Chapter 35- Inferno

I felt like I was driving in a tunnel of flame.  Fire raged all around us, trees snapping and popping as their hard trucks cooked, their branches sending pillars of smoke into the sky and their leaves turning to ash in the wind.  The SUV we were driving was almost as wide as the road, and if we had rolled down the windows we would be able to touch the flames.  I could feel heat through the glass like sunlight in the middle of summer.

White flakes were falling lightly all around, and had it not been for the horrendous scene of flame and doom closing in, we might have found it magical or even romantic.  The road turned left and right, and maintaining any speed was challenging.  I pulled quickly around corners, hitting the accelerator but then rapidly braking as the next turn came.  The fire was a monster.  It seemed to move faster than our car could travel, and I began to worry that we would not make it out in time.

Soon entire trees came toppling down, their trunks splashing against the ground in a shower of sparks.  Tracy screamed as a large pine tipped across the road, its fiery branches reaching out toward our car though it wanted to hold us in this forest forever.  I jerked the wheel to the left and the SUV jumped  into the ditch, the front tire bounding upward, leaving us momentarily weightless in our seats.  The branches scraped across the top of the car, pinning us for a moment, but I engaged the four wheel drive and hit the accelerator, watching in the rear view mirror as the tree slid off the back of the vehicle and crashed onto the road, sending sparks and ash high into the air.

All around us the air was white hot, and we found it hard to breathe.  Tracy looked at me and I could tell she was nervous but still hopeful, and the desire to protect her gave me courage.  I tried to give her a reassuring look, but saw her face pale as a look of terror crossed it.  I turned to see shadowy figures trudging through the forest, their bodies aflame.  They seemed to be advancing toward us, almost anticipating where we would turn next.  As they emerged from the flames I could see their faces, blackened and scorched.  They limped slowly toward us, an endless growing mass closing in on the road.  I urged the car forward, wondering when this would end, desperately searching for civilization.  The bodies began to step on the road, trying to block our way.  As we hit them their bodies tossed to the left and right like rag dolls.  With each collision our car slowed a little more, and I felt my stomach turn as I heard the crack of their bones trodden under the wheels.  Soon the horde in front of us was impassable, and the car lost all its momentum with which it might carry us free.  Where did they all come from?  How were they still alive?  Tracy screamed as their arms smashed across the hood and against the glass.  They pounded on the car, relentlessly reaching for us.

We pulled our knees up, leaning away from the windows and huddling together as they lunged against the side of the car, throwing their weight into the glass.  There must be dozens, even hundreds of them.  I searched for an escape, looking down the road, to the sides and back behind us, but we were surrounded by endless waves of shuffling monsters, mindlessly burning, resolutely advancing.  They pushed on the car, closing in with their blackened faces.  I looked into their thick yellow eyes and saw emptiness.  I pulled Tracy close, wanting to comfort her in these final moments.  She hardly moved.  She simply sat there, staring out the window, all emotion gone from her face.  Had she finally given up?  I called out to her, begging her to say something, to speak to me, but when she finally turned her face to mine I saw her eyes had turned a thick, sickly yellow.