“We’re bottlenecking.”
Gabriel hears it instantly.
“Everybody FLAT AGAINST THE SIDES!”
Too late.
The surge behind us slams into the narrowed section like a battering ram.
The pressure explodes forward.
The entire group gets launched.
Literally launched.
I scream as the current rips me completely off my feet.
Clay catches me around the waist again just as we shoot out of the drainage pipe into open air.
Everything disappears.
Dark sky.
Rain.
Cold wind.
Then river water crashes around us.
The impact steals every bit of air from my lungs.
The river swallows us whole instantly.
Current.
Darkness.
Freezing water everywhere.
I tumble beneath the surface helplessly.
Disoriented.
Which way is up?
Oh God—
A hand grabs me.
Clay.
He drags me upward hard.
We break the surface together gasping.
Rain pours from the sky.
The river churns violently around us, carrying debris from the collapsed tunnels downstream.
