Colorado Skies

Chapter 12 {Burn}

Three Days Later.

Watching the news and the faces of everyone who lost everything was too hard so I decided I was gonna walk around a school I haven't been in for a year. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going and I bumped into someone in front of me. "Oh my gosh! I'm sorry!" "It's alright darling." I nodded as the older man walked away. I sat down on the bench and ran my fingers through my hair. There was so much on my mind tonight. I held my head in my hands until I heard footsteps walking next to me. I looked up and saw Riley walking over to me. "Are you really okay?" He asked. "Just bringing back memories, I guess." "Really what memories?" "The last time I walked down these freshman hallways my mom was alive, and between that and the wildfire there's just a lot on my mind." He put his arm around my shoulder. "I think there's a lot on everyone's mind. Don't feel bad." I nodded. "Thanks for coming and making sure I'm okay." "Well I also wanted to tell you that the sheriffs department said it was okay for us to leave." "Already? I thought they said that we would be here all night?" "Yeah, but they got firefighters from the neighboring town and now the fires are out." "That was fast." "Yeah." "I kinda don't want to leave." Riley gave me confused look. "Why?" "Because once I walk out those doors, the chance that the ranch won't be there when I get back becomes real." "Hey, God does everything for a reason, so if the ranch isn't there then there's a reason for that too." Riley got up from the bench pulling me up with him. "Yeah your right." "Now come on lets go home." "If there even is a home left." I mumbled under my breath. He turned around and gave me a look. "Relax! I was just kidding. Sorta."

After we got everything together we went back to the ranch. Riding through town was horrifying. There was black smoke in the air and ash was in piles on the street. It was horrible how many houses were burnt to the ground. We pulled up the road to the ranch. Krew, Charlotte, and my dad were already there since we left after they did. I saw a flashlight shining in the dark. The ranch was still there, thank God. I got out of the truck and walked over to where the flashlight was shining. Krew was shining it at what used to be our barn. "Oh my God." I said walking over to the barn. "It could've been worse." "Yeah, that's true." "I'm gonna go check to see if the cattle is gone and then go too Riley's since their higher up on the mountain, you should get some sleep it's late." "What about you?" "I'll be home soon, don't worry." I unhooked the trailer from my truck and drove to Riley's house.

"Hey, how'd you guys make out?" I asked walking in. Reese and Riley were both sitting at the kitchen table. "Lucky. The fire just missed us. Some of the trees up north of our land were burnt but it didn't hit us, and none of our cattle ran. What about you guys?" "We weren't as lucky, but it could've been worse. Our barn is burnt to the ground, and once I leave here I'm gonna go check on the herd. I'm hoping they didn't run and I'm hoping none of them our injured." "Good luck." I laughed a little. "Thanks, I should get going, it's getting late." I gave Riley a quick hug and sent Reese a smile before going out to my truck.

I parked in the driveway and then got on the four wheeler. I got up to the pasture and my heart dropped. There was not one cow, and both places where I cut the fence were torn apart, which means they ran. "No! Damnit!" I put my helmet on and drove back down to the ranch. When I got there I grabbed a beer out of the cooler and sat down on the front porch step.

A couple minutes later I heard footsteps behind me. I didn't bother to look behind me instead wiping the tears from my eyes in case it was Cody. Someone sat next to me and I noticed it was Krew. "Why are you still out here? It's cold." I let another tear slip down my face. "The whole herd's gone. We're screwed." I looked over at him, he looked like he was in shock. "Are you sure?" I nodded. "It's been hours they're probably long gone." He said close to a whisper.
"We're not gonna make it to market, and then we're not gonna make it through the winter. We're screwed. We have to rebuild the barn, buy new cattle, not to mention you have a baby on the way. We're gonna have to file for bankruptcy." He didn't say anything, instead pulled me into his side. I rested my head on his shoulder. "What are we gonna do? I'm 19, your 20, Cody is 16. We shouldn't have to worry about if were gonna have a place to sleep tomorrow night." "Hey, we'll figure this out. We always do." I nodded. "Krew, Bry! Help!" I heard Cody's voice. I dropped the beer I was holding and quickly got up, running into the kitchen. Cody was sitting on the ground next to our dad and Charlotte was pacing the kitchen on the phone. I ran to my dad's side. "What happened?" "I think he had another heart attack!" Cody said in between tears. I pulled her up from the ground and held her against my chest tightly, knowing that she would fight it.

It took the ambulance 15 minutes to get here and when they did I got into the back of the ambulance with my dad. I held his hand tightly as the paramedic hooked him up to the leads.
"Come on dad, you can't die on us. Wake your ass up." The ride to the hospital felt like time was slowing down. When we finally got there the doctors wheeled my dad away and I was left standing alone in the waiting room, hoping that he was okay.