“Yeah.” I waved him off, still looking at Ava, waiting for her to answer. I didn’t need her to. I could see the answer in her expression, but I waited anyway.
“Yes,” she murmured, “How did you know?”
“Shit.” This was too crazy to be true. “The guy we’re running from, the one who tried to take me to Atlanta, he mentioned another shelter outside Vegas and Hadley Lucas. I think he was with the group that ran you out.”
“Oh my God,” Ava said. “I can’t believe it. That night—” She paused and swallowed like remembering left a bad taste in her mouth. “It was scary, terrifying. We almost didn’t make it out alive, and we lost people. Axl got shot, and Al lost his arm. We were on the road for weeks after that. We lost so much because of those men…”
She trailed off like she was at a loss for words, and I understood. Thinking about the day Jasper got shot did that to me, and we hadn’t lost our home.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “Maybe I shouldn’t have brought it up.”
“No,” Ava shook her head as if trying to push the memories away. “No, it’s okay. I just can’t believe it.”
“If it makes you feel any better,” I told her, “I plan on killing him and making sure he suffers.”
Ava’s brown eyes snapped to me, but I couldn’t tell if it made her feel better or not, and she didn’t say anything. Maybe she was someone who didn’t take comfort from vengeance, but it didn’t matter. I wanted it. No, I needed it. And now I had more than one reason to make that asshole suffer.
12
The boat swayed as we left the bar, Ava at my side and Ash only a couple steps behind us. Behind the clouds, the sun had started to rise, turning the sky from black to gray. Through the deluge, dark and angry clouds were visible, clogging the sky. It looked ominous, reminding me of the day Kellan and I had taken shelter in the farmhouse only minutes before a tornado hit. We’d been in the bar for hours, taking shelter from the storm and talking, but it hadn’t made a difference. It was still pouring, and although the walkway was covered, it didn’t do much to protect us from the rain. It got carried on the wind, whipping against us as we walked and soaking us in seconds.
“Man, the rain is really coming down,” Ash called over the pounding as we headed toward the steps.
“It looks bad,” I said, having to raise my voice. “I think we should get inside. Just in case.”
I was in the lead, but the others followed when I headed down the stairs. We were on level five, and the rooms our group had been given were on three, while Ava was down on two with the permanent occupants.
“In case?” Ava asked.
I didn’t want to say what I was thinking. Tornado. Not only would saying it out loud scare the others, but me as well. We were on a boat in the middle of the Arkansas River. It wasn’t like we could really take cover if a tornado did hit. We’d be sitting ducks.
I finally understood that expression.
“I just think we should get inside,” I called over my shoulder as I reached level four. “Where it’s a little dryer.”
Ava’s eyes widened like she’d finally caught my meaning, and she nodded. “Okay.”
We jogged toward the next set of stairs so we could head down, keeping close to the wall to avoid as much of the rain as possible. It wasn’t easy. The wind was blowing too hard, and we were already wet. I couldn’t wait to get back to our room and take a hot shower. Thank God for steam power.
It wasn’t until we’d reached the middle of the deck that I noticed the sound. It was a quiet roar, barely audible over the pounding rain, but there was something about it that made my heart beat faster. I stopped walking and looked around, trying to figure out what it was or where it was coming from. It sounded a little bit like rain, but different, too. More consistent. Like rushing water…
Pushing my wet hair out of my face, I moved to the railing and looked back the way we’d come. Nothing. I twisted and strained, trying to see the river in front of us. The long boat blocked most of my view, but I instinctively knew the sound was coming from that direction. It had gotten louder, too. Closer.
No. It wasn’t getting closer. We were getting closer to it.
“What is that?” Ash called from behind me.
I shook my head, barely looking at him before charging down the deck, heading toward the front of the boat. My heart was racing, and my shoes slid on the wet wood, forcing me to hold on to the railing as I moved. Behind me, the thud of footsteps sounded, telling me the others were hot on my trail, but I didn’t look back. I was too focused on the river in front of us, too busy trying to see through the pouring rain.
When I finally spotted it, I skittered to a stop, both hands gripping the railing to stay grounded. The roar had gotten louder now, reminding me of a train or the recording Logan and his people had used to try to disorient Andrew’s men. It seemed to slam into me, making it difficult to think, but focusing on what I was seeing wasn’t hard. It was literally the only thing I could concentrate on.
What could only be described as a rush of water was heading our way. It was as if the river had swelled, possibly from a flash flood or a dam in a connecting waterway bursting, I didn’t know which. What I did know was that what looked like a wave was headed our way, making the river swell and rise. It rolled, carrying debris with it. Logs. Pieces of homes and buildings that had been taken out by the storm. Old, rusty cars that hadn’t been used in close to a decade. I could see it all, but even more terrifying was the knowledge that it was going to hit us, and despite how big the boat was, I didn’t think we’d make it through the impact unscathed.
And we were out in the open.
“Run!” I shouted.
I spun and slipped, grabbing the railing again to try to stop myself from falling. It didn’t work, and I went down, slamming onto the hard deck. I landed on my hands and knees but pulled myself forward, sliding through the rainwater puddled on the ground. Ash hadn’t moved, and his eyes were big and round as he stared at the wave of water and debris, but Ava had come back to help me.
