I sidestepped away from her and glanced back as a trio of fully geared up soldiers carried crates past us and out of the military encampment of Tent City. Everywhere I looked, the young, relaxed and shaven faces that I had seen before were now working in a serious overdrive to tear down their shelters and pack up their supplies. My attention bounced from person to person amidst the flurry of activity as commanders struggled to make themselves heard over the rest, Olivia faring no better than any other.
“Hey, are you paying attention?”
“Yeah...” I answered without even looking at her and I should have realized it wasn't so.
“Tess, stop.” She grabbed me by the shoulders and got in close, staring me down until I could focus enough to make out the movement of her eyes. “Listen to me. You're our top priority right now. If something happens, I need to be able to get you somewhere safe.”
It took a second for me to shut out all the voices that surrounded us and then another for the idea to finally process itself through my brain. She wanted me to put myself first before anyone else. “You wanna run...”
“If we have to.” She took her hands off of me. “This is about Knox. We don't know if she's alive or not. We don't even know
what
she is, but we need you to find out. If we have to go, I need to know that you'll be ready for it but for the
right
reasons. Do you understand?”
The words hurt. It was an obvious jab at my attempt to run away before. I stared away at a solider as he donned a vest and slung an assault rifle over his body. The sight of him screamed the epitome of war at me, of combat, of the very idea of putting up a fight. After spending way too much time wallowing in my own self-pity and learning that running wouldn't benefit anyone except myself, I wanted nothing more than to join him and stand up for those that had helped me through it, but the idea that Olivia had introduced would completely annihilate the notion.
I looked back up at her and she waited for my response. She was playing the long game. She had thought things through and understood what was at stake. It was straining to go along, especially since I knew I'd be hurting Emma in the process, yet I had promised myself I would rid the witch's control over me, no matter the cost. “Yeah...”
She seemed to ease up at the sound of it. “Good, because we can still help in the meantime.”
I followed her into Hayes' tent, surprised to see it packed to the brim with a mixture of personnel at the heart of a commotion even louder than the one I had seen outside.
Hayes pulled off from her own heated argument as soon as she saw Olivia. She brought a hand up into the air and put another against her mouth to force a sharp whistle that quickly shut everyone up to get their attention. “Listen up! If you're not an acting commanding officer, please clear the room.”
I glanced over at Olivia to see what that meant and she gave me a faint turn of the head. I stepped off to the side as a small mob of civilians and soldiers alike slowly made their way out. The last two to leave seemed a step up above the rest, with full on beards that hung from their faces while they carried their muscular bodies underneath dirty camouflaged clothing, especially when one glared at me and knocked into my shoulder on the way out. I had never seen them before. I had no idea what I had done to warrant it.
I didn't get much time to think about it as the last handful stepped in around Hayes to give her the lead again. I watched her take a moment to collect herself and I wondered how she had managed to put up with all the stress when the sun had not even risen yet.
“Is this everyone?”
I glanced around at what was left and felt out of place as the others did the same. I really didn't belong there and I knew it. I was just Olivia's plus one.
“Alright...” Hayes forced a grin out that disappeared as soon as she put her hands together. “I'm only gonna say this once, so pay attention. I think we all know the situation has taken a turn for the worse. Obviously, a wild fire is bad news, especially considering the severe drought in the area. I've already advised the locals to pack up and get ready to move as soon as possible, but we have to plan for the worst case scenario.” She hesitated for a moment, unsure how to proceed until it ended in another short lived smile. “So I'll just get right to the point. We may not be able to get everyone out in time.”
A soft chorus of mumbles was quickly shut off as soon as it started while Hayes held a hand up only to plop it back down onto a map splayed out on her desk. “Listen. The plan stays the same. We're stilling moving West. We're keeping our distance from the public. There should be a difference in terrain a few miles from here, past a river. It's a natural incline that should give us a good enough place to stop and catch our breath while still offering some protection. That'll be the rendezvous. The problem is we don't have enough seats to roll everyone out on one go—or three, for that matter—which will take time. We'll have to load as many as we can on the buses that we have and shuttle them before coming back for the next group. That means they'll need protection and coordination during every trip and at the stop. I'll let you all decide on how to do that in whatever way you think is best. The idea here is to keep your men organized so that we waste as little time as possible.”
The room stood motionless to think it over except for a hand that rose up from in front of me. “How much time do we even have?”
She let the question settle for a moment and it didn't bode well. “We have a two man team riding the front to give us an estimate and we've double checked their math... We're coming up on the twelve hour mark. And that's assuming it doesn't pick up.”
The mumbles resurfaced and another hand shot up to ask a question while I turned back to find Olivia. I saw her pull on the end of a sleeve to set an alarm on a wrist watch, but if she was at all worried by the information, she didn't show it. I kept my voice hushed and got close to make sure nobody else heard except for her. “How exactly are we supposed to help if we're leaving?”
She stared past me with a blank look on her face when Hayes called for us.
I turned around to see everyone walk out except for her and another bearded, overtly-muscular soldier that reminded me of Chris. Apparently I had missed the ending.
Hayes walked up to the three of us, the conversation inside the tent suddenly turning much more intimate. “Jessica, given the circumstances, I thought you should know that the order of the groups to leave first have already been selected ahead of time. I'm sorry, but anyone belonging to the towns of Florence or Arrino will be the last to go.”
