“Appreciate it.” Sandy smiled and headed back.

  Joel began running the pump handle while he watched Allie set up her AR-15 on the hood of the Scrambler. He’d salvaged some parts and pieces from a few of the rifles they’d acquired from the moonshiners’ cache and built her something he thought was more practical than the modified 20-gauge shotgun. The old Mossberg was fine for close quarters or shooting ducks, but she needed a proper rifle.

  Ben unstrapped the jerry cans from the rear of the Blazer and set them on the ground near Joel. So far, the fuel stop was going well. Pulling into these random places was always a crapshoot. Joel thought about all the times things hadn’t gone so well. His sister saving them all by shooting a man stood out the most in his mind. He never would have imagined Emma being capable of such a thing, but the will to survive was a good motivator. And thankfully so.

  “So you think we’ll make Kansas tonight?” Joel asked his dad.

  “I really do. According to the atlas, we’re right around 150 to 160 miles from the border. It’s very doable,” Ben said with a nod.

  Joel believed him. They’d covered that number of miles and more in a day’s time. The distance they traveled depended on the roads being clear and their ability to stay out of trouble. That wasn’t always easy. Joel was kidding himself; it was almost impossible to avoid the lunatics out here.

  “Whoa, stop.” Ben yanked the hose out of the Blazer and stuck it in the first jerry can, leaving a half gallon of gas or more on the blacktop. “Want me to take over? I can finish up. Maybe you can help Emma get Sam back into the truck.”

  “Okay.” Joel handed the manual pump to his dad and headed for the shaded fuel island and the others. He used the sleeve of his T-shirt to wipe the sweat from his face and got a whiff of smoke. At first, he thought it was residual odor stuck in his clothing from the campfire last night—until he remembered that they didn’t have a campfire last night.

  “Joel, Ben!” Sandy stepped out from under the shade of the canopy, shielding her eyes from the sun with one hand and pointing toward the sky beyond the Blazer with the other. Joel turned and looked to his dad before directing his gaze past the thin line of trees at the edge of the property and to the dry brown fields that practically surrounded them.

  His pulse quickened as he took in the plumes of light gray smoke that spread across the horizon to his left and right as far as he could see. The wall of swirling smoke and ash strung out along the landscape like a curtain of darkness running parallel to the interstate.

  Nobody said anything at first, but Joel noticed his dad increase the speed of the hand pump to get the jerry cans topped off quickly. Joel ran back to his dad’s side, and as soon as the first can was full, he capped it and strapped it into place on the Blazer’s rear rack.

  “Get the dogs loaded up,” Ben instructed without looking away from the ever-darkening sky.

  “It’s coming this way. We need to get out of here.” Allie began helping Emma, Brad, and her mother round up the dogs. Joel could see flames now. The wall of smoke and flame was working its way toward them one row of dead soybean plants at a time.

  Joel felt helpless while waiting for the last jerry can to get filled. He wanted to do more than watch his dad work the hand pump and stare at the advancing fire.

  “Here, let me help.” Joel ran to assist with Sam. Allie and Brad had the old yellow Lab on a blanket they were using as a makeshift stretcher, but they were struggling to get her off the ground. Joel took over for his brother, and he and Allie carried Sam the rest of the way to the Blazer.

  Joel glanced at his brother. “Get Gunner into the jeep, okay?”

  “Got it.” Brad took off.

  Emma was waiting for them at the back of the Blazer, with Bajer already loaded up. They passed Sam to her, trying to be careful, but time was running out.

  “You guys load up and get the Jeep out to the road. We’ll be right behind you,” Ben ordered.

  Suddenly, an unnaturally hot breeze blew across the parking lot, sweeping small whirlwinds of dust and trash up into the air. The ashen veil of smoke had taken over the majority of the sky above them now and was starting to block out the sun.

  Joel didn’t want to leave them here, but his dad wasn’t asking. He looked out across the field, trying to judge how much time they had left before the advancing flames reached the gas station, and he realized the flames were jumping to new rows of dead crops at an alarming rate thanks to the drafts of wind. In addition to the advancing fire, there was a dull roar in the air, a sound that was growing louder with each passing second.

