Chapter 9
Charlie
I thrashed wildly, tumbling in a torrent of red sludge, but couldn't tell which way was up.
The muddy current seized me like a predator, dragging me into its churning depths.
Mud surged into my nose and down my throat, and I gagged, swallowing half the bloody river as my lungs burned with a desperate need for air.
I clawed toward what I hoped was the surface and burst through to fresh air with a painful gasp, coughing so hard that stars sparked across my vision.
"Charlie!" Doug's frantic voice echoed somewhere behind me.
Before I could respond, another wall of brown water slammed into me, tossing me backward. My shoulder smashed into a boulder. Or maybe it was one of my precious fossilized skulls. White-hot pain ripped down my arm and exploded in my elbow.
Blinking through the rain as I surfaced again, I saw a man on a black horse, thundering along the ridge.
Oh my God, it's the man in the cowboy hat.
His wide-brimmed hat was pulled low, rain streaming off the brim in miniature waterfalls. When his eyes locked onto mine, the focus in them was so sharp it made my chest seize. The stallion's muscles rippled beneath him as the cowboy leaned low over its neck, driving him hard through the downpour.
The river yanked me under again, and the world dissolved into muffled, watery chaos.
My boots were dead weights, turning every movement into a frantic, losing battle.
My lungs burned with bursting pressure. In a blind thrash for the surface, my knuckles slammed into something hard.
Wood! I grabbed the splintered branch and hauled myself up, choking on muddy water and air.
I latched onto the dead tree, its limbs bleached bone-white from years exposed to the blistering sun. As I spat out grit and mud, the tree groaned under my weight.
"Charlie!" Doug's scream cut through the roar of water somewhere upstream. "Help!"
I spotted him thrashing in the current, terror stretched across his face as he fought to keep his head above the surface.
"Grab my leg!" Holding onto the branch, I reached my foot out as far as I dared.
He lunged toward me, and his weight slammed into my legs like a freight train. The impact nearly ripped me from the branch. His hands clamped around my ankles, then my boots, his grip crushing.
My fingers slipped on the wet wood, but I adjusted my hold, gripping tighter. "Grab a branch." I gasped, trying to reach down and pull him up.
The brittle tree creaked beneath us.
"Doug, let me go!" I tried to pull myself higher, but his dead weight dragged me back down.
He clawed his way up my leg to my knees, dragging himself hand over hand. Each jerk sent white-hot pain through my battered elbow.
"Doug, get off me!"
The branch splintered with an explosive crack.
His thrashing threw me off-balance, and we plunged back into the churning water.
The torrent crashed into us with brutal force.
Doug's boot slammed into my ribs, sending a jolt of pain through my chest. I lost what little air I had left as his grip tore free. We tumbled apart, and his terrified shouts vanished into the flood's deafening roar.
I kicked hard, desperate to break the surface, but the river had me in its grip. The current hurled me against submerged rocks and debris, each impact stealing more of my strength. My vision blurred at the edges. The roar of the water became a distant, pulsing thud.
No. I am not dying like this. Not now. Not when I've come so close to the discovery of a lifetime.
I clawed toward a shimmering patch of light and burst through into chaos, choking on air and water.
"Charlie!" a voice thundered over the flood.
Blinking the water from my eyes, I saw the black horse ahead on the riverbank, muscles straining as it held its ground against the muddy edge.
Just below its head, the cowboy clung to the reins, half-submerged in the churning torrent.
One hand gripped the leather like a lifeline, the other stretched toward me.
"Help!" I cried, thrashing with my good arm.
"Swim to me!" His voice cut through the chaos.
I tried, but my arms were useless, and my boots were like anchors. A throb of agony pulsed through my elbow with every heartbeat. I fought, but the river was winning.
"Grab my hand!" he bellowed, green eyes blazing through the rain. "Charlie! Now!"
I lunged with one final, desperate surge.
Our fingers touched, then slipped away.
He roared and lunged forward, clamping his hand around my wrist like a vise. A shout tore from his throat as his muscles strained and the reins snapped taut. The horse reared slightly, its strength anchoring us both.
The current ripped at my legs, trying to tear me from his grasp, but he held firm.
"I've got you!" he shouted over the roar of the flood.
Rain pounded between us, and the storm howled around us. Yet, when our gazes locked, everything else fell away for a heartbeat. His green eyes burned with fierce focus, and I knew he wouldn't let me go.
He no longer wore his cowboy hat, and his dark hair clung to his forehead, with one lock falling across his left eye.
"Help!" Doug's panicked scream tore across the water, followed by a violent splash. He surfaced upstream, arms flailing wildly. "I'm drowning! Help!"
I twisted in the cowboy's grip. "Doug, swim to me."
He thrashed in wild strokes that barely kept him afloat. The current grabbed him like a plaything, dragging him closer to the outer bend.
"Doug!" I shouted again, reaching out my left leg toward him.
His eyes locked on me, wild with terror. He kicked toward us, then was sucked under again. When he resurfaced, he lunged and grabbed my outstretched leg.
I screamed as his weight yanked me sideways, nearly tearing me from the cowboy's grip.
"Son of a bitch!" the man snarled, arm straining. "Let go! The horse can't hold us all."
The horse shrieked above us, hooves scrabbling against the mud as more of the bank gave way beneath him. Clumps of sodden earth tumbled past my head.
Rain lashed my face, sharp and cold. "Doug. Let me go."
"I can't swim," Doug wailed, climbing up my body as if I were a damn ladder. His hands clawed at my leg, nails digging into my thigh.
"You'll pull us all in, including my horse!" the cowboy bellowed. “Let go!”
"No! I'll drown." Doug's nails dug deeper into my thigh.
The roar of the flood was deafening.
The cowboy's grip on my wrist was brutal.
Above us, the horse let out another high-pitched shriek as his massive body shifted dangerously forward, dislodging chunks of dirt that rained onto the cowboy's head.
"Fucking let go!" the man yelled.
More sodden earth gave way, tumbling past me in huge clumps that slammed into the water as heavy as cannonballs.
"Doug, let go of me!" I yelled, kicking my legs, trying to shake him loose. "Or we'll all drown."
"I can't hold!” The cowboy's face twisted in fury and frustration.
I looked up at him. His jaw was clenched, every muscle in his arm straining. The calmness from moments ago was gone, replaced by fury.
Above us, the horse let out a wild, demonic shriek.
The cowboy's gaze met mine one last time. Then he shook his head and released the reins.
The world tilted.
We all plunged into the torrent.
The cowboy’s grip tore from my arm.
Doug's weight dragged me under, and darkness swallowed me whole.