Page 154 of Just One Look
“I don’t see the river,” she said.
“That’s because it’s too high,” he said. “All that water? That’s the river.”
“Luka,” she said. “That’s everything out there.” She wasn’t frozen after all, because he was right. It was hard to see, just the glint of headlights on blackness, but that glint wasmoving.
He said, “I haven’t seen a car coming the other way since we left, which means the road could be closed up ahead. We’ll turn around as soon as we get to a straight bit, in case somebody’s coming after all.”
Around another curve, and he was slamming on the brakes. The shudderof the antilock brakes kicking in, the big SUV fishtailing, and Elizabeth thrown against her shoulder harness, gasping with it. Luka said, “That’s a car.Shit.”
The cold was in her head now, down her arms. Ahead of them was nothing but darkness. “Land slip,” Luka said. “The cliff came down.” But that wasn’t the main thing. The mudslide spread across the road like a tongue, yes, but there was something against the guardrail. A shape that gleamed in the reflection of the headlights, because it was metal.
A car, but surely it had been abandoned. Surely somebody had rescued whoever had been in there before the road was blocked. She hoped so, because the car was in water halfway up the tires, and the water was flowing fast.
Luka crept cautiously forward, aiming the headlights at that metal shape. And something else moved up there.
An arm, waving out of an open window. A hand.
No. No.She couldn’t breathe.
“They’ve seen us,” Luka said, and he was in motion. Between the front seats, somehow squeezing through, and rolling over the back ones. Coming forward again, holding a couple of bulky items. A heavy yellow strap with a big hook on each end, and a length of rope. He was pulling on his rain jacket, still behind her, saying, “Can you drive?”
“Yes,” she said. “But what—”
“I’ll go get them,” he said. He was tying the rope around his waist, fastening knots, his hands quick and sure.
Oh, God. Oh, God.
“We’re pulling the car out?” she asked.
“No. Water’s too high, and it’s rising. If that car goes into the river, we could be pulled in with it. I’m pulling the person out. People. Whoever’s in there. And when I’ve got them, I need you to be ready to reverse. You need to help me. Can you do it?”
She was in two places at once. Part of her was freezing up again, trying to go catatonic with shock and fear. The other part, though, was in Emergency Mode. That half won, because it had to win. This was what she’d trained for, and she knew how to do it. Working through her pain, through her fear. Working through anything.
“Yes,” she said. “I can do it.”
“Good girl,” he said. “Reverse slowly and steadily, because you’ll be pulling me. If the water rises too much, if you think it could sweep you away, reverse harder. If there’s more than one person in the car, you’ll have to drive forward again so I can get them. We’ll put it in four-wheel drive, so you’ll have the torque. But you have to reverse it.”
“I’ve got it,” she said. “Tell me what to do for the four-wheel drive.”
He told her, and she slid into the driver’s seat and did it. He was out, then, one hand on the car, battling into the rain. Under the front of the big SUV, where he’d be hooking that tow strap on, and then, with no hesitation at all, plunging forward.
Swirling water. Mud. He was wading through it like you could never stop him, lifting his feet out of the muck and planting them again, moving inexorably onward. Pulling himself forward against the other car, finally, and the water was higher already, the river surging over the road at the low spot. He was at the driver’s side window, though, and hauling somebody out of it. A slight figure, long hair streaming with rain, staggering against the water after Luka set her down. Holding a tiny lump against her body. A dog.
No. That was a baby. A little one.
Focus,she told herself, the dread trying to take her.What do you do next? Figure it out, and do that.As Luka kept an arm around the figure, holding her upright, and waved the other one.
Back up.She was panting, her breath coming too loudly, her heart beating so hard, she could feel its thud. And she was backing up. Slowly. Helping Luka pull. Back through the mud. Back through the swirling water. One step after another, both his arms around the woman, holding her tight.
They were almost there. And then theywerethere, at the car, and she hit the brakes and put the SUV in Park. The adrenaline was coursing through her body, her hands wanting to shake, but she couldn’t let them. Not yet.
The back door opening, Luka lifting the woman in. She was sobbing, hysterical, and the baby was crying. And Luka was shouting over the noise.
“One more,” he said. “Drive forward. Don’t go too far into the water.”
Motion out of the corner of her eye. More of the hillside, coming down in a slump of darkness. The water was higher now, too, and Luka was moving again, placing his feet, taking those giant strides. And she was inching the big car closer, feeling for any loss of control, dreading that sensation where you started to float. Where your car became a boat, but cars weren’t boats, and they didn’t float.
The woman was still crying behind her, though, saying, “Mum.Mum,”and the baby was still wailing. They were her patients, and she needed to take care of them. She said, without taking her eyes off Luka, “Take off the baby’s clothes. Put him against your skin.” Her foot barely pressing on the accelerator, the big car still creeping forward.