  “Come on.” Allie tugged at his arm as she ran for the Jeep.

  “Go!” Ben shouted.

  When Joel reached the Scrambler, Brad and Gunner were in the back, staring at the approaching inferno. Allie gathered her rifle off the hood and jumped into the passenger seat. Joel didn’t stop moving until he was behind the wheel and had the Jeep running. He started to pull out and turned toward the interstate, stopping to make sure his dad and the others were close behind.

  He couldn’t help but admire the ferocity of the blaze that was sweeping its way across the field. Bright orange flames leaped swiftly from one row of dead plants to the next, hitchhiking across the empty aisles of dirt on mini tornadoes of fire and debris. Some of the fire-laden cyclones extended several stories into the sky.

  The natural phenomenon was unlike anything Joel had ever seen before. This wasn’t just a brush fire. This was an out-of-control ground-scorching firestorm that was devouring everything in its path. And if they didn’t get out of here soon, they’d be next.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  Ben struggled with the jerry can lid while he ran with the spare tank of gas and lashed it to the Blazer’s rack as fast as he could. Sandy was busy rolling up the hose and stowing the pump while Emma watched from inside the truck with the dogs.

  “Hurry! It’s getting close!” Emma screamed over the rush of hot air whipping across the parking lot.

  For obvious reasons, Ben wanted to get out of here as fast as they could, but mostly, they had to get going because they were parked in a puddle of gasoline that had spilled from the overfilling of the Blazer and the draining of the hose.

  Fueling up the trucks and jerry cans was always a messy undertaking, but this time, there could be dire consequences. But that was far from Ben’s only concern. The wall of flames and smoke ran west along the interstate for as far as he could see. And it was closing in on the interstate at a rapid pace.

  There were still a couple hundred yards of dry vegetation between the raging brush fire and the highway, but due to the unusually dry conditions, Ben didn’t expect that to last very long. If anything, the fire’s intensity and speed were building. The once-distant popping of embers and whooshing of super-heated air sounded more and more like an approaching freight train than anything else.

  With the fueling equipment packed up, they were finally ready to join Joel and the others out by the road. Ben used the rest of the water in his Nalgene on the Blazer, dumping it on the gas cap and the surrounding area. He took a few seconds to try and rub the spilled fuel off the side of the truck. As he was stowing the last of the gear, he noticed a swarm of red-hot embers floating down from the dark sky above.

  Before jumping into the truck, he tried using a patch of dry pavement to wipe the spilled gasoline off the bottom of his boot. Sandy was already buckled in and ready to go.

  “Dad?” Emma didn’t elaborate further, but she didn’t have to. Ben glanced in the rearview mirror and threw the truck in gear as the first of the flames began pushing through the slotted wooden fence at the edge of the property.

  The Blazer lurched forward, and Ben turned the wheel sharply, causing the tires to chirp as he steered for the Jeep and the interstate beyond.

  “What are you waiting for? Go!” Ben shouted out the window at Joel and the others in the Jeep. They were still sitting at the edge of the property, waiting. If they were going to outrun this thing, they needed to get moving—now.

  The Scrambler pulled out on the highway and headed west. Ben followed close behind, keeping one eye on the road and the other on the leading edge of the blaze to their right. Every time he took his eyes off the fire and then looked back, the fire was somehow a few feet closer.

  With both sides of the westbound lanes surrounded by waist- to chest-high dry vegetation, the fire would have no problem jumping the asphalt to the other side. And they’d be caught in the middle if they didn’t figure something out soon.

  Ben thought about the kids in the canvas-topped Jeep as pieces of hot ash and burning grass hit the Blazer’s windshield. When they’d painted the vehicles with the heat-reflective paint, he had no idea they’d be testing it like this. The thermal barrier might be the only thing keeping the Scrambler’s top from catching on fire.

  Ben felt Sandy’s nails digging into his arm as she grabbed him and directed his attention out toward the wheat field on their right.

