by Ike Hamill
“It was just bad luck,” Lisa said. “Once we get down past the falls, we can leave these things behind us.”
“Maybe,” Ashley said. She looked up at the tarp above them that was being pounded with rain. The river would flood. They would be lucky if the falls were still navigable. Thinking about the rising river sparked a new idea in her head. When she looked up, she saw it in Tim’s eyes as well.
“The raft,” he said. “It’s going to float away.”
“I got it,” Ashley said.
“Be careful!” Lisa shouted as Ashley ran back out into the rain.
Penny followed her out to the top of the bank. Ashley warned the dog to stay put and then she began to slip and slide down the mud to the beach below. There was still one fish wriggling toward the water. It didn’t have far to go—the river was rising so quickly that most of the beach was already under an inch or two of water.
Over at the rocks, the raft was bucking and pulling at its tethers. Ashley ran for the nearest rope that was tied to a leaning tree. Her fingers tore at the knot. The knot was impossibly tight—the rain had soaked the rope as the raft pulled. For a moment, she considered untying the rope from the raft instead. They had moved everything else up to their campsite. The rope was the most valuable part of the whole raft. Everything else could be remade.
“No. We put too much effort into this,” Ashley said to herself.
The water was up to her ankles. When something brushed by her leg, she nearly changed her mind in that instant. Looking down, she saw that it was just a clump of leaves. Ashley pushed and tore at the knot. It finally gave when she muscled the raft up onto one of the rocks in order to take the tension off the rope.
The other tether was easy.
She dragged the raft off the rock and tried to get it closer to the bank. Even in the shallows, the current gripped the raft and tried to steal it from her. Ashley looped the rope around her arm and the raft nearly pulled her off balance.
She got to stable footing and caught her breath.
“Lisa!” she screamed. Her voice was lost to the wind. There was no way to tell if Lisa even heard her.
This time, the thing that brushed by her ankle was not a bundle of leaves. Ashley felt the splash and saw the fins as the fish slipped away for deeper water. There were only two sane choices—she could drop the rope and climb, or she could jump onto the raft. Staying put in the water with those terrible fish didn’t seem like a viable option.
That’s just what Ashley did. She ignored the fish and she dragged the raft up along the submerged beach, trying to get to a spot where she could tie the thing off safely. The muddy sand underfoot was giving way with each stride. The water was pulling and trying to tear the raft from her grip. Still, Ashley trudged and leaned into the wind as she pulled.
There was a sturdy tree just a few paces ahead. It had branches high up on the trunk. When she reached that, Ashley knew she could tie the raft high enough that it would stay tethered even if the water rose.
With her next step, the ground gave way under her foot. It had been undercut by the current. Ashley slipped to one knee and another one of the evil fish flashed through the water just ahead of her. She almost lost her grip on the rope.
Pulling the ropes and leaning against the force of the water, she struggled back to her feet and reached forward. Her hand closed around a branch and she pulled to close the gap.
The raft was stuck on something. She jerked it free and managed to muscle the thing upstream.
Just as she looped the rope around the trunk, Ashley’s footing slipped once more. She watched in horror as the rope pulled free from the tree and tried to slip through her fingers. With a fast lunge, she secured her grip around the rope once more.
The tug from the raft was enough to pull Ashley off her feet.
The ground swept away beneath her.
Ashley was pulled out into the main current of the river.
Chapter 40: Robby
Robby went to the back wall of the auditorium, where Romie had corralled his kids.
“What’s this? More of the same?” Romie asked, gesturing toward the front of the room.
At the front, with a podium and a microphone, Carrie was getting ready to address the group. They didn’t have a formal leader, but Carrie usually stepped up when someone had to communicate with everyone. She was good at it and people trusted her. Maybe more importantly, Carrie didn’t take it personally when people yelled at her.
“We’re going to have to get ready for hard times,” Robby whispered to Romie.
He looked down at his kids. For once, Janelle had put away her book. She was studying the people who were milling in and finding seats.
They didn’t necessarily have to gather. Most everyone could have tuned into the announcement from their homes. It seemed like people enjoyed getting together for big news. Robby waved to Ty and the big man came their direction.
Ty crouched down to shake Janelle’s hand.
“Where’s your book?” Ty asked her.
She reached around to her back pocket and pulled out a paperback.
“I didn’t know you like Vonnegut,” Ty said.
“He’s fun. Some of the references are lost on me though.”
Ty laughed. He turned to Jim and offered a hand.
“How about you—what have you been up to?”
“We found a bunch of puppies. They’re at Jackson’s house. You should go meet them.”
Ty nodded. “I think I’ll do that. I’ve been looking for a little brother for Duke. He gets lonely when I go do my house calls.”
Rising up to his full height, Ty greeted Robby and then gave Romie a long stare.
“You owe me a visit,” Ty said.
“I know. I’ll be over. We’ve been busy.”
“Always too busy to take care of yourself,” Ty said. He waved to them and then turned to go find a seat.
“He gets nosier every year,” Romie whispered to Robby. “My health is my own business.”
