A loud crack overhead turned her eyes to a shower of sparks that fell into the hay in the corral. New hotspots erupted. Orange tongues had lapped their way up the roof and engaged some of the rafters. Black smoke filled the barn. Breathable air was being replaced by the dark smoldering cloud. It billowed toward her. She had survived one hell but if she didn’t move, she wouldn’t survive this one.
Barns she knew. They had been her playground growing up. Only one way out of this was left—through the main door. She twisted her body, found footing on the rungs of the ladder and began to scramble down to the floor. Once she reached the dirt, she ran between the two men to the door.
She tried to push it but it wouldn’t move. She turned back a few of steps and then ran at it. Her shoulder rammed into it, but the frantic attempt to budge it just enough to escape her fiery doom. The barn shuddered but the door didn’t give.
Over her shoulder, she saw that it would only be a minute or two before the tinder box was fully engulfed. The flames had already engaged the roof in the back of the barn. The reservoir of rage she had built over the last three days had all been released on Tony. What remained was fear.
Between her and the inferno, the car sat as if it defied the existence of the disaster around it. With the perplexed look in Rudy’s eyes while he stared at the matrix of wires under the dash still in her head, she knew she didn’t have time to figure out how to hot wire the car. Her options were limited. With luck, the police would arrive in time to save her, if they would dare barge into a burning barn, that is. She could barricade herself inside the car and trust it to protector her from smoke inhalation, but when the building collapsed would the windows burst from the heat or would the gas tank explode? The only other option she could consider was the keys.
She looked across at Tony’s still body. They had to be in his pocket. She didn’t want to get close enough to him to search—dead or alive—but if she wanted to live, she had no choice. As she ran towards the body, an approving roar of the flames testified to the collapse of one of the roof beams. It swung across the full width of the barn and brought with it a shower of blazing debris raining on the floor and Tony’s body. His clothes ignited.
Natalie flinched and instinct threw her hands over her face to block the intense wave of heat blown toward her. She looked again toward Tony. His body aflame, she had no choice; she had to get the keys. She pulled the collar of her black leather coat over her head to protect from flaming fragments being hurtled at her and ran to Tony. At this body, she paused for a moment. His head was twisted to the left and his eyes were closed. To protect her hands, she grabbed the body of her jacket, kneeled next to his still form and smothered the hotspots around his pockets. There were no keys.
As she turned to the left to look for the tweed jacket he had worn, she heard a wheezing gasp behind her like a hiss caused as the fire boils the sap in another wooden victim. There was so much other clamor from the blaze, she ignored it.
The rake head lay among the rubble a few feet away. She ran to it. Next to the burning rope, the jacket smoldered. As she had done with Tony’s pockets, she grabbed the edge of the coat and made a frantic search pocket by pocket. Just as she felt the solid lump on the right side, overhead she heard another loud crack.
She tore her eyes away from the coat and looked up. A second roof support had burnt through. The beam crashed to the ground and bounced to rest just three feet away from her. She sprang away like a startled cat as a shower of orange and black shards landed where she had been squatting.
With the jacket still in her hand, she reached into the pocket and extracted the keys. As she rocked back to her feet, she heard a new sound over the bellowing conflagration—sirens. They were here but she couldn’t wait for them. A few more seconds and she would meet the same fate as Rudy, burned alive.
As she turned to run back to the car, she froze in place. She couldn’t believe what met her eyes.
_____
©
Jearl Rugh 2012
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