Chapter 2
Troy faced the twelve women and four men in the bus and told them of the possible hazard of the fire. " ... Of course, there's no way of knowing whether the wind will shift, but in my opinion, it's not worth taking the chance."
He needed their common consent to turn back. His boss would be very unhappy if the tour fares had to be returned and the fire failed to materialize. Troy could see that his speech about the danger of the fire had met with lethargic indifference. The pushy little man held up his hand and drew breath into his fat body to speak.
"I don't know about anyone else, but I paid good money to see the view from the top of Virgin's Breast Mountain, and I vote to go on. My wife and I can't afford the time to come back later."
Troy checked the rest of the group and found that the consensus favored going on. He went back to the phone to tell the operator that the tour was going ahead, and he found it dead with the crackling interference gone. He struggled away a nagging worry with the thought that the Forestry Service helicopter would warn them of any real danger. He couldn't know that the plane had been grounded indefinitely by a take-off accident.
He pushed the old bus up the winding road and glanced back from time to time to check the distant smoke. It did appear to be heavy, but there was no indication of immediate peril. He chanted out the names of the old-timers who had trapped and hunted this area, and his passengers chatted away as if the fire had never been. He halted the bus on the wide curve called Grand View and made everyone get out for a look. It was worth the effort.
Miles and miles of rugged countryside were visible, and Troy spent the better part of fifteen minutes in identifying the various landmarks. He left the group and walked back around the curve to check on the fire. What he saw made the worry come back to his face. Something had gone wrong with the forecast, and the fire was out of hand.
It was no longer possible to see Gasper's Crossing for the heavy smoke. A thin red line of fire was etched along a distant ridge, and the wind had shifted again. He came back to tell his passengers what he had seen, and this time there was expression on the faces before him. Various emotions were visible, and they ranged from a cool indifference, to actual panic.
He overrode further discussion and turned the bus around to begin the slow trip back down. He ran into smoke within five miles and thought he could feel a temperature change in the air. Light bits of gray ash settled on the hood and windshield, and the noon sun took on an orange hue.
Two more miles and he saw the fire. It was creeping slowly along a canyon rim, close enough to have a bad effect on his passengers. He had to stop and explain the predicament to them.
"Brush fires up here are a lot like tornadoes on the plains. You never really know which way they are headed. They take odd twists and turns, and sometimes they leave large islands where the brush isn't touched at all. We're in pretty good shape. If we can reach Casper's Crossing again we'll be in an even better position. It's classed as an emergency fire station, and they've cleared the brush in a big fire break. It just might be that they've already sent in a crew there."
Troy pushed the bus down the mountain, and his worry grew as they descended. The smoke was now so dense that he had to turn on the headlights to see the road. The sun was a vague disc in the sky, and breathing came hard with the musky, oxygen-robbed smoke. He was in the clearing at Casper's Crossing before he recognized it. He pulled up and tried the phone again. It was still dead.
He was ready to make the run across the rickety bridge to the downhill road, and then he rubbed his eyes in disbelief. The bridge was no longer there!
He walked to the edge of the ravine and saw the charred remnants of the wooden span smoldering on the bottom. At that moment he realized that he was in for real trouble, and he set his lips grimly as he faced his people. He was the logical one to take command, and he was prepared for agrument when it came.
The fat little man who had wanted to go on was the loudest, and Troy found an instant hatred for him.
"My name is Jefferson Burns. Mean anything to you? Well, it should! I can buy and sell a dozen like you, Mr. know-it-all! I got influence an' I'm gonna have your damned job for this! You shoulda known better than to get us in this fix!"
Troy agreed with him. "I shouldn't have listened to you when you wanted to go on. Okay, we're in a jam. What do you propose that we do about it? Talking isn't going to get us anywhere."
"We gotta get outa here, an' we gotta go fast. No tellin' how long we got."
"Hold it just a minute! Where in the hell are you going to go? Back up the mountain where the fire is heading? We're safe here unless the fire doubles back, and that isn't very likely. You can't go down the mountain on account of the bridge, and that ravine is just about unscalable. This is the safest place to be right now."
Most of the people in the group saw the wisdom of Troy's words, but there were malcontents who backed the angry little man. Troy let them argue among themselves and went in search of food and firewood. It would be bitter cold tonight, and empty bellies made for dissention. He started for the boarded-up warehouse and found that he had company. A tall, well-built girl smiled at him.
"Don't mind me, I'm on your side. My name is Willa Carstairs, and I'll help you, if I can.
What are we looking for? Food? I'm getting hungry."
Troy nodded. "We'll get out the lunch basket pretty soon, but that's only enough for one meal. I'm thinking that we'll be here overnight, at least. Let's see if the Forestry Department has anything to offer."
They found the building locked up with a huge padlock and heavy chain. Troy had to break open a window to get inside. He turned around as the girl laughed, and she hoisted a curved calf over the sill.
"Maybe you'd better help me. I think I'm stuck."
She had to raise her short skirt to her hips to get her leg in, and then she almost fell on him in trying to get her other leg inside. He helped her with her balance, and she grabbed his arm to steady herself. Her upturned face was close enough for him to kiss, and he denied the temptation with real regret. She must have sensed what was on his mind, and she broke away to peer around in the gloom.
"What are we looking for? Isn't this fun? I feel like something between a burglar and an explorer. Just wait until I tell my classes back home about this."
"A schoolteacher?" She nodded. Troy remembered the shapely legs she had bared in climbing in the window, and he envied her pupils.
Her hand dropped from his arm, and she went off on a tour of discovery of her own. Troy nosed around and found a small room off to one side that was well stocked with canned goods and packaged groceries. There was enough food here to feed a crew of firefighters for a week, and one of his worries was solved. Willa's delighted laugh made him seek her out.
