Chapter Thirty

Tess

One of the skills that Tess had learned in her youth was that the first knee-jerk body reaction was the lizard brain, or, as Abraham called it, the ancestral brain. It was the part of the brain that wanted to survive. It was often reliable. But sometimes, modern circumstances didn’t mimic those of the ancients.

In ancient times, when predators were attracted to movement, freeze was the perfect stay-alive tool. In this case, it absolutely was not. But the teacher was paralyzed.

The rain was so heavy that Tess couldn’t see beyond the bridge apron in either direction.

Here they were: two functioning adults, thirteen children, and a woman deeply in need of medical help. With the others lining the beam, Levi wrapped Tess in his arms.

Despite all evidence to the contrary, Tess found hope in the sound of his heartbeats. “We don’t have much time, Tessy, but we have some. Let’s think this through.”

“We have to take into consideration the volume of rain. It’s heavy and slippery.”

“Looking at the water levels. We can’t stay here.”

“And yet … ” She turned her head and kissed his chest. She left it unsaid that there seemed to be no way out.

A tree floated under the bridge, scraping the sides with its leafless branches.

“Pull up your feet. Pull your arms in,” Levi called.

As it moved through, it caught on the edge of the apron. The trunk pushed left and right, trying to flow with the water.

“We could jump for it,” Levi said as he assessed. “Half on one side, half on the other, we link arms, stay buoyed with our jugs.”

“Mojo and the teacher.”

He drew a line with his finger. “We lay them on top.”

“And when the log rolls, what then?”

“We’re imperiled no matter what choices we make. There is no safe way out of this circumstance. What we have is hope and effort. If I go first, I can straddle the trunk, and you can lower the kids to me. Mojo, the teacher, then you dangle down, and I reach for you. If we hurry, we might make it before this breaks free.”

“I’d have to drop them from my hand to yours. Why don’t I untether myself from the beam, and you tie the rope to the trunk so they can climb down as you guide them?

“Because Tess,f you fall, then who will help the children? It’s game over.”

“What if the tree doesn’t break free? What if the water swells, and we’re trapped?”

“You know this very well—sometimes, it all just comes down to dumb luck. Children,” Levi called. “I’m going to give you instructions. You will repeat them back. I want you to know what to do if you end up in the river. Hold onto the handles of your jugs and hold your heads up where you can breathe. Feet point downriver. Pull your knees to your chest to make you more buoyant. Try to see where the water is calmer and angle yourself in that direction if it’s toward the shore. Tell me what you will do. I will—”

As a group, the children repeated his words.

Tess absolutely did not want this to happen. Right now, she was on a solid structure. For the moment, they were all safe. Safe-ish.

The children shivered with cold, and soon, hypothermia would affect their capacity to function and help with their own rescue.

Soon, this area would fill with roiling water, and they’d be trapped. All it would take was one large wave from the north, and just like the schoolhouse, this space could fill in an instant.

She whispered into his ear. “That’s the best we’ve got?”

“Given our limited understanding of the situation, that’s the best we’ve got at this moment. And under the bridge, at least we’re not fighting the rain.

“Okay. Okay. I’m just going to amend that you go first, and Mojo goes second. Put Mojo further up the tree. Since he caught the boy earlier, I think that if one of the children slips, he might catch hold of them before the water makes the decisions.”

There was no more discussion. It was as if those words flipped a switch, and Levi was moving. He tipped her head back and kissed her with such conviction that it was an unspoken promise, “I’m getting you through this.”

And her return kiss told him that she was right beside him in their fight for a future.

The tree was only as wide as Mojo’s body, and Tess couldn’t put the puzzle together in her mind. But Levi had been a SEAL for decades. She was sure that his brain processed in ways that hers could not.

Levi rolled until his hips balanced on the edge of the beam, and he lowered himself. Hanging from one arm, he swung his foot out again and again until he was a pendulum. On the next swing, Tess covered her eyes with a guttural moan.

The children were whooping and clapping, telling Tess that Levi made it.

When she pulled her hands away, Levi had a leg on either side of the trunk and the root ball at his back. He looked over his shoulder and called, “Everyone sit very still. Mojo, to me.”

