“Battery’s dead.”
“I know.”
“Fuel?”
“Half a tank.”
“Diesel?”
“Yes.”
Adrian found a set of jumper cables.
“We have a battery pack in the truck.”
Clara shook her head.
“You aren’t walking back there.”
“We need it.”
“You won’t find the truck in this snow.”
“We know exactly where it is.”
“You think you do.”
Adrian looked at her.
For several seconds neither spoke.
Then Clara grabbed Walter’s old red winter coat from a hook.
“Fine.”
“What are you doing?”
“Showing you the shortcut.”
“You’re staying here.”
Clara zipped the coat.
“You came to my house, ate my stew, and now you’re giving orders?”
“This isn’t safe.”
“Neither is arguing with me.”
Twenty-five minutes later, they returned carrying the battery pack, two heavy tool cases, rope and a large weatherproof crate.
By then Clara’s hands were numb.
Miles connected the battery pack.
The engine coughed.
Stopped.
He tried again.
Nothing.
Theo slapped the dashboard.
“Come on.”
Miles tried a third time.
The engine turned.
Coughed.
Then roared to life.
Everyone shouted.
Clara heard herself laughing.
She had not laughed like that in years.
Adrian climbed into the driver’s position.
Clara climbed beside him.
He stared at her.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“You don’t know the old logging road.”
“We have maps.”
“The road isn’t on your maps.”
Adrian rubbed both hands over his face.
“You are incredibly difficult.”
“Walter said the same thing for forty-three years.”
Adrian sighed.
“Seat belt.”
The snowcat entered the storm.
Visibility was almost nothing.
Its headlights illuminated swirling snow that seemed to race directly toward the windshield.
Clara guided Adrian along a narrow trail behind her property.
“Left at the fallen cedar.”
“What fallen cedar?”
“That one.”
“I can’t see anything.”
“Then trust me.”
He turned left.
The snowcat tilted dangerously.
Theo shouted from behind them.
“Are we supposed to be sideways?”
“Temporarily!” Clara yelled.
They continued.
The radio crackled.
“School transport seventeen… water entering rear compartment…”
Adrian pressed the accelerator.
The snowcat pushed harder through the drifts.
Twenty minutes later they reached the ridge overlooking Glass Creek.
Clara’s breath caught.
Headlights glowed below.
A yellow school bus sat at an angle against several trees.
Dark water surrounded it.
Sheets of broken ice slammed against its wheels.
“Oh God,” Theo whispered.
Adrian stopped the vehicle.
“The road’s gone.”
A section of the embankment had disappeared beneath the river.
They could not drive closer.
Ruben opened the crate.
Inside were climbing ropes, harnesses and heavy rescue straps.
Clara stared at him.
“You happened to bring climbing equipment?”
“Bridge repair crew.”
Adrian looked toward the bus.
“We anchor here.”
Miles shook his head.
“Current’s too strong.”
“Got another idea?”
Nobody did.
Adrian tied the first rope around his waist.
Theo grabbed his arm.
“You’re not doing that alone.”
“I’m heavier.”
“That isn’t an argument.”
“It is when the water wants to steal you.”
They moved downhill.
Clara stayed near the snowcat with the radio.
She watched Adrian fight through waist-deep snow toward the flooded roadway.
Halfway down, he slipped.
Ruben and Miles caught the rope.
Adrian disappeared beneath the edge of the floodwater.
Clara screamed.
Seconds later his head emerged.
He pulled himself onto a buried section of road.
“I’m good!”
“You don’t look good!” Miles shouted.
Adrian continued.
He reached the bus.
Children appeared behind the windows.
Their faces were pale.
Their hands pressed against the glass.
The driver was conscious but bleeding from the forehead.
The bus door would not open.
Adrian smashed a side emergency window with a tool.
One by one, the children climbed through.
Ruben and Theo formed a human relay along the rope.
Miles pulled them uphill.
Clara wrapped each arriving child in blankets from the snowcat.
A little girl of perhaps seven grabbed Clara’s sleeve.
“Is my brother coming?”
“What’s his name?”
“Eli.”
“How old?”
“Ten.”
Clara looked downhill.
“Adrian!”
He turned.
“There’s a boy named Eli!”
Adrian looked inside the bus.
A moment later he shouted back.
“He’s here!”
The little girl began crying with relief.
Then the mountain made another sound.
A violent cracking echoed upstream.
Clara felt every instinct from her dispatch years ignite at once.
“MOVE!”
Adrian looked toward the river.
A dark wall was coming around the bend.
Water.
Ice.
Branches.
Entire sections of frozen river.
“The dam broke!” Clara screamed.
Everything happened at once.
Adrian pushed the last child through the window.