Pack Trip (9 page)

“Get to work, Amy,” Stevie said. “The saddles are over there; you can see what needs to be done.”

“You’re getting pretty bossy, Stevie,” Amy retorted. “Sounds to me like you’ve been spending too much time around the queen boss, Miss Carole Hanson.”

Stevie was shocked by Amy’s response. Any admiration she had ever had for Amy’s boldness fled. So did any sympathy she’d harbored for the girl’s family situation. All she felt was fury, flamed by her own fear of the approaching fire. “How dare you?” Stevie exclaimed. “This is no time for your stupid games. As far as I’m concerned, you can take whatever risk you want with your own safety, and you can drag your dumb brother down with you if you want, but when it comes to my safety and the safety of my friends and these wonderful horses, you have no right to act the way you do. Grow up or get out!”

Amy drew herself to her feet and limped away. Stevie didn’t consider her departure much of a loss. Amy hadn’t shown much talent at tacking up horses anyway.

With Carole, Stevie, and John working as a team, the horses were soon ready. Carole secured the riding horses and stayed with them. John and Stevie took the packhorses along the path to the campsite to facilitate packing.
They found Amy once again sitting on a rock near the campsite, fussing with the bandage on her ankle. Stevie was so angry, she didn’t even say a word. John didn’t, either.

“Where’s Amy?” Seth asked as they entered the campsite. “Wasn’t she with you?”

Stevie shrugged her shoulders. John told Seth where Amy was.

“Oh,” Seth said. “It must be her ankle. She needs help!”

He dropped the tent he had been folding and ran past the packhorses to his sister. Lisa was close on his heels.

John and Stevie secured the packhorses and took up the tent folding where Seth and Lisa had dropped it. Stevie had learned a lot about tents since her first unsuccessful attempt at putting one up, and one thing she’d learned was that there was a lot of material, and it was difficult to fold, especially with only two people. It would have been much easier with more, but with Seth and Lisa hovering over Amy, there was nobody extra to help.

John was methodical and organized, and he and Stevie managed without help. They stowed the tent on the horse and helped Eli, Jeannie, and the other riders put everything else away. At the same time the riders had to pack up their personal belongings to be carried by their
own horses. Stevie put Carole’s things away, knowing Carole was too busy with the rest of the horses. She packed up Lisa’s things, too, because Lisa, after all, was one of her best friends. Kate and Christine helped her. Nobody touched Amy’s clothes or belongings.

All the while they were working at top speed, the wind kept bringing reminders of what they were working against. Each gust carried a stronger smell of smoke. Then small animals started overrunning the campsite. When the first squirrel zipped across Stevie’s feet, she jumped with surprise. She soon found, however, that it was followed by many more, plus rabbits and a lot of other small animals, including some she didn’t even recognize.

“If they’re running, we should be, too,” Eli said. “I don’t want to scare you guys unnecessarily, but I think we should be scared. Anything that’s not on a horse’s back now, stays. We are out of here.”

Eli began jogging, leading one of the packhorses. The others followed, bringing the rest of the horses with them.

“Seth, Amy, Lisa!” Eli called. “Get to your horses. We have to get away from here!
Now!
” He added the last word when he saw how slowly Amy was standing up.

It pained Stevie to see Lisa and Seth each holding one
of Amy’s arms across their shoulders. She was sure, beyond any doubt, that Amy was more than capable of walking, even jogging, over to the temporary corral. She was just slowing everybody down with her phony ankle act. Stevie knew enough about fires to know that sometimes seconds counted—and Amy was costing them a lot more than seconds.

“My clothes!” Lisa cried out.

“We got them for you!” Kate assured her. “Get to your horse!”

“Hurry!” Jeannie cried out. “There’s no time to waste!”

Stevie had a sickening feeling in her stomach when Jeannie said those words. She knew what Amy’s reaction would be. To confirm her suspicions she turned to look just in time to see Amy stumble. Seth and Lisa held her firmly, but it made them lag even farther behind.

