Sean and Jenna passed without event, and Cole rolled his shoulders, not realizing how tense he’d been.
Only Steve and Mike were left. Just as they came up to the fissure in the road, a jolt shook the bridge. Cole’s first instinct was that he’d been hit by another car, but that wasn’t possible.
It took him a second to process what he saw in front of him. Steve’s quad-cab pickup lurched nose down in the widening crevice.
Cole picked up the radio as he flung the door open. “Steve! Mike! Get out!” The bridge lurched under Cole’s feet as he raced to the truck. Mike jumped the crevice just as it split even wider. He landed on Cole’s side, but fell hard and lay motionless. Steve remained in the truck and from the sound of the engine, he was attempting to reverse out of the fissure. Cole shouted again. “Leave the truck!”
They could replace everything in it. Cole knelt beside Mike, relieved when the man moaned and rolled onto his back, but his eyes were closed. Cole grabbed him under the arms and dragged him towards his own vehicle. He set him down to open the passenger door when Steve shouted. Cole turned to look and swore. Steve’s truck canted at a precarious angle, the back wheels almost off the ground. Steve leaped off the running board as the bridge shivered hard. Cole crouched, feeling like he was in an earthquake. Something must have hit a support beam. Asphalt broke away from beneath the truck and the vehicle lurched deeper into the hole.
Steve took a few steps back and jumped the now six foot gap. His front foot hit, but only the edge of the gap and slipped off. Arms flailing, he stepped his fall abruptly, his arms braced on the road as his lower body dangled over the raging river.
Cole dashed to Steve, grabbed his arms and tried to haul him up and onto the road.
“My leg’s caught on something! It’s stabbing my left leg!”
“Hang on. I have to look!” Cole hated to release the other man’s arms so grabbed Steve’s coat collar in his right hand, twisting to wrap the fabric around his fist for a good grip. With the bridge rocking, Cole carefully dropped to his knees and left hand, craning his head to look down into the hole.
The sky was growing lighter, but it was still too dark to see anything clearly. Lying flat on his stomach, he reached for whatever Steve was caught up on.
“I’m slipping!”
“I got you!” Cole found a piece of rebar tangled in the fabric of Steve’s jeans along the outer edge of his thigh. He tore at the hole, making it bigger as he struggled to see.
Rain and river water drenched him and he dipped his head against his shoulder in a futile attempt to clear the water from his eyes. Blinking hard, he assessed the situation.
The rebar had impaled Steve’s leg, but only the outer edge. There was no exit, so cringing, Cole followed the rebar with his hand to see if he could reach the end of it—to see how deeply embedded it was in Steve’s thigh. He tuned out the stream of swearing and groans that spewed from Steve. He’d do the same if their places were reversed. The hard, blunt end of the bar entered the muscle, but it didn’t seem to be in too deeply. Cole thought he could disengage it if Steve cooperated. Less than a half inch, by what he could feel.
“Steve, listen to me! I’m going to push your leg back. Work with me, buddy. When I push it back, it’s gonna hurt like hell, but it’ll be okay. You have to bring your leg next to your other one, then I can pull you up.”
“Yeah…okay,” Steve gasped.
“One, two…three!” Cole wedged his fingers between the end of the bar and Steve’s thigh, then twisted his hand so the bar pressed against the back of his hand, and with his palm flat, he pushed Steve’s leg away from the rebar, ignoring the pain as the bar gouged the back of his hand.
Steve grunted, but followed Cole’s direction. His legs swung free of the rebar.
Grabbing Steve’s left arm, Cole inched back, trying to bring the other man up onto the deck of the bridge.
The other side of the hole buckled more and the truck teetered. If it fell, Steve was sure to be taken down with it. Then Steve’s arms started slipping and Cole gripped them tighter, horrified as he felt Steve’s arms sliding out of the jacket. Pushing with his elbows, he lunged to get a better grip, and Steve’s hand shot out, grasping Cole’s forearm. But, Cole was too close to the hole and his own arms dragged over the edge. He needed something to hook his feet over to gain leverage.
