Off Season by Eric Walters

that I’m not leaving. I’ll wait right here for them too.”
    â€œNo, you’re not!” Debbie protested. “Kia and Nick need you to lead them away to safety.”
    â€œI thought it was safe here,” Ned said.
    Debbie didn’t answer.
    â€œNed, I’m your mother and I’m ordering you to — ”
    â€œYou can give all the orders you want. I’m not abandoning you here.”
    â€œNick and Kia need you.”
    â€œNo we don’t,” I said.
    Everybody looked at me in disbelief. “You think you can find your way out of here alone?” Kia asked.
    â€œOf course not. It’s just that Ned isn’t going to leave his mother and neither are we.”
    â€œI agree,” Kia said.
    â€œBut you have to!” Debbie protested.
    â€œWe’re not going anywhere without you,” Ned said. He sounded calm and in control. “And you can yell at me all you want. It isn’t going to change anything. I’m not leaving you here.”
    â€œCorrection,” Kia said. “
We’re
not leaving you here. Period. End of discussion.”
    â€œLook, I don’t want to argue — ”
    â€œThere’s no point in arguing,” Ned said, cutting his mother off.
    â€œI just want you to know — all of you to know — just how serious this is,” she said.
    â€œWe know it’s serious,” I said.
    â€œI don’t think you do. We’re in danger, real danger. I think we’ll be okay but there are no guarantees. Fires are unpredictable. We could get caught up in it. We could … we could — ”
    â€œDie?” I asked.
    She nodded her head.
    I took a deep breath. “I know. We all know.”
    â€œYou should all get out of here while you still have a chance,” Debbie said.
    â€œMaybe we should,” Ned said, “but we’re not going to.”
    â€œWe’re not going anywhere,” Kia added.
    â€œWe’re all staying together,” I said.
    Debbie didn’t answer right away. She looked like she was thinking through what she was going to say next.
    â€œNone of you are going to listen to me, are you?” she finally asked.
    â€œWe’ll listen to you,” Ned said. “We just aren’t going to leave you. What should we do now?”
    â€œThere’s nothing much we can do,” she said. “We have to wait … although this probably isn’t the best spot to wait.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?” I asked.
    â€œWe need to find the most open piece of ground we can find, away from trees and bush, preferably close to water.”
    â€œLike the basketball court,” Kia said.
    â€œThe basketball court would be perfect,” Debbie said, “except it’s pretty far from here.”
    â€œIt’s not that far. It can’t be much more than a kilometer,” I said.
    â€œThere’s no way I can walk that far. I can barely stand.”
    â€œDon’t worry. You won’t have to walk,” Ned said.
    â€œI need to stop,” I said.
    â€œMe too,” Ned agreed.
    Gently we lowered the branches, setting Debbie down on the ground. She was lying on a rough-made sling that Ned had built out of two long branches and a cover from one of the seats of the truck. The cover was strung between the two long poles, one on each side. Ned and I each held the end of one of the poles while the other end dragged along in the dirt. It was hard work — incredibly hard work — but we were making progress, dragging her along the road toward the spot where the trail led down to the court.
    Kia was carrying the three cages holding the animals. They weren’t as heavy as dragging Debbie, but they were pretty awkward to carry.
    While Ned had been building the sling, both Kia and I had been working too. Debbie had insisted that she wasn’t leaving all the family pictures behind in the truck. She had us put all the photo albums in a