The Vengeance by Allison Rios Page B

adrenaline throughout his body. He jumped out of bed, not bothering to throw on anything over his running shorts as he made his way downstairs.
    Matthew and Helen were at the screen door, Matthew’s aged but strong arms wrapped firmly around his wife. She was crying – the first time AJ had seen or heard such a sound crossing the barrier of her wise lips. The whimper was enough to splinter any illusion he had that the screams were a dream. He gently angled them aside so that he could open the antiqued screen door to peer outside.
    B linding light shrouded the horizon the way the sun did in the clear, early mornings of the small town. The air felt warmer somehow and AJ suddenly understood why – the light was no sunrise. It was fire. From the east to the west and back again, the orange and yellow monster ripped across the horizon stealing not only the food in its grips, but also the hopes and security of the people who grew it from tiny seeds just months before.
    “Oh, shit ,” he whispered, his body twitching with the urge to help somehow, anyhow. “What … what can we do?”
    His thoughts stalled at the feeling of Helen’s hand on his arm.
    “There’s nothing,” she said, the sadness more evident now in her voice than her simple tears had been. “The men are out there doing what they can to stop the blaze but it’s too much. It’s just too much. Everyone is going to lose everything!”
    “I’ve got to go help,” AJ said.
    His eyes transfixed upon a blaze both frightening and magnificent in the same breath. By then Max had woken up and the two pushed their way through the door and into the yard.
    “This is not a good omen,” Max whispered.
    The slow movement of AJ’s feet stretched into a run, no thoughts other than the need to stop the fire. If he had glanced down, he might have noticed he was hardly dressed to battle a blaze – except that maybe the least amount of clothing might help withstand the heat.
    He reached the gathering of men, stretched out in a line and moving the heavy steel watering systems where they would best stop the burn as dirt edged its way between the toes of his shoeless feet. Others were attempting a controlled burn of some of the crops to prevent the further spread. Most of the rest of the town – women, children – were gathered on the streets, watching all of their hard work literally burn up into a thick sheet of gray smoke that rose into the sky. Mothers held their children close, cradling their heads in a futile attempt to assure them that they would be just fine, that there would still be money for food that year. AJ scanned the faces and it was evident to him that the children knew better – their Christmas presents were burning in those very crops. Somehow though he knew their tears weren’t for the lost gifts, but rather the pain that this would cause the parents who loved them.
    AJ joined in the fight, using the very muscles that had been writhing in pain earlier to push the heavy sprinklers around. The curves where the muscles rose up out of his skin were highlighted by the sweat that drenched him and the light of the brightly colored fire in front of them.
    Addie nearly stopped pushing, losing her grip on the sprinkler as she watched him. He had no ties to this town that she knew of – Gram had described him as simply a drifter. He himself said he’d be leaving soon. Yet here he was, she thought, putting out a fire that did not affect him one way or the other. He went where he was needed, offering the strength of his arms where other arms needed it, lifting a tired and defeated farmer to the safety of the street when the man had lost all energy.
    He looked like a soldier; a superhero from a movie. The pleas of the man next to her woke her from the dream state, snapping her back to the reality of the fire in front of her. She went back to pushing, the system moving nowhere no matter how hard she threw her weight forward. All of a sudden the metal began moving and