Missing: The Body of Evidence (16 page)

Visible as a glow through the cabin
window, the sparks from the wildfire danced in the sky as if they were part of
a fourth of July firecracker display. Nancy jumped up off the rug, and followed
Kyle to the door and out onto the veranda of the cabin. Her eyes smarted as
wafts of acrid fumes engulfed her. The stench of the smoke was sickly and so
dense, that she could taste the foul air. There was a semi-circle of fire on
the hillside below, maybe a hundred yards away, and it was creeping toward the
cabin. Nancy grabbed the collar of her dressing gown and covered her nose and
mouth. Flakes of burning debris whipped up by the raging wall of flames below
floated in the air, some of it still glowing. The sound of the igniting
undergrowth was deafening as it cracked and roared with the flames leaping into
the night sky.

‘We need to get out of here. Grab your
things and get them in the car,’ Kyle said.

Nancy ran back into the cabin and threw her
clothing and items into her weekend bag. Kyle did likewise and they headed out
to the SUV, grabbing their backpacks on the way.

‘Are we going to get past the fire along
the track?’ Nancy asked. ‘It’s moving fast.’

‘I don’t know, but we can’t stay here.’

They scrambled outside and threw their
luggage into the SUV. Nancy jumped onto the passenger seat. Kyle tore off his
T-shirt and used it to wipe the headlights. Nancy reached over and opened the
driver’s door. Kyle hopped in and fired up the engine. A film of gray ash
covered the windshield. Kyle gave the glass a blast of water and turned on the
wipers. He made a three-point turn, and they set off down the track. Kyle
tossed Nancy his cell phone.

‘Call 911.’

Nancy tried dialling, but there was no
signal. With the fire lighting up the area, Nancy could see the fire line was
either side of the track and coming up fast, but at least the track offered a
way through and down to the safety of the creek. A sudden explosion and a cloud
of sparks in front of them caused the car to hit an obstruction that fell into
their path. The vehicle came to a sudden stop with a jolt. The airbags
exploded. Kyle groaned. The roof above him caved in and the windshield cracked.
Nancy could see blood trickle down Kyle’s forehead. She struggled to breathe
from the force of her chest hitting the airbag, but overcame her sense of
panic. Her outstretched arm strained to reach for her backpack on the seat
behind, managing to pull it forward. She rummaged in the bag, pulled out a
knife and stabbed both airbags.

‘Kyle, are you okay.’

‘I’m fine. We’ve hit a fallen tree. Damn
thing exploded.’

The flames were approaching fast. Nancy’s
chest tightened at the urgency of the situation. The gears crunched as Kyle
tried to locate reverse, finally the car moved backward along the track.

‘I can’t move fast enough. The fire is
going to overtake us if I can’t turn us around.’ The pain he was suffering was
evident as he kept grimacing. ‘You’re going to have to drive, I can hardly
breathe. I think I’ve broken a rib. I can’t twist around to look where I’m
going.’

They were probably twenty-five yards from
the fire, when Kyle stopped. He opened the door, stumbled around to the
passenger side, holding his side and Nancy clambered over the handbrake and
slipped into the driver’s seat.

‘I don’t know which position is reverse
gear?’

‘Put your foot on the clutch.’

Nancy stepped hard on the clutch pedal with
her a bare foot and Kyle located reverse gear. With the gas pedal to the floor,
her arm over the seat and looking backward, the SUV hurtled along the track.
The track widened, Nancy braked hard and skidded to a halt. She looked forward,
relieved to be putting distance between their vehicle and the fire.

‘Put it in forward gear for me.’

Kyle engaged a forward gear and Nancy manoeuvred
the car facing uphill. The tyres started to spin, the vehicle unable gain
traction. Kyle reached out and selected an off road crawl gear. The SUV started
to move again, but it was painfully slow. Repeatedly, Nancy glanced in the rear-view
mirror, horrified to see the firewall gaining ground, when they finally arrived
at the cabin. Nancy stopped, jumped out of the vehicle, and rushed to open
Kyle’s door. His head slumped forward, his arms limp at his side.

‘Dear God, no.’

