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FOUR

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People were talking

I didn&039;t think they were talking todead There was shouting and noise Metal

So my name, over and over I tried to open my eyes, but then I realized I couldn&039;t because they were already open There was nothing to see, though Just light Bright blue-white light

Was there so see with me, I&039;d be in pain, wouldn&039;t I?

Maybe I was just tired I&039;d been tired for so long

Maybe now I could sleep

I wished people would stop talking tocool on my face Wet and cool

Water

The second time was easier I canized Davidsoft and liquid that didn&039;t sound like words, not any words I knew That was all right Just the sound of his voice was all I needed

There was another voice, too A woman&039;s I knew it, butbut I couldn&039;t re soft underindown in a car The hard lump of an unfastened seat belt lay under my left hip

I opened , heard the huh-blueberry muffins I moved a hand, carefully, and it hurt-hurt everywhere It felt like every nerve insore spot on ht foot, another at the top of my head

No question about it, I was lucky to be alive If I hadn&039;t been insulated by Delilah&039;s steel frame

My hand was still in the air I stared at it, baffled, and realized I&039;d forgotten to let it fall down Before I could do so, somebody reached back and captured it

David He looked back over the passenger seat at lasses No sign of the cuts and scrapes he&039;d had back at the e to him at all, except in the wounded darkness of his eyes

"You&039;re okay?" I whispered My throat hurt like hell, and I was so thirsty, I felt like I&039;d been freeze-dried And cold Very cold His hand radiated warmth into ht stealthy crawl I closed ht it, but I was so tired, so drained

It keptto stop it, but he was drained, too Too tired to save me now I had to save myself

I reached down and choked the black terrible thing with as much self-control as I had left in me It writhed and tried to slither around ress

"I&039;ain "Easy, take it easy Rest"

"She&039;s awake?" The wonized Spanish accented Slightly slurred I squinted, but all I could see in the rearviewthe living"

And then I kneho she ith a burst of happiness that exploded right out of ht, star bright, first star I see tonight "

She laughed that silvery laugh I relanced back from the driver&039;s seat Still beautiful, Estrella Alood friend At least on that side of her face

She joined in with me in a duet "Say a prayer, say a Mass, keep this fire off my ass" It wasn&039;t the way the children&039;s rhy up the ht hand in the universal screw-you symbol A tiny flame danced on its tip

"Chica, you&039;re still crazy," she said "But then that&039;s why I love you so -back-to-nature ca trip, Estrella and I talked every week I ran up er I was, I could talk about nothing for hours, and Star waswith it She was lonely, and ere soul mates; somehoe could find a telephone book funny, if we talked about it for more than two minutes

Star was the only friend I had who understood

So My intake raduation happened (and wasn&039;t that so, but that&039;s a story for later) Fast-forward to 1999, and my rotation as a Staff Warden on the Help Desk We call it so more official than that, of course-the Crisis Center Support System-but really, it&039;s a Help Desk, just like ones computer departments all over the world have in place, and forfor the Association, they go wrong in a big way, and co because the aetheric doesn&039;t carry sound for shit Everybody gets a turn in the hot seat at the Help Desk, which is run 24/7 with afro National Wardens out of bed in the ht

About six days into ot a phone call from- who else?-Star There was a wildfire out of control in Yellowstone, and the Regional Warden was on vacation; Estrella and her boss felt that it was serious enough to escalate it and get specialty tea matter It&039;s one of the richest natural preserves left in the United States, and it&039;s also a sinkhole of randoether, add any kind of instability, and you get disaster

We laughed, we chatted, we talked Two friends catching up on time lost She wasn&039;t really worried

Except it got worse I could tell that froht to businesslike to dead serious as she fed me map coordinates, burn rates, wind speeds, all the alche up a disaster

"Got it," I said, typing the last of the data into the systeround, like airplane noise "Hey, you want to turn the stereo down? It&039;s getting a little loud on this end"

She coughed Dry coughs at first, but they raised goose bumps on my arms "No can do, babe Guess you&039;ll just have to yell"

"Is that the fire?" Close enough to roar like that? Oh, God I knew that Estrella was calling froe of the blaze As a Fire Warden, she had to be close to work her s from miles or even countries distant Fire was too interactive It required real risk on the part of those who engaged with it But I&039;d never iined how close, or howone hell of a barbecue" She started coughing Thick, choking coughs I was sitting in a Situation Rooo, and I could still hear the crackle of the fire; it wasn&039;t just close, it was right there All around her "Aw, shit"

"What?"

More coughing When it stopped, I heard the sound of things bu on, I&039; for the back door"

"Estrella?" No answer I could hear her hoarse, heavy breathing, could almost taste the smoke

"Bastard&039;s cutin her voice that she was really scared this ti screwed up I need out of here &039;Cause I don&039;t look good in black, knohat I&039;ing pagers and cell phones with the necessary codes to let people know the situation Within ten minutes, there&039;d be a Situation Team convened, with Weather and Fire Wardens, anize the rescue of trapped aniht the fire But that wasn&039;t going to help Estrella

"Can youloudly in the background, like gunshots "Jesus, what is that? Is so?"

"No, it&039;s the trees Trees exploding Sap boils-" She coughed again, deep aching coughs that made my chest hurt in syet the fire down long enough to get out Dam "Burnt toast"

"Hold on," I said I pulled up the Wardens Map, overlaid Fire Wardens on top of it and got Estrella&039;s location Once I had it firht My body receded and I flew straight up, arrowing as fast as I could through gray ghostly layers of concrete and steel and wiring, up into hot suher where the layers cooled and storms were born There was disturbance up here, caused by temperature shifts I oriented myself and moved toward Yellowstone As I did, I had to buck the currents; force lines were vibrating, bending under the strain A lot of heat being generated up there Pushing hard, I flew against the currents until I could see the whole of Yellowstone laid out in front ofNot in the physical sense, but in the aetheric; soht, and the turbulent, angry pulses were enough to make me want to drop back into er Fires were co everywhere It didn&039;t take ry

I pinpointed Estrella&039;s location-she was broadcasting desperately in the aetheric-and went up, way up, until daylight gave way to twilight, which gave way to the false night of the highest levels of the mesosphere Fifty thousand feet above it, the disturbance was s to e

Within aa channel for it through the superheated Yellowstone air When I had it flohere I wanted it, I let it collide head-on with a coluitation of the molecules to keep it localized, and dropped halfway back into o

"Star, listen to ht on top of you, understand? It&039;ll hold the fire down long enough for you to et out of there Star?"

Her croak barely sounded hu out over the roar of the fire "Fucked up, Jojo Damn We all fucked up"