We All Fall Down

by Natalie D. Richards

  “Is something wrong with the bridge?” Hayley this time, I think. It doesn’t matter. Hayley and Madison are sort of interchangeable in my head. Like bookends. In a tent.

  Ms. Brighton holds up a hand high enough that even I can see it. I focus on her short, decidedly not-earthy purple nails. “Just hold tight. Mr. Walker’s checking it out.”

  She says that like it will solve everything. It might. Back in Marietta, Mr. Walker was a math teacher with bad breath and a collection of football bobbleheads. Out here, he’s Dr. Doomsday Prepper. He’s got enough gear in his pack to start a new society should we get lost. I glance around the sea of drippy trees surrounding us. Scary thought.

  “He’s checking the bridge,” Lucas says. “Something with the ballast maybe.”

  Plastic rustles as Madison clings harder to his arm. “Are we going to die? Oh my God, I can’t die out here.”

  Ms. Brighton laughs. “No one’s dying. Native Americans lived in these forests for generations.”

  Lucas snorts. “Uh, last night, you said those same Native Americans still have guru ghosts running around. Driving hunters off cliffs.”

  She smirks. “Guru is a Sanskrit word. That was from my first story.”

  “Whatever. There were ghosts flinging people off cliffs in the other one.”

  “No, the hunters found the cliff on their own,” Ms. Brighton says, correcting him. “The Cherokee spirits just led them away from the sacred animals they were hunting.”

  “The only thing I’m hunting out here is a hot shower and cable TV,” Lucas says.

  Ms. Brighton’s smile goes wide. “Then I’m sure you’re safe. So let’s all stay positive.”

  I’m positive I’m soaked. I’m positive I hate hiking. I’m positive this trip will go down as the worst choice of my young life, but I’m pretty sure she doesn’t want to hear any of those things, so I keep my mouth shut. I squeeze my way between Jude and my tent mate, Emily, so I can see better.

  “Oh, the things the forest will teach us!” Ms. Brighton seems delighted at the prospect.

  I bite back a grin. Kooky or not, I like her. Granted, the Church of Brighton would be a cobbled-up mash-up of her choice—part Buddhism, part Cherokee spirituality, and a whole lot of all-organic-all-the-time. But she’s nice.

  She points ahead. “Oh, Mr. Walker’s headed back. See? It’s probably fine.”

  Mr. Walker stomps up the streambed, looking grim. “We’ve got a problem.”

  Or it’s not fine at all.

  “What problem?” I ask.

  “Bridge is out.” He wipes his rain-soaked face like there’s nothing more to say.

  I look up at the narrow metal structure. It’s a little rusty and worse for the wear, but overall, it seems intact.

  “It’s suspended over the water,” Jude says, his soft voice surprising me. “Isn’t that how bridges are supposed to function?”

  Mr. Walker turns away from Jude like he didn’t say anything at all.

  “Something’s wrong with the supports, smart-ass,” Lucas says.

  Mr. Walker nods at Lucas and points out a sagging seam and some cracks in the dirt that are apparently scary dangerous signs or something. I don’t care enough to make suggestions. This is somebody else’s show falling apart, and I’m just going to stand here like a stagehand waiting for someone to tell me what to do.

  “OK, so now what?” Ms. Brighton asks, her oh-so-positive voice dipping a little.

  “We can’t trust the bridge. We’ll go down and cross the river on foot.” Mr. Walker taps the GPS on his arm. “We got a flash flood warning a while back, so I want to get on the other side while we still can.”

  “But we’ll get wet if we don’t use the bridge!” Hayley (Madison?) gripes.

  A laugh coughs out of me.

  “I’m already freezing,” Madison adds. Or is it Hayley? No, it’s definitely Madison. I can tell because she’s the one whose arm is always snaking toward Lucas.

  “I want to go home,” Hayley says.

  We will probably lather, rinse, and repeat this twelve more times in the next hour. These two have been a torrent of complaints. I can’t blame them. This place is like woodsy purgatory.

