Chapter 15 Into the Torrent
The world became a roaring, grey-green blur. The SUV carrying Lily, Jack, Michael, Aine, and Rob fought up the steep, muddy fire road toward Rock Camp. Rain slammed down. Wind shook the trees. But the worst sound came from behind—a deep, grinding roar of floodwater filling the valleys below.
Lily held the door handle, fingers white. Jack drove, face tight, eyes glued to the narrow path barely visible through frantic wipers. In the back, Michael, Aine, and Rob braced against violent bumps.
“The road washed out ahead!” Michael yelled, pointing to a rushing brown stream cutting across their path.
Jack didn’t slow. “Hold on!”
He hit the gas. The SUV hit the water, slid sideways, bumped over hidden rocks. Muddy water sprayed over the hood. They crawled out onto firmer ground.
Lily looked back. Through heavy rain, she barely saw the headlights of the second SUV. Emma is in that car.
The road curved sharply around a steep hillside. On their left, a rocky wall. On their right, a sheer drop into a deep ravine filled with roaring brown flood.
Then disaster struck.
A sound like a gunshot cracked above the storm. A section of waterlogged hillside collapsed. Rocks, mud, and broken trees came crashing down.
“Rockfall!” Michael shouted.
Jack hit the gas. Too slow. A basketball-sized rock smashed into the front passenger side.
CRUNCH-THUD!
The vehicle jerked violently right—toward the drop. Lily was thrown against her seatbelt. Jack fought the wheel, but the hit and slippery mud were too much. Tires lost grip.
The world tilted. Then a jarring crash as the SUV slammed sideways into young pine trees at the drop’s edge. The trees bent and groaned, stopping the fall.
Lily’s head snapped forward, then back. She heard a sickening thump from the driver’s seat. Jack was slumped over the wheel, not moving. Blood trickled from his forehead.
“Jack! JACK!” Lily screamed, fumbling with her seatbelt.
In the back, Rob cursed. Michael groaned, partly pinned. “Lily! Get out! The car isn’t stable!”
But Lily’s eyes were only on Jack. The car leaned dangerously, creaking against bent pines. She had to get him out.
She shoved her door open and scrambled out, boots sinking into mud. She took two frantic steps around the smashed front. The ground under her feet felt soft.
Her right foot sank deep. She tried to lunge for the door handle. The ground gave way.
With a sickening lurch, the whole section of mud and rock she stood on peeled away and slid down the steep slope toward the raging flood.
Lily screamed, grabbing for anything. Her hands caught a slippery tree root, then a broken branch. The slide slowed but did not stop. She dangled, pressed against the muddy cliff, feet kicking metres above churning water. The root bent. She couldn’t hold on long.
“LILY! HOLD ON!”
Emma. Lily looked up. Emma lay at the broken road edge above, reaching down. Her face was white with fear. Henry was behind her.
“Give me your hand!” Emma shouted.
Lily tried to move. Mud shifted. “I can’t!”
“YES, YOU CAN!” Emma roared. “LILY, REACH FOR ME!”
Hearing her name gave Lily a final burst of strength. She let go of the root and swung her hand upward.
Their fingers brushed, then locked.
For one hopeful second, Lily felt herself being pulled. Emma pulled with all her might. Henry tried to grab Emma’s feet.
Then the cruel earth had its say. The whole section of slope where Emma lay gave way.
A huge slab of earth, rock, and trees, with Emma and Lily still connected, plunged into the roaring flood.
“NO!” Henry’s shout was swallowed.
The two women vanished into brown, churning chaos.
Almost at the same time, another SUV skidded to a stop on the safer part of the road behind them. The door flew open.
Frank Howard jumped out. He had seen the emergency alerts at his mountain cabin—Emma was running the ICP—and drove straight through the storm.
The scene made his heart stop. He saw two figures swept along in muddy rapids.
One held the other. His Emma. The younger woman she held…
something about her sent a jolt through Frank’s memory. No time to think.
“Michael!” Frank boomed. He recognized his old friend struggling from the wrecked SUV.
Michael looked up. Years of tacit understanding kicked in. Frank pointed to the flood, then to his own trunk. Michael nodded.
“A rope!” Frank commanded Rob. “Henry, help Michael stabilize the vehicle!”
Frank pulled a climbing rope and portable jack from his trunk. “Emma and the girl are in the water. I’ll go downstream. You get everyone out. Use the jack on the axle. Anchor it to that fir tree!”
“Understood!” Michael knew Frank’s skill. “Be careful!”
Frank grabbed the rope and scrambled along the slope, heading downstream.
Michael became a pillar of calm. He and Henry assessed the SUV. It tilted dangerously, held only by bent, cracking pine trees. Jack was unconscious, bleeding. Aine was awake but hurt.
“Aine, don’t move!” Michael searched under the car, found the rock holding the front axle. “Henry, brace the back wheel!”
Henry put his shoulder against the wheel. Michael shoved the jack under the axle and pumped. The jack’s arms groaned but lifted, taking the vehicle’s weight off the breaking trees.
“Faster! Trees are going!” Henry grunted.
Michael kept pumping. The vehicle stopped sliding. “Rob, get the tow strap! Wrap it around the back axle, tie it to the fir tree!”
Rob obeyed, then helped pry open the bent back door.
“Aine, take my hand!” Michael pulled her to safety.
“Jack is still in there! Seatbelt stuck!” Aine cried.
Michael climbed back in. It smelled of blood and gasoline. He cut Jack’s seatbelt and carefully supported his head. “Outside! Ready to lift!”
Henry and Rob pulled Jack from the driver’s seat and laid him flat. Aine pressed bandages to his forehead.
Just as Jack was pulled out, the pine trees snapped. The SUV dropped, held only by the jack and tow strap. Glass shattered. Michael threw himself out, covered in mud.
With Jack unconscious and Aine injured, Michael contacted Commander Harris. Medevac impossible—storm and ash grounded aircraft. He requested Karl, who had wilderness medical training, be redirected to their position. They would fall back to Rock Camp as a casualty collection point. Harris approved.
Michael wiped mud from his face and looked into the dark downstream. He had done his job here. But his heart was with the other rescue.