“Alright everybody, let’s go!”  Emma could hear Mrs. Yahoogle, her Girl Scouts troops’ leader, from her tent.
“Come on you two, we gotta get going. We’re going hiking now.” Emma says to Cara and Louisa, her two friends, as they sit around in their crowded tent.
“Oh alright, let’s go.” Cara grabs her pack and water bottle and heads out the open entrance of their light green tent.
“Ugh,” Louisa groans. “Five more minutes. Please.”
“Let’s go Louisa!” Emma shakes Louisa. “Come on you lazy butt, let’s go.”
“Alright, alright. I’m up. No need to yell at me. Sheesh.”
“Well I’m sorry. You wouldn’t get up.” Emma peeks out of the entrance. “Come on, everybody’s waiting for us.” Emma grabs her PE bag and baseball cap and walks out of the tent with her cap on backwards. “Don’t forget to close the tent up!” She yells at Louisa.
“Ok!” She yells back as she zips the tent door closed.
Hmm… I wonder what we’re gonna see out there while we’re out on the trail. “Hey, Louisa, what do you think we’re gonna see out there?”
“Hmm… I dunno. What do you think Cara?”
“Maybe a bear,” Cara pauses. “Perhaps a big, scary, black bear with great big teeth and humongous paws!” She makes her hands into claws and growls at them.
Louisa scoffs. “In your dreams Cara.”
“What if we do see a bear Louisa? Then you’ll be eating your own words right?” Emma remarks.
“Hmphf.” Louisa sticks out her tongue at Caitlin and then scowls and crosses her arms.
The girls all start to walk away from their cluttered campsite and the nearby creek to the trailhead, the sun glaring down at them.. As they go down the trail, staying close to the creek, the girls start to talk. They stop paying attention to where they’re all going and soon just start walking in a random direction.
“Hey, Emma?” Cara says.
“Yeah? What?”
“Umm… There are a lot of plants on the trail right? Also, where did Mrs. Yahoogle go?”
“Uhh… I dunno where Mrs. Yahoogle went, maybe you should ask Charlotte.” She stops to take a breath. “Also, of course there are plants on the trail, we’re in a forest.”
“Well usually on a trail there would be signs of being traveled many, many times. So there wouldn’t be this many plants around us.” Louisa says, butting into their conversation.
“AIYEE!!!” They hear a scream.
Emma rushes to the front with Cara and Louisa trailing behind her. Pushing a few people out of the way. When they get to the front, they see Charlotte, Mrs. Yahoogle’s daughter, on the ground with her knee mildly scraped and bleeding.
Suddenly, the sky darkens as clouds roll over the sun, shadowing the land below. “Crash!” The sky booms as lightning streaks the sky. The sky seems to cry onto the girls, each raindrop falling heavily, soaking into their shirts and jackets. Soaking the ground around them.
“OW!” Charlotte exclaims holding her hands over her ears to dampen the sound of the deafening booms overhead.
Emma sighs, “Jeez Charlotte, you always make such a big deal about such little things. It’s just some lightning.”
The sky lights up with tendrils of electricity, “One. Two. Three.” Emma counts to see how far away the lightning is.
“BOOM!” The girls hear the sound as Emma just reaches four. More lightning strikes the ground. This time, only a few hundred feet away. Cara spies a small spark where the lightning struck the earth.
“Hey Emma?” She starts to say but Charlotte cuts her off.
“You complain instead of ask me if I’m alright, somebody’s nice. Anyways, where did my mother go?”
“Like I would know, she’s your mother, not mine.”
“My mom must’ve disappeared or gone off somewhere.” Charlotte says. “Oh well, I guess that just means that we gotta find our way back to the campsite ourselves.”
“Yeah, and who’s gonna lead us?” Louisa asks raising her left eyebrow.
Emma starts to speak, “We should work tog-”
“Why me or course.” Charlotte cuts Emma off.
“Yeah right, don’t be ridiculous. We should all just work together to get back,” Emma rolls her eyes at Charlotte. “Besides, you don’t have a decent sense of direction.”
Charlotte starts to protest but then stops as Cara peers at her.
“How’d you trip?” Cara asks. She then turns to Emma and pokes her while pointing to the small flame near the base of a large black oak. The flames sheltered by the canopy of leaves the tree created.
“Well, I saw a snake and stopped. But then, the people behind me just kept walking and pushed me forward!” She gives the people behind her the evil eye. As they all look sheepishly away. Everybody but Emma and Cara stay ignorant to the flames and smoke.
“Well, hate to break it to you but, the snake’s still there.” Louisa says as she observes the snake.
“AIYEE!” Charlotte shoots into the air, “GET THAT THING AWAY FROM HERE!” She picks up a long thick stick and flicks the snake away.
“Shh, look.” Emma points to the blackening trunk of the oak tree as the flames slowly climb up the tree.
After a few seconds of watching the flames climb up the tree, lightning strikes the tree again. Making the tree spontaneously combust. The flames leap from tree top to tree top as the sky seems to rain down harder. As if trying to put out the rapidly spreading fire.
The girls watch in shock and awe as they see that part of the forest cloaked in fiery oranges and reds, until Louisa snaps out of it and pulls out her phone.
“I’m gonna call 911 alright?” Louisa looks at Emma. She nods her head as she watches the fire spring towards them, racing on top of the trees, as if it were a wild animal hunting it’s prey.
“911 emergency, what is the problem?” Louisa hears the dispatcher on the other side of the call say.
“Umm, there’s a forest fire at Mt. Annodam State Park, it was caused by a lightning strike.” She replies frantically.
“Ok, thank you for letting us know, we will notify the closest fire department to your area.” The operator hangs up and Louisa turns her phone off, stuffing it into one of the inside pockets of her fleece jacket..