  Still, Mr. Walker has a point. It’s an easy descent to the stream, and it still looks shallow, but with all this rain, that might change. And then we’re stuck here. We’re at the halfway point of the trip now, so any kind of delay could mean another day out here. I’d cross a leech-infested river of blood if it means getting out of this forest sooner rather than later.

  “Should we just camp here tonight?” Ms. Brighton asks.

  “Camping by the stream is risky. We could run into a bear. Plus, we might not be able to cross tomorrow.”

  Ms. Brighton takes a breath like she wants to argue but goes quiet again.

  “It’s a bad idea,” Madison says. “I don’t want to cross.”

  “Let’s stay upbeat,” Ms. Brighton says. “We could talk about what purpose this might serve.”

  Please let’s not.

  Gauging from the grumbles of my fellow campers, I’m not the only one thinking it as we scrabble down the hill, mud caking thicker on my boots with every step.

  “Maybe we’re going to be fish in our next life.”

  Ms. Brighton laughs, looking pink cheeked and pretty despite the rain. “Never say never.”

  Madison sighs. “This whole thing is proof that I shouldn’t have signed up so late.”

  “The homeless shelter mission had openings too,” Ms. Brighton says.

  “Well, this mission had certain motivating factors.” Madison’s eyes trail to Lucas. Again.

  Hayley sighs. “Also, our parents didn’t want us in the bad part of town.”

  Lucas snorts. “You do realize poor isn’t contagious.”

  “Isn’t it?” Jude asks him. They’ve been at it since the parking lot. It’s annoying as crap.

  “Everyone, quiet. We need to move.” Mr. Walker’s voice is tight. Something’s wrong. But he’s halfway across, and the water is still below his knees. It’s moving quickly, but it seems OK. So why is Mr. Walker scanning the horizon like a soldier?

  When he’s on the other side, he relaxes. “All right, let’s move. You’ll get to test those waterproof boots here. Emily, you first. Then Jude and right down the line.”

  I stumble to the edge of the stream, rocks slipping and scattering under my boots. Jude’s next to me, earbuds in and his chin tipped up like we need a reminder that he’s better than us.

  Emily begins to cross with Jude behind her. Then me and Lucas and the rest of the group after. I can’t help but think about what we must look like, this conga line of plastic-wrapped hikers splashing its way through the river.

  Jude gasps ahead of me. Before I can ask, cold water gushes over the tops of my boots, then past my ankles. I stop when it reaches my knees. It’s higher. We’re not even halfway across.

  Lucas splashes up from behind, rising over me. “Need me to carry you?”

  I don’t dignify the question with a response. Behind me, Hayley and Madison shriek. I turn to see a glimpse of all three of them, Hayley on her butt in the water and Madison and Ms. Brighton rushing back for her. The girls are laughing hysterically.

  “We’re almost halfway,” Lucas says, ignoring them. “Keep going.”

  “Should we help?”

  “They’re fine. Move.”

  “Stop playing around back there! Get them up, Ms. Brighton,” Mr. Walker barks, then more softly to the ones climbing out, “Good job, Emily. Jude! Earbuds out!”

  Mr. Walker looks downstream, and his expression hardens. “Sera, speed up now.”

  I look up and wish I hadn’t. I don’t like the urgency in his tone any more than I like the rushing sound of water I hear off to the east.

  “Is tha
t rain?” I ask because I want it to be rain. Or hail. I want it to be anything other than what I already know it is.

  Mr. Walker’s eyes flick upstream, his face going pale. “It’s flooding,” he admits.

  My hope snaps like a rubber band. Fear billows out in its place, making me woozy.

  “Sera, move!” Lucas says, prodding my backpack.

  “I got it!” I snap, plowing ahead.

  Hayley screams again behind us. They’re all three shouting. Something about a shoe. Someone’s stuck. Mr. Walker is yelling at Emily and Jude to back up, back up! And then the rain changes, the shower shifting into a driving roar with drops so hard they feel like sand spraying down. Everything is garbled. Muffled. Fear pushes the hair up on the nape of my neck.

