winnowed away from the foothills of the Sierras.

At the end nobody had tried to stop the seven friends or follow them. But now the threat came from the fire that they'd initiated. It was running along the highway and beginning to nibble at the edges of the mesquite.

"Gotta go for it," Ryan said. "Keep together. You can see the higher ground. Rocks. Reach that and we're safe. We'll soon be at the redoubt and away from here. Go for it."

They saw no signs of the mutie rattlers. No doubt the explosions and the fire had sent the great reptiles to their hidden burrows, deep beneath the desert.

Ryan set a steady pace, knowing that to start off too fast would have meant stragglers within a mile. He and J.B. could have pushed on at twice the speed, as could Jak and Krysty. But Doc Tanner was an old man, and Lori insisted on wearing her high-heeled crimson boots. And Rick was sickly.

The rising ground promised safety, but the wind had turned, causing the fire to pursue them. It was gaining all the time, and the roaring and crackling flames raced nearer to their heels.

"Gonna be close," J.B. panted.

"Freezie's bushed," Krysty said.

"An' Doc," Jak added.

Ryan held up his hand to stop everyone. The brush ended a scant half mile away, but the prairie fire was less than that. Smoke filled everyone's lungs and made running even more difficult. Rick was on hands and knees, clutching his cane, fighting for breath, shoulders heaving. Doc trembled with exhaustion.

"Krysty and I'll help Rick. Jak, you help Doc, and J.B. can give Lori a hand."

The girl shook her head, close to tears. "No. Jak and J.B. can help Doc along. He's needing it better than me. I'll be real fine."

It wasn't a situation for argument. Ryan nodded his agreement and the seven friends set off again for the last lap of their desperate race.

Rick was in a state of virtual collapse, feet shuffling and kicking out, hanging between Ryan and Krysty. Doc wasn't in much better condition, flopping between the two much smaller figures of Jak and the Armorer.

The nearer to safety, the steeper the slope, the greater the effort.

"Leave me!" Rick groaned. "Let me die again."

They ignored him.

Nobody dared to pause to look back, but they could all feel the heat of the fire and catch the smell of the burning creosote bushes. The roar of the flames, fanned by the wind, was deafening. Ryan could feel even his own enormous strength beginning to falter and fade. Now he was helping both Rick and Krysty, who was sobbing with the heart-bursting effort of staying alive.

Blinded by smoke, Ryan didn't even realize that they'd reached safety. Krysty was screaming in his ear, dragging at his arm to make him stop. He blinked his eye open and saw that they stood a good fifty paces clear, on the bare rock and out of danger from the onrushing fire.

Rick rocked on his knees, vomiting. A little to their right J.B. was bent over, hands on hips, fighting for breath, his spectacles hanging over one ear. Jak supported Doc, who was beyond the edge of physical tiredness, his face drained and blank, blackened with soot.

"Made it," J.B. gasped.

Ryan was beginning to nod his agreement, when the realization struck him like a dash of iced water. They hadn't made it. Not all of them. Lori was still...

"Lori!" Krysty screamed, pointing.

The tall blond girl was silhouetted against the towering wall of yellow-orange fire as it swept toward her, barely ten paces behind. She was less than fifty yards away from Ryan and the others.

Fifty yards from safety.

As she raced forward the heel of one of her boots twisted. Fatigue had robbed her of balance, and she slithered sideways, falling awkwardly. She struggled to get up for a moment, then slumped to the ground.

"No..." Ryan said disbelievingly.

The fire seemed to hang over the girl for a moment, in hungry anticipation. Then it plunged down and overwhelmed her. Lori Quint vanished in the torrent of flames. Doc Tanner began to weep.

"Got to be going somewhere better, lover," Krysty said.

The door of the gateway was closed and the disks in floor and ceiling were beginning to glow. In only a handful of seconds the six friends would be making another jump into the unknown.

Ryan gazed around the glass-walled chamber. Doc sat quietly, knees drawn up under his chin, staring blankly ahead; J.B. was at his side, glasses folded neatly and safely tucked away; Jak whistled quietly to himself. Rick lay fast asleep, curled into a fetal position.

And Lori was dead.

"Somewhere better, lover?" Ryan repeated. "Couldn't be much worse." He paused. "Could it?"