“Alright, let’s get outta here.” Emma says as she starts walking away from the fire. She leads them to a small and open clearing. The clearing is surrounded by a ring of pine and fir trees that act like a big wooden wall surrounding them. Perfect for catching on fire.
A tree at the edge of the clearing suddenly spontaneously bursts into flame and starts to make the rest of the tree ring catch on fire. One of the trees closest to them, a great big douglas fir, starts to teeter. Emma sees the base of the tree being eaten alive by the flames on the ground. She looks up and sees how much smoke is in the air and says, “Everybody, cover your nose and mouth. Don’t inhale the smoke.”
The clouds release gallons and gallons of water on the girls as the douglas fir continues to lean towards them. All of a sudden, the fir falls next to the girls. a few other trees also fall towards the girls, their branches still on fire. Oh shoot. We’re screwed. A small ember flies towards Emma’s face and lands on her cheek, burning her. Emma winces from the burn but doesn’t say anything. Ouch.
The burning trees continue to smolder around the girls as the rain continues to beat down on the girls with heavy raindrops. The rain. Water. Unable to put the fire out. That’s bad. Shoot. If the rain can’t put the fire out, then that’s a problem. Emma grimaces at the flames as they slowly edge towards the girls. When all hope seems lost, Charlotte grabs Emma’s water bottle from her bag and throws the water at the flames. “Good idea,” Emma says to Charlotte, “the best you’ve had all day.” She adds at the end under her breath.
The clouds pour more water onto the forest. Really trying to put out the flames that are eating up the forest by the second, leaving destruction and burnt remains of trees in its wake. With the combined efforts of the rain and what remained of the girls’ water, they put out the fires on the tree around them. Phew, that was close. Emma says in her head. “I’m gonna go see how bad the forest fire is alright?” Emma says as she puts a foot on the steaming tree next to her. Without waiting for an answer, the climbs onto the charred outside of the tree, her knees blackening from the charcoal outside of the tree smearing onto her jeans. As she walks up the tree, she sees lots of smoke and ash particles in the air. She pauses and takes her bandana out of her bag and ties the square piece of cloth around her nose and mouth.
She spies a huge, bright red plane with the words, WATSONVILLE FIRE DEPARTMENT on it. The plane flies by and unleashes about 800 gallons on the forest around them. The plane flies above the girls’ clearing.  For a few seconds, the forest is silent. There is no noise. “SQUEEEEEE” they hear a microphone screech as it’s turned on.
“Hello? Can you guys hear me?” They hear a man’s voice through a speaker on the plane. “Well, umm… So, there is a helicopter coming to pick you guys up so stay put alright? Great. Good bye now.” The air tanker flies away from the forest in the general direction of the nearby town. A couple of minutes later, they hear the loud chopping of a helicopter come towards them, the sound getting louder as it approaches.
The helicopter lands, its spinning rotors slowing down to a stop. The door opens and a man dressed in the distinctive fire fighters’ uniform steps out. “Hi, I’m Lieutenant James Cooper.” He holds out his hand to Emma as the girls stream out from under the fallen trees. “I’m here to pick you kids up.”
‘Thanks.” Emma says to the lieutenant as they all get into the surprisingly spacious interior of the helicopter.
“No problem, I’m just glad that none of you got hurt.” He  looks at everybody and scans for any injuries. “Ya know, if not for your friend there,” he points at Louisa, “Then we might’ve never realized there was a forest fire for a few more hours.” He pauses to think of what else to say.
“Are you done?” Charlotte asks Lieutenant Cooper.
“Excuse me?” He looks confused.
She repeats herself, “talking. Are you done?”
“Uhh, yeah” He shifts in his seat uncomfortably. They ride in the helicopter, with an awkward and uneasy silence in the air, for about thirty minutes. When they find their campsite, they see Mrs. Yahoogle frantically pacing back and forth in front of their campfire. The pilot lands the helicopter near the campsite and the girls all sprint to Mrs. Yahoogle.
“Hi Mrs. Yahoogle, we’re back!” Louisa yells upon their return.
Mrs. Yahoogle turns her head and looks at the group of girls that had returned. She rushes to Charlotte and squeezes her tightly.
“Sorry, we got lost.” Emma smiles and scratches the back of her head. “And we got stuck in a forest fire.”
“A forest fire?!” Mrs. Yahoogle says surprised, “is everyone here? Did anyone get lost or caught in the fire?” She turns away briskly and sits down in one of the many camp chairs near the fire pit, taping her foot nervously. She then stands up and does a head count frantically.
“Don’t worry ma’am, they are all here.” Lt. Cooper reassures Mrs. Yahoogle.
“Oh, good. Thank you for getting them out of there.”
“Oh, actually they’re the ones who helped us ma’am, they let us know where the fire was. If they hadn’t, then the flames may have reached a few of the campsites.” He says to their troop leader. “Anyways, I should probably get back out there. Bye!” He jogs over to the helicopter and waves good bye as the helicopter flies away.
“So, who else is hungry?” Emma asks as everyone there looks at her with bewildered eyes, amazed that she can even think of food. Just then, after the few seconds of silence, Cara and Louisa both burst out laughing as Emma protests about how she can’t help being hungry. The troop cooks up a dinner of spaghetti and joke around about how crazy and exciting their day went as they roast marshmallows around the camp fire.
That was a pretty exciting day, I mean like, we toughed out a forest fire. But then again, that just might be a bit too much excitement for one day. Hmm… I wonder. Will there ever be a day like this again? Emma slips into deep sleep as she sprawls out on top of her sleeping bag to rest up for the next day.