Chapter 221
“Hang on tight, Lynnie!”
I shout as I start navigating the river. My reflexes are slowed by my wet clothes but I accounted for that before I started moving. I float and weave my way through the rocks until I’m within an arm's reach of the branch yet still ten feet upstream from it. Unfortunately, I don’t see any more rocks jutting up out of the water. This means I’m going to float quickly towards her and only have one chance at grabbing her.
I duck down into Madilyn’s hair as I momentarily hold her trembling body against me, the sudden boom of thunder snatching my very breath away. Madisyn’s screams echo as does the cracking of the branch beneath her. I’ve got to move as I know that branch isn’t going to last much longer.
“Lynnie, baby. I need you to trust me.”
“Okay.”
Her tiny voice squeaks as her trembling hands tighten around the fabric of my shirt again. I look around again, verifying my plan one last time before jumping into the current. I quickly turn myself around so I’m floating backwards with the current. The branch cracks again, a large portion of it splashing into the water behind me. Her screams getting louder is the only way I’m even aware that she didn’t fall with it.
The current continues to carry me faster as my adrenaline and general need to survive allows me to forget about my injuries. I curl my right arm around Madilyn, pushing her higher so she can breathe while digging my feet down into the soft mud, fighting against the will of the river to slow my approach towards Madisyn. Just as my efforts start to pay off, the tiny flailing legs of Madisyn come into view.
“Maddie, jump!” I yell above the roar of the river.
Somehow not only does she hear me but understands the meaning behind it and allows herself to fall from the tiny remains of the branch she was on. I reach into the water and grab the first thing that feels human, pulling her hard above the water.
Her head breaks the surface choking, sputtering and crying but alive. I gather her into my arms as I fight the quickly deepening water. I keep at it, struggling to find my footing in the swollen river losing my shoes somewhere along the way.
A sudden shift in the depth combined with the intensifying wind and rain of the incoming storm pulls us harshly under the water. I tighten my grip around the girls, waiting for us to stop tumbling through the water. My foot touches the bottom just enough for me to push off it, forcing our heads to the surface. I keep us above the water just long enough to hear three gasps before we’re violently pulled under again.
We’re getting tossed and tumbled around like rag dolls and it’s only as I stretch to reach the bottom that I realize that we’re free falling without ever leaving the water.
It takes several seconds of struggling to push the three of us away from the downward pressure of the falling water but to my relief I find the bottom and give it a hard push, kicking my legs, vigorously fighting to get to the surface.
I am relieved when we finally break through, gulping in the air after several minutes without it. I slowly lay my head back, hissing as the water hits the gash I didn’t realize I had, testing the buoyancy of the water.
It’s only as I lay back that I realize how calm the water is. I slowly open my eyes to find that we are in a place that feels a lot like home. We are now in the center of a large lake located deep within a cave. I kick my legs lightly, treading water as I adjust my grip on Madisyn.
Once my sight adjusts to the very small amount of light present in the cave, I’m able to calculate that we are approximately thirty feet from the closest shore line.
“Lynnie. Maddie.”
“Yes sir.” Their voices tremble from fear and cold in unison.
“I need you to trust me. We need to get out of the water quickly. If lightning strikes the river it could hurt us badly. Maddie, I need your help. I need you to unzip my jacket to free your sister.”
Her tiny hand trembles as she reaches for the zipper, pulling it down slowly so as not to hurt her sister.
“It’s very important that you follow my directions. I’m going to position us back on our backs. That’s the easiest way for us to float so we can kick our way to the shore. I need your help getting you in a good position. You need to lay on your back with your heads on my shoulders. You’re going to lay on my arms while my hands support your bottoms. When I tell you we need to kick together otherwise we will only go in a circle. Do you understand what I need from you?”
I’m wheezing hard during my explanation and it doesn’t go unnoticed.
“Are you okay, Cole? You don’t sound good.”
“I’m okay, Maddie. We can’t stop sweetpea. Stopping will kill us.”
Her eyes are wide with fear but I refuse to lie about the situation that we’re in. Madilyn screams as thunder booms close enough to shake the walls of the cave. This storm is way too close for us to be in the water.
I work with the girls to get them in the position that I need. I start kicking first followed quickly by the girls. They sync their movements effortlessly and despite their inefficiency their valiant effort added the speed and floatation we needed to the situation.
Just as we’re all tiring from our ordeal my feet scrape the bottom telling me the shore is near.
“Grab my hands.” I direct them as I find my footing and stand up out of the water.
I find that it’s up to my abs but seems to be quickly getting shallow the more I walk. It takes a great effort to get my legs to work while dragging two little girls through the water. I’m grateful when Madisyn realizes she can stand and walk, relieving the agonizing pain pulling her through the water is causing my broken arm.
Even though I don’t let go of her hand, supporting her own weight is a huge relief that is soon followed by Madilyn making the same valiant effort.
We all clear the water by several feet before I collapse to my knees, wheezing hard from the ordeal that I know is far from over. It’s during this momentary break that my adrenaline drops enough to give me the warning I don’t want to feel, my arm and head are both screaming and I know I don’t have a lot of time to get all of us to safety.
“Girls, I need your help getting my coat off. My right arm is broken so I need you to start on the left.”
I’m completely lost as to how I managed to save them from the river and even more lost as to how to get them home. Madisyn finishes unzipping my coat as Madilyn gently tugs my left sleeve free. I use my left to gingerly remove the sleeve from my right revealing a revolting scene. My arm is twice its normal size from just below my elbow down to my fingers. My exam of my own arm stops at my wrist, which is misaligned in such a way that my arm is shorter than it should be.
“Fuck.”
I can’t help but whisper as Madisyn bursts into tears. Before I can even ask she’s apologizing through the hiccups of her tears as she realizes that was the hand she was holding as I dragged them through the water. I pull her gently into me, holding her until she calms.
I sigh hard as I mentally curse the severity of this late May storm pounding the land. I get the girls to help me create a sling for my arm and after a few adjustments, force myself off the ground with a wheezed groan. I hate the idea of leaving the safety of the cave where we are at least dry and protected from the lightning but I know I’m not far from blacking out from the pain or even slipping into unconsciousness due to the violent double hit I took to my head. I’ll be lucky if my skull isn’t broken as well.
I scan my surroundings again, standing and being out of the water giving me a different perspective as I search for any light source that could possibly lead us out.
It takes several minutes for my eyes to land upon a well worn trail leading away from the lake we were in.
“This way.” I announce quietly knowing that they are beyond scared and the pain that my own words echoing off the cave walls would create.
I amp myself up the best I can thinking of all the things I will have to go through to remove myself from the pack that was never my family. I have to stay strong. I can’t let them know how afraid I am, afraid of my own failure. Afraid that after I saved them from the painful, relatively quick death of drowning they now may be faced with the painfully slow one of dehydration and hypothermia.
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