Pedal to the metal as the fire tender roared down the interstate. Karl kept his eyes on the smokey road driving Tender 15 toward a raging forest fire. Still several minutes out still but he could see it raging in the distance as he was driving as fast as the apparatus would go. Scorched earth was on both sides of the interstate as it had already been burned through here. Karl pulls up to a road block slowing the truck down appropriately. He passes the truck through the road block driving up to the staging point just past the exit of the interstate. Karl stops at the command station and jumps down from cab jokingly saying<span style="color: #00BF00">"Airborne!"</span>.<br/><br/>His partner at his side Karl enters the command station full of busy personnel coordinating the latest attack on the wildfire. Officers from the national guard, local fire departments, Department of Natural Resources, the forest service and agencies Karl hadn't ever heard of. Karl is a approached by someone who asks who he is and he introduces himself. Karl is led to the Incident Commander who stands at a large paper map of area under threat. An overweight local fire chief the Incident Commander was sweating from the summer heat due to the command post being a run down ranger station for the forest. The Commander explains the situation briefly to Karl before assigning a road to travel down and lay wet line to prevent further spread. Karl is provided a map board and a local radio which he hands to his partner. Karl leaves the command post with his partner climbing into the cab of the tender.<br/><br/>Karl drives the tender up the route prescribed by the Commander to slow further spread of the fire. The tender passes the front of the fire moving downwind of it to begin working on making a defensive line. They arrive Karl leaps out of the Tender cab as he brings it to a stop putting it in park and starting the pump. Walking past the pump panel he preps it for operation and grabs the chock blocks throwing them under the rear wheels of the tender. Karl is smiling as he grabs his pulaski and a hose rolling it out and making preparations to start spraying down the vegetation with his partner. Karl grabs the nozzle at the end of the hose and carries it over his shoulder while his partner operates the pump. Keeping in contact with his partner through a radio headset he pushes into the vegetation to protect it from the raging flames that were approaching and getting ever closer.<br/><br/>Karl was genuinely enjoying himself doing his job until he heard something other than the roar of the fire and the drone of tender's engine.<span style="color: #00BF00">"What was that,"</span>he thought looking up from his job he looked around but kept spraying. He was just about go back to enjoying when he heard it again but this time it was quiet but unmistakable scream and cry of a small girl.<span style="color: #00BF00">"Lieutenant there is a civilian in the forest I am going to attempt a rescue!"</span>Karl says into his headset before dropping the hose and sprinting into the brush towards where he heard the scream emanate from. Karl heard his lieutenant call up for more resources after acknowledging his attempt at rescue. Karl calls out,<span style="color: #00BF00">"I am a firefighter I am here to help! Where are you?"</span>as he is running and hears another scream and crying now continuous and closer. He spots something pink through the green and brown of the forest. The fire was closing in and the wind was blowing smoke towards him on his right. THERE! A little girl no older than ten years caught in a a blackberry bush.<br/><br/><span style="color: #00BF00">"Don't worry I will keep you safe."</span>Karl says trying to calm the girl. Grabbing his knife he works quickly to try to untangle the girl from the thorns of the bush without further hurting her. How she got so deep in the forest he had no idea but he knew he didn't have time to ponder it. The girl was free and the fire was not far behind burning where Karl had run the forest through. Karl unzipped his fireproof brush coat and picked the girl up and zipped it up around her to protect her from the fire. She was softly sobbing from the cuts from her entanglement but she seemed to feel safe in Karl's protection. The fire was near at hand and there was only one way to go and that was deeper into the forest. Karl started running like he hadn't run in his life, brush whipped his face and feet began to tire. He kept running but the fire was still on his heels. To Karl it felt as though there were many hounds on his heels that chased him with craven madness. Karl was losing hope as he ran through the vast forest finding nothing to avail him. Then through the thick of the forest and oppressive smoke he something green. Not the dark green of an evergreen forest but an uncommon bright green of short grass. Karl ran to this strange green with renewed vigor picking up the pace.<br/><br/>The brush gave way to a strange circular grass clearing that was twenty feet across. In the center of the clearing was a circle of smooth rounded stones about eight feet across. He looked back at the fire and saw he had put some distance between him and the fire. He had bought enough time to set up his survival shelter. He set the girl down on the far side of the clearing. With his Pulaski he started to dig out the grass inside of the circle of stones. After about a minute he had dug down past the roots of the grass in the general shape of a man his size lying down. He prayed that it would be enough and beckoned to the little girl. Pulling the pouch that held his survival shelter from the back pocket of his brush coat. Pulling it out of the pouch he instructed the girl to lay down in the dirt and then deployed the shelter over both of them as the fire reached the clearing. Laying above the girl under the shiny metallic foil of the survival shelter Karl told her some words to calm her and gave her some water from his camel-back water pouch. It started to get hot under the shelter and Karl remembered his training but he was woefully unprepared for just how hot it was getting. Karl steeled his nerves and prayed to God that this wouldn't be his end and that if he had to die then at least the girl might be spared from the fire.