David pointed to the first guy. “He was on my route. Never caused any trouble, kept to himself.”
Great, isn’t that what neighbors said about serial killers?
“And the others?” Her throat throbbed from shouting.
The wiper screamed. Metal scraped glass. Dry glass. She stared straight ahead. Yet, the rush of water roared inside the Humvee. She froze while her brain frantically groped for the right connection.
The next truck drove into the river. Water splashed up the grill. The vehicle in front of Sunnie’s inched down the bank. The currents swarmed its front tire. Headlamps shone on the small bushes churning in the water.
She blinked and the thought snapped in place. Flood. Her mouth dried. Flash flood. Lunging forward, she ripped the earpiece from David’s head and shouted in the microphone. “Get out of the river. Get away from the water!”
“What the—” David cupped his red ear.
“Get out!” An arm manacled her wrist and jerked, moving the microphone away from her mouth. Clammy air pressed against her skin. In the flash of lightning, she spied it—a wall of brown water speeding toward the trucks. Tree trunks bobbed like broccoli on the surface then drowned in the murky darkness.
Her heart stopped. Her lungs seized. Oh God! Setting her hand on the dash, she levered higher. They weren’t going to make it.
“Mavis—”
“No!” David’s cry disappeared in the wet slap of water against metal.
The wave caught the tail of the first truck, spinning it. Headlights blazed then glowed weakly as the river swallowed the hood. A heartbeat later just the top of the arched canvas remained. Screams punctuated the night. The vehicle was swept out of sight.
The river shoved the truck in front of Sunnie’s against the bank. A tree crashed into the side. Canvas was sucked away leaving exposed metal ribs. People stood up one second only to be swept off their feet and disappear in the dark water. The river crested the bank, knocking the carrier on its side. Water chewed at higher ground, undermining the earth under Sunnie’s truck before sweeping aside the overturned vehicle and gulping it down.
Mavis lifted her hand. Blood screamed painfully through her veins as her heart resumed beating. Lister’s grip loosened then fell away. “Robertson, back that truck up. The ground is unstable.”
“Copy that.” The back-up lights flowed over the glossy hood. “Backing up.”
The truck behind him didn’t move.
“All trucks, I need you to retreat to higher ground. Now!” The rear truck lit up the bumper then trundled backward. The lights disappeared between two high trees then emerged again. Soon it bumped along a level road twenty feet above the water.
“All available personnel!” Lister groped on the floor before hooking Mavis’s headset and hurling it at David. “I need all available personnel with ropes and poles down to the river’s edge. We have people in the water. I repeat, we have people in the water!”
Her head swam with voices, orders and acknowledgements. In the glow of the camp half a mile to her right, flashlights bobbed in the darkness.
David stuffed the communicator in his ear and slammed the Humvee in gear.
Mavis licked her dry lips. The second to last truck lumbered after the first. The third vehicle hadn’t budged. Sunnie was still blocked in. What was wrong? Why wasn’t it moving? “Who’s driving that truck?”
David jockeyed the Humvee along the hill. “Who’s the driver behind you, Robertson?”
“Don’t know, Sergeant-Major.”
“Relieve him of duty and get your asses to safety.”
Son of a— She raked the walkie off her belt. Her hand shook. They had to move. “Johnson? Johnson are you there?”
Once the Humvee angled upstream, David flicked a switch on the dash. Halogen lights chased the darkness from a small portion of Fossil Creek. Not far enough to see to the nearest bend, but she didn’t need to. Her ear pricked at the building roar.
Another wave was coming.
“Johnson?” Please, answer. Please. She released the talk button.
“We’re on it, Ma’am.” The medic’s voice soothed like a balm.
Four men and a dog jumped from the truck. She recognized the Goliath-like build of one of David’s men, the muscular physiques of two fit soldiers and the silver prosthetic leg of her neighbor. The hulk aimed his rifle and scope at the trees near the river bank before he, the dog and her neighbor detoured into them. The other two swarmed the cab, squeezing the original driver in the middle.
Skeletal fingers of an uprooted tree glided into the Humvee’s spotlight. It careened on the surface of chocolate milk water. The wave’s roar shook the ground.
She bit her lip to keep from screaming out orders. David’s men knew their job.
“You’ve got about ten seconds.” David leaned forward, his breath steamed up the glass. He wiped it away.
White lights signaled the shift into reverse. It began backing up, Robertson slowly followed. The gap between the two trucks widened.
Why was he taking so long? Her niece was in that truck!
The hulk stepped into the cone of light. A limp body hung from his arms.
Shit! There were survivors in the bushes. She sucked in air. She wouldn’t order anyone to search. It was suicide.
“They think they’ve spied the other truck about a mile further on.” Lister swallowed hard. “It’s upside down.”
A big chunk of ground collapsed as the wave passed. She eyeballed the height of the wall of water moving down the canyon. The second truck was well and clear. Only Sunnie’s remained in danger.
Nodding, she dropped her microphone onto the seat. Move it, Robertson. “Have them search the banks but no one goes in the river.”
“Understood.” His reply barely registered above the rushing water.
Her neighbor jogged from the trees. Two survivors ran on his heels, chased by the dog. They leapt onto the running board, clung to the mirror and each other. Robertson’s truck shot backward, the dog at it’s side.
The floodwaters swept over where his front bumper had been, enveloping the bushes the survivors had escaped.
Three people saved.
Three out of the fifty on that truck.
And that was only one of two they’d lost. She collapsed on her seat. “Have they found anyone?”
Lister raked his hand down his face. His shoulders drooped. “No one alive.”
“Yet.” She couldn’t give up hope.
“We’re breaking out the Infrared. We’ll find them.”
She nodded. The search would continue into the morning, until most of them could be accounted for.
“What are your orders, Doc?” Leather creaked as David shifted in his seat. Concern knotted the skin between his eyebrows.
Orders. Get her niece over here. But that wasn’t going to happen. Sunnie was safe. David’s men would look after her, as would her neighbors. “Those who can, I want to look for survivors using the IR rifle scopes. But no heroics.” They couldn’t afford to lose any more people. “Everyone else fall back to those buildings we passed and rest up.”
“Roger that.”
She flattened her palm on the window. If only she could pick up her niece’s truck and carry it with her. Be safe, Sunnie. “Take us to camp.”
David shifted into gear and eased down the hill.
If the water didn’t recede by morning, Robertson would need another way out. Blowing her bangs out of her eyes, she opened her browser. A low battery warning popped up. She dismissed it and opened the web browser. No signal. An ache germinated inside her brain and pulsed against her skull.
It was going to be a long night.
Please God, don’t let tomorrow suck ass like today. Thunder rumbled through the mountains and shook the Humvee. She hoped that wasn’t an answer.