She held her hand out and shouted, “Come on!”
I took it, gasping as I pushed myself up, and in seconds I was on my feet and we were running, calling for Ash as we ran by.
He took off after us, only a couple steps behind. My heart was pounding in my ears, but it didn’t drown out the roar of the water at my back. I had to think, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t do anything other than run, but I knew I had to do more. Had to get to safety. Had to make sure these kids were safe.
But where? Inside was the logical choice. Or was it? Would the boat be able to withstand the wave? If it did, we’d be safer inside. But if it didn’t, going into the boat might only result in getting trapped inside a sinking ship.
But Kellan was inside.
A sob burst out of me when we reached the stairs. My hand was still in Ava’s as she ran, heading in the direction we’d been going before we saw the wave. It killed me a little to do it, but I tugged on her hand anyway, forcing her to stop.
She spun to face me, her wet hair whipping around and getting plastered to her neck. “What?”
“Up!” I said, and again almost burst out crying.
I wanted to go down. I wanted to go back to my room on level three and find Kellan. I wanted to be with him.
But I had to think about the two teenagers with me. As much as it hurt, they needed my help.
“We have to go up. If we sink, it might be our best chance of surviving.”
“Sink?” Ash said, his eyes as wide as Ava’s.
“Go up,” I repeated, refusing to respond. Refusing to acknowledge even to myself that sinking was a very real possibility.
Ava nodded, sending her damp hair flying, then dropped my hand. She charged up the stairs without looking back, but she didn’t need to. Ash was a step behind her.
I didn’t move at first. My heart beat against my ribcage as I stared at the wave headed our way, now so close to the boat that I knew I had little
time left to make a decision. The kids were on their way up. They might be okay. I could go now. Could head down and maybe make it inside before the boat sustained too much damage. I could make it to Kellan.
How could I leave him?
Everything we’d been through flashed through my mind like a movie, a lifetime of memories replaying themselves in an instant. It made me ache for him in a way I never had before, and it made my legs tremble so that I was forced to grab onto the railing. I looked up, watching as Ava and Ash climbed. They were a level above me now, almost out of sight. I could go. Now was my chance.
Just as that thought entered my head, Ava stopped and spun to face me, almost like she could read my mind. She looked back, and our eyes met, hers holding me captive with their intensity and fear.
“Come on!” she called, waving me forward.
I shook my head ever so slightly.
Ava took a step toward me. “Come with us!”
She took another step in my direction, and I saw Ash had stopped as well. He was standing behind her now, gasping for breath. Watching to see what she would do.
If I turned around, she would follow. I knew it. Then Ash would come, too. They’d both go with me, and we’d be inside, trapped if the boat sank. They’d die, and it would be my fault.
The boat rocked and groaned, throwing me off balance. I gripped the railing harder, holding on to it for support, and looked toward the front of the boat. The wave had slammed into us, sending water and debris rushing over the railing, and logs and sticks now littered the deck. Another wave hit, and more water sloshed over. Then another, making the boat rock even more. From somewhere in the distance, the shattering of glass rang through the air, either as debris hit windows or things inside the boat fell and shattered.
We were out of time. I had to go.
I turned back to find Ava and Ash still watching me, and I nodded once before pulling myself up. They stayed where they were until I’d reached them, and together we dashed for the next staircase. The boat rocked back and forth as it was tossed by the waves, and the crack of debris—logs or maybe even metal—getting sucked into the paddlewheel reverberated through the air in splintering intensity that made the entire boat shudder. The grinding of the engines told me they were struggling to keep going. How long before they gave up? How long before we sank?
We’d made it up one more deck before the roar made me stop. It had swelled in a way I couldn’t explain, reaching a crescendo that told me something very bad was about to happen. Part of me wanted to keep moving, but another part needed to see. Needed to know what we were in for.
Instead of heading for the stairs, I moved to the side of the boat again. We were on deck five with only one level above us—the sun deck—and we were already well above the water level. Not that it mattered, I soon learned.
“Oh my God,” Ava said, focusing on something behind me.
I spun and stood frozen in horror.
There was a fork in the river ahead of us where another waterway fed into the Arkansas River, and I could now see that it was the source of the surge. Water poured from it, slamming into the larger river in a violent burst of liquid and debris. It had flooded the surrounding banks and created lakes where once there had been fields. It had swallowed up houses and covered trees until only the very tops were visible. Whether it was a flash flood or something else—a broken damn would have been my guess—it no longer mattered. It was going to hit us, and when it did, we would sink. Either from the impact or from the debris being carried on the water.
I turned to face the others. “Can you swim?”
Just like earlier when I’d said we should take cover, Ash didn’t seem to be able to get what I was saying.
“Swim?” he repeated like he’d never heard the word before.
“Yes,” I called. “Swim.”
“We can’t swim in that,” Ava said, not taking her eyes off the raging water.
