“Yes, Peter! For fuck’s sake! Make the call!”

He looked down, his eyes darting around the floor, and then his gaze met mine. “Bianca! Trex’s team is clear to leave the perimeter to evacuate civilians. Let everyone know,” he called, still staring at me.

“Thank you,” I said, turning on my heels and rushing out. I was barely at the bottom of the stairs when an alarm sounded. I used my radio as I ran. “Trex! We’ve got clearance for evac only. Best I could do.”

“Copy that,” Trex called back.

I picked up speed. The fire was moving fast, so we had to too. We had less than half an hour to locate the Alpines and get them to safety if they were in trouble, maybe less. My bad feeling only got worse the closer I came to the warehouse.

I turned a corner, sprinted down Delta corridor, and finally reached the warehouse, running all the way to my team only to see the large exterior door closing.

“Are they going to open it again or what?” Martinez asked. His faced darkened as the door pinched off the sunlight.

Trex shook his head. “The general has the Complex on lockdown.”

I looked around for an alternative, then nodded to a smaller door. “We can fit the ATVs through there.”

Trex looked at the guards. “Close it behind us?”

The older one pondered, then nodded.

“Load up!” Trex yelled, jogging to the corner of the warehouse with rows of ATVs.

We each grabbed helmets, chose an ATV, revved the engines and ramped out the smaller door, zooming past the Complex firefighters and the still-open gate they were working out of. We kept our radios on, fanning out at Trex’s command, racing over the rocky terrain of the Cheyenne Mountain toward the area where we last saw the Alpine crew on the screens in the control room.

“Bark if you see anything,” Trex called across the radio.

We drove for ten minutes, then fifteen, our ATVs kicking up dust rivaling the smoke. The dark cloud settling in the Rocky Mountain National Forest grew thicker the more distance we created between us and the Complex.

The unease from earlier had grown to worry then fear. Trex had called in to Saunders a few times to get eyes on the Alpines, but they hadn’t seen them.

“Flames, one o’clock!” Kitsch said.

We drove past drought-parched aspens and blue spruces that stood helpless in the crosshairs of the fire. One whipped me in the face, reaching in for my cheek past my helmet and goggles. Trex signaled for us to slow and then stop just feet from a shallow cliff’s edge. He dismounted and looked across. The fire was less than two hundred yards away and barreling toward us, and I could swear I could hear muffled yells in the flames.

“What the hell?” Sloan said. The smoke was clearing before our eyes. The winds had changed.