The Final Rule (30 page)

Yellow plumes of smoke clogged the air and Ellis coughed against Jon’s shoulder.

“Can you walk?” Jon said.

“I think so.” Jon pulled Ellis to his feet. “Yeah, yeah I can.”

The rising heat chased them into the yard.

A deep whoosh from inside the building burped out a pillar of fire. Shingles ignited, leading the flames from one end of the house to the other. Fire slid down the walls and bled into the yard. It crawled across the grass, up the trees, over the truck.

“I think we better hurry,” Jon said.

The inferno followed them up the gravel road, traveling through the briars and grass hugging the shoulder. As the flames reached the heavy tree line it climbed the trunks to the tops, turning the poplars and oaks into torches.

“Is it normal for woods to burn this fast?” Ellis said.

“Only if it was soaked in kerosene maybe.” Jon glanced back. “It’s gaining on us. Can you run?”

“I’m not sure, everything hurts.”

“Me either. I think…whatever that thing was…the light. I feel like I’ve been run over.” Jon pushed to move faster, but the joints in his legs screamed. “Yeah, that’s not going to work.”

“I am not going to burn to death. Not now. Not after all this.” Ellis pulled Jon by his arm. He was forced to pick up his pace despite the pain. He stumbled but Ellis kept him on his feet. “And don’t you dare tell me to leave you behind, save myself, or any of that crap.”

“Not after today, I promise.” Jon skipped a few steps clearing more distance.

Creaking branches plunged to the forest floor. The impact dislodged the weakened trees. They toppled, taking large swaths of forest with them. Instead of sparks, tendrils of light escaped the crushed embers. A burning tree slapped the ground behind them.

Torrid waves pumped from the blackening wood, washing ash over Jon and Ellis.

Then a hard boom shoved them to their knees. Lenny’s truck landed on its side in the curve of the driveway a few yards to their left. The stripped wheels poured in rivulets down the sides of the truck like melting wax not metal. The spreading fire consumed it.

“That’s definitely not normal.” Jon helped Ellis to his feet.

They held each other up and made a run for the tree line.

The rumble of an engine joined the roar of the fire. The pickup emerged from a cloud of dirt shrouding the road. It bounced off the ruts and bottomed out on the potholes.

“We might just make it after all,” Ellis said.

The truck skidded to a halt. Gravel pelted Jon’s legs

George leaned across the seat and opened the passenger side door. His gaze followed Ellis.

“I’ll explain later,” Jon said.

“Son, I don’t care how. I’m just glad it happened.”

Jon got in next to Ellis and George threw the truck in reverse. Jon yanked the door shut. Flames poured into the empty space of the driveway.

“It’s moving faster.” Ellis said.

“What did you boys do, spray it with napalm?”

“It’s the light.” Ellis put a hand on his side. There wasn’t even a bruise left on his skin. “It’s not going to stop until everything
The Big and Terrible
has infected is destroyed.”

And Jon was pretty sure it wouldn’t discriminate. “Can you drive any faster?”

“Not going backwards. Unless you want to wind up in a ditch.”

A tide of fire followed them to the open stretch of gravel road. The flames licked the front bumper.

“How much of the field did you get sprayed?” Ellis said.

The farm fuel. There were the barrels, almost two full tractors. “George…”

“Yeah, yeah…hurry. I know. I know.”

Flames swept over the hill leading down to the field and blackened trees crumbled in an avalanche of coals. Green-gray clouds churning in the sky drank up the smoke. The fire hit the edge of the field and sank into the soil.

A smoldering stain spread through the grass and the ground burped up small flares. They landed on the first of the pecan trees igniting a blue halo of fire. It raced down the trunk, spreading out over the limbs, in a loud whoosh. Scorching winds rushed across the field and hit the truck with enough force to make it slide.

The second tree went up.

The third.

Flames turned into pillars spiraling off the treetops. Sparks jumped across the sky, igniting clouds in a hail of blistering reds.

“Oh, hell…” Jon leaned forward in his seat.

Lighting crackled across the sky.

