Chapter 46 Frannie
“Help us!” The faint cry came from somewhere out in the dark.
Frannie and the man in the pajamas, who had introduced himself as Mel, stood at the edge of the brown water and listened.
“Us?” Frannie asked Mel. “How many people are out there?”
Mel shook his head and made a megaphone with his hands. “Where are you?” he called out.
Frannie listened hard, but heard only the lapping of the rising water.
The moonlight was still dim, but light enough for Frannie to make out what used to be Rock Creek Campground. It looked less like a campground, and more like a junkyard being slowly covered by water.
There were at least thirty people on the ridge now, most of them injured in some way. Some people had left—those whose cars hadn’t been crushed into oblivion. But what about everyone else? How many were still down in the wreckage? Or out in the water?
Jan—or was it Jean?—ran down to her. “Someone’s coming,” she got out breathlessly, “on the road up there.” She pointed to the highway where just hours earlier Frannie and her friends had taken the turnoff to the campground.
Frannie ran up the ridge, then climbed a steeper slope to reach the highway.
Mel followed, and by the time a wood-paneled Jeep Wagon came to a stop, at least ten people had gathered around the newcomer.
The man who stepped out of the car and introduced himself as Roberts was at least six feet tall with shoulders as wide as a door.
He had a full beard and wore a flannel shirt and jeans.
“They told me there was some kind of landslide down here.”
Mel made a quick explanation of what they knew—the earthquake, then the mountain falling, the wind, and the rising water. “We could use some help,” he finished.
Frannie jumped in. “Are they sending ambulances? Doctors?” Somebody?
The man frowned. “It’s just me, miss.”
Frannie’s spirits fell to the muddy ground. They needed more than one man in a station wagon. But at least they could do something for Mrs. Wilson. “Do you think you can get to a hospital?” she asked.
Roberts rubbed his beard. “You say the road is blocked that way?” He nodded toward the slide.
“We could go back east and try to get to the hospital in Bozeman.” He jerked his thumb in the direction from which he’d come.
“It’s a long way, and the road is in rough shape, but I’ll take as many as my car will hold. ”
Frannie looked at Mel and knew he was thinking the same thing she was. If Roberts was the only help coming, they needed to find all the people who needed medical help. “There’s more people down there, probably hurt,” she motioned to the wrecked campground. “Maybe a lot more.”
Roberts took off his jacket and pushed up his sleeves. “Then let’s go get ’em.”