  We’re not going to get across.

  “Go, Sera!”

  Lucas. His voice right behind me, his wide hand just under my backpack, urging me forward. I stumble, spreading my arms wide for balance.

  “Lucas, help!” Madison’s cry filters through the rain, but Mr. Walker shakes his head.

  “No!” he bellows. “Move, Lucas! Ms. Brighton, pull Hayley and Madison back to shore!”

  The water is moving quicker and higher, and my boots are sucking down into the mud at the bottom. The current pushes back at me. Steps turn into half steps. Quarter steps.

  “Forget her shoes!” Mr. Walker screams. Someone’s coughing back there, but I don’t look, though I can hear their garbled cries. They’re struggling.

  “I can’t get her!” Ms. Brighton’s voice is suddenly young and small, nothing like the serene woman from before. This is scared little kid voice. “Help! Hel—”

  Someone else screams. Hayley maybe. I turn over my shoulder to see Ms. Brighton haul Hayley up and stumble back. Water’s pushing at their thighs, but they’re all three up. They’re OK.

  Mr. Walker is screaming at them. “Get back! Faster, faster, move!”

  I shriek as the frigid water laps up my thighs. Then—Snap! Pop!—off to my right. Dread spikes through me. Something’s coming downstream. I have to go. Right now.

  “Come on, Sera,” Mr. Walker says, sounding breathless.

  I rush, feet lurching. Almost there. So close now. I stumble. Lucas grabs my pack and hauls me up, and then I’m snarling at him—“Don’t touch me!”—while Mr. Walker snags one of my straps and half drags me out. Water pours down my pant legs. I’m soaked and freezing.

  I take a soggy step, and my boot slips on the muddy bank. Lucas is out too, swearing and scrambling up while Mr. Walker stares across at the girls, hands in his hair, eyes wide with terror.

  My knees are buckling, but I grab branches and exposed roots and, finally, Jude’s smooth, dark hand. Once I’m up, I follow him past brambles that snag my poncho. My hair.

  “Over here.” Jude points to a vantage point near the path. No earbuds now. He’s wide-eyed and utterly focused on the stream fifteen feet below us. Emily and Lucas are beside him, both shaking.

  There’s a tree wedged across the stream. That must have been what I heard. The water is rushing under and over it, pushing it harder and harder. And then it’s loose. I hold my breath as it rolls with the mud-brown river, snapping anything in its path.

  “The others,” Emily says softly.

  They’re lined up on the other side, mud-spattered and white with fear as the log hurtles past, ripping its way through the streambed and releasing a wall of sludgy brown water in its wake. The current surges up the banks behind it, littered with smaller branches and clumps of vegetation. Madison’s eyes track us across the water, finding Lucas and then me.

  “They’re stuck over there.” I know it’s obvious, but I say it anyway.

  Mr. Walker barks instructions at the edge of the stream. Ms. Brighton nods along, one arm wrapped around each girl, her dark braid coiled around her pale neck like a snake.

  “What’s he going to do?” Jude asks.

  “Nothing, rich boy,” Lucas says. “There’s not a damn thing he can do tonight. Can’t even call for help because there’s no signal anywhere with this rain.”

  “What will happen to them?” I ask.

  “If they listen to Mr. Walker, they’ll go set up camp on that ridge. We’ll stay here for the night, probably farther up the path. Us here, them there. Regroup in the morning if we can.”

  I whirl on Lucas. “What do you mean if?”

  “You expect us to believe he’s just going to leave them?” Jude asks.

  “That flood isn’t going anywhere soon. And I don’t give a shit what you believe,” Lucas says to him. “Since someone has to set up our tent again, I need to find a clearing.”

  Lucas storms away, and my eyes drag back to the stream. Three girls with arms wrapped around each other’s shoulders. The river gushes along, a monstrous evolution of what I just crossed, swallowing the bridge inch by inch.

  It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Not like this at all.

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