I let myself lose focus. The decision couldn't have been a coincidence. The vivid imagery of Amanda and Ellie and anyone else I knew facing off against a looming wall of fire urged me to yell into her face for playing into her own politics, but I kept my calm. I still didn't understand. Hayes was taking a risk just by letting me know. Leaking the information out to the public and starting a panic could jeopardize the entire effort. She had to have known that could have been a possibility. “Why are you telling me?”
She frowned as if I had somehow taken the chance to hurt her. “Because. I know that there's only so much that I can do.” She grabbed a small map from her desk and held it out for me to take. One of the squares on it was circled with red marker. “Look...there's a town close enough for a group to make it there and back with time to spare. We haven't had a chance to scout it out because it's a little out of the way, but if they have any vehicles, then we could use them to move more people faster. They would be more than worth their weight in gold.”
She put a finger up to emphasize the order before gesturing towards the man-beast at my side. “I'm willing to offer up
one
truck and the rest of Chris' team. His men have special operations experience, however they work best as a small group. I've already filled in Sheriff Dawson from Arrino. I would recommend that you supplement their effectiveness and work with him to select the best people for the job. I know you had the chance to personally work with Chris Carr. You could help fill in the gaps. Ultimately your involvement is up to you, but I would think that the people waiting outside would rather do something than walk in a straight line and hope for the best.”
Yeah...
I grabbed a hold of the map and pulled slowly enough to watch it slip through her fingers. It was hard to process everything I had just heard. The remaining men, women, and children of Arrino and Florence had basically just been given a death sentence, only to be shortly followed by a small sliver of hope from the same person.
“Think about it. But don't take too long.” Hayes excused herself and walked out, leaving me to look up at the closest connection to Chris that I had seen since his death.
He introduced himself with a simple open hand and as emotionless as a statue. “Badger.”
I wasn't sure if that was supposed to be his real name or not, so I took a guess and gave him my own. “Carter...” I shook his hand and he promptly walked out on the two of us without bothering to say a single word. It eventually dawned on me that he had probably just shook the hand of the last person to see his best friend alive. He didn't have anything left to say to me.
“You can't go, Tess.”
I looked over at Olivia to see her reinforce the broken silence with crossed arms. I wanted to argue, though I knew it wouldn't help anyone. I needed to look at the big picture like her. How much good would I be in a situation like that, anyway?
“But I will.”
I took in the Knight in front of me, the only one had I ever known, and I realized I still didn't understand how selfless they could really be. Not only would she be putting herself out on the line for everyone else, she would also be helping the people of Arrino in particular to ease my own discomfort. “What about Hayes?” Wasn't Olivia supposed to protect her first?
She shrugged. “What about her? I'm sure she'll take the first bus out, which is exactly where you should be.”
I wasn't so sure.
“I'll be fine. I'll make sure to catch up with you.” She held her hand out for the map and I reluctantly handed it to her. “Come on, you can help me find Dawson.”
Once I figured out who the hell Olivia was talking about, it didn't take long to find Jeremy. In retrospect, I should have realized that he was the former sheriff of Arrino without knowing his last name. It was pretty obvious. All he needed was the hat. But Dawson? Really?
After a quick march through hurrying crowds and a half-broken down maze, we ducked inside the sheriff's tent as the wind continued to batter it from the outside. A few new faces stared back, some more familiar than others. I took a spot in the corner next to Nick while he hunched over and tried his damn best to light a cigarette with a string of curses. I was glad to see that he made it out of Arrino alive, though I couldn't help but think smoking inside was a bad idea given the last tent I had seen go up in flames without a hitch. “Should you really be doing that in here?”
He glanced up at me, taken back at first to even see me alive, then immediately defaulted to his usual self with the thin strip bouncing between his lips. “Lady, I don't know if you noticed, but we're all gonna be inhaling some shit real soon whether you like it or not.”
Ugh-huh...
I didn't feel like watching him struggle, no matter how stupid it was, so I reached into my back pocket on a whim and was surprised to find what I had in mind. I pulled out the lighter Nick had given me back in Camp Maxwell and held a flame up for him to use.
He finally lit his cigarette and took a long drag, amused. “Well you're just the gift that keeps on giving, aren't ya?”
I wasn't sure if he had meant it to be a compliment or not, but I held the lighter out for him to take anyway. “Here. It saved my life. I guess I owe you one.”
He nervously glanced at Murphy to his side, the pair of them as unlikely yet inseparable as I had remembered. “Yeah... Why don't you hold on to it? You can call us even.”
“For what?”
He didn't seem to want to answer so I looked past him to get a simple nod of approval from Murphy. I was guessing there was more to the story of them making it out of Arrino than they cared to share.
Nick took another drag, carefully tiptoeing on the balance between sincerity and not giving a damn all without looking at me. If I didn't know any better, I would have said he might have been embarrassed to admit it. “It's good to see you, by the way.”
Yeah.
It's good to see you too.
It really was good to hear it until I followed his gaze to watch Jeremy hold the tent open for a young, pretty, blonde girl and my stomach instantly threw a fit. He pointed into a notebook in the woman's arms. She couldn't have been much older than me, though her glasses did make her look a lot smarter.
She shook her head and glanced up at him while I eavesdropped on their conversation, her English accent clearly discernible from the rest. “I know, but that's all we have. I already checked it myself to make sure.”
Jeremy took a breath and ran a hand through his lengthening hair, the extra oil, dirt, and frayed ends making it stick up in a mess. “Okay... Check it again?”
She stammered for a moment, unsure, as a damp, light wisp fell over her face from her forehead.
“Please?” He put a hand on her shoulder and she brushed the bang back with a smile.