She was right, but I knew if we could just stay on the boat long enough to get pushed to calmer water, we might stand a chance of surviving. Assuming it stayed up that long.
“I know. Which is why we have to stay on the boat as long as possible.”
I had a sudden flashback to Titanic, to watching Jack and Rose try to make it to safety as the ship slowly went down. Wasn’t it Jack who’d said they had to stay on the boat as long as possible? Had I gotten the idea from him? I didn’t know, but I did know that in this situation, it was our best chance of surviving.
Pushing the memories of the long dead Leonardo DiCaprio aside, I scanned the surrounding area as I tried to decide what to do. Life jackets would have been nice, but even those wouldn’t guarantee our survival if we fell into the water rushing past us right now. It was too violent, too littered with debris. Even if the waves didn’t suck us under, we were likely to get hit by any number of things floating in the water.
Which was why we had to stay out of the water as long as possible.
The boat was already rocking, reminding me of a toy ship being tossed by waves. Never before had I imagined water could be so violent, but as I stumbled to the left, barely righting myself before I was thrown in the other direction, it occurred to me that Mother Nature had more ways to kill me than tornados. The river could be just as deadly, as I was about to learn.
Something slammed into the side of the boat, making the whole thing shudder. I had a good grip on the railing at my side, but Ava stumbled, only staying upright thanks to Ash.
I was still trying to formulate a plan, watching as water rushed from the junction in front of us, when a swell formed. It rolled, bringing logs and debris to the surface before forcing them back down, and out of nowhere a vehicle appeared. It was right next to us, more and more of it being pulled to the surface as the water pushed it forward. I barely had time to register what was going to happen before it slammed into us.
The boat shook in a way it hadn’t before, like an earthquake more than a boat rocking on the water. It scared me more than every other second up until this moment because I knew what had happened even before I looked over the side.
Still, seeing the huge hole in the hull of the boat made me tremble.
“We’re going to sink!” Ash cried.
I wanted to tell him I knew, but I couldn’t find the words.
“What do we do?” Ava asked.
I turned to face her as a new sound rose. This one was harder to identify, but mainly because it was something I’d never heard before. Still, somehow, I knew it was the sound of water rushing into the hole the truck had just made, filling the hull of the ship.
We were going down.
Cries began to rise from other parts of the boat, and here and there people rushed from cabins. Some were on the same level as we were, only farther down and closer to the front, while others were farther away, and there were still more from other levels, cries of fear and horror from people I couldn’t see. I leaned as far over the railing as I could and scanned the levels below us, hoping to see Kellan standing on another deck or our balcony, but he was nowhere in sight. He couldn’t have slept through this. He had to be out of our room, maybe searching for me. I hoped so.
A groan made me tear my gaze away from the third level, and once I did, I noticed how high the water had gotten. It was pouring onto the first deck now, covering it and trapping anyone who hadn’t already moved to higher ground.
No, I realized, it wasn’t how high the water had risen, but how low we’d gotten. Because we were sinking.
I’d barely had time to register that piece of information when something floating in the water caught my eye. It flailed, arms flying, and my heart jumped to my throat. It was a person.
Someone from the boat?
I didn’t know for sure, but I knew that whoever it had been, they wouldn’t be the last person to go overboard.
We needed to be ready.
Hands still gripping the railing, I focused on the teenagers behind me. Like me, they were clinging to the boat s
o they could stay on their feet, watching me with wide eyes. Waiting for me to tell them what to do.
The engines had stopped, and the violent water was pushing us back the way we’d come. The entire first level was underwater now, but even more terrifying was the realization that the boat was leaning. The hole was in this side, close to the front, and the entire ship was already heeling dangerously. If we didn’t get to the other side of the ship, we would be underwater before long.
“We need to get to the other side,” I said, my gaze already scanning the surrounding area as I decided what to do. “If we stay here, we’ll end up in the water. On the other side we’ll be able to find a more secure place to wait. Once we’re in calmer waters, we can decide what to do.”
Ash and Ava nodded but said nothing.
We were only six feet from a door, but getting there would prove to be difficult. Between the way the boat was leaning and the wet deck, the only way to make it was to get down on my hands and knees. I used the railing from the nearby staircase, getting a good grip on it and pulling myself up. The muscles in my arms screamed in protest, but I managed to make it.
Ash copied what I’d done, pulling himself after me, then turned to help Ava over as well. By that point, I’d already moved to the other side of the staircase and was crouched with the railing at my back, panting as I tried to figure out how to cross the space separating us from the door. There were benches on the deck, mounted to the floor, and if Ash gave me a boost, I thought I could grab hold of the leg and pull myself over. From there, the door we needed to get inside would be within arm’s reach.
Ava scrambled toward me, pulling herself along the slippery wood floor so she was at my side. Ash was right behind her, gasping but hanging in there. I didn’t say anything right away, giving them time to catch their breath. The metal railing at our backs would keep us from tumbling over the side of the boat and into the water, but we didn’t have long. The more the boat leaned, the harder it would be for us to get through the interior of the boat and to the other side where we’d be safer.
The Oklahoma Wastelands Series Box Set | Books 1-3 Page 69