  “I can feel the heat from here.” She rolled up her window as they all watched the golden-brown stalks of waist-high wheat disappear in a wave of silver smoke and bright orange flames.

  “Are we… are we going to make it?” Emma was scared, and rightfully so.

  “We’ll be all right,” Ben answered quickly, but he wasn’t entirely sure they were going to get out of this unscathed. It wasn’t the first time they’d been in danger, but this was a force beyond their control. They couldn’t shoot their way out of this.

  Joel swerved hard to the left and narrowly avoided the remains of a charred sedan sitting in the middle of the road. Ben maneuvered around the car and barely cleared the wreck, sending Emma and Sam sliding across the rear seat.

  “Sorry.” He forced the wheel back to center, avoiding the overgrown shoulder by inches. The passenger-side door mirror rang like a bell as the taller stalks of grass slapped the chrome housing.

  They were going too fast. Ben glanced at the speedometer and saw the needle flirting with the seventy-miles-per-hour mark. To make matters worse, the dense gray smoke was blowing across the interstate, obscuring his view of the Jeep and the road in front of them. This was getting more dangerous by the second, but they couldn’t stop here.

  “Maybe we should have stayed at the gas station.” Sandy ran a hand through her hair and quickly went back to watching the advancing wall of fire and smoke.

  Ben blindly fumbled for the radio, not wanting to take his eyes off the road. “If you see an overpass, stop. We need to find a fire break somewhere. Over.”

  “Copy that. We can hardly see the road anymore. It’s getting really bad! Over,” Allie shouted over the two-way.

  “It’s getting close. I mean, really close,” Sandy stated.

  “I know. Emma, start wetting some towels or something we can use to cover our faces. We can’t keep breathing this in.” Even with the windows closed, the smoke-filled air seeped inside the Blazer and stung Ben’s throat. If the fire didn’t get them, the smoke would, unless they did something about it.

  Suddenly, a bright light filled the dark, ash-filled sky behind them. Ben glanced in the rearview mirror and saw a massive fireball, followed by a loud boom. He didn’t dare turn to get a better look—it was taking all his concentration to keep the Scrambler in view—but the girls did.

  “What was that?” Sandy gasped.

  “That was the gas station,” Ben answered. He knew what it was the moment he saw the explosion. They were in such a hurry to leave that he hadn’t bothered to replace the filler cap for the underground fuel tank like he usually did. With the amount of fuel they’d spilled, it was only a matter of time before the place went up.

  They were lucky to have gotten out of there when they did, although it was hardly anything to celebrate. They were far from safe and quickly running out of time and road. Ben was beginning to consider crossing the median to get away from the encroaching flames, but that would only delay the inevitable. Eventually, the fire would find them, and crossing to the eastbound lanes came with its own risk. Running through the rough, overgrown median at this speed was asking for trouble.

  Allie’s voice crackled over the radio: “We found something. Looks like an overpass up ahead. Over.”

  Ben saw the Jeep speed up. They were already moving dangerously fast, but he trusted that Joel saw a clear path to the shelter. Ben watched as the flames reached the edge of the pavement and began lashing out for the other side. He kept the Blazer in the far-left lane, hugging the edge of the median and praying the overpass Joel and Allie were headed for was close.

  He saw the Jeep’s brake lights flash through the smoke and slowed down.

  “There it is.” Sandy leaned forward as the set of bridges crossing the highway overhead came into view. Joel pulled to the right and stopped between the concrete structures. Before Ben could bring the Blazer to a complete stop, Joel and Allie were outside the Scrambler, using their Nalgenes to throw water on the canvas top.

  Ben jumped out of the truck as soon as it was in gear and ran to the rear. There, he retrieved the large five-gallon water tank. Sandy joined him, and the two worked together on getting it to the Jeep.

  Joel stopped them. “We’re good. Don’t waste it.”

  “What about the top?” Ben asked.

