Adam didn’t think she’d touched the brake pedal since they’d sped past the burning bridge. Outdriving her lights the way she was, it was only a matter of time and luck before they ate a tree. But that was an if. The sure thing was the horrifying result if they slowed.

“How long is this goddamn road?” Emma shouted over the scream of the engine and roar of the inferno. She hit a pothole or maybe a tree root that bounced Adam into the roof.

“Never measured it. Less than a mile, I think.”

“Feels like ten.”

A burst of wind buffeted the Bronco. Thirty, forty miles per hour. In an instant, they were surrounded by flames. It was as if the fire had self-detonated. Emma and Adam screamed in unison. The heat of the inferno radiated through the steel and glass as if it weren’t even there. They were out of time.

And then they were out of road.

The tiny fire road dumped out onto a wide state-maintained two-lane highway. The Bronco bounced hard as it made the transition onto pavement, but now they could get some speed.

“Right turn!” Adam yelled.

Emma yanked the wheel, downshifted and stomped the gas. The width of the highway seemed to have slowed the advance of the flames, but not their intensity. Now that they were on a solid surface and headed downhill, the Bronco flew down the road. Adam dared a look at the speedometer, then looked away when he saw that the needle was past ninety.

Three minutes after they exited onto the highway, the smoke started to lift, and the flames thinned. Two minutes later, the flames were all behind them.

Emma slowed. A little. “I think we outran it.”

“Look closer,” Adam said. “We didn’t outrun anything. The fire’s already been here.”

Emma slowed even more. The light still wasn’t right, but at least they could see more than a few yards ahead. What they saw was a smoking moonscape of charred devastation. It appeared that every inch of ground on both sides of the road had been reduced to carbon.

“Holy shit,” Emma breathed. “Holy, holy shit, shit.”

As they passed the burned hulk of what used to be a pickup truck, Adam thought he saw charred corpses inside. Ahead, a smoldering tree had fallen across the road, effectively blocking it.

“Can you get past that?”

“I’m sure as hell not turning around.” Emma brought the Bronco to a halt, shifted into neutral and set the parking brake.

“What are we doing?”

“I’ve got to lock the hubs,” she said. She opened her door and got out.