Hands clamped onto his ankles as though he’d willed them there.
“Hang on, Cole.”
Sean. Relief washed over him, giving him extra strength. He tightened his fingers and hollered over his shoulder. “Pull me back!”
A second set of hands gripped the waistband of Cole’s jeans and tugged on his coat.
Before he could process who it was, the truck’s front bumper scraped against Cole’s edge of the hole as the front tires disappeared beneath the bridge.
“Pull!” The command was meant for Sean and whoever had him. The cab of the truck loomed only a few feet over Steve.
Cole contracted his arms, bringing them close to his chest as he strove to drag Steve out of the hole, but at the same time, the truck toppled and the driver’s side mirror crashed into Steve’s back.
One second Cole was holding two hundred pounds of man in his grasp, and the next, the bridge shook from the impact of the truck and he clutched only a balled up winter jacket. At the same time, he was hauled back about five feet as Sean pulled Cole’s ankles. The sudden loss of weight sent Sean stumbling back with a yell as he lost his grip, but he’d already pulled Cole to relative safety. The other set of hands tried to lift him but, stunned at the loss of Steve, Cole could only stare at the spot where Steve’s head had been then down at the empty jacket.
Then with a shout, Cole jumped to his feet, shaking off the restraining hands, he rushed to the edge. “Steve!”
Sean gripped Cole by the shoulders. “He’s gone, Cole.”
“No…I almost had him…” In vain, Cole ran to the end of bed of the truck, searching for some sign of Steve. The truck lay on its side along the fissure. It wouldn’t take much to dislodge it and send the vehicle down into the water rushing by only a few feet below. He’d hoped to see Steve still hanging on to something, but the man was gone. Truly gone.
“Dad…” Hunter took Cole’s right arm. “We gotta go, Dad. Before the bridge collapses.”
Cole looked at his son, hearing the words but having a hard time processing them. His mind felt thick and fuzzy. There was something else he needed to do. Something important. “Mike…oh my god, where is he?” Had he lost that man, too?
“He’s okay, Dad. I got him in your car. Come on.” Hunter tugged, but Cole felt as though his feet were bolted to the bridge.
Sean’s arm draped over Cole’s shoulders. “Let’s go. The rest of them need us alive.” Elly needs you. That new baby needs you.”
Cole nodded forcing his feet into action as he trudged back to his vehicle, but when he went to slip behind the wheel, Sean nudged him to the back driver’s side door. “I’ll drive.”
Hunter climbed in from the other side and Cole wanted to ask him where his car was, but he couldn’t force the words through his constricted throat. Still clutching the soaking wet jacket, Cole shivered hard. They all shivered, soaked to the bone, but Cole didn’t feel the cold. He felt numb.
Chapter Seventeen
Elly watched Jenna tend a deep scrape Cole had sustained on his left side. His left hand sported a new bandage too. Everyone was stunned and saddened when they learned what had happened to Steve, but Cole hadn’t said more than two words since Sean, Hunter and Mike had come off the bridge. “I’ll be right back, Cole.”
He sat on the edge of the edge of the rental truck passenger seat, his feet planted on the ground. Without meeting her eyes, he simply nodded.
Mike had already had a minor head wound treated and he was resting on the passenger seat of Piper and Jake’s SUV. It was the roomiest for the big man and he liked the cats.
Mike’s eyes were closed but maybe
he sensed her shadow on his face because he opened his eyes and rolled the window down. “Is Cole okay?”
Nodding, Elly gestured to the rental truck. “Yeah. Jenna’s patching him up now. How are you?”
“I’m okay. A little headache, but that’s all.”
A big bruise on his temple showed it was probably more than a little headache, but Elly nodded. “I’m so sorry about Steve. He was a good man.”
