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Mari shook her head. With the dark surrounding them the only light on was the single bulb outside of the front door.

Heath turned back to look at her and held out his arm.

Mari couldn’t wait to get down to the ground and climb up into the truck beside him.

She was exhausted and soaking wet.

All she wanted to do was go home and cry herself to sleep.

“Come on, babe.” Heath smiled at her. “Let’s go home and I’ll cook you something.”

Mari felt the stress and worry fall away from her a moment later. “Forget cooking,” she told him, “I just want to-”

BUCK

One moment he felt Mari’s fingers touch his and then a moment later, she was gone.

The stairs leading up to the front door, the stairs that Mari had been descending were just gone.

He heard the roar of water a moment later as if the wall of water coming down from the mountains had been startled into silence.

The sickening snap and crack of wood sounded more like an echo than an actual sound in his ears.

Buck was swept off his feet and he went under.

The water tossed him around, pulling him in circles.

Something hit his arm.

Or his arm hit something.

It was impossible to tell.

He couldn’t make heads or tails of which way was up and which way was down.

His only thought as he was pulled through the water, tumbling, that he needed to find Mari.

MARI

She opened her mouth to scream and only managed to choke on water.

It wasn’t clean, nor was it clear enough to drink.

It threatened to fill her lungs instead of her throat.

She threw her arms out to the side and managed to wrap her fingers around something.

Wood.

It had to be given the hard stab of a splinter in her palm.

Turning, she pulled her other arm through the water and grabbed a hold of the wood with both hands.

The water carrying her along dropped and suddenly she had her head above the flow.

Locking her arms around the wood, she stretched out her legs, bicycling them to find something to stand on or brace herself against.

For a moment she felt something underfoot.