Scratchgravel Road (Josie Gray Mysteries #2)(90)
Mitch turned. “You gonna throw him a rope? What the hell can we do?”
Josie yelled over the engine, “Let’s at least get up there closer.” She looked at Sandy and Diego, who stood together watching off to the side. “Do you have any chains?”
Mitch yelled, “It’s too late! Somebody call and tell him to leave the machine. Just get out and let it roll.”
“He can’t jump into a mudslide! He could kill himself getting out. That trencher could roll on top of him,” Josie said.
In a matter of seconds the slabs of mud had gained momentum, floating on the loose desert sand, mixing with the slew now pouring down the mountain. It had turned into a river of thick mud. The edge of the slide reached the trencher and began to turn the machine, finally taking it down the hill with it. The operator had no control. The tracks would be useless with nothing solid to grab on to. Josie prayed the massive machine wouldn’t tip.
Otto and Josie followed Mitch and Diego on the ATVs, up the hillside toward the trencher, staying on the solid ground to the right of the flow. Josie looked behind her and saw Sandy driving the Excursion back toward the plant before it got stuck in the mud.
As they came toward the machine, it tipped on its side, the cab moving in slow motion, the massive trencher slipping down into the middle of the mudslide. The windows were covered in thick sludge and the driver was no longer visible. They watched in awe as it was swept away, on its side, like a paper boat floating in a pond.
*
The mudslide stretched for about two miles to the left of the plant before the slight slope it was following flattened out and the mud dissipated into flat, barren desert. The trencher lay on its side completely engulfed in brown sludge. Otto and Mitch each drove the ATVs within thirty feet of the machine and had to stop. A layer of mud stretched around them, slowly flowing outward in all directions. Josie and Mitch both waded through almost a foot of thick mud to reach the trencher. After several torturous steps, Josie pulled her feet out of her wader boots, which were forever lost to the mud, and then pulled her muddy socks off. She pulled her poncho over her head and left it in a heap on the ground.
Josie yelled out to the driver, but heard nothing. In her bare feet, she approached the tracks and tried to find something to grab hold of to pull herself up, but every surface was slick. With the trencher lying on its side, it was almost impossible to find a foothold. Mitch stood beside her and laced his hands together.
“Step up here. I’ll boost you up,” he said.
She placed a foot in his hands and he easily pushed her up and onto the side of the machine, almost on top of the door.
She took careful steps on the slippery surface, then, bending over, she reached down for the handle and twisted it. She pulled hard on the door to break the mud seal that was caked around the edge, yanking at the door until finally it broke free. She pried the door open and found the operator looking dazed and confused, still sitting in the cab chair, still strapped in by his seat belt.
“Any place on you that hurts?” she asked.
“I don’t think so.” He struggled to speak, sounding disoriented.
Mitch managed to climb on to the machine and was suddenly standing at her side. He held one of her hands as she climbed inside the cab. The driver was lying on his side, one of his hands still clenching the steering wheel. Josie bent over the top of him and unbuckled the safety belt from around his waist.
“You think you’re okay enough we can move you? No broken bones?” she asked.
“Hard to tell. I think I’m okay.”
“I got you unbuckled. Mitch is going to put his hand down here, and we’re going to both pull you up out of the cab. You yell if anything hurts and we’ll wait for the medics. Okay?”
He finally turned his head to the side and made eye contact with Josie. “Scared the shit out of me.”
She laughed, relieved to hear him coming around. “Scared me too. And I wasn’t inside this thing! Let’s get you out of here.”
Josie and Mitch each took a hand and helped pull him to a standing position. His head appeared out of the cab and he seemed fine, just shaken up. The rest of the group had assembled and watched as he was slowly pulled from the cab. Cheers and applause broke out as he made his way down from the machine, hanging on to Josie and Mitch for support.
*
Back at the staging facility, Josie and Mitch rinsed the mud off their feet and pants using a water hose outside the main office. Sylvia Moore brought them each another pair of waders and they got back to work. The mudslide lost intensity but continued for another three hours, then finally stopped after the rain ended. Additional workers were called in and spent the day monitoring the mountainside and cleaning up the aftermath. The crew moving the barrels had managed to move only twenty-five of them into the semis before the peak crumbled. Debris and water had flowed through the center of the Feed Plant, but not enough to topple any of the decaying barrels or to invade the buildings. The explosives had worked as hoped.
When it was clear that the crisis had been averted and moved into cleanup mode, Diego called the cafeteria workers and asked them to prepare meals for the crew. A large group of women and men showed up and began preparing meals for a team that had grown to almost seventy-five. As the day drew to a close, Diego called the officers and company employees who had been a part of the initial planning effort into the cafeteria to debrief. As the bedraggled group entered the room, the cafeteria workers stood in a line and clapped. When Mitch entered he smiled and waved to a room full of cheers and applause. Josie looked around the cafeteria at the mud-covered, exhausted group of people and was proud of what they had accomplished. They had worked together as a team and achieved their goal. It didn’t always work that way.