Someone down the line yelled, and we paused. After a confirmation, Tyler sprinted toward the center of our net. Scraped, scratched, dirty, and wide-eyed, Ellie was standing in the brush, her shirt torn, her arms bleeding, but her camera firmly in her hands.

“Goddammit!” Tyler screamed, his headlamp shining right into her face. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

Ellie winced. Her eyes were bloodshot. She smelled like liquor, something strong. She held up her hand to shield her eyes from the bright beam.

“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” he yelled again.

Ellie bent over and vomited on his boots.

“Alpines to Base, we’ve found the journalist. She’s pretty banged up and dehydrated. Send a transport, over.”

“Base to Alpines, hold for instructions.” After several agonizing seconds, the man at the other end of the transmission began to speak again. “Alpines, transport is inbound. Meeting point is the country road over the ridge to your immediate north by northeast. Is she able to travel? Over.”

Ellie nodded.

Chief gripped his radio, holding it closer to his mouth. “She is, over.”

“Understood, Alpines. Be advised an officer will be accompanying that transport, over.”

Chief looked at Tyler. His hands were tied. He sighed. “Copy that, Camp. We’ll hike to the rendezvous point and wait for medevac and badges.”

The crew was deflated. Ellie had been traveling with us for several fires, and Tyler was in love with her. When one of us hurt, we all hurt, and Tyler looked like he was about to lose it.

Tyler shook his head. Ellie was oblivious to the shitload of trouble she was about to be in. She could have a dozen charges against her by sunrise. He unscrewed his canteen and held her chin, water dripping from her mouth down his fingers as she drank.

She stood and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, looking sheepish. “Sorry,” she said.

Tyler hugged her, mumbling something into her ear.

I glanced behind us, seeing the fire glow in the distance. “We should get going.”

Tyler lifted Ellie into his arms and carried her up the steep incline of the ridge, reassuring her every fifty yards or so until we reached the road.

“I’m sorry,” Ellie said again.

I put my hand on his shoulder, watching Chief speak to the officers in the transport before they headed over to apprehend Ellie. We all moved closer to Tyler—whether it was a conscious decision or not—preparing to stop him if he fought the officers when they cuffed her. Thankfully, they made it easier on everyone, no doubt because of Chief’s meeting with them beforehand.

“Ma’am, I’m Deputy Jansen. I’ll be escorting you out.”

Ellie nodded.

“Turn around for me, please,” the officer said. “Just going to slip these on nice and easy to keep everyone safe on the ride back.”