Firestorm Read Free Page A

never gone hiking into
the woods and had no idea what it was like.
    “Nana, the
paths are stony and rocky and it’s uneven. We can’t run in sandals,
okay? We need our boots so we can move fast.”
    Brad looked
around the kitchen and asked Nana if she had a first aid kit that
he could carry it in his backpack just in case we needed it.
    “Yeah, there’s
a box of band aids and some rubbing alcohol. Here’s an elastic wrap
from when Grandpa hurt his knee. Oh, and here’s a small box of
tissues. There’s blankets in the hall there in that box.”
    Ali and Brad
instinctively dumped their personal things out of their backpacks
onto the couch and then Ali put the first aid supplies and some
bottles of water into his, and Brad stuffed two blankets into his.
Brad told her to stay by the walkie-talkie and then the second the
last boot was laced we hugged Nana, said goodbye and took off into
the forest.
    Ali studied his
compass as we walked the first steps along the path.
    “Okay, your
Nana said that he went this way which is north so we want to go
this way. And Sarah, you said that it was about two or three miles
in, right?”
    Meagan and I
were running behind the guys.
    “Well, that’s
what Grandpa said, that it was two or three miles this way. But Meg
and I have never been there so we don’t know exactly where it
is.”
    We trekked at a
decent pace up and down the hilly trail and about twenty minutes
later we came to a fork in the path. Ali used his compass and
pointed in the direction that we should go.
    “Okay, the
trail on the right takes us in the direction of the water which is
down there on the right, but we can’t see if it actually runs along
the water edge or if it stays up here and away from it. I think
we’re going to need to cut through all that mass of broken dead
trees and just get down to the river bank.”
    Brad ran ahead
on the trail and came back a minute later waving for us to follow
him.
    “I think this
trail takes us deep into the forest and possibly even away from the
water, but it also runs along the terrain. So maybe we should take
it until we can get to a point where we can cut through the dry
terrain and get to the water.”
    We all agreed
and hustled along the path until we got to the dry terrain where
the heat waves just bounced off the dead grass and made it
difficult to breathe. We crossed the terrain of dry grass and rocks
and we were all dripping in sweat by the time we got to the far
side. After climbing a short stony ramp we looked down and could
see the water about fifty feet below us. I looked carefully and I
could feel my chest tightening.
    “There’s no
path. This just drops right into the water.”
    Brad ran up a
short hill to the left of us and then yelled for us to follow, so
we scooted up the uneven hill to join him. We followed him through
a mass of broken trees that looked as if a huge boulder had just
crushed them. Ali wiped the sweat from his forehead as we ran
along.
    “Looks like a
lot of this brush just dried up. I don’t think I’ve ever hiked
where it’s been so hot and dry before.”
    We stopped a
few minutes later and Brad told us that we’d been trekking for
about an hour.
    “We have to be
getting close to them. The river’s down there and according to my
watch, we’ve reached the two mile point already, so I think we’re
going to need to get close to the water somehow. What do you
think?”
    I found it hard
thinking about where we were going because the icy chills were
shooting up and down my back again, and all I could think of was
that Grandpa was in some kind of real danger.
    “Meg,
something’s really wrong. I can feel it.”
    “I know, Sarah,
I know. I’m scared, too, but we have to find them before it gets
dark.”
    Ali turned back
to look at Meagan with a puzzled look on his face.
    “So when does
it start getting dark around here?”
    Meagan and I
looked at each and I could feel myself biting my lower lip again.
We knew that it always got