Because You're Mine(76)
Rain thundered on the roof, sluiced over the windows, battered at the door. Through the window, Alanna saw Barry stumbling toward the front porch. No time to get to the second floor. She turned and raced for the kitchen door. Unlocking it, she locked it again before she stepped out into the rain. She ran for the garage but realized it was impossible to escape by car. The rain was coming down too hard, and even the driveway was flooding.
Her cell phone.
Rain dripped from her to the garage floor as soon as she stepped inside. She retrieved her purse from the floor. At least Barry would think she was inside. It was hard to think past the pounding rain. The sound of it filled her head, numbed her panic. She locked the garage door, then went to the car and got inside the backseat and locked it, then squeezed on the floor where she couldn’t be seen if Barry looked inside.
She shivered from the cold rain that had soaked every inch of her clothes. If only she had a towel. She squeezed the water from her hair and hunkered down even tighter to warm up. Fishing out her cell phone, she checked it. No power bars. She punched in 9–1–1, but it didn’t have enough juice to go through, so she dropped it back into her purse.
She peered up over the bottom of the window. The storm had intensified, and she heard nothing but thunder and rain. Easing open the door, she crawled out of the car and to the exterior door. She raised her head far enough to peek out into the yard. Through flashes of lightning, she saw mud puddles but no Barry.
The rain was coming down too hard to see to drive. Jesse sat in the car outside Mark’s apartment and tried to decide what to do. The radio blared out the news that this wasn’t just a spring rain but a hurricane moving in for a direct hit in the Charleston area.
The announcer’s excited voice bellowed out. “This is a category two storm, but don’t let that fool you. The rain bands in this storm are particularly bad, and we can expect heavy flooding. The outer edges will reach us in half an hour.”
So it was going to get worse. He could go back inside and take refuge with Mark and Ginny, but the less time he spent with them, the better. His mother would be happy to have him home for the evening, but he wanted to be with Alanna. She was afraid of storms like this. And after the attacks, he didn’t want her alone in that house.
He stopped and shook his head. These weird certainties kept hitting with no warning. In spite of the intensifying storm, he wanted to try to make it back to the house. The small car hydroplaned along the streets, but he managed to keep the car on his side of the line. Headlamps barely pushed back the dark of the storm as he drove rain-swept streets in a line of traffic that intensified. Others were trying to get somewhere before the worst of it too.
He reached the road out of town and turned off where the road dipped before climbing a small hill. And found the basin flooded. An SUV was stalled in the middle of the water, but the occupants had already fled the vehicle. He’d never make it across in this small car.
His cell phone rang, and he saw Ciara’s name flash across the screen. He answered it, “Ciara, is Alanna all right?”
“I’ve been trying to call her but can’t raise her,” Ciara said. “The road is flooded, and we can’t get back. We found a couple of rooms at the Charleston Place Hotel. If you see her, can you be letting her know so she doesn’t worry?”
“I’ll tell her.” He ended the call. His inner urgency to see Alanna kicked up. Why wasn’t she answering her phone? This was the only road in or out, and though he couldn’t drive it, he could walk. It was only two more miles. He’d make it there within an hour, even in the storm. A small cemetery was just to his right. He could park the car there and hoof it. Maybe there would be a better way on foot through the cemetery.
Angling the car through the open gate, he parked it in a pull-off area and got out. The rain immediately soaked through to his skin. It was hard to see in such a heavy downpour. The estate was to his right, north. He struck off in that direction.
Splashing through mud puddles, he ran for the slightly darker area where he knew the hillside was located. To his relief, he saw a small footbridge over the raging water that was quickly climbing to the bottom of the bridge. He lowered his head and ran for the other side. He reached it and leaped onto the grass.
His right sneaker hit mud, and his left one hit slick grass. He lost his balance and flung out his arms to try to regain it. The momentum threw him to the right, and he went down on one knee, still sliding toward the precipice into the water. He grabbed at tufts of grass, but they were too short and wet to allow him any purchase. Gaining momentum, he hurtled toward the water.
The next thing he knew, his head was underwater and the churning current tried to keep it there. His feet touched bottom and he pushed himself upward. He had to breathe! His lungs burned with the pressure to pull in oxygen. The churning water was too dark to see through, and he lost all sense of time and location. His vision darkened even more. Where was the surface?
His head broke through and he gulped in oxygen. The turbulent water pushed him along, and he saw a tree stump coming toward him like a deadly projectile. He dived for the bottom, and though the stump struck only a glancing blow on his head, it was enough to disorient him for a moment. When he gained his senses, he found himself clinging to a rock. Pushing himself up again, he greedily sucked in air. He had to find a way out of this swollen creek.
When he dived again, he felt along the bottom for tree roots—and found them. He wrapped his fingers around the roots, then managed to land his other hand on them as well. Hand over hand, he dragged his way toward the surface along the roots. When his head broke the water this time he was along the side of the bank, but the water hurtling past threatened to tear his grip from the tree roots.