Nancy felt for a pulse, relieved to find
one. The cabin offered no sanctuary, with sparks already landing on the roof
and the firewall creeping closer. The heat was unbearable and the fumes were
hitting the back of her throat. Nancy twirled around full circle. The glow of
the wild fire was all around in the night sky. With no time to waste, Nancy
jumped back on the driver’s seat, and prayed the glow over the back of the
cabin was on the opposite side of the lake.

Nancy had left the SUV in gear when she had
stopped. She pressed the clutch pedal and turned the ignition. The dashboard
instrument lights and two-gear arrangement, gave her the impression she was
sitting in an airline cockpit. The vehicle moved slowly, but she dare not
change gear for fear of stalling the engine. She drove, heading to the back of
the cabin, ploughed through some bushes and then smashed through the picket
fence.

She was startled, when the headlights
caught the stag and his herd of five deer huddled together in the back yard.
Nancy carried on and careened through the picket fence at the back of the yard.
The drive up the hill was slow and painful, but at least it was in the right
direction. At the top of the hill, she stopped, pressing down hard on the
brakes, and depressing the clutch pedal. Her worst fears spread out before her.
All she could see was a wall of flame.

A glance over her shoulder and she could
see the cabin on fire. As she turned to look forward, the stag came up
alongside, stopped and turned to look at her through the side window. They
locked eyes and he shook his head, as if to say, ‘Come on we can do this.’
Nancy tipped her forehead in salute to him, and set off down the hill. She
could see the firewall was fifty yards away and knew the lake was maybe thirty
yards beyond the firewall. She was not sure if the gas tank would last the thirty
yards if the undergrowth was aflame, especially at the speed she was doing, or
that the rubber tyres wouldn’t explode with the heat, bringing them to a halt
and sure death.

‘I love you, Kyle, hang in there for me.’

She stroked his knee and then tugged at his
seatbelt to make sure it was secure. A glance in her rear-view mirror, and she
could see the stag and his deer behind her. The stag nodded his head as if to
say, ‘Get on with it.’

‘Please, God.’ She prayed.

Nancy set off down the hill. She cursed at
the vehicle driving slowly, and realized they were likely to fry to death as
they passed through the wall of fire.

‘What the hell.’

She looked down at the gearshifts. Nancy
worked out where the neutral position was and located it with the gearstick. She
hoped for the best as the vehicle picked up speed and freewheeled down the
track. She stared at the wall of fire as it grew ever closer, and her head
throbbed. Sweaty palms grasped the steering wheel. She imagined the headache
was from the fire sucking the oxygen around her and replacing it with deadly
carbon dioxide.

As fast as she was moving, it all seemed to
happen in slow motion, and she threw the wheel left and right, as if by
instinct, to follow the track. It felt like she was in a zone of a different
dimension and she was in full control of everything around her. Instead of the
car bouncing around, it seemed to be floating. There was no sound, whereas
before, she had heard the roar and the crackling of burning wildfire. She began
to hallucinate. An evil face in the form of flames appeared directly in front
of her in the firewall. Her mind screamed out for it to go away. The flames
parted in the way she imagined the red sea looked, parting for the Israelites.

She felt no fear as she hit the firewall, but
squeezed her eyes closed. She opened her eyes to the sound of rumbling and the
SUV vibrating. They were through the other side of the firewall, with the lake
in plain view. The feeling of being in control left her, and the SUV hurtled
over the gravel beach and into the lake, the brakes having no effect. Water
from the lake cascaded onto the windshield, blinding her vision as it ploughed
forward. The vehicle stopped moving forward. The hood dipped and then bobbed
level on the surface of the lake. She could feel the water gradually seeping
into the vehicle through the twisted doorframe, covering her ankles first and
then rising halfway up to her knees.

She knew she would have to act fast if they
were to survive their predicament. Nancy tugged at the door handle, but the
door would not open. She had not come this far to be beaten. Panic, she knew
would lead to their certain deaths.

The SUV floated on the lake surface.
Water in the well of the car was rising rapidly and the car tilted forward with
the weight of the engine. Nancy could feel her heart rate going off the scale
and her entire being trembled. She reached down and unfastened her seat belt.
Kyle was slumped forward with his head on the dashboard. Nancy kneeled on her
seat, took hold of Kyle’s shoulders and yanked his body to have him sitting
with his back to the seat. She unfastened Kyle’s seat belt. Nancy took deep
breaths.

