Nate and his guys checked in safe.
“Where’s Mike? Anyone seen him?” asked Lonnie.
“Mike, if you can hear me, call in,” he said, with no response after several seconds.
“Mike! Call in!” he repeated… “Has anybody seen him?” he asked again.
“No.”
“No, not me.”
“Me neither,” we all replied.
“Okay, guys,” said Lonnie. “Let’s get our gear loaded up and head back. We need to be prepared if this fire jumps the river. We will take the two bodies, as well, to be buried with honor for helping to defend this land.”
The heat of the blaze was now uncomfortable, and I prayed it would burn away from our families and us.
My leg was aching again, and I realized I had forgotten all about it while down by the river. The adrenaline dump over the last couple of hours hit me like a Mac truck.
* * * *
Reaching the top of the road and heading back to our camp, I heard the first sound of thunder and felt thankful it might rain and douse the expanding flames below. I looked up, seeing no clouds on this perfectly clear day.
I was tired and confused as the second F-16 fighter jet crossed the sky with that same thunderous Boom!
“What are they doing here?” asked Lonnie.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I thought it was over, at least for now.”
“It’s either a show of force or they are protecting something,” said Jake. “There are not a lot of other reasons to have them up there, especially now.”
We had our answer minutes later as the first firefighting plane flew low and slow over the river, dropping that red powder I had only seen in movies.
“What is that stuff they’re dropping?” asked Tom.
“It’s a fire retardant called Phos-Chek,” said Mel. “It’s basically a phosphate fertilizer that helps to slow and cool down the fire. When mixed with water, it’s known as slurry and is dyed red to be easily visible from both the air and ground.”
“So, kind of like pouring a big-ass cherry slushy on a lit match,” said Tom.
“Sure, why not?” said Mel, laughing. “Here comes another one,” he pointed out, “coming across the horizon. The fighter jets are probably just a precaution since a few idiots over there fired on the Chinook already.”
“I didn’t think they cared about us this much, to do all this,” said Steve.
“They don’t,” I added. “They just can’t have fires burning out of control only 30 miles from the Trinidad FEMA camp, or any other, for that matter.
“Ironically,” I said to David, putting a hand on his shoulder, “being this close to a FEMA camp may be the best thing for your group.”
“I’m starting to think you may be right, but I’m still not honeymooning there,” David replied.
“Hot food, showers and boxing,” I reminded him.
“Not a chance!” he replied.
We were joking around heading back to Beatrice’s house, but I was concerned about Mike, now the only man on our side not accounted for.
It felt strange to be worried about someone like him. Maybe if I hadn’t owed him more than my gratitude and respect, I would have felt differently.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that we all owed him. Each of us for something different, but I couldn’t think of anyone here that he hadn’t helped in some way. He, of course, saved all three of my boys; he was the lookout on the trailer during the fire that saved Jake and Lonnie’s children. He was the lead on liberating Nate’s group, as well as Katie, Jonah, and little Javi. He literally won Vlad back in a boxing match, kept Sheila out of the hands of her abuser, and was adored by Beatrice in her own special way. He was the only one of us today on the same side of the river as the enemy, just to give the rest of us an advantage.
Should I go back looking for him? Should we all?
Lonnie, sensing my uneasiness, pulled me aside for a minute.
“Me too,” he said. “I’m concerned about him too. If he’s alive, we will see him soon. If not, he helped us to get this far. He would be the only one of our group I would not go back to look for. Not because of who or what he is, but because he’s the only one here who is less effective with other people trying to help. If it were you or any other man here,” he said, waving his arm towards the rest of our group, “I would be back down there in a second.”
He paused, looking past me, and smiled, shaking his head back and forth.
“He’s standing right behind me, right?” I said, without turning around.
“And eating a sandwich,” he added, now unable to control laughing at his own joke.
“I’m tearing up over here,” said Mike as I turned around. “It’s just so nice to know that people care about me deep down in this area,” pointing to his gut and pretending to wipe tears from his cheeks.
“Seriously, though, Beatrice makes one hell of a sandwich, and you guys have a lot of explaining to do to your wives about everything that happened.”
“How did you get up here so quickly?” I asked.
“While you and the Colonel were mopping up the bad guys, I was able to cross the fire zone and get back to our trusty log,” Mike continued. “It put me back up here, and a check-in with Jim told me you were all okay. After that, I just got hungry is all.”
“Thanks, man,” I said. “The dynamite gave us a fighting chance, along with Vlad’s guy, the Colonel, of course.”
“We stood our ground,” called out Vlad, “and turned them back. Today is a good
