Chapter 42 Claire
The trailer was sinking.
The water sloshed over the top of the trailer as it tipped and bobbed like a cork. Pure fear rushed through Claire’s limbs. Where had the water come from? Could she and Beth swim to shore? But in what direction?
Claire pulled herself to her hands and knees.
She strained to see through the dark but it was like trying to see through ink.
The trailer was slowly turning in a circle, as if caught in a whirlpool.
Claire felt Beth push herself to standing and stagger closer.
Heard her small sound of pain. The trailer listed sideways, one end dipping deeper into the dark water. “We have to swim,” Claire said.
Something hit the trailer, and Claire caught Beth just before she fell into the black water. Beth held her left arm close to her chest. “I think my arm is broken.”
They couldn’t swim. Not in this, and not with Beth hurt.
“What’s that?” Beth looked toward dark shapes rising out of the water.
Claire followed her gaze. Black against black, dark fingers jutting out of the water. Trees. Lodgepole pines with thick trunks and evenly spaced branches. Why were the trees underwater? The trailer lurched again.
“Beth,” Claire said, gathering a handful of Beth’s shirt in one fist. “When we get close, I’m going to try to grab a branch. Stay with me.”
Claire felt her nod. They had to reach the trees before the trailer sunk from underneath them. The biggest tree loomed in the dark, its branches reaching toward her. Claire leaned forward. Just a little closer.
The trailer dropped from under her feet and icy water rushed to her neck.
She flailed, losing her grip on Beth. Water filled her mouth, tasting of dirt, then closed over her head.
Claire held her breath and kicked hard, her legs encumbered by her clinging wet clothes.
She broke the surface and gasped for air, groping blindly for the tree.
Her fingers closed over a branch, the needles stabbing at her palm.
She held tight. The branch bent with her weight, her hand slipped. “Beth!”
Then Beth was there, her pale face above water, one hand reaching out. Claire caught her arm. Beth coughed as Claire pulled her toward the branch. “Grab it,” she ordered.
“My arm,” she gasped. “I can’t—”
The branch broke.
Beth disappeared under the black water.
Claire lunged for another branch, grabbing on with one hand while searching the water for Beth with the other.
Lord, no. I can’t lose her. She felt a cold hand grasp hers.
Claire pulled, then got her arm around Beth’s waist. The bark bit into her hand and the limb bent under their weight, but it didn’t break.
Claire pulled Beth’s good arm up to the branch. “Hold on.”
Beth caught hold and clung, her breath rasping in Claire’s ear.
Claire pulled in a lungful of air. They were safe for now.
But where were they? And how could they get to shore? Claire could see nothing past Beth’s pale face and the tree they clung to. “Listen,” Claire said to Beth. She held her breath and Beth did the same.
Over the lapping sound of the waves, she heard voices. People crying out for help, other voices answering. Echoing across the water from one direction and then the other.
“Are they close?” Beth breathed.
It was impossible to tell.
What had happened? Claire tried to piece together the moments after the earthquake, but it was a jumble of fear and panic. Shaking and an unearthly roar. Jenny.
Where was Jenny? Please, God.
Was she safe? Who was the man who had taken her in those awful moments? Had they been swept away in the water? Was her baby still alive?
“Help!” Claire croaked out in panic, her throat gritty. She had to get to shore, she had to find Jenny. “Help us!” She raised herself higher out of the water, desperately straining to hear a voice returning her call for help—her call for hope. No one called back.
Jenny was gone. Frannie. All the people who had gone to sleep under the full moon. Where were they? The tree swayed, and with a sickening realization, Claire felt the cold water splash at her chin, when it had just moments ago been at her neck.
Fear shuddered through her body in an icy torrent. She and Beth were alone in the dark. No one was coming to save them, and the water was rising.