Kyle’s apparently lifeless body slumped
forward with the tilt of the vehicle. She turned to press the power button to
open the window. The car’s window jammed half-open and the lights on the
dashboard extinguished as the power failed. Her heart rate responded to the
deep breaths, and a sense of calm took hold of her thought process, despite the
setback of the power failing. She knew they had to make an exit and with the
water pressure preventing the doors from opening, there would be only one way
out of the predicament.

The ice-cold water reached her waist and
numbed the lower half of her torso. Nancy turned on her seat, reached out onto
the back seat, and felt for Kyle’s backpack. She grabbed hold of a strap and
hauled the backpack forward. Nancy rummaged inside and her fingers felt the
cold steel from the barrel of his gun. She whipped around; grasping the barrel
in one hand and covering her face with her other arm. Taking a deep breath and
closing her eyes, she made a wild swing at the windshield.

The surge of water gushed in through the
imploded windshield and threw her backward against the seat. Her head exploded
as she held her breath and her body felt weightless as the surge ceased. She
opened her eyes, but could see nothing. Submerged in water her hands flailed
around, she felt Kyle’s arm, and took it in a firm grip. Her bare foot felt the
texture of the car seat, giving her some sense of orientation. Nancy tugged
Kyle toward her, wrapped her arms around him and felt for the back of her seat
with her foot. With both her feet and all the strength she could muster, she
kicked against back of the seat, propelling them forward.

Nancy held onto Kyle for dear life, in the
hope that he would repay the compliment and survive the ordeal. The urge to
take a breath overpowered her, and her will power to hold on to life. She ceded
to her fate and her mouth filled with water. Her head broke the surface and she
spluttered the sharp intake of water out in a choking cough. The glow from the
raging fire, gave her the position of the beach. Kyle was face down. She turned
him over and with an arm under his chin; she swam for the beach. Hauling his
bodyweight, she started to succumb to exhaustion, when she saw the stag a few
yards from her. He was staring at her, with the water lapping his underbelly.
She stopped swimming and stood up, put her arms under Kyle’s shoulders and
dragged him to the shoreline.

The edge of the lake was as far as she
could get, as physics took over and she could drag his dead weight no further
in the shallow water. Nancy sat down, exhausted and rested Kyle’s head in her
lap. She turned his body onto his side and she began to sob. Nancy shivered,
but this time it was not out of panic. She knew that the ice-cold water was
likely causing the onset of hypothermia. Nancy shrugged out of her dressing
gown and discarded it. She took his wrist and felt for a pulse, but her fingers
were so numb, she could not feel anything.

With one last final effort, Nancy stood and
dragged Kyle inch by inch onto the beach. She collapsed and crawled to the side
of him and rested her head on his bare chest. She lifted her head; having
detected what she was sure was a faint heartbeat. She put an ear to his nose
and detected warm short breaths. Nancy scrambled to her knees and after turning
him on his side into the recovery position, she felt in his jeans pocket for
his cell phone. She knew it was a long shot and the phone would probably not
work, but doing nothing was not an option. Nancy pulled out the contents from
his pocket, and then realized the cell phone was still in the SUV. A small gift
box caught her attention and she opened it.

‘An engagement ring?’ She glanced up at the
heavens. ‘Dear God, if you have any mercy, let him live.’ She looked down at
Kyle. ‘Hang on, Babe. If this is for me and you can hear me, the answer is
yes... I will.’

Tears streamed down her cheeks as she
closed the box and tucked it back in his pocket. She glanced out over the lake,
toward the stag. His entourage of females was huddled around him. He flicked
his head to look up at the night sky. Nancy followed his vision and craned her
neck, at the same time wondering how they were going to make it to safety from
the middle of nowhere in the Pine Mountains.

Nancy’s dream flashed through her mind,
with the words of warning from David.
If only I’d heeded his words.
Nancy let out a primeval scream as
if onlys
scrambled her mind, when she
heard a loud rumbling in the distance.