Tephra speckled the hood of the truck, leaving sticky burning clumps that pitted the metal. The thunder was followed by a deep thump that resonated through the ground, into the truck, and all the way up Jon’s legs. In the soft dip between the massive pecan trees, earth and grass were blown into the air by a series of fireballs.

Remnants of blue plastic splattered over the gravel road.

“It’s going to hit the dump truck,” Ellis said.

“George…”

“I know, I know…” George gave the truck more gas. The rear slid too far to the left and the wheel caught the shoulder tossing Ellis into Jon. He slapped a hand onto the dash, bracing both of them for a second impact.

It came when George cut the wheel and the passenger tire caught the gully. The rear of the pickup popped up. Gravel scraped together and the truck threatened to spin out. George manhandled the steering wheel and they landed in the center of the road, still traveling in reverse.

Metal clanged from the under carriage.

The stain of smoldering grass reached the dump truck. Fire crawled up the side. A resonating boom shook the air and the dump truck was kicked into the air on a pyroclastic mushroom cloud. The dump truck flipped once before plummeting toward the road.

Jon turned in his seat to look out the rear window. “George.” The dump truck’s trajectory put it right in their path.

“Shut up, Jon.”

The shadow expanded.

“George.”

“What part of shut up did you not understand?”

The roof of the pickup grazed the grill of the dump truck and it smashed into the road in front of them. Metal skipped off the road, becoming projectiles.

A flaming tire broke free and followed the pickup until it lost momentum.

Its glowing cinders joined those of the dump truck. The disintegrating road followed them to the second tree line.

Limbs crisscrossed overhead.

The flames hit the tunnel of trees. There was a moment of absolute silence, where even the angry whine of the pickup was lost, then another superheated wind exploded from the twirling flames.

Behind them, the end of the gravel road promised safety.

“Hang on, boys,” George said. The wheels on the passenger side tossed up gravel while the driver’s side bounced over the uneven ground.

The inferno rose into a tsunami. “What if it doesn’t stop?” Jon said.

“It will.” Ellis’s gaze followed the ever-growing wave. “It has to.”

“But you’re not positive?”

“It will. I promise it will.”

Jon gripped Ellis’s hand.

The bumper of the truck scraped the edge of the asphalt, ripping off the tail pipe. Sparks sprayed from between the wheels. George stomped the brakes, but the truck was already sliding down the steep bank and right into another pasture. A fence post brought them to a halt.

The wave of fire shot out over the road above them, blocking out the sky, and then it was gone.

Steam leaked from the holes burned through the hood of the pickup. The engine sputtered but continued to run until George cut it off.

The hiss of boiling water was accentuated by a tick from under the hood.

“Is that it?” George said.

Was it? Jon rolled down the window. Even the birds were quiet. “I think so.”

“We should get out.” Ellis said.

No one moved.

“That has to be it. With the way that thing was burning up everything, if there was going to be more we’d see it.” George flexed his hands on the steering wheel. His knuckles were red and so were his cheeks.

Ellis’s face was also red. The tightness in Jon’s skin suggested he had the same kind of heat burn.

He opened the door.

“Wait.” George said.

“For what?”

“Maybe we should stay a little longer. Just in case.”

“You said yourself it had to be over.”

“What if I’m wrong?”

“If you were we’d already be dead,” Ellis said.

Bile left a sour taste in Jon’s mouth. “C’mon, in the least we need to know if it worked.”

Ellis followed Jon out of the truck.

“It’s not as steep over here.” Jon offered him an arm.

“I’m okay.”

“Are you sure?”

The worst of Ellis’s aches were isolated to the cut over his eye and the grinding pain in his shoulder but even that was fading. “Yeah, I think it was inside me long enough to…you know. Heal me a little.”

“More than a little,” George said. “I was there when we scraped you off the ground.”

Jon cleared his throat and looked away.

Briars and fescue picked at Ellis’s clothes as they made their way to the road. Even though it was just plain old grass the feel of those leaf blades scraping across his skin made his insides crawl.

Ellis stopped beside Jon near the centerline. What had once been a trees, a field with six pecan trees, and gravel road was now a blackened crater that stretched farther than Ellis could see.

“How deep do you think that is?” Jon said.

“I don’t know.”

George joined them. “Dear God almighty.”

