Looking down at Brandy’s face, Auralia rose onto her toes and kissed Creed good and hard. “I have to take care of Brandy.” She snapped her fingers, “Rou, snuggle.” And Rue came over and lay against Brandy’s chest.
“Give me a picture of what’s going on down there.” He stood with his hands on his hips, facing Auralia’s car, assessing. “How’d you even know to go look?”
Auralia told the story of being Morrison’s lifeline.
“You remember that time we were out on the pontoon and you stepped on something in the silt, and it scared yousilly?” Creed asked. “I never saw anything like that before or since.”
“I remember. I actually thought about that very story. But over here in the silt. Over there,” Auralia pointed at her car, “I thought about drowned souls finding their way out of the depths.”
“You are so grim.” He walked to a tree and set up his rope and pulley system, which he had pulled from the pack on his back.
“Did you figure something out to help Sheelah?” Auralia dug through the box of supplies, fishing out her first aid kit, which included a notebook and an all-weather pencil to write down any notes that might help a doctor, along with her rescue shears to cut Brandy’s clothes free.
Auralia would work from the waist down to begin with, then she’d let Rou warm Brandy’s feet. But Brandy’s core temperature must be very low after being in the water all that time. Better to let the emergency blanket and Rue’s body heat start to bring Brandy’s temperature up.
Auralia had a fire starter kit with her, and for a moment, she considered starting a bonfire as soon as she had the woman dried and dressed, but then she remembered the drought conditions and decided that wasn’t a great idea.
“Tell me about Sheelah,” Creed said as he sat on the tote to unlace his boots and take off his socks. “She was breathing?”
“I’m guessing. I can’t say for sure.”
Creed stood to pull off his clothes, dropping them into one of the boxes. He used a magnet from his kit to fish his ear canal comms out and put them in a bag with his sternal comms button. He was no longer a tap away from his team.
“What’s the plan?” she asked.
“Two-pronged,” he picked up the life vest and pulled it on. He had to adjust the straps, and even then, they barelyclosed. “I’m going to try to open the door a crack to shove a wedge in.” He pointed at a delta-shaped rock. “Then I’ll tie off the door and swim back.” He put the bike helmet on. “Then, I’ll use the pully system to drag it wide and tie the rope off, so it holds open. Once I can get it angled so the current does the work, that should be easy enough.”
“I have my snorkel mask there,” Auralia pointed out. “It’s the only reason I could see inside the SUV.”
“That might help. Third, I’m going back in and tying the rope around Sheelah. Angling her out, I’ll swim to shore a second time and use the pulley to drag her in. There’s no time to finesse this.”
“She’ll drown.”
“I know. But she’ll drown if she stays there, too. So I bring her to shore and do CPR. My phone’s there.” Creed pointed at his pants. “If I get her to shore, call it in. Tell them to bring the defibrillator.” He tied a rope around his waist, then picked up the rock and the loose rope that would secure the door. “She’s going to have a rough ride. But if she’s unconscious, I don’t see another way, not in these white waters. And to be honest, if their SUV was any farther out than the three meters or so, I wouldn’t chance it. We called in a white-water team. They were training in the Shenandoah. They got on the road immediately, but when I checked with Logistics, their ETA wasn’t for at least another hour.”
Auralia stood and gripped his arm as she leaned her head back for a kiss. Her heart was squeezing so hard that her voice creaked when she said. “Try but don’t die.”
“Sage advice.” He chuckled before scooping her tight to his body and kissing her hard. “I love you deeply, wholly, completely. Get yourself warm. Stay safe.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Creed
Creed’s own chest was heaving as he shoved his palms deep into the flesh over Sheelah’s sternum.
Chest compressions required serious stamina, and in the military, he had trained to switch out every two minutes to avoid fatigue, which meant that he wasn’t pushing deep enough.
Auralia provided breaths every thirty compressions, and he was glad for the mini-breaks while she sealed her mouth around Sheelah’s and pushed the air in.
He’d keep going for as long as it made sense.
But they were nearing the point where brain damage was a serious consideration.
He hadn’t known Sheelah’s status when he’d pulled her out of the SUV. She might already have been dead. Auralia was right; the pocket of air in the vehicle wasn’t enough to keep someone alive for long, and both women had been using it.
“Seven minutes,” Auralia called, as Creed said, “Twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty.”
She leaned over and felt for an exhale on her cheek, nothing. Bending over, she tipped Sheelah’s head back, pinched her nose, sealed her lips, then pinched Sheelah’s nose and bent over to administer a breath.
