Free Into the Whirlwind by Elizabeth Camden Page A

even worse, and we’ve got to hurry. The turpentine plant is about to blow.”
    He was right—it made no sense to get distracted by the drunken fools. She needed to rescue Frank, but traffic had slowed to a crawl. The intersection of the street was blocked by a fire engine angled at the base of a grand church. A crew of firefighters manned the engine, cranking the pistons and holding the canvas hoses to shoot streams of water in high arcs over the fire.
    Lines of fatigue were carved onto the firemen’s faces. Thesebrave men were manning their engine while their own homes were probably burning, but here they stood, laboring in the scorching heat to save the city. “God bless you, sir,” she said to the exhausted fireman holding a hose as the crowd pushed her forward.
    For every drunken idiot, there were a dozen people who lifted a fallen woman to her feet or carried a child to safety. Men who sacrificed their own homes to keep the fire hoses functioning. She glanced up at Zack. There was a man who helped a woman reach the other side of town to rescue a blind attorney he barely knew. Had she been wrong about Zack?
    The ground shook and a deafening boom sounded from behind. She fell to the ground, clasping her hands over her ears. The weight of Zack’s body covered her back, protecting her from the catastrophe behind them.
    Heaven help them all, the turpentine plant had just exploded.
    Please, God, I’m sorry. I wish I had been a better person.
    Screams and shrieks filled the air, and a wave of blistering heat scorched her skin. The stench of burning chemicals seared her throat, and a wind so fierce it whipped her hair from its moorings pummeled them.
    Please, God, don’t let me to burn to death . She turned in Zack’s arms, clasping him around his back and pressing her face against his chest. She didn’t want to die alone.
    Sparks showered down. Was a wall of fire coming next? She squeezed her eyes shut. If the flames were next, she didn’t want to know.
    She clung to Zack tighter. Was this man going to die because he’d tried to help her? “I’m sorry,” she whispered against his neck.
    “I’m sorry, too.” His arms tightened as another massive roar filled the night air, a different noise than before. She glancedacross the street just in time to witness the bell tower of the church collapse, the massive stones tumbling down, bringing the rest of the building down. Within seconds the grand church was a pile of bricks and shattered glass.
    An eruption of limestone dust burst from the rubble of the church. Mollie buried her face in Zack’s jacket to protect against the onslaught of chalky powder. It was hard to draw a proper breath. Zack hauled her upright and propelled her forward.
    “Mollie, watch out!” he shouted. She followed his line of sight. A riderless horse was careening straight at her, cutting through the crowd of people packing the street. With people crowding her on all sides, there was nowhere to run. The whites of the horse’s eyes rolled as he thrashed through the crowd. Mollie flinched away from its flailing hooves just as Zack’s hands closed around her waist, hauling her out of the way a second before the horse barreled past.
    “Thank you,” she managed to gasp before her throat seized up in a fit of coughing.
    “Come on,” Zack commanded, grabbing her hand and pulling her forward. “We’ve got to get across the river before the bridge burns. We can make it, Mollie.” He grinned down at her, his teeth flashing white against his soot-stained face.
    The crowd grew even thicker near the Rush Street Bridge. Ahead of them, people yelled and started pushing the crowd back. It was impossible to hear what they were saying over the roar of wind and the clamoring bells, but as she got closer, Mollie saw the problem.
    The bridge was on fire.
    She pushed through the crowd. “We can still make a run for it.”
    The bridge was a hundred yards long, and orange flames licked at the wooden