I tried to think but my mind was drifting, bringing up fearful images from other places, other days.
Chalky white bones in a woodstove. A carbonized skeleton in a burned-out basement. Two blackened bodies in a charred Cessna.
“Cut the crap, Brennan!” I shouted aloud. “Think!”
I drew a series of shallow breaths, coughed, repeated the litany.
“Think!” I yelled again.
My stomach heaved. I swallowed, spoke loudly again, this time to Tawny.
“Tawny! Can you hear me?”
Fire sizzled and popped behind me. In Tawny’s direction, only thickening smoke.
“Tawny!” I yelled again.
Back on my side, flexing and extending my hips and knees, I slithered across the carpet, each thrust wrenching my shoulder and abrading my face.
I was on my third push when a banshee shrieking rose from the armchair.
I froze, every hair upright on my neck and arms.
“Tawny!”
The keening continued, one high-pitched note of panic.
Mother of God! Was she burning?
“Tawny, can you walk?” I shouted.
The wailing faltered, gave way to coughing.
“Steady, soldier,” I said more to myself than to Tawny. “I’m coming.”
Three more thrusts and my body struck the chair. Gasoline and dust felt thick on my skin.
“Cover your mouth,” I panted, as loudly as I could. “If you can, get down on the floor.”
The coughing grew frenzied.
Pushing up against the chair with my shoulder, I rolled back onto my knees and tried to rock it again and again.
“Tawny! Get down!” I screamed. “Now!”
Behind us something whooshed. One wall erupted in flames that rushed the ceiling, washing the room in swimmy orange light.
I felt movement, then Tawny thudded to her knees, drew in her limbs, and collapsed into a knot beside me.
Nausea, pain, and fear were taking their toll. I could barely breathe, barely think. But my sluggish brain had computed what my eyes hadn’t seen.
A rope trailed from a dog collar on Tawny’s neck. Her hands and feet were unbound!
I swiveled to her.
“Tawny,” I coughed. “You have to help. You can save us, Tawny. You can save us.”
The human knot contracted.
Think, Brennan, think! Had the spreading fire impelled her? Or had that one barked command worked better than kindness? Was she still programmed to respond to orders?
Nothing to lose.
“Tawny, untie me!” I shouted.
The scrawny neck turtled up.
“Now, Tawny, now!”
Tawny’s face came round. When our eyes met, pity jumbled my resolve to be hard.
“You’re going home, sweetheart. To Maniwaki. To your mother.”
My chest burned. I coughed uncontrollably.
“To Sandra,” I choked out.
Something flickered in the hollowed-out eyes.
“To Sandra,” I repeated.
Tawny’s face slackened as a world she thought dead skittered through her mind. Her mouth opened, trembled, then morphed into an O.
“Sandra,” I repeated.
Without a word, Tawny spun and crawled beneath the smoke toward the rear of the building.
I tried to grab her. The ropes stopped me cold.
“Tawny!” My voice cracked. I coughed until my belly screamed and I tasted blood.
