Wildfire is a terrifying experience, especially for a toddler left orphaned by the flames. The destruction left behind is life changing to all of those faced with the chaos involved, not to mention the pain of dealing with devastation in its aftermath.
Doni Cassidy found herself caught in the path of the dragon, the worst wildfire to ravage her mountain retreat in local history. Trapped in the chaos of the flaming maelstrom, she managed to find her way to her small cabin nestled higher up on the mountain, on a small alpine lake. The harrowing experience is enough for an adult to contend with, but for Chelsea, a toddler left burned, disfigured, and orphaned by the flames, the experience proves the extent of human strength and perseverance. Little do the local residents know about what is behind the devastating wildfires, and the hand the government may have played. But Valerie Tamarian has a dark secret regarding the origin of the fires that took the life of her best friend; a secret that may not only put Valerie’s life at stake, but also the life of her unborn child.
Excerpt
Shiloh’s breathing was coming in heavy, heaving gasps now, as was Doni’s. The horse continued to inch forward up the path, seeming to sense where she needed him to go. The dense smoke clogging her lungs caused her to cough uncontrollably in painful spasms now. She could feel the cinch of the saddle tighten with each of Shiloh’s inhalations as he tried to pull in more air, and then he exhaled loudly, coughing deeply, his head held near the path.
Suddenly, the waterfall miraculously came into view through the thick veil of smoke and Doni coaxed Shiloh down the embankment and into the creek, where the horse waded through the now warm stream toward the cascade of water. Burning debris rained into the water all around them with flaming limbs and twigs sizzling and hissing like angry snakes.
Once they reached the waterfall, Doni dismounted and was taken aback by the painful knotting of her muscles. She hadn’t realized she’d been standing tensely in the stirrups, cramping the muscles of her legs. Sloshing through the water that felt uncharacteristically tepid, she led the horse under the cascading stream, crowding him against the rock face so that the water flowed over him, drenching his entire body as well as the saddle. She crowded beneath the ledge of cascading water beside the horse as well, just as Lucky suddenly appearing at her side. At first she didn’t see Ginger, but soon the horse appeared through the thick blanket of smoke like an apparition, standing in the water near the trio. With Doni coaxing her closer, the horse finally managed to stand near enough to the waterfall to receive splashes of the cascade from above.
As the sounds of the fire became deafening, Doni knew its front was no longer approaching; it was overhead and crowning above them. The air suddenly became depleted of oxygen as hurricane force winds sucked it away, drawing it greedily into the roar of flames high up in the treetops.
The inferno above them ripped the breath from her body, and with lungs feeling as though they would explode, she gasped for air in rasping, rattling, rales. Becoming dizzy, she threw the backpack into the stream in front of her and quickly removed a hand towel kept in the emergency pack. Dampening it, she placed it over her mouth, praying she wouldn’t suffocate before the dragon passed over. She was becoming increasingly light headed and weak. Falling to her knees in the rocks and shallow water of the stream, she gasped for air as the flaming world appeared to spin around her like a whirling dervish.
“God help me!” she prayed, “Please God, don’t let us die out here, not like this.” The sounds of the inferno became faint, and then fainter still. Doni felt as though sinking into a dense, dark chasm. As though sinking deeper and deeper, into the bowels of the earth through the bottom of the creek. With a sense of falling, spinning, whirling, she closed her eyes. An intense feeling of peacefulness came over her, a strange sense of calm, almost euphoric.
“So this is how it feels to die,” she thought, her brain giving way to unconsciousness in an oxygen-deprived state. Even the pain of her struggling lungs seemed to dull and fade, as she sank into the lightless chasm, the vacuum she assumed was death.
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