Chapter Twenty-Six
Creed
From the time Creed was a tiny boy, he had learned that hide and seek with Gator was a waste of time. Gator could snatch a thought straight from the air and read it like a map.
The one person who could do it better than anyone was Mamma Rochambeau, who knew if you were breaking the rules before you knew you were doing it yourself.
She had her whole passel of kids and all their friends dialed in on her antennae.
The house phone would ring, and whoever was closest would answer it.
There would be Mamma Rochambeau, wondering what you were getting yourself up to, and maybe you had better stop in your tracks and think about the consequences.
Then she’d always say what time she’d be back.
“I’ll be home before supper, and I had better find that you all were listening to your better angels the entire time I was gone.
” No threat. No violence. Just a timely opportunity to reflect and change course.
When he was about to make a poor choice, his subconscious would ring a warning bell. And sometimes, it straight up told him what was coming, if only he could read the tea leaves or interpret the signs.
“I dreamed of bonfires last night,” Auralia whispered. “Bonfires and clanging pans.”
Creed tipped her head to search her eyes, then leaned forward to plant a kiss on her forehead. He rested there for a long time. Long enough that Auralia asked, “What’s this about?”
“I have the same memory from my dream.”
“How did yours turn out?” Auralia’s voice was barely audible. It had the pinched sound of adrenaline bracing the ribs, making an inhale nearly impossible.
Creed shook his head.
“Yeah, I don’t remember what happened in mine either.”
They held still, as Creed gripped Auralia’s hands. The screams from up the hill were wild to listen to.
No one from this side of the river would be able to reach water unless they did what Creed had contemplated when he saw Auralia coming out of the water.
For a flash, he thought to get to her in any way possible, and jumping off the bridge seemed the closest route.
Luckily, the thought came and went. And he was able to obtain the necessary equipment to escape.
Creed released Auralia and moved to the bag he’d nabbed from the back of the firetruck. Back up on the road, he’d looked in, seen lengths of rope and climbing equipment, thought “good enough” and took off before someone told him to leave it alone.
Now he was pulling out the pieces one by one, using his phone to take a video of the information.
His phone buzzed, and Creed answered on speaker. “Go for Creed.”
“It’s Mandy. I have two pieces of information.
First, please be advised that several members of Panther Force are en route from the north with first aid supplies and tactical equipment.
Honey Honig with a stretcher has been assigned to your situation.
Their ETA is approximately fifty-two minutes.
Gator has been assigned to your situation after he gets his patient to the transportation hub. No ETA available.”
Too late. Night would be upon them.
“Honey Honig, copy. ETA approximately one hour. Gator ETA unknown. Over.”
“We have a drone overhead,” Mandy continued. “I have an extraction engineer assessing your situation. I’m passing you to Javier. Mandy, out.”
“Javier here. It looks like we need to get you across the water within the next thirty minutes. I have videos that you forwarded.”
“Copy. Javier, I’m forwarding a video of my equipment.”
“That’ll be helpful.” There was a pause then, “Received. Give me a minute to reassess. Already, this looks much more promising.”
Creed was glad that Mandy was labeling people’s roles since he wasn’t with Iniquus long enough to have met Javier.
He knew that an extraction specialist was on call because when Truffles made her finds in collapsed buildings, they had a structural engineer review the tapes recorded by the camera on Truffles' collar, and they would make recommendations on how to get the victim out or whether they should leave well enough alone until heavy equipment could be brought in.
While they waited, Creed asked, “What do we do here, Auralia?”
She plopped down on one of her storage tubs and went very still. “I mean, if this were a movie, we could save the daughter, okay.”
“Why a movie?” Creed asked.
“Seriously?” She pulled in a breath. “Okay. You pull off your shirt and flex your muscles, then you swim out to the car all Rambo-like. You get some tools, get the lug nuts off the tire, and get the tire to shore.”
Creed grinned at the absurdity.
“We build a stretcher for her and put the wheel on one end.”
“Holding it together with magic and spit?”
“Magic and duct tape.”
“I’m following you,” Creed said.
“Then through the magic of suspended credulity, we somehow get Brandy up that sheer, slickery mess that’s going on with the river banks.”
“Yes, I can see it,” Creed said. “Once we’re up there, we just wheelbarrow her a mile to get to some medical attention.”
“Easy.”
“And the mom?”
