“I’ll get them loaded in the wagon and head out,” Roberts said, “but you need to get the rest of these people to higher ground.” Thewater had risen halfway up the ridge, covering most of the cars and trailers in the campground below. “If the dam goes, this whole place will be underwater.”
Frannie and Mel helped Roberts transfer the most severely injured to the back of the wagon. They folded down the seats and made a bed for Mr. and Mrs. Wilson, and put Phillip and his mother beside them. Roberts had room for Connie and the twins in the front seat.
As Frannie hugged the girls goodbye, a cheer went up and a set of headlights could be seen weaving through the dark from upriver.
Help was here.Thank the Lord.
A dark green vehicle the size of a tank pulled up. Everybody clustered around the new arrival, inundating the driver with questions about the earthquake, the dam, and—most desperately—“Can you get us out?”
“Listen, folks,” the newcomer said, raising his voice. “I have good news and bad.” He looked like a military type, and introduced himself as Frank.
Everybody quieted down.
“The dam is holding for now,” he said. “But the road is out right past it. The whole thing just broke off and fell in the water. Even my Suburban can’t navigate that.”
Frannie’s hopes plummeted. How could they get to the hospital if both sides of the canyon were cut off?
Vicky stumbled forward, clutching her blanket around herself. “We’re trapped here?” Her voice was high and she pulled in shuddering breaths like she couldn’t get enough air.
Frank ignored her. “There’s a camp set up at a high point over the dam. They’ve got some food there, and supplies. Maybe a hundred people already there. That’s your best bet for rescue when the sun comes up. I can take as many people up as can fit in this Suburban.”
Vicky shoved her way to the passenger door. “I’m not staying here one second longer.”
Good riddance,Frannie thought. Vicky wasn’t alone in wanting out of the destroyed campground. Frank was able to get almost everyoneleft on the ridge into the roomy vehicle. The woman with the injured eye, the teenage boy named Lance, and the polio victim, along with those who weren’t hurt at all.
Mel tied the wheelchair to the top of the Suburban, then looked at Frannie. “Maybe we should all go?” he asked, as if she was the one in charge. “There’s some room left in the back.”
Frannie wasn’t going anywhere until she’d found Claire and Jenny and Jerrylynn. “There are still people out there,” she said. “I’m not leaving until I find them.”
“I’m sticking with Frannie,” Paul said. She gave him a grateful look.
Mel nodded. “Me too, then.”
Frannie could have kissed Mel right there, except that would be embarrassing for them both.
“I’ll come back to help if I can,” Roberts said. “In the meantime, move yourselves up to the road.”
“We will,” Frannie said. “And Roberts”—she leaned into his driver’s side window—“we need a boat. And quick. We have to get to whoever is out there in the water. It might be my sister.” Whoever it was, she had to help them.
She prayed she wouldn’t be too late.
chapter 52:BRIDGET
“What’s wrong with the lake?” Bridget asked Red.
Flick followed Red’s horse up from the rocky creek bed and to the edge of the dark lake. The half-obscured moon lit the scene like a black-and-white movie, but it didn’t look at all like the lake they’d driven beside moments before the earthquake.
After Red’s shocking words on the trail, Bridget hadn’t had the heart to ask him any more questions and so the ride over the past two hours had been silent. Bridget took the time to pray. She asked the Lord to watch over Claire and Jenny, Frannie and her friends. Beth. With every tremor, she’d prayed she and Red wouldn’t be crushed by falling rocks and trees.Thank you, Lord.It was a miracle they weren’t dead.
But they still had to find her sisters.
Red urged Marigold closer to a crumbling precipice that overlooked the lake. Bridget wished she could stop Flick from following, but the mule had a mind of her own. As they drew closer, she could see that the once mirror-smooth lake was choppy with waves and floating deadwood. Her breath caught as she peered over the edge ofthe broken-off bank and saw that the water had receded dramatically. Bridget’s pulse tripled. “Did the dam...?” Were they too late? Had the lake emptied down into the canyon?
Red slid off Marigold’s back and walked closer to the edge to look down on the muddy lake bottom. “I don’t know.”
The clouds parted and sudden moonlight lit the lake. “What’s that?” Bridget asked. She watched in astonishment as a large house floated toward them, carried on an invisible current.
Red called out. “Hello?” His voice echoed over the water with no response. He walked back to Marigold and pulled himself into the saddle. From his higher vantage point he called again, with no response. “Looks like Grace Miller’s place. She has a fishing lodge on the other side of the lake.”
