Colin
“Motherfucker,” I hissed as my footing failed me and my foot slid down the embankment.
I wobbled, almost going down with the dirt and rocks I’d knocked loose.
My knee, the one that had taken enough of a beating for a lifetime, smacked hard against a rock; a pointed corner sending a jolt of pain up through my leg and down again.
“Doing alright over there?” came Carter’s voice.
I had met him a few days after arriving, and while he reminded me a lot of Jake, he wasn’t as dopey and had a far quicker wit.
He’d introduced himself by saying that he and Mav were usually in ‘exile’ so Xander wasn’t tempted to commit a felony more than he already was.
Considering Carter was far more willing to be a smartass than me, and Maverick seemed to be hardheaded, doing things to the beat of his own drum more than even Trevor, I could kind of understand.
“Fucking fabulous,” I called as I heaved myself up using a root sticking out of the ground that actually held my weight. “Can’t you tell?”
“We’re supposed to be finding and rescuing someone who isn’t you,” Carter told me as he helped drag me to my feet. “Maybe keep that in mind?”
“Tell me about it,” I muttered as I got atop the embankment and stood somewhere that hopefully wasn’t a hazard.
That was easier said than done when the damn storm blocked the light with its thick, black clouds and a constant downpour that whipped sideways with the wind.
There, of course, was next to no lightning, so we had to rely on flashlights.
“Now if only we could find these fuckers,” he muttered as he looked around. I could see the headlamps only a handful of yards away. It wasn’t that far from where Carter and I stood, but in weather like this, a misstep could make all the difference between someone getting separated or hurt.
Or worse.
“What was it Cait said?” I wondered, mostly to myself, but it wouldn’t hurt if Carter could throw something out that was useful. “They were—”
“Out here on their ATVs,” he called back. “They got caught up in the storm, which is fucking stupid because we all knew it was coming, and…something about having a hard time breathing, and not being able to hold on forever.”
“Hold on…and breathe,” I said with a frown. “That’s it?”
“That’s it,” he called over the storm. “God, I wish Xander would just be cool for once and order us those night visions like I asked.”
I huddled closer. “You’d just get blinded on the off chance there is lightning, and then what?”
“And then I’m a sitting duck and end up falling like you almost did and bashing my head on a tree or drowning in a puddle,” he said and I couldn’t tell if he just didn’t care or if the idea really was funny to him.
I looked around; we were higher up, so all I could see were the trees and thick brush. There wasn’t much water, but it had been coming down for a couple of hours; there would undoubtedly be plenty of—
“River!” I snapped, turning to Carter. His eyes, which had been the brightest blue I’d ever seen, were dark in this light as they stared down at me in confusion. “Or a creek, something like that, is there one around here?”
“They’re fucking everywhere, especially in a storm like this,” he said, but I could see by his expression that he understood what logic train I had jumped on and he turned, taking me by the wrist. “C’mon.”
I followed as he called through the storm; one headlamp bobbed hesitantly before turning toward us. Reno was waiting for us as we approached, and I leaned in to be heard. “A creek or a river, is there one around here?”
“Yeah,” he answered, voice raised and clear. “A creek around here that likes to pretend it's a river during weather like…shit.”
“Breathing,” Carter muttered. “Fuck. We need to get to where it is.”
Reno sighed, turning to look at the embankment my clumsy ass had almost taken a tumble down. “Wanna guess?”
“Love that,” I muttered. “Nobody twist their fucking ankle, or all you’re getting is an ice pack and a ‘feel better’ out of me.”
“You’re a shit doctor,” Carter said with a laugh as Jake jogged over and they tied a rope around a sturdy tree, testing the knot before we prepared our descent.
Jake’s voice, which boomed even at his normal volume, broke through like thunder. “He’s a Doc, a Stitcher, they’ve got shit bedside manner, man. They keep you alive and hopefully upright; don’t expect a lollipop and a Bluey band-aid to make it better.”
“They’re Hello Kitty, actually,” I said, and Carter sighed.
“That’s so 2000s.”
“Live with it, kiddo. You’ll be lucky I give you that much if you’re stupid enough to get hurt because you can’t be smart.”
“Says the guy who almost fell.”
“Almost is the key word.”