She seemed about to say something else, but she was cut off by Carrie up at the front of the room. Carrie gathered their attention by tapping the microphone.
“Hi, all,” Carrie said. “We’re having trouble with the link to the Outpost, but we’re going to get started anyway.”
Robby wrinkled his forehead at that. He excused himself and slid through the rear door while Carrie began to address the gathering.
“I know you’re all aware of some concern over the drinking water. I wanted to share with everyone what I’ve learned and open a discussion about how we should…”
The door shut behind Robby and he moved fast down the hall.
He found Brad and Mike in the lounge that had been converted into a communications room. Brad was typing at a terminal while Mike looked over his shoulder.
“The link is down?” Robby asked.
It wasn’t unheard of. All it took was one of the stations along the way to go down, and they would lose their communication until someone went out to fix it. Over the years, Brad and Robby had coopted transmission lines to act as a backbone, and those links were replicated over wireless. Still, all it took was one junction to lose power and the link would go down.
“Nope,” Brad said. “That’s the strange thing—the link seems to be up. I can get a signal response all the way down to the Outpost. We’re just not getting a human response, you know? I think the phone down there is ringing, but nobody is answering.”
“That’s troubling,” Robby said.
Mike shot him a look.
“We need to send someone down,” Mike said.
“Let’s not panic,” Brad said. “I have confirmation that their emergency indicator is lit up. Let’s give them a little while to respond.”
Robby nodded.
“Yeah, okay,” Mike said, rubbing his chin.
Brad leaned over and flipped a switch. They heard Carrie’s voice come through a speaker.
“In addition to the water supply, we
’re working on a plan for storing enough food to carry us through the winter in the event that we lose power or heat.”
“Everyone else is connected?” Robby asked.
Brad used the keyboard and one of the monitors lit up with views from the other remote locations. There was a contingent of families in Gladstone, a small settlement north of Boston, and a group that lived near the lake in Buffalo. There was an empty square where the feed from the Outpost should have been displayed. The other locations didn’t have video feeds that came back to Donnelly—they were only represented by green dots on a list.
“She’s doing a good job of communicating the urgency,” Mike said. “A couple of small groups are coming back to Donnelly. I think we’re going to be okay.”
“We can hope,” Robby said.
Back in the auditorium, the speech was over and the people gathered were lining up in the aisles to ask questions. Most of the people wanted to know about the logistics—who would be organizing the storage, and how they were going to coordinate what to grow and gather.
Robby nudged Romie.
“We should probably head out,” he said.
Romie nodded.
Janelle was back to her book. She let Romie guide her forward with a hand in her back. Jim was over talking to a group of kids. He broke away and jogged to catch up with them when Robby waved to him.
Out in the hall, they saw Brad coming out of the lounge.
“We’re going to go pack up,” Robby called. “We’ll head out first thing in the morning?”
They paused and waited for Brad to catch up.
“Back to Gladstone?” Brad asked.
“Of course,” Romie said. “You want to stay here?”
“Yes! I vote that we stay here,” Jim said.
“You don’t get a vote,” Robby said to his son.
“I’m thinking about the communication,” Brad said. “If the links do go down, shouldn’t we consider staying up here where the bulk of the people are? We would be most useful up here.”
“Who would take care of our place?” Romie asked.
“Will there be anything to take care of?” Brad asked. “In the worst scenario, we’re not going to have any advantage living down there. The fields are better up here. They have a better diversity of crops.”
“I don’t want to move unless we have to,” Romie said.
“It will be fun,” Jim said.
Robby put a hand on Jim’s shoulder to hush him.
“Romie, what if cars stop working? Then we’ll be stuck down there,” Brad said.
“Just like we would be stuck here,” she said. “What’s the difference?”
“Like I said, they have better agriculture up here. Most of the food we have is hydroponic. Those crops require electricity to circulate the water and grow lights. If we lose power, we’re down to just the gardens.”
“Which have always done just fine,” Romie said.
“Not in the winter. We don’t have enough to put away for a whole winter,” Brad said.
“You guys will figure something out,” Romie said, waving her hand. “You’ll expand the greenhouses over on Stafford Drive. We can always fish off the long docks.”
“Romie,” Robby said, “I have to think about the kids.”
She narrowed her eyes as she considered that.
“We all do. What’s your point?”
“I don’t want to isolate them down there when the majority of people are up here.”
“You’ve never worried about that before.”
“Because we’ve had the ability to get up here inside of a day. If suddenly that trip takes multiple days or more, then…”
“I’m not moving,” Romie said. “You guys figure out what you’re doing. That’s what I’ve decided.”
Robby glanced at Brad, who looked worried. When she was backed into a corner, Romie never changed her mind.
Chapter 41: Lisa
“I’m fine, Lisa, go check on Ashley,” Tim said.
He was pressing the bandage to his foot and trying to keep it near the fire so his wound would dry out. Penny wasn’t helping. She was soaked through and was so nervous that she wanted to press against Tim’s side.