Mike drew a deep breath and opened his mouth as if he was going to confess something. That was Elly’s impression, which she pushed aside immediately because it didn’t fit the conversation. In the next instant, the expression on Mike’s face changed to sorrow and he tipped his chin to her. “Thank you. Yeah, Steve always tried to be a good guy. He wasn’t perfect…but he was good. ”
One of the cats Cole and Hunter had found leaped onto the back of Mike’s seat, eliciting a soft chuckle from the man. He reached up and scratched the kitty behind the ears, then patted his chest. The cat accepted the invitation and promptly curled up and closed her eyes.
“Well, you get some rest.”
“Thanks, Elly. And, tell Cole that I appreciate everything he did. Sean told me how Cole tried to rescue Steve.”
“I will.”
She returned to Jenna’s side, helping her treat a cut on Cole’s arm. Cole hadn’t mentioned it earlier and she raised an eyebrow at him but he didn’t notice her look. He wasn’t paying any attention to her or even what Jenna did as she closed the wound with tape applied in a butterfly pattern before she put a dressing over it.
“Do your best to keep this dry, Cole.” Jenna packed up her first aid kit as Cole stood. He’d already changed into dry clothes, and for the moment, the rain had stopped.
“Do we keep going today…or what?” Sean scrubbed his head with a towel as he sat in his vehicle and turned to look at his brother.
Cole glanced at him and shrugged. “Whatever.”
Elly bit her lip then said, “I say we keep going. The farther we get from this river, the better I’ll feel. Tonight, we should have a special meal in honor of Steve and maybe Mike will say a few words.” They had to acknowledge Steve’s death and remember the man. It was the right thing to do, out of respect and in order to get closure. She wished they could do more, but under the circumstances this was the best they could do.
When Cole moved to enter the driver’s side of his car, Elly rushed f forward. “I’ll drive. Joe will drive with the kids today.”
For the first time since Cole had come off the bridge, he seemed to see her, but his eyes narrowed. “I can drive my own damn car, Elly.”
“I know you can, but I thought you might want some company today.” She squared her shoulders, not intimidated by his glare. He was hurting and she could deal with his anger. He wasn’t angry with her. Not really.
Then she felt a hand on her shoulder. “I’ve got this, Elly.”
She looked up from the hand to find Sean at her side.
“Come on, Cole. I’ll drive. It’ll give me a break. Jenna’s missing all the women talk.”
Elly wanted to hug Sean. “Yeah, Joe’s a nice guy and all, but I think he could also use a little peace and quiet. You know how I can chat your ear off, Cole.”
Cole looked from her to Sean then threw his hands up like he didn’t care either way and sulked to the passenger side of his SUV. “Just don’t bitch about the heat. The eggs need it.”
“You got it, brother. I am looking forward to being toasty warm.”
Elly rounded to Cole’s side, catching the door before he closed it. “See you later.” She took his face between her hands and searched his eyes. For just a moment, she saw a flicker of anguish before he averted his gaze. It was enough. She gave him a quick kiss, relieved when he returned it. She backed out and shut the door, giving him a wave. He nodded.
Hunter drummed his fingers on the steering wheel as he waited for Joe to move in behind his dad and Sean, and for Sophie to come back to the SUV. Buddy had whined to go out just as they were ready to leave so since she was close to grassy area on her side of the vehicle, she took him.
He’d seen and heard what his dad had said to Elly. He hoped she understood that his dad wasn’t angry at her. Elly was astute though. She would know he was upset about Steve, and when she gave Hunter a small wave as she climbed into her car, he nodded back, relieved that she was okay. Or, as good as any of them could be after what happened.
At least his dad had her to get him through this. She was so good for him. He hoped his dad was good for her too. The first few times he’d seen his dad hold her hand or whisper something in her ear, he’d felt uncomfortable. It was new to him. His dad had gone out on a handful of dates in the fifteen years since Hunter’ mom had died, mostly when he’d been set-up by Jenna with single friends of hers. Out of all the horrible things that had happened in the last year, he was happy his dad had found a little happiness.
It would have been better if his dad would have let Elly ride with him, though. She had a calming effect and in the last two months, Hunter had become so used to little displays of affection between Elly and his dad, that he’d barely noticed them anymore. And his dad needed a little TLC about now.
