Flash Point - Savannah Kade Page 0,30
“How did you get out there?”
First, he shrugged, but then quickly added, “I fell in the water. And when I climbed out, I was up here. I don't know how to get back to the side.”
The kid was already wet, and she didn't want to be wet, too. If she got wet, it meant she went home. It meant Leo Evans was the only one left to search for Dalton Ryder.
Jo didn't like those numbers. It was against protocol to search alone, and she didn’t like the idea that Leo might go out by himself. He knew better, but she also didn't quite trust him not to do it.
So she talked as she rigged a line between Jason and herself. “Don’t reach out. Don’t slide off the rock. I’ll just keep tossing it until I put the end in your lap.”
She talked him through, taking another throw before hauling the rope back—wet—for another attempt. She kept him engaged while she did it, asking about his ankle and his arm.
“My ankle feels better now,” he said. “I can move it okay.”
“What about your arm?” Jo walked him through a quick field test of getting him to squeeze the arm as she watched to see if he flinched. When he didn't, she hoped again that he'd completely over-diagnosed himself the first time.
Fifteen minutes later, she'd managed to climb into the thin waders she’d brought down with her. They didn’t really fit her—more of a one size fits no one thing. They would protect her legs just enough to make it through the water … if they didn’t tear and if the water wasn’t even an inch higher than it looked from here.
Jo narrated all her actions loudly for Leo above and then added extra instructions for Jason after telling the boy that she was narrating to her team member. She explained that Leo was out of sight at the top so that he didn't slide over the edge.
When at last she had Jason in her arms, the extra weight of the boy made her walk back through the rushing water ever harder. When thunder and lightning split the sky directly above them. Jason squealed and grabbed on to her tighter, disrupting her balance.
Jo barely managed to hang on, keep them both upright, and not let his actions topple them both into the roiling creek. But in a split second, as she did all of that, she turned her head at the heavy pounding rushing noise that followed the end of the thunder.
For a moment she’d thought the sky was just rumbling extra, but it wasn’t the sky making the noise. She stood in two feet of water with her lower body encased in the waders she’d brought down for just this purpose, but it wasn't going to be enough.
She watched as—upstream from her—the rush of oncoming water caved the muddy walls of the ravine in as it passed. Everything churned from clear to brown as the rush came at them like a tidal wave.
For a moment, Jo froze. But she quickly broke the mental lock and yelled up to Leo.
“Mudslide!”
Chapter Nineteen
The muddy water rumbled and rolled its way down toward her, almost like a cross between a crashing wave and a roll of mud and debris that moved like lava.
It wasn't quite as quick as the creek water had been, but it was tumbling toward her more than fast enough to be petrifying. Jo knew exactly what it was: the mix of branches and rocks that rolled with it would pummel her if she was pulled under. The thicker quality would act like quicksand, only much faster. And Jason? If the child, already weak and cold, was caught up in it? He simply wouldn’t survive.
The rock Jason had sat on was a little downstream of her entry point. So Jo had to aim toward the mudslide; it was her only means of escape.
“Leo?” she yelled up again. But even as she said it, she realized he'd heard and understood her the first time she’d called.
Her line had gone tight. There were too many things that needed to be done simultaneously, but she couldn’t do all of it. Her heart pounded, but she refused to let the fear take over.
Jo opted to keep moving, despite the fact that she was holding the boy cradled in her arms. Jason Ryder was small for his age, and she’d intended to carry him this way for balance until she could get to the edge of the