  “It’s fine. I just wanted to wet it down in case something landed on it,” Joel explained. Ben and Sandy set down the water container and stood for a second, watching the swirling updrafts of glowing-hot embers twist and blow across the westbound lanes of the highway. Several tumbleweeds of burning grass and debris bounced over the asphalt, helping spread the wildfire to the median.

  “Dad!” Emma shouted over the noise as she emerged from the Blazer’s passenger seat with a pile of wet towels. Ben met her at the door before she got out.

  “I want you to stay in the truck with the dogs for now, okay? Breathe through the towel and wrap the rest around you.” Ben took all but one of the damp towels and threw them to the others. He turned back to Emma to make sure she was doing what he asked and saw that she’d made a tent out of the oversized towel, laying it over the back seat to protect Bajer and Sam as well.

  “Brad, try and get Gunner under there with you.” Joel threw one of the towels like a cast net, almost covering his brother with it.

  They were a good forty yards from either side of the overpass and as well-protected from the raging fire as they could be. But the howling drafts of hot air whipping around the concrete support columns of the overpass made Ben question their safety. There was nothing else they could do now but wait.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  The fire never slowed, and that was a good thing. Passing as quickly as they had come, the flames and cyclone-like columns of glowing embers moved across the interstate, consuming the drought-stricken overgrowth in a matter of seconds before jumping the eastbound lanes and moving on to the agricultural fields beyond.

  Ben and the others watched as the wall of fire continued its assault on the landscape, leaving behind a charred aftermath. Some areas with thicker vegetation still burned nearby, but for the most part, the danger had passed.

  Ben pulled the towel from his head and draped it over the Blazer’s hood. “Everybody all right?”

  “I can’t believe that just happened.” Allie let her towel fall to her shoulders, staring at the fast-moving wall of destruction as it continued its onslaught through a field of dead corn on the other side of the highway.

  “I’ve never seen anything like that before.” Joel looked equally captivated by the display of natural power. A couple of years ago, he and Ben witnessed a forest fire from Hurricane Pass in the San Juans while they were off-roading. The wildfire had been a few mountains away from the high-elevation pass, but it paled in comparison to the raw display of destruction they’d just witnessed.

  “Where did that come from?” Brad lowered himself from the back of the Jeep.

  “A lightning strike, maybe?” Sandy shrugged and glanced back toward the dark black plume of smoke rising from what was left of the gas station.

  “It’s a good thing we got out of there.” Allie put her hand on her mom’s shoulder and smiled nervously. Emma rolled down the Blazer’s window and stuck out her head, looking around, but said nothing.

  Ben ran his hand over one of the Blazer’s side panels, feeling areas of blistered paint. On the passenger side, the fire had gotten closer than he thought.

  “That was close. Too close.” Ben turned to face the group. He stood there for a moment, watching the others take in the destruction the blaze had left in its wake. The wall of smoke and flames was almost as far away from them in the other direction as it had been when Sandy first spotted it.

  He let out a deep breath and drew in a fresh chest full of air, unencumbered by the thick smoke that had moved off almost as quickly as the fire. The smell reminded him of burning brush around the property back home when he and Joel had created a fire break around the house last fall, something he was increasingly thankful they hadn’t put off.

  The interstate looked alien. The charred ground and smoking remainders of the hardier plants stood in stark contrast to the sometimes head-high weeds they’d been driving through. The burn had stripped away the ground cover and vegetation, exposing things better left unseen.

  A crumpled-up SUV had been uncovered in the median not too far away. Its owners remained trapped inside, their skeletal remains glistening in the dull gray light of the fire’s aftermath. Ben wondered if they’d been stripped clean by hungry animals or the original fire that destroyed the vehicle.

  He forced himself to look away and noticed Emma staring curiously at the morbid display of what had been the occupants’ last moments.

  “Hey, Em, how about getting the dogs some water? I’m sure they could use it after all that smoke,” Ben said, trying to distract her. It wasn’t anything new, really, but trying to insulate her from the ugly things was a hard habit to break. Besides, they should all drink a little water and take a minute to catch their breath.