The scene on the bridge replayed in his mind and he ran a dozen different scenarios where he had reacted in a way that could have saved Steve, but every scenario met with the same outcome. It was a freak accident. It could have been any of them, but Steve was the unlucky one. Even though Steve and Mike weren’t blood-related to any of them and had only been with them a month or so, in the close confines of the island, it hadn’t taken long for everyone to feel like family.
Mike had fit right in. He was easy to talk to and after he’d saved Hunter, everyone had completely accepted him. Steve, however, was more like a distant cousin or something. The man had been talkative, but hadn’t offered much information about himself. Hunter didn’t even know if he had ever been married. Why hadn’t he ever asked Steve about himself? It felt so rude and selfish now to just assume that Steve’s life wasn’t worth asking about. And now he would never have a chance to ask the man anything ever again. How many stories had Steve listened to a dinner time where everyone would bring up funny stories from their childhood, but never asked Steve about his stories? He must have had some. Everyone did.
“Everyone ready to go?” It was Sean’s voice on the handheld radio.
Hunter looked and saw Sophie returning. “Give us a minute. Buddy had to use a bush.”
The dog took a moment to shake his fur, spraying Sophie. She opened the door to let the dog in the back seat, and said, “Let me change into a different sweatshirt. This one is soaked now.”
Hunter nodded even as he continued to dwell on Steve’s death. What did he know about the guy? He didn’t have to think too hard about the first thing that came to his mind about Steve. And that was that he had been generous with his supplies; never seeming to be upset about sharing what he’d had. He’d seen Steve slip the kids candy. At first, he’d been suspicious of the offerings and made a point of never leaving them alone with the man. And then Steve had given Buddy a large chunk of fish from his own plate a few times, and Hunter even caught him down at the stables feeding Red a piece of candy cane. The man had looked embarrassed to be seen, as if his secret was out. Hunter had grinned and said it was okay. Red and Princess loved sweets. Steve had smiled and shrugged. It was apparent that the man just liked giving treats—be it to kids or animals.
“…Hunter? They’re moving.”
He shook his head and glanced at Sophie. “I’m sorry. You said something?”
“I said you might want to get going so we don’t get too far behind.” Sophie rubbed his shoulder. “Do you want to talk?”
The last thing he wanted to do was talk. “Not really.”
“Okay. But whenever you want to, if you do, I’m right here.”
He glanced at her, wrapped in a blanket, her face peeking out over it, eyes wide. “Thanks. I know.”
He wasn’t sure Uncle Sean was the right person to offer comfort. He wasn’t certain who would be the right one because how do you comfort someone who had a man’s hand slip from their grip and that man was swept to their death?
He blinked hard and coughed to cover the sniffle and swore under his breath. His dad would be okay. He was strong. But, he thought of how his father had taken Trent’s death and hoped he wouldn’t blame himself to this one too. It wasn’t his fault any more than the virus was.
To take his mind off Steve’s death, he filled it with thoughts of the baby’s birth. Even jitters about being a dad didn’t dampen the joy he felt every time he thought of the baby. Jenna had put his mind at ease about the birth. Yes, there were dangers, but it wasn’t quite the same as delivering before modern medicine just because they didn’t have electricity. Even if the Hoover Dam no longer provided power, Jenna had antibiotics for both Sophie and the baby if needed, and had other medications at her disposal.
“Hey, Soph. Have you given any more thoughts to names?” The next hour passed with them tossing names back and forth, debating whether middle names were still needed, and the merits of the baby taking Hunter’s last name when they weren’t legally married. And then she worried about a birth certificate and went on to worry about immunizations and how the baby would ever get them.
Hunter couldn’t give her an answer and they worried together until Sophie said, “Well, if we look at this way, there aren’t going to be many other kids to pass their bugs onto the baby, right? If there are only a couple of babies around, and nobody travels much, diseases won’t spread either.”
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