Chapter 37 #2
Reeves reached out and cupped his face in his hand. “Of course we are, bud. We only hiked for twenty minutes. We’re not that far away.” He looked down to the stream. “I just don’t want to cross the water until I know how much there is.”
Luke looked that way too, and holy Toledo, he could see that the water had risen. Maybe not by much, but there was definitely precipitation coming down already somewhere and then flowing out of the mountains.
“If it’s hail, it’s going to be a little scarier.
” Reeves leaned forward as the wind blasted him from behind, then righted himself as if nothing had happened.
“It’s windy; it makes it hard to see and hear.
So, if you want to hold hands, we can do that.
It just makes walking a little clumsier.
We need to be careful, because the ground might be slick. ”
He looked around at everyone again. “I’m going to stop there, because I’ve given you a lot of directions. Who’s with Luke?”
Corrine and Lars immediately raised their hands, but Luke shook his head. “I’m going to switch you for Eric,” he said. “Eric, son, I want you with me; right at my side.”
He could tell Reeves later that Eric was a little squirrelly, didn’t always follow directions, and sometimes thought he was tougher than he was.
Luke didn’t need to embarrass the boy in front of his cousins, and he’d matured quite a lot in the past couple of years since he’d gotten his driver’s license and a job.
Still, Luke wanted him at his side instead of Reeves’s, as he knew the boy far better than Bailey’s boyfriend did.
“Lars, you and OJ go with Reeves.”
“Yes, sir,” Lars and OJ said together.
“I don’t think we’ll get separated,” Reeves said. “At least we want to stay together.”
“What will we do if it starts to hail?” OJ asked.
“We’ll do all the same things we would do if it rains,” he said. “The only difference is, depending on the size of the hail, it could hurt, so we’ll definitely want a shelter. And if it’s hailing, we hunker down and wait. You don’t try to hike, the way you might in rain.”
He’d positioned his pack on the front of his body, and he lifted his poncho and reached inside it.
“I’ve got a GPS right here, and a satellite phone.
We should notify our loved ones right now.
” He pulled his phone out, as well as a GPS device.
“I can look at the topography, and I can see all the National Park fixtures as well.” He looked around at everyone as the wind increased, and another blast of thunder boomed loudly in Luke’s ears.
“I’m going to text Bailey right now,” he said. “And Luke is going to text Sterling, and we’re going to let them know that we’re in a storm, and if they don’t hear from us within an hour, then they need to call for help.”
He looked around at the kids, his eyes filled with the same energy Luke had seen on the man’s videos. “If it’s you versus Mother Nature, you’re going to lose unless you’re prepared. And part of being prepared is admitting when you need help.”
“But we don’t know if we need help, right?” OJ asked.
Reeves grinned at him, and how he had the capability to do that, Luke wasn’t sure.
“You’re right, bud, we don’t know that we need help.
This might blow over us in a few minutes, because it’s moving pretty fast, but the smart thing to do is to let others know that we might be in trouble, and that we’ll contact them really, really soon. ”
He looked down at his phone, his thumbs flying. Only a few seconds later, he looked up. “There. I’ve just texted Bailey that there’s an unexpected storm coming in, and that we were out fishing. We’re going to try to get back to our campsite, but that I’ll let her know within the hour.”
He handed his phone to Luke. “Your uncle Luke’s going to do the same thing.
Maybe he’ll text some of your daddies too, just so that more than one person knows.
” He looked around at the kids, and then stood up.
He faced into the storm and pressed his cowboy hat to his head so the wind wouldn’t whip it away.
“Yep, the temperature’s dropped, and the water’s rising. We’re going to go to higher ground and we’re going to find some trees to shelter under.”
Luke had just finished texting Sterling, Mav, Otis, Morris, Trace, Tex, and Adam when the first raindrops fell on the screen of Reeves’ phone. He’d included Adam just for good measure, as the man could organize a search party out of a particle of dust.
Then he stood and handed the phone back to the mountain man and said, “Corrine, I want you right here.” He held out his right hand. “Eric, this hand. We’re going to follow Reeves and do everything he says.”
Reeves took OJ’s hand in his left and Lars’s in his right. “Higher ground, guys. Let’s head up.” He started under the canopy of trees, and he stuck to the trail for a little bit as the rain pounded down around them.
Finally, he let go of OJ’s hand and pointed to the left. “Right there,” he yelled. “See that cluster of trees with that low bush around it? That’s where we’re going.”
He stepped off the trail then, and Luke paused to give him and the two teens a moment to move out of the way. He took that time to look around and get his bearings, glance back down the trail where he couldn’t see the river anymore, and commit this spot to memory.
He used the heel of his boot to carve a notch in the side of the trail, and then he looked at his daughter and Eric. “Let’s go.” He followed Reeves off the trail and up toward the cluster of trees and brush he’d found only fifty feet from it.
Things progressed nicely until Corrine slipped and went down. Luke’s shoulder got pulled, and he released her as she cried out. He too dropped to his knees, turned toward Eric, and pulled the boy in front of him. He met his eyes, pure earnestness filling him. “Follow Reeves. I’ll bring Corrine.”
Rain pounded against the hood of Eric’s bright yellow poncho, but Luke saw enough to see the boy nod, and then he turned and headed away from Luke.
“Dear God,” Luke said right out loud. “Bless this storm to pass over us quickly and help us all to stay safe.”
He had no idea if his brothers or wife had texted back, and he told himself that all he needed to do was get Corrine to their temporary shelter.
Then everything would be okay. His daughter brushed her hands free of the pebbles that had embedded themselves into her palms, and then she held her right hand out for Luke to look at.
“I landed in thorns,” she called above the sound of the pounding rain.
Luke’s knees ached against the hard ground as well, but he carefully pulled the couple of stickers out of Corrine’s palm, then got to his feet.
He helped her stand, too, and her leggings were ripped on the right side, and her knee bled.
He met her eyes and ducked low to be closer to her. “Can you get to the shelter?”
She looked up the hill, and Luke followed her gaze.
OJ had a clear plastic poncho, as did Lars, but Eric’s was bright yellow and Reeves’s dark blue, so Luke could easily see them up the hillside.
He watched as Reeves reached for Eric and pulled him into the safety of the canopy of trees. He then turned back and watched Luke.
“I can make it, Daddy,” Corrine said, and Luke raised his hand to hold Reeves off.
“One step at a time.” Luke did his best to smile, and then he took his daughter’s hand and squeezed it. “We’re going to make it one step at a time.”