The sudden squeal that sounded like truck brakes came from out in front of them.
Doli grabbed her seatbelt to yank it tighter. “Incoming!”
Over the top of the hill on the other side of the bridge, a semi was sliding down the hill. Cab faced forward, his bed swung wildly from left to right, then decided it liked the northbound lane best and pushed the cab down the hill, crunching the mayor’s SUV and pushing into Auralia’s lane.
Auralia jammed on her brakes, but the car tailing her had left zero reaction room. She knew they’d get plowed. “Cover your face!”
What Auralia didn’t imagine at all was that the car with Morrison would try to evade the pile-up by pulling hard to the right.
The screech of metal against metal as his SUV scraped along the ancient railings was agony. The pressure of thebehemoth of a vehicle, pressing against the structure, made the railings bow outward. Finally wedged between the mayor’s car and the bridge, Mrs. Morrison came to a stop.
And even though this whole scene played out in Auralia’s mind as if she held a film under a light and could investigate the action frame by frame, she knew this was happening in the blink of an eye because a piece of metal rotated into the air and then hung there as if suspended.
Auralia was sandwiched between the Morrison family car that she had jammed into and the car behind her, which had slammed into her bumper with what seemed like full force.
Unseen by Auralia, a car had been in front of the semi. It slid along the bridge, hitting the Morrisons from a front angle at the same time that Auralia slammed into the Morrisons from behind.
The SUV flew through the railing, arced through the air, and dropped into the river below.
Auralia was thrown forward. Her face was bright with the sensation of stinging nettles, and she popped back upright as her head hit the rest behind her. Creed had adjusted it to be exactly the right height to prevent whiplash, she thought gratefully as she was thrown forward again against an empty airbag.
Doli swung her head toward Auralia like a dream-scape. Then everything popped into real time as Doli yelled, “We’re going in!”
The car rocked back and forth.
“You okay?” Auralia grunted.
“I had an acid facial from the damned airbag. I’m okay.”
They tipped down, and there was the river water churning below them.
“Brace!” Auralia yelled.
Filtering into Auralia’s assessment of the situation they found themselves in was an article her newspaper had recentlyprinted. It reported that when the legislature allocated money to pay for long-overdue infrastructure projects, this bridge had topped the list for emergency funding.
This bridge was bad.
Like the “collapse at any minute” kind of bad.
They tipped up and they could see the sky and trees.
“Shit!” Doli screamed, reaching for the grab handle.
They dipped down, and there was the water.
Auralia held her breath.
There was a scraping sound beneath them, and that’s how the car came to a rest.
“Good,” Doli said. “Are we good?”
Auralia patted Doli’s arm. “Are your camera and bag still with you?”
“Yup.”
“Here’s a plan.” Auralia reached for her armrest and pressed the toggles on all four windows to open them. If they were going in, they’d need an exit. “You are going to very slowly move from the front to the back seat with your camera. Go out the window, over that other car, and get a safe distance up that hill so you can film.”
The car rocked forward another inch, and the undercarriage scraped again, sending vibrations through the cab.
