“Paul!” Relief rushing through her. Frannie splashed to him. He was sitting in the water with the thick end of a tree trunk over his lap, and another fallen tree against his back.
Mel caught up and bent over him. “Let’s get you out from under there.”
“I’m stuck pretty good,” Paul said.
Frannie wedged her flashlight under her arm, then she and Mel got a grip on the underside of the trunk that pinned him. They strained together. It didn’t budge. Frannie pushed at the huge tree trunk behind Paul’s back. It was twice as thick as the one on his legs and not going anywhere.
“We need help,” Frannie said after they tried again.
Mel said he’d be back and waded away. Frannie crouched down beside Paul. He was pale and he’d lost his glasses. She was so glad to see him she thought she might cry. “How did you manage to keep your clothes on?” Her voice cracked with emotion. “I woke up in my skivvies.”
“Just lucky, I guess.” Paul’s lips turned up in a weak smile. “Are you okay? I mean, did you get hurt when it...” He moved his head to indicate the horrible mess they were in.
“I’m fine,” she said. She’d almost died, but what else could she say?
Paul cleared his throat. “Have you—did you find anybody else? Jerrylynn or Vicky?”
“Vicky,” she said, “but not Jerrylynn.” Tears pricked at the backs of her eyes. “Not yet.”
“Your sister and—”
“Not yet,” she said again. Her chest was tight and she couldn’t breathe when she thought about Claire and the baby. “I will,” she said. “I’ll find them just like I found you.” She would. She had to.
Suddenly, another tremor hit. Frannie grabbed for Paul as the water around them turned into choppy waves. Cries came from the ridge as the crash of rocks reverberated through the canyon. Paul groaned and Frannie fell to her knees beside him. The crushed cars and trailers shifted and metal shrieked against metal.
It stopped as quickly as it had started.
Frannie shone the weak beam of her flashlight on Paul. “Are you okay?”
His face was pale, and his jaw clenched. “I think so.”
Mel came splashing back with Roberts. “That was a big one.”
“We have to get him out of here,” Frannie answered sharply. Another quake like that, and Paul could be crushed. She and Mel and Roberts counted to three and strained to lift the tree. Frannie pulled with everything in her. Mel grunted with the effort and a vein on Roberts’s forehead bulged. The tree didn’t move an inch.
“Hold on,” Frannie said. She ran the flashlight down the trunk, following it to where the root end was stuck under an upside-down Buick. She came back to Paul and followed the tree to its other end. “The top is jammed under this trailer.”
Roberts and Mel joined her at the trailer. The water covered the wheels and lapped at the underside. “We’re not going to get that to budge,” Roberts said.
“Let’s try,” Frannie said. She gripped the axle and looked at the men. “One,” she said with a glare. They each took a hold. “Two, three.” She pulled with all her strength.
Nothing happened except her hands—already covered in scrapes—hurt worse.
Roberts grabbed her arm as she started to wade back to Paul. “Listen,” he said, his voice low. “I don’t want to worry the boy, but somebody up on the ridge was talking about the dam failing.”
“What dam?” Frannie asked, peeved that Roberts had called Paul a boy.
“The one at the top of this canyon,” Roberts said grimly. “They say it could go any minute.”
“Didn’t it already?” Mel appeared out of the dark. “Isn’t that where all this water came from?”
“This isn’t from the dam, it’s from the river.” Roberts looked grim. “If the dam goes, we’ll have a real flood."
Frannie thought she’d heard him wrong. This could get worse? What would happen to Paul if they couldn’t get him out from under that tree?
Roberts patted her shoulder. “You should get to higher ground, miss. Let us do what we can for him.”
Frannie clamped her teeth together. Desert Paul? Fat chance of that. She turned the flashlight on Mr. Mountain Man, ready to give him a telling-off, and was stopped by the concern in his eyes. She let out a breath. Getting mad wasn’t going to help Paul.