“Slow down!” Lisa called. “Wait for us!”

“Meet us at the corral,” Christine said. “Your horses are all tacked up there.”

Stevie couldn’t believe the changes she saw when she reached the corral and the saddled horses. The fire, which had been small and distant the last time she’d seen it, had grown to enormous proportions in less than half an hour. It was now visibly raging on the hillside no more
than a mile away. The field that served as their temporary corral buzzed with activity as the small animals continued their flight from the impending fire.

“If these guys are out of here, so am I!” declared Stevie. She mounted Stewball, took the lead rope of one of the packhorses, and began the trail ride of a lifetime.

“H
URRY
, L
ISA
!” C
AROLE
called to her friend. Lisa was still supporting Amy, who now seemed to be favoring the wrong ankle. Carole had mounted Berry and, like Stevie, held the lead rope of one of the packhorses. Lisa, Seth, and Amy hadn’t even reached the corral yet.

“I don’t want to leave Seth—he needs my help with Amy!” Lisa protested.

Carole was about to give Lisa a list of twenty reasons why she had to leave Amy and Seth, when the fire did her convincing for her. A flaming ball flew over their heads and into the forest, less than fifteen feet from where Amy was standing. As soon as it landed, the ground cover began smoldering.

Amy screamed. Lisa dropped her arm of support from around the limping girl and ran to her horse. Even Amy started moving a little faster.

“Head along the edge of the meadow there,” Eli directed them. The open area skirted the mountain, leading toward the valley. They could move quickly through it, and it would take them away from the fire.

Stevie paused in the meadow and turned back to make sure everybody was safe. She also wanted to wait for Lisa. Jeannie had gone on ahead, followed by Carole, Kate, Christine, and John. Eli had told the riders to drop the lead lines of all the packhorses. Mel would take care of seeing that they followed. Since all the horses appeared very interested in getting away from the fire as quickly as possible now, it seemed that Mel would have a fairly easy job of it. She barked furiously and officiously. The horses meekly obeyed her.

Eli took charge of Seth, who was too frightened by the fire to do anything at all. He even needed help getting into his saddle. When Eli gave Seth’s pinto a smack on the rump, the horse loped off to follow the others through the field. Seth clutched the horn of his saddle like a toddler on a merry-go-round.

Lisa loped up to Stevie.

“What’s Amy’s problem now?” Stevie asked.

“It’s her ankle,” Lisa explained. “It hurts so much, she can’t kick her horse and make it lope.”

“That’s it,” Stevie said. “I’m tired of standing by on this one. It’s time for action. Come on!”

With that Stevie turned Stewball around and loped back to where Amy was holding her horse to a walk. The irony of the fact that Amy thought it was okay to lope along a rocky, hilly trail but insisted on a ladylike walk in a fiery field did not escape Stevie. Nor, it appeared, did it escape Lisa.

“Amy, we’ve had enough of this,” Lisa said. “It’s time to hurry.”

“My ankle—” Amy began.

“My—” Stevie began.

“Ahem,” Lisa cut her off, suspecting what she was going to say. “Let’s just do the job.”

Stevie and Lisa knew exactly what had to be done. They got on either side of Amy. Each reached over and took one of her reins.

“Hold on,” Stevie suggested. The two girls urged their horses to a lope. Amy’s horse followed very willingly. In fact, the horse was so glad to be moving that he quickly picked up to a gallop, trying to catch up with the rest of the group. As he passed between Chocolate and Stewball, Lisa and Stevie handed the reins back to Amy,
who, not surprisingly, had had no trouble at all staying on.

“Miraculous recovery!” Stevie observed wryly.

When Lisa laughed, Stevie sighed with relief. If Lisa could find it funny, it meant the beginning of the end of Amy’s hold on her.