“I’m sure that Ashley can take care of herself,” Lisa said. “Let’s get you into your tent so you can stay clean.”
“Go help Ashley first. I’ll feel better when she’s back. We don’t know what else might be out there,” Tim said.
As soon as he said that, it planted a seed of doubt in Lisa. Tim was right—they didn’t know. The rain had brought more of the fish and the river was rising fast. There was no telling what other surprises this terrible place might have for them.
“Keep Penny right here.”
“No problem,” Tim said. “She’s afraid of the thunder anyway.”
Lisa zipped up her coat and pulled her hood over her hair. At the edge of the tarp, the rain was unbelievable. It was hitting the ground so hard that it splashed up with every drop. The air was so full of moisture that it was almost hard to breathe.
Lisa pushed out into the rain. It thundered on her hood. She hunched over and made her way over to the slope down to the river’s edge. She could barely see the water below. Cupping her hands around her mouth, she shouted for Ashley. There was no reply.
Lisa had to move upriver a little to get to a point where she could safely climb down the bank. Beneath her feet, the mud was unstable. It felt like the whole bank might collapse at any moment. Lisa grabbed a branch and used it to lower herself down.
The whole shore was under water. Water poured into her shoes and her feet sunk into the mud. Remembering the fish, she got moving. Lisa didn’t want to spend any longer than necessary in the water.
Until she reached the spot where the raft had been tied, Lisa wasn’t sure she had the right spot. Everything was quickly submerging.
“Ashley!” Lisa called.
The girl was gone.
Lisa climbed the bank, slipping and clawing at the mud until she got back up to solid ground. She kept her distance from the campsite, knowing that if Tim found out that Ashley was missing he would want to come too. For the moment, he needed to keep off his injured foot.
Lisa followed the river downstream as far as she could, hoping to spot Ashley and the raft. She was certain that Ashley had simply taken the raft down a little farther to get to a safer place to tie up. It was impossible to get a good look at the river. Farther downstream, the jungle grew thick, right to the edge of the bank. Even leaning out, Lisa couldn’t get a decent view.
Somewhere, Ashley had already blazed a path while foraging. She had talked about seeing down to the next bend, where the rapids were. The thought froze Lisa in fear. If Ashley had been swept into the current, she could be in those rapids. With all three of them pushing poles against rocks, the rapids could be treacherous. Alone and in a flood, Ashley would be helpless.
Lisa found something that looked like a trail. She rushed ahead, hoping to find a better view of the river.
The rain was starting to slow down by the time Lisa realized how stupid she was. With only a vague sense of which direction the river ran, she was lost. All around her was a sea of wet leaves.
“Ashley!” she shouted. “Tim! Penny?”
Lightning flashed overhead and she heard the roll of thunder. Lisa held perfectly still. Another bolt came a few seconds later and Lisa tilted her head.
“Okay,” she whispered. “Okay.”
The echo had come from her left. Across the river, and beyond the valley, there were hills over there. If she was right about the direction of the echo, that was where she would find the river. Lisa fought her way through the brush and stumbled over vines and branches.
Each time that she heard another crack of thunder, Lisa paused and reoriented herself. Wet branches and leaves slapped her face. She was constantly wiping rain from her eyes. In the dense foliage, she couldn’t even tell if it was still raining. The water coming down could have just b
een from the leaves overhead.
There was a bright spot over to her right, but Lisa kept on her course.
“Ashley!” she yelled.
A moment later, her foot came down on nothing. If not for the dense limbs, she would have tumbled down over the edge of the cliff. Pushing her way back to safety and then spreading the leaves, Lisa saw that the river was below. Once she saw it, she recognized the roar of the water under the sound of the falling rain.
Lisa backtracked.
She found the bright spot and pushed her way out to the edge of a gentle slope. Here, the land fell away gradually and she could see the river in the distance. Where it rounded the corner, she saw the rapids that Ashley had spoken of. From the submerged trees on the far side, Lisa could tell that the river had already risen substantially.
Now that she had found the river, Lisa knew that she could make her way back upstream to the camp. She hadn’t found any sign of Ashley, but at least she wasn’t lost anymore.
Before turning around, Lisa stopped to yell one more time.
“Ashley!”
The voice came back like a whisper on the wind.
“Aunt Lisa?”
Her heart nearly stopped. It was Ashley, but the voice was one that Lisa hadn’t heard in a decade. It was the young, frightened version of Ashley who would sometimes scare herself by staying up late reading horror stories. It was the little girl who would beg to sit next to Lisa on the couch, waiting for her father to get home.
“Ashley?”
Lisa only heard a portion of the reply.
“… river.”
Lisa tore the through the jungle, running down the slope.
By the time she could hear Ashley’s voice again, Lisa was slogging through swampy mud. The River had climbed high enough to flood the plain. Even though it was only up to her calves, she could feel the current tugging at her. It wouldn’t be long before the water would be dangerous.
“Lisa!”
She pushed through branches and finally saw Ashley. The young woman was half submerged in the water, holding a branch in one hand and a rope in the other. The strain of her effort showed on her face.
