Page 70 of Lifeline

He shot me a poisonous look before snatching his radio from his belt. “Speak.”

“Jake and me have got to get to the river,” Reno said in a clipped, fearful voice I’d never heard from him before. “We’ve got serious flooding already and if what’s happening is happening, we and the town are going to have serious issues.”

“You are not going alone,” Xander ground out. “Everyone else, report.”

“Carter and Mav are putting out a fire,” Cait told him. “They’re not responding anytime soon.”

“When the fuck did that happen?” Xander asked, the ‘and why wasn’t I told?’ obvious in his voice.

“Ten minutes ago, they’re dealing with it, and so am I,” she said, and the ‘I know how to do my goddamn job, remember that,’ was just as obvious in hers.

“Trevor, Colin,” he barked into the walkie.

“We’ve got flooding on our side too. I don’t know how long it’ll take us to get there,” came Trevor’s voice.

Colin’s voice cut in, and I would swear I heard angry swearing in the background. “Trevor isn’t going anywhere; he took a knock to the head and…enough, Trevor. He’s having a hard time walking straight. He’s coming back to the main house if I have to beat his ass and take him back myself.”

Xander looked at the two of us, and I knew his problem wasn’t anyone else; it was me.

“I can go,” I said quietly.

“Fuck you,” Xander said, but there wasn’t nearly enough force in it for me to believe.

“Don’t trust me with your secrets or your business, but I’m not fucking around with your lives,” I said. “I can go.”

Xander stared, and although seconds mattered, he turned to the walkie. “Trevor, get your ass back here with Colin. Then Colin and I are going to join them if need be. I’m sending Mika and Aidan with you, Reno.”

“Heard,” Reno said. “We have to go now, I’m heading out that way. Mika’s been to the river; he knows where it is.”

Mika nodded in confirmation. “Good, get moving.” And then Xander looked at Mika. “Is it the one I’m thinking of?”

“Yes,” Mika said quietly.

“Fuck,” he glared at me. “If anything happens to them because you can’t fucking be trusted, there is no rock you can hide under, no hole you can dig deep enough to get away from me. Understood?”

“Utterly,” I said, and followed Mika out as we put our gear on, half of which I didn’t know how to use. “Why is the river a big deal?”

“It serves a lot of the other rivers, including the one that runs through the town. It has a tendency to flood, and if something is spectacularly wrong, then it could cause massive flooding that would…well, I’m sure you can guess,” he said as he finished suiting up.

“Mika,” I began before we walked outside. “It wouldn’t be the same river those beavers were building a dam on, is it?”

He paused, looking uneasy. “It could be.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“I don’t know, but Reno mentioned being worried about it, and he said something to Xander. Let’s go.”

Unsettled, I followed him out into the storm and immediately stumbled at the first gust of wind that threatened to take me off my feet. As if expecting it, Aidan caught me before I was left sprawling in the mud and water. His feet splayed in two different directions, but thankfully he was able to use my stabilized body to stay upright. We exchanged a look of relief.

It took a lot longer to make it down the path through the woods toward the science building, but I noticed it was easier when we were concealed by the trees. Of course, being in the woods meant we were vulnerable to lightning strikes going through the ground, and we could only hope the insulated boots would be a preventative measure. It also meant we would be in danger of trees falling because although we were walking along a path, eventually we’d have to walk through the woods where our vision would be heavily obscured.

I heard Mika say something, but the wind drowned him out and I had to yell to be heard. “What?”

“I said oh, fuck,” he explained as he gestured forward and I saw what he meant. The ground around the science building was flooded. I had never measured the building’s height in relation to me, but I would bet the water would come up to my shins.

“Come on,” he said and led me into the woods instead of anywhere near the science building.

The storm was fierce, and the creaking and groaning of the trees were bad enough, but it was the occasional crack that left me jumpy. It wasn’t like I could look up to keep an eye out for falling branches without getting blinded by the wind and rain. All I could do was follow as we trudged through the woods.