Stevie noticed a sudden change in Stewball’s gait. He became friskier, prancing to the side. His nostrils flared, and his ears perked up, turning every which way. Stevie looked around, trying to figure out what had changed to make Stewball so tense. The answer came in sight, and it had four feet. A bobcat raced across the field, cutting directly in front of Stewball and Chocolate. As soon as it was gone, Stewball relaxed and resumed his determined lope toward the valley and safety.

“I don’t think Stewball had much to fear from that little cat,” Stevie said.

“A predator’s a predator,” Lisa reasoned. “And if that predator is running away from something at that speed, you know it must be frightful.”

The two girls looked over to their left, where the fire was growing steadily, just in time to see a tall pine, consumed by flames, tumble onto the far side of the meadow. It ignited the dry prairie grass, and the flames began spreading wildly across the entire meadow.

“Let’s get out of here!” Stevie yowled, kicking Stewball’s belly. It wasn’t a signal she had to give twice. Stewball had eyes and ears, and a nose to smell the smoke. He fled. Chocolate followed suit. Proper riding form dictated that the riders grip with their legs and hold their reins steady, above the level of the saddles, but proper riding form went out the window with the wild gallop that Stewball and Chocolate used to escape the fire. Both girls gripped as tightly as they could with their legs, but they also held onto reins, saddle horn, and mane with all their might. They certainly couldn’t afford a fall at the moment.

The field sloped down to the right. Stevie and Lisa caught up with the rest of the riders, just in time to see them reach the edge of the grassy area, where they were forced to return to the woods.

“Follow me!” Eli cried. He waved his arms to signal the beginning of the trail to Stevie and Lisa. Mel circled around the packhorses and brought them into line.

Everything slowed down when they entered the woods. For one thing, it was beginning to get dark, and that made it harder to find and follow the trail. For another thing, smoke from the approaching fire dimmed everything further. The horses went from a gallop to a walk, and events seemed to shift into slow motion—everything, that was, except the approaching fire.

All of Stevie’s senses were heightened. With every leaf that crackled under a horse’s hoof, she listened for fire. With every breath she took, she feared the smoke was thicker. She could taste it in her mouth, and when she blinked her eyes, now tearing from the discomfort of the acrid smoke, she was afraid she’d miss seeing some danger sign. She longed to feel the cool night air on the bare skin of her arms but felt only the enveloping warmth of approaching flames and the sweat of her own fear. Even a half mile or more away, the fire tingled every one of Stevie’s senses.

Carole and Jeannie were at the head of the line of riders and horses. The combination of night and smoke made it almost impossible to see where they were going. Yet the press of danger from the rear urged them on.

“Ease up on your reins,” Jeannie advised Carole. “Berry’s a smart horse with good instincts,” she went on. “He may have a better idea of a safe path than you do.”

Jeannie’s words made sense to Carole. She relaxed her hold. Berry shook his head for a second, as if to assure himself that he was now in charge. Then he lowered his head and began walking more quickly.

The woods were dark and thick and cloaked in the pitch black of night. Carole really didn’t know what direction
she was going in. All she was fairly certain of was that she was going away from the fire. That was enough.

From time to time Carole could hear Mel barking. Apparently it was a language Berry understood, because the barking made him adjust his direction, and it always seemed to be for the better. It was so dark in the forest that Carole could feel Berry lowering his head to walk downhill before she could see where he was going. Step by step he made his way down, and then the ground was level. There was the vague sound of trickling water. Carole squinted. Then she understood.

“It’s a creek bed—it’s almost dry, but I think it’s a clear path!” she cried out to the riders behind her. She didn’t even stop to wonder how it was that Berry and/or Mel had found the stream. For now it was good news, and that was enough. She leaned forward and gave Berry a very grateful pat on his neck.

“Carrots’ll come later,” she assured him. “And sugar, and apples, and anything else your little tastebuds desire. Okay?”

Berry didn’t answer. He just kept going forward, now at a relaxed trot. Carole felt she had a lot of things to be grateful for right then, not the least of which was the fact that horses could see in the dark.