He found her in a room stacked high with folded cots. She was stretched out on a tumbled pile of folded blankets, and her smile held high good humor.
"This reminds me of the haystacks back home. Did you ever kiss a girl in a haystack?"
Troy stood over her. "No, I was raised in the city, and we kissed girls in parked cars. Did I miss something?"
She didn't answer him, but there was the invitation to try in the smile that had become fixed on her lips. He crouched down and reached for her, only to find that she had rolled away at the last moment. He reached again, and this time he caught her arm. She laughed, and the sound had a girlish giggle in it. He drew her close, and his mouth touched her.
There was naivete in the inexperienced way she gave him her lips. Her mouth was tightly closed, and she jerked her head away after only a few seconds of contact. She wriggled to be free of his embrace, and he knew that she was embarrassed now.
He tightened his arms around her pliant waist. "I doubt if they've noticed that we're gone. Let's try that kiss again."
She tried to protest, but he covered her lips with his own before she could speak. This time he caught her with her mouth partly open, and he made the lip caress as sensual as possible. He let his tongue slip along her sensitive inner lip, and he felt her shudder. She pushed roughly against his shoulders and he eased off a bit.
"Please! Please? I think we'd better go." He released her reluctantly, and his eyes went wide with discovery. Here was a girl grown into womanhood who lacked the simple experience of kissing. He wondered how she had managed to stand off the boys and men who must have pursued her. He fastened a hand in her belt and held her on the piled blankets while he took inventory of her.
Her long brunette hair was simply waved, and her head rested on the silky mass of it as a diamond rests on dark plush velvet. Her hard, pouting breasts jutted out in heaving panic at his nearness. Her hips swelled out in a beautiful curve from a flat belly, and he already knew about the symmetry of her legs. He let a casual hand drop to cover her breast, and she tensed in fright at the light touch.
"Please? Let me up? I didn't mean for it to go this far. I was only teasing ... really. Please?"
He let her get up, and she must have felt something of his scornful wonder at her virginity.
"I'm sorry. I guess I should have stayed with the others."
"What is it with you, Willa, no curiosity? Strict parents? Maybe a phobia? You're too damned old to be a virgin."
She raised her face to his, angry now. "I tried to be nice about it. I'm sorry-truly sorry. But that doesn't mean you can call me names! I'm going now."
He caught at her hand and made her face him. "I guess I should apologize, but I still don't believe it. Don't go around making silly passes at men, Willa-it could get you into something you don't want."
"How do you know so much? I read books! I know about sex! Damn you, I know all about sex!"
"Except the main part. Come around again when you've grown up. You're a nice kid, but you're not a woman."
"I'll show you, damn you! I'll show you if I'm a woman or not! Kiss me again."
She literally climbed up his long frame to reach his lips. She pressed her closed mouth against his as if pressure alone would show him. He spread his hands across her back, and she shivered as his palms slid down to cup her bottom. She broke the kiss to look up at his face, and he saw her shaky tears. He would have let her go then but for her words.
"Now? Here and now? It's time I found out, isn't it? I know what has to be done. I've read enough about it."
He let her go, and she was shaking as she lay on her back on the heap of blankets. He reached for her breasts, but her hands beat him there to unfasten the buttons. She did let him reach around to undo her brassiere, and she closed her eyes as a deep blush rose to her cheeks when he looked hard at her bared breasts. Pert pink nipples drew his lips, and he pressed a light kiss on the nearest one. Her fumbling hand crept up the back of his neck, and nervous fingers ran through short hair as she drew his head even closer. She drew in shivering breaths as he buried his face in the soft, perfumed mound.
He let his tongue play with the tip of her breast, and it grew stony as she whimpered in her throat. His fingers stroked smooth skin and wandered up her thigh. She jerked when he touched the filmy material that covered her groin, and he knew that it took effort on her part to relax against the sudden tenseness that flowed through her muscles in involuntary reflex. He found the elastic band of a leg hole and slipped his fingers beneath it. She raised herself a little to ease the tightness that cut into her soft flesh.
He touched fluffy down, and her hands closed into fists. One fingertip found moist tissue, and her hand left his neck to try to tug off the undergarment that was impeding his progress. He helped her, and she raised an eager bottom to be rid of her panties. She closed her eyes again as he stared at her exposed loveliness.
She sobbed with pent-up tension as his finger dipped in her to test her heat. She lost control then and jabbed frantic hands at his trousers in an effort to find him. He rose to his knees and unbuckled his belt while trying to evade her sharp fingernails. His pants got no further than half-mast before she discovered his erection. There was no virginal modesty in the way she clung to it and pulled him down with it as though it were a handle. She rubbed it up and down at the hot entrance of her body and then, with a kind of hesitant bashfulness, inserted the first little bit.
The touch inflamed her, and her buttocks rose jerkily. He felt the constriction of her maidenhead and tried to be gentle in rupturing it, but her haste was too much for him, and the membrane was broken with a rush.
To Troy's utter surprise, Willa fainted dead away as the union was made, and she stayed that way. He fully intended to withdraw and wait for her to regain consciousness, but the thrill of being here first was too much for him. He tentatively withdrew but then plunged deep within her as a quick orgasm burst forth. As he wrung himself out against her she roused and smiled.
There was contentment and wonder in her eyes as she closed them again. He drew himself up and dressed as she hugged herself close in delight and satisfaction. He was tempted to bend to her again, but time was running out and he had things to do.
He kissed her gently, and her lips were soft and open now. He covered her lovely form with one of the blankets and left her there.