Auralia frowned at the woman in an Iniquus beanie and a black trash bag suit. “I don’t see a way to save the mom.”
“We need to prep our bodies for a big burst of energy.” Creed pulled out three protein bars for each of them. He then brought out his water bottle, dumping in electrolyte packets.
They ate and drank and watched the air quality above their heads deteriorate with smoke and soot.
“Now what?” Auralia asked.
“Now we rest and wait for Javier to give us our marching orders.” Using a lid to keep their butts dry, Creed and Auralia curled into each other’s arms.
And for a blissful moment in time, there was peace amidst the chaos.
***
“Here we go,” Javier said over the speaker. “It’s a plan. It’s dangerous. And I will advise you that the likelihood of successfully getting everyone across is less than fifty-fifty.”
“Compared to the risk of staying here?” Auralia asked.
“Staying has a significantly lower chance of a positive outcome. Almost nil. Your route has been cut off by the fire, and the equipment and efforts to protect the people stuck in their cars.”
Jeezis. The sheer panic of being trapped and seeing the fire out your window. The heat. The thickening air. It had to be a hellscape.
“So we chance it.” Auralia sat tall. “We do our best. Tell us what to do.”
“I’ve put various scenarios through the computer. This is the one that gives you the best numeric probability. But you’re on the ground. I’m going to walk you through the action list, and you tell me when it can’t be done.”
“Go,” Creed said.
“I’m suggesting a variation on a Tyrolean traverse.”
Creed had come to the same conclusion. “Auralia, that’s the fancy term for crossing over something like a gorge or a river. You run a line across, then use a pulley and harness.”
Auralia looked at Sheelah and shook her head.
“Modified in your case. Creed you’ll use boulders on either side as your anchor points.
We start with a setup. You’re burning daylight, so you’ll have to move fast. Empty the bins.
Place them end to end and zip tie the handles of the bins together.
Use the duct tape to secure the lids, then attach them together by running the tape around both horizontally and vertically, as the tape can easily rip. This is your stretcher.”
“It’s not long enough.”
“The computer measured, and they should be able to fit torso through thigh. From there, you’ll have to bind their feet and put them in a loop.”
“Bind them, that seems—”
“Dangerous. It’s a risk you’ll have to assess. The rope then loops into a three-wheels in your system: Two ropes run under the bins and attach to the wheel above the third wheel is for the foot loop.”
“I can see it,” Creed said. “We’re floating the bins?”
“We’re relieving some of the downward force by using the water.
But this isn’t a boat. The current has its own force, which complicates the calculations.
My suggestion is that Sheelah go first. Creed and Auralia position her on the stretcher in the water, the rope and the pulley wheels in place.
Then Creed uses his descent rope to get up to the bridge.
Creed, you can’t use the surface of the bridge to get across, but looking at the structure, you should be able to get across using the structure.
It’s either that or swim. I suggest you try climbing first. I’d attach Rou to your pack. ”
“Copy.”
“You have the main rope, and you have a second rope with you. The second rope is attached to the front handle of the stretcher. You need to set up a block and tackle pulley system. I noticed that you have a stop capture device. That’ll enable you to pull the weight through toward you without losing ground. ”
Auralia sat there staring at the width of the river. She wasn’t blinking. Blood was throbbing at her temple.
“Once you’re ready, Auralia uses her legs to shove the bins into the water, and Creed pulls Sheelah across. Creed gets the mother off the system. Auralia has a rope tied to the back handle, and she pulls the stretcher back to her.”
“Okay,” she sighed.
“Auralia gets Brandy onto the bins.”
“This is like the game of river when we were kids, when you have to go back and forth to get everyone across.”
“I don’t like that Auralia’s there alone.”
“She gets on the bins third, and you pull her across, and you’re done. The river is reading twenty-five feet across.”
“She’ll be coming in the dark,” Creed said. “No.”
“To Creed’s point, that sounds doable on paper,” Auralia said. “But is it impossible, given our time frame?”
“Push comes to shove, Creed has orders to get you, Rou, and himself to safety. If you don’t believe this scenario is possible,” Javier said, “you need to adjust accordingly.”
“Do you have any other options?” Auralia asked.
“I do. This is the only one that the AI’s predictive outcome gives a yellow light,” Javier said.
Creed hovered his thumb over the disconnect button. “We’d better get on it. Out.”