Ellis walked to the edge. The soles of his shoes made a sticky sound on the asphalt. Drippings of tar and gravel slid down the embankment. “It must have been…”

“Huge,” Jon said. “George, how many acres was that piece of land?”

“Not sure, hundred and fifty, two-hundred.”

And every inch had been charred.

“How far is it into town?”

“Five miles if we cut across the creek at the other end of this road.”

“We’ll have to cross a pasture. Go through the woods, and exit out onto a gravel road.” Ellis looked at the two men. “If you two don’t mind, I’d rather take the long way around so we can stay on the street.”

No one argued.

Oranges, yellows, and blues painted the edge of the world. There was just enough light to turn everything gray. Waves edged in white foam slid across the sand, leaving bits of surf behind.

Watching the sunrise had become a routine for Ellis. As pretty as it was, it didn’t compare to the rhythmic beat of the ocean’s pulse.

He dug his toes into the sand.

Rudy would have liked the beach but he wouldn’t have liked the sand. It got into everything. Every crease and crevice of a person’s body. Showering only seemed to get rid of the worst of it. The first few weeks at the bungalow, Ellis tried everything he could to keep it from being tracked inside. Now he just swept the floor when it became too much.

The sand was a bitch, but grass and things like pecan trees couldn’t grow in it.

A wooden plank squeaked on the boardwalk behind him. “I really wish you’d sleep in, just once.” Jon’s hair stuck up on all ends and he needed to shave.

Or not.

Clean cut or dangerous, he was still beautiful.

He held out a coffee cup and Ellis took it. “I do sleep in.”

“When?” Jon grunted as he made the awkward journey to the patch of sand beside Ellis.

“Today.”

“You call this sleeping in?” Jon drank some of his coffee while massaging his knee.

“Gonna rain?”

“Weather man says it’s supposed to be clear all week.”

“I trust your knee more than him.” Ellis took a sip from his cup. Tiny grains of sand stuck to his lip.

“George called.”

He called every day, sometimes twice. It didn’t keep Ellis from missing him. “What did he say?”

“The usual: ‘you’ve always got a home here, Eleanor misses you, the other guys miss you. Please take care of yourself. Make sure Ellis wears sunscreen.’”

Ellis laughed. “I think I’m too brown to burn now.”

Jon shrugged. “It’s the thought that counts.” He leaned back on one arm and Ellis relaxed against Jon’s side.

“How’s Leon?”

“The same.”

“I worry about him.”

“Me too. But he’s got Buck looking after him. George and Eleanor drag him to dinner at least three times a week.” Jon rubbed his cheek against the top of Ellis’s head. He put his hand on Jon’s thigh.

“What about Terrance?”

“Better.”

“Is he still in the hospital?”

“No. They let him go home last night. He’s bunking with George until he gets back on his feet.”

“We should invite him to come up here and stay with us for a week. The ocean air would be good for him. We’ve got the pull out couch and plenty of room.”

Jon laughed. “He’d be better off staying at a hotel. That so-called couch isn’t fit to sit on, let alone sleep on.”

“You picked it out.”

“It was five bucks. That was cheap even for the thrift store.”

“Now we know why it was five bucks.”

A roll of water swept across the sand, chasing back small birds looking for a meal. Wind rustled the dead stalks of beach grass.

“Do you know what I regret?” Ellis said.

Jon pulled him closer. “What?”

“That the people in Gilford will never know what happened.”

“Five stores, cars, and the elementary school burning to the ground is going to be hard to ignore. Not to mention the people. It’s not every day the guy standing in line next to you at the drug store bursts into flames. George said the count was up to thirty five now and that doesn’t include the half dozen still missing.”

“I’m not saying they won’t feel the after-affects, I’m saying they won’t know why. They’ll never know who died to save them and what it was they’d been saved from.”

“And you think they should?”

“You don’t?”

“Sure, but I don’t think it would make a difference.”

“Why not?”

Jon plucked Ellis’s coffee cup from his fingers and put it next to his in the sand. “C’mere.” When he repositioned his legs Ellis sat between them. Jon wrapped his arms around Ellis, cradling his body against his chest.

Sunlight made streaks of copper on the waves and turned the sand pink.