I swung myself over the rope, wrapping the high-friction gloves around it and making my way down.
An actual clamp for climbing would have been better, but this wasn’t my first time having to bareback climbing equipment.
Wasn’t sure how I would fare scaling in wet weather since the rough weather I’d had to fight had been considerably hotter and drier than this, but if I took my time, I could make it.
The embankment only got steeper, forcing me to take smaller steps so my feet sank securely into the soaked ground as I inched down.
One bad step could send me flying, and Carter was right; falling down this bad boy would risk a concussion at best, a shattered skull or a funeral at worst. The last thing I needed was to be the one who got hurt when these three were depending on me.
Thankfully, I made it to the bottom, only to have Jake grab me and pull me closer with a scowl. “Where the hell is your hook?”
“What?” I asked.
“Your fucking climbing hook,” he growled, turning to Reno beside him and Carter, who landed shortly after me. “Who didn’t give him a hook?”
“He had it,” Carter said.
“You listen to me, jackass,” Jake snarled, and I took a step back as I pulled Carter close.
“That guy is the one who keeps us alive, you got it? Whatever we gotta do to make sure he’s not the one if one of us gets hurt, we fucking do that, got it?
So if you have to give up your hook, then you give it up.
If you need to take a hit so he doesn’t, then you take it? Understand?”
“Jesus, okay, fine,” Carter said, and although I could see he was pissed, he seemed too taken aback by Jake’s uncharacteristic anger to really find a place to put that anger.
“Good,” Jake said, pushing Carter away lightly, turning to Reno. “Got it?”
“Protect your local medic, got it,” Reno said, making me wince when he enthusiastically bobbed his head, flashing the light into my eyes and nearly blinding me.
“Start by not fucking blinding me,” I said with a laugh, reaching out to push Reno’s head to the side. “Get us to that creek; we might be too late.”
Carter stared after Jake in a mixture of bewilderment and anger, but he was professional enough to dial it back and keep his head in the game.
That probably meant this was going to be a problem when we got back to the outpost, but like Carter, I was able to put my thoughts to the side as I made my way after the other two.
“You hear that?” Carter called as we reached what was supposed to be a creek. Reno was right, though; the weather had made it more like a river. I wouldn’t have dared stand in it past my ankles out of fear that the current would yank my feet out from under me.
“What?” Jake called back, and when Carter cocked his head, Jake did the same. “An engine?”
Only for a harsh beep to cut through the howling wind, and while we all jumped in surprise, we knew where the sound was coming from and hurried in that direction.
We walked for only a couple of minutes before we saw another light ahead and the sound of the engine was far clearer.
Especially when it revved again, the horn giving another piercing beep that would have been irritating in any other circumstance but was welcome.
Signs of life were enough to spur us forward, and as we pushed through some brush, I could see what had happened.
We already knew there had been two riders, and that they had flipped trying to get out of the storm.
After that, the call had been hard to follow, breaking up and leaving us with only a few bits of information.
They had flipped near the edge of where the creek originally was, from the looks of it, but the creek had flooded quickly.
The riders were pinned under their ATV, both girls sprawled so their heads were opposite one another.
A weak voice called from the ATV, and I moved to the side where the girl was still moving. I turned and twisted the headlamp off, popped out the stand on its back and set it up so I could see what I was doing, but also let her see more than a blinding light in the darkness.
“Keep the light out of her goddamn face,” I snapped at whoever was standing behind me, looking down. The light over my shoulder shifted out of sight, and I sighed, bending to speak loud enough for her to hear me. “Hey, we got you, alright? I’ve got you.”
“Ellie,” she managed. “Ellie…she’s on the…other side.”
Her voice was urgent, trying to get me to check on her friend, and I smiled. “They’re going to check on her, and I’m going to check on you, okay?”
I didn’t need to hear the murmuring behind me to know what I’d seen as I’d stomped through the water to get to this girl.
The other one…had been facing toward the creek that was now a river.
The water had risen and covered her head, probably long before we’d shown up.
Her chances were next to zero; beyond saving, so it was this girl I needed to help.
“We’ve gotta get this thing off her,” I heard Carter say, his voice tight with desperation and worry. “Get her out of the—”
“Shut up,” I snapped. “Sorry, I need you to hold still for me, okay?”