With the heel of her shoe, Tonya had dug a rough trench around the Ash tree but sparks were leaping over. Instinct told her to run but she had to stop this. Tonya stomped out grass fires as they multiplied until she had to resort to the extinguisher. Flames flared in a widening circle, so fast she couldn't get to them all. Leaves caught fire and rose into the air, igniting bushes in fountains of flame.
The extinguisher fizzled. Branches crackled like overhead campfires and squirrels of flame leaped branch to branch. Tonya squinted through smoke. The fire roared unstoppable. She ran for the wheelbarrow.
It was heavy. "Wake up! Lynette, you have to run."
The fire caught up to them and would soon cut them off. Her shoes were smoking. If she didn't escape, she would asphyxiate. Tonya considered her awkward cargo. Was Lynette even alive? The harder it became to push her, the more tempting it was to assume she was dead. Maybe Tonya should run and save herself.
The Shoppe felt further away with every step as flames licked at her face. She would never make it along the path. She turned the wheelbarrow and headed directly through the brush, hoping to reach the highway.
It was uphill and the bushes were denser than she thought. The wheelbarrow's tire stuck in a clump of cedar trees. Frantically, she tried to pull it back or wriggle it out but it wouldn't budge.
"Wake up!" she yelled but Lynette was no help. Tonya would have to abandon the wheelbarrow and carry her on her back. She crouched and pulled her friend's arms over her shoulders, gripping the wrists across her chest. When she stood Tonya saw stars. She was on the verge of blacking out but she breathed through her nose until the light-headedness passed. When she could see again, she strode around the cedars, Lynette draped on her back like a hundred-pound backpack, snagging on every branch.
Now Lynette really owed her a favour. When they got out of this, she was going to ask her to trade beds. Tonya always wanted the one under the window! She smiled. Piggybacking Lynette out of the woods was making her out of breath, and maybe a little crazy too.
She moved steadily uphill until smoke billowed around, choking her. She was doomed, fighting her way out of a kiln. Like Pompeii.
Her mind conjured corpses of Romans, preserved when volcanic ash covered them in 79 A.D. She imagined their terror as they asphyxiated, or roasted alive. But from where did she get such thoughts? Tonya had never been to Italy. She had never even seen a movie about Pompeii. She only knew it was a Volcano. Why could she picture the cranial sutures on top of a dead baby's skull, and the expression on an old man's face as he lay down to die? These images felt like memories.
A wave of darkness clamped her chest but it wasn't smoke. Her body fought fire but her mind faced a larger danger. Even if she reached the road it was hopeless. There was no escaping the force suffocating her mind. Her tears streamed from smoke and frustration. Tonya blinked and closed her eyes to clear her vision but when she opened them, she saw neither smoke nor forest nor fire. Dragonfly vision had returned, leaving her helpless.
If it weren't for Lynette, she could have dropped to her knees and groped her way to the road. She could still do it, she could still save her worthless infected life, but for what? The Entity had won her mind.
Tonya tipped back her head and screamed at the sky. She had tried so much and fought so hard while Aunt Helene abandoned them. Her generation started this war. What right did they have to impose their vendetta on everyone? What right did they have to kill Lynette in their crossfire?
She forced herself to her feet and pushed through flames and branches. She might be lost. She might be bombarded with hallucinations but Tonya refused to let Waldock see her give in.
She was moving blind when the crunch of gravel underfoot signalled highway. She opened her eyes.
"Tonya!" Priya and Ducky's voices chorused.
Before Tonya could react, Ducky lifted Lynette into sinewy arms and Priya embraced her.
********
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Feeding Frenzy (Watty Award Winner)
Mystery / Thriller*Watty Winner* & *Featured Story* WITCHES - NECROMANCERS - INAPPROPRIATE TABLE MANNERS. The three-hundred-year-old town of Loon Lake looks calm as a pond, but below the surface, clans of witches and wizards clash like hungry sharks. First-year stude...
