Chapter Twenty-Two
Auralia
Auralia stood and looked along the bridge and the bank.
She would swear that Creed was there, but as she scanned, there were no human silhouettes at all.
And she felt sure that when she’d screamed his name as she went over the edge, he’d heard. She believed, with every cell in her body, that he was racing toward her. Gator, too. Of course, Gator.
But she couldn’t wait for their help with the women in the SUV.
She wasn’t even sure how they’d get down the slick bank.
Her intuition had been correct; the second bin that she’d almost left behind was the important one. She had her boating vest, her full-face snorkeling set, her kitchen tarp, and a bicycle helmet.
Auralia unfolded the tarp to find the long nylon ropes.
With a practiced hand, she secured it to the tree and then around her waist. She lopped the other rope and looked for a way to put it on her body without losing it to the current.
She decided to stuff it into the life preserver, tying one end with a figure eight knot to one of the survival loops.
Finally, she slapped the bicycle helmet into place and tightened the straps.
The car was only about ten feet away, but wow, that was a long ten feet.
Auralia took a moment to watch the current. If she entered the water well above the car, she could swim toward the opposite shore, and by the time she reached the car's body, the river current should wash her down toward where she assumed the SUV was resting below her vehicle.
If she missed, the eddy would angle her back to shore, and the tree would stop her from going too far. She could get out and try again.
Taking off her coat to stand all but naked and wet in the frigid wind was hard, and stepping into the racing ice water extra sucked.
Auralia was terrified.
She was terrified.
But despite her terror, she didn’t wonder if she’d follow through or not. This is what humans did for each other.
Pulling on the life vest, Auralia hoped that its buoyancy would allow her to do both things she wanted to: dive into the water and stay above it.
Ridiculous, sure, but that’s what she needed.
The one thing she knew for sure was that she couldn’t stay in the river for more than a few minutes, or she wouldn’t stay cogent. The water was just too cold.
Auralia checked to make sure she still had Remi’s thick rubber band on her wrist. She had a window punch tool and a mini, waterproof, high-lumen flashlight. She went ahead and turned the flashlight on.
She stepped into the water up to her knees, and her feet came out from under her.
Auralia had to dig deep and kick hard as she swam back to her car. There, she clung to the door handles, with her knees beside her ears in a crouched position, the water trying to drag her away.
At the front of her car, she dropped her foot into the water. An antenna of sorts, she felt along the SUV with her toes.
It wasn’t positioned as she’d supposed. Her car wasn’t stacked directly on top. Her car had landed on the back half of the SUV, which was pitched at an angle. Auralia felt certain that, had there not been a meeting of the rushing waters at the front of the vehicle, the hood would have been visible.
The window in the back was open; that meant the SUV would be flooded.
Well, yeah, she reasoned. Morrison had to get out somehow. There would have to be a window open. So maybe he left them without a backward glance because they were dead.
Auralia's whole body shuddered.
If they were dead, she would get back on shore and tend to herself. A swift water team could retrieve the remains. That was the plan. But for now, she had to be sure.
Auralia couldn’t reach her foot as far as the SUV’s front window.
She took a moment to imagine what to do with her hands. If she reached down and held onto the SUV through the back window, letting her feet drift down with the current and lift toward the surface, she should be able to get them onto the side mirror.
Then she could feel with her right hand and see what was going on in the front passenger seat where Brandy had been sitting.
She could hear Remi’s good counsel, “Make the whole plan, not just the next two or three steps. You don’t want to be in the thick of it and flailing.”
“Fine, Remi,” Auralia said aloud. Once she had a clue, Auralia decided she’d pull the whole-face mask into place without lifting the snorkel, so it would remain airtight.
She could hold her breath and, clinging tightly with her hands, push hard with her feet to get down and see what was there to see.
Auralia tried that out, and the life vest was less than cooperative.
Auralia found herself foot on the mirror, arm looped through the window, floating alongside the submerged SUV.
Finding the front window down, Auralia was ninety-nine percent certain that Brandy had not survived.
Sliding her right hand along the inside roof, Auralia found the grab handle.
Memorizing that position, Auralia pulled her hand out of the water, sucked in a deep breath, and lowered the mask over her face.
And against her inner guardian angel’s best advice, Auralia reached for that handle and pulled hard, so she could duck her head into the SUV.
Her emergency flashlight lit the interior. There was a bubble of air.
A pretty big one.
Brandy had pressed forward, eyes open, head angled, mouth wide and gasping.
Sheelah, draped over the steering wheel, seemed unconscious, but her nose and mouth cleared the water.
Auralia didn’t feel a surge of victory.
She quickly pulled her head out of the opening before a drowning Brandy could grab her and kill them both.
Auralia pushed the mask back and sucked in great gulps of air.
A plan.
A plan.
Absolutely nothing was coming to her.
She put herself back on the banks of the Bayou. What had she heard? What did she know?
Brandy’s being conscious was dangerous to her rescue because drowning people are out of their damned minds and will pull you down, so you can die together.
Be that as it may, Auralia would persevere.
How much energy did Brandy have? Auralia couldn’t figure out, with the window down, why Brandy hadn’t just swum free.
Then Auralia remembered the seat belt. Had it locked? Was she stuck?
Okay, step one: saw through the belt with the razor.
Next, take off the life vest and hand it to Brandy? Nope.
But she had the extra rope.
What if Auralia untied it from her vest, so her fate wasn’t literally tied to Brandy’s?
What if she wrapped that rope around Brandy’s waist and handed her one end while Auralia held the other? Then, once Auralia got herself back to shore, she could guide Brandy in?
That was a lot of ‘ifs.’
As Auralia prepared to plunge again, the seatbelt razor pinched between her thumb and index finger, and she thought of Brandy’s father swimming away.
How cruel.
How monstrous.
But she didn’t have the space to consider him beyond that.