She considered. “If Aaron had an ally here in town, I sure wish we knew who it was, because the forces against us are multiplying by the minute.”
He urged them on, up the steep hillside, and she lugged herself after him. What did it mean, that Aaron had been in Oakleaf?“Trust me.”What if he had a trustworthy acquaintance or friend in town? Someone not loyal to Bullseye? Maybe that was how his phone had changed hands?
Was there someone in this treacherous situation they could actually rely on?
They stopped to drink in the shelter of a pine. A hundred yards from their position, a river plunged along a rocky chasm toward the valley below. It was full, raging even, and she imagined what it would be like to be swallowed up, like she’d almost been in the prison van. She would not have the fight in her to resist next time.
The air had grown thinner as the altitude increased, leaving her panting. Every second was precious. As she stepped over a twisted root, a stream of pebbles shook loose and rolled down the slope.
They both felt the vibrations.
Helicopter, she thought, stomach flipping. But the roar that filled the air was much bigger than the sound of rotor blades. The rumble sounded like the end of the world.
They locked eyes.
“It’s ten o’clock,” Gideon said, his face pale under the splotches of mud.
Her throat went dry. “Have we made it high enough?”
“We’re about to find out.”
The situation was bizarre, almost inconceivable. Wordlessly, she moved with Gideon, inching backward until their shoulders pressed against a pine tree with a trunk as big around as a tractor tire.
At first, it appeared only as if the river was bubbling due to a violent wind, slapping and swirling, the incoming flow too subtle to be detected. Moment by moment the level increased along with the turbulence, the volume of water burgeoning as if they were watching a time-lapse film.
The approaching surge gobbled up the streambed and reached almost to the lip. How much more could the riverbed accommodate before it spilled over to devour more ground, including the patch they stood on?
Her nails bit into her palms as they waited. The mass held steady for a moment and she thought they might be okay—until it slopped over the channel, first in a tiny ripple that soon morphed into a wall of water flooding over.
Her brain told her to run, claw her way up the rocky slope, climb the tree, do whatever was necessary to escape the wave of destruction, but she knew it was futile.
She reached for Gideon’s hand, their intertwined fingers tight.
Closer the water crept, making the ground disappear. Solid one moment, covered the next.
Like a liquid avalanche it sped toward them in a terrifying rush, pooling briefly in dips of the terrain before overflowing and continuing its mad progress.
Now only yards separated them from the flood.
Now feet.
The relentless progress left them no choices, but Gideon tugged at her elbow.
“Up.” His voice was raw as he cupped his hands and bent over. She stepped into his palms, and he boosted her up to the lowest branch. Painfully she hoisted herself over the limb and into a crouch before she reached down to grab for him.
“I’m too heavy. I’ll pull you off,” he said, refusing. The water was racing toward him, seconds away.
She grabbed his wrist, and before he could protest, began to pull him up.
His weight almost took her over, but she looped an elbow around a side branch of the sturdy limb. Muscles and bones protesting, she held on until he’d swung up next to her.
The water raged higher, gobbling the tree.
Gideon looked above them, his expression desperate. The higher branches were widely spaced, likely too flimsy to hold their weight even if they could reach. Clinging to the rough bark, they watched and prayed as the flood began to reach their position.
She’d thought going over the bridge in the van had been the scariest moment of her life, but this was worse because she was witness to the whole event—the inch by inchmarch of deadly water. They’d swim, both of them, fight with every last breath, but it was unlikely they’d survive.
She looked at Gideon, the amber of his eyes, the tumbled dark hair.
