Page 42 of South of Nowhere

Tolifson nodded.

To Buddy, Colter said, “I’ll rev and hit the supply.”

“Yessir.” The fireman gripped the hose and walked closer to the pond. He aimed toward the area indicated.

Colter returned to the fire engine and climbed into the cab. He pulled the hand control for the engine throttle and pushed the revs up. The engine growled impatiently. Climbing out, Colter shouted, “Ready?”

“Go!” was Buddy’s response.

Colter yanked the chrome supply lever on the side of the boxy red vehicle and almost instantly the hose went rigid. Given where they were and what was happening, he couldn’t help but think: The power of water.

“Everybody!” he called. “Look for metal or glass!”

The stream blasted through the several inches of water on the surface.

Colter stared at the swath it cut.

Buddy was making good progress, firing the stream into the soup everywhere that Colter had expected the SUV to be.

And where it was not.

Everyone stared at the stream, looking for any hint of the vehicle.

Nothing.

The mayor walked up to Colter and as both men looked at the pond, Tolifson said, “I get the rearview mirror thing, but what gave you the idea they might be here in the first place?”

Colter pointed to a sign, entangled in the metal posts, concrete footers and cable from a guard fence that had once protected traffic from falling into the river.

NoFISHINGfrom Levee

It took the man a moment. Then he exhaled a sour laugh and shook his head. “Goddamn. The sign was on theriverside of the road. If it ended up here, the SUV might’ve come this way too. I saw that very sign hours ago. And didn’t think a thing of it.”

“Losing pressure,” Buddy called.

Colter glanced at the gauge. Twenty seconds of water remained.

And just then Debi Starr cried, “There!”

It was definitely the roof of a vehicle.

As the nozzle sputtered to silence and the line went limp, Buddy called, “What do we do now?”

Colter gestured back to the fire truck. “I need a ladder.”

18.

The Hinowah Fire Department vehicle did not feature a power ladder but rather two extendable manual ones. Buddy and Tolifson grabbed one and pulled it to its full length—about thirty feet. They placed it where Colter indicated: from the levee side of the mudslide to the shore of the retention pond, making a bridge about a foot above the flowing surface.

He called, “Need a chain saw!”

“I’ll get it.” Buddy ran to the truck. To Dorion and Tolifson, Colter shouted, “Sandbags.”

He hefted one himself and walked over the bouncing ladder to the vehicle and stepped into the water onto the Suburban’s roof, careful not to slip. A fall would mean a difficult extraction from the mud.

Or, if one went in headfirst, a very unpleasant four- or five-minute death.

He set the bag in the center of the roof and gestured for the others. Dorion, Tolifson and Starr formed a bucket brigade and passed the heavy sandbags to Colter, who placed them two deep on the roof, making a rectangle with an interior about three feet square. This was to keep the water from flooding into the Chevy when thehole was cut. Without the bags to stanch the flow, water would pour in and fill the van in seconds.

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