Mojo scrambled out from his little den. His jug attached to the handle of his vest flipped from side to side. He came to Tess first and caught her eye, checking on her.

“I’m okay, Mojo. I’ll be with you in a minute. Thank you, baby.” She took an extra moment to scrub behind his ears, lowering her forehead to his. “Okay, you need to go now.”

Levi called out again, “Mojo, to me.”

Mojo gathered himself in a tight ball, then, pressing his back paws against the beam, he leaped into Levi’s outstretched arms.

The children were clapping and whooping at Mojo’s success. Next, Levi commanded Mojo to go out.

Tess had seen this command the other day. Enrico showed off Mojo’s skills on the obstacle course. On command, Mojo walked a thin beam and lay down in the end, waiting.

This was a tree in flood waters, hardly the same thing other than the sequence of commands.

Soon, though, Mojo was lying in place.

Tess could see that the floatation jugs could be lifesaving or deadly. What if the water rose under the bridge, the tree didn’t release, and the jugs floated them to the top when they needed to dive beneath the apron? Everyone could be held in place until they drowned.

It was a balancing act in her brain as it always was in an emergency. What did she know? What could happen so she had a contingency plan? What was so terrifying was that she might be like the teacher, unable to move and, therefore, die.

Panic kills.

Pragmatism. Forward movement. Hope.

That was her new mantra.

“First child, Tess.”

Tess wrapped her hand around the child’s wrist. Like Levi, the girl rolled until her hips were on the beam. Gripping with both hands, she lowered herself until she hung over the water. Tess clenched her abs and said, “Let go. I have you.”

And to Tess’s great surprise, she did. The weight was unexpected. And Tess was glad that her other hand had a tight grip on the rope. Leaning over and looking down, Tess could see that Levi gripped a root and leaned right as he reached out his left hand. He’d try to keep the tree from rolling with the dynamic shift.

“Let go, Tess!” he called.

The girl dropped straight for the water. Before she went completely in, Levi grabbed her arm and flung her up on the trunk. Levi instructed the girl to straddle the trunk and inch her way forward. “Move, Tess! Next, hurry!”

This was a change of plans. He must see something I don’t , Tess concluded, as she reached for the next child to move closer to her so they were above Levi. In Tess’s mind, having the children on the trunk made it less stable and upped the chance of rolling. But Tess also knew not to weigh in. Too many captains meant the ship went down.

One after the other, the children dropped, straddled, and moved forward.

Here was the girl that they pulled from the fire. She’d trust Levi.

Here was the boy that went over the edge of the roof. He’d trust Mojo.

Here was the brother from the fire. He didn’t hesitate.

But now, there was the teacher. Immobile. She was deadweight.

Tess knew she didn’t have the strength to help the teacher.

“Tess, what’s going on?” Levi called.

“The teacher is in shock,” Tess yelled back.

Levi’s gaze scanned. “Here’s the plan. You’re not going to like it.”

“I’m not leaving her!”

“No, we’ll try to help. This is the best I can think of. You’re going to untie the rope from the beam and throw it to me on the far side so I can lower her down. Next, you’ll untie the rope from you and tie it to her waist. Last, you need to partially untie her flotation, letting the rope drop within my reach. One end still needs to be tied to her waist.”

“Okay, then what?”

“Then you’ll lower yourself to me.”

“I’m not leaving her there.”

“Only for a moment.”

“You’re right. I don’t like it.”

“Once I have you, you’ll need to reach for the rope and bring it to me. I’ll have a good grip on you.”

“And the floatation?”

“I’m going to pull the floatation to drop her off the beam. Then, I’ll lower her with the rope. Imagine the beam acting as a component of a pully.”

“Got it.”

“Tess, she isn’t coming out of this unscathed. But this is a chance at survival, And it is putting you in a thousand times more danger than I’m comfortable with.”

“What if I did that and stayed up here to get her over?”

“I need you down here to help me with counterweight. It’s most likely that she’ll end up in the water, but we’ll have her on the rope. And I’ll need your help getting her onto the trunk. If I’m trying to save her, I can’t help you, and there is no scenario where I’d let that happen.”

“Levi!”

“Tess, we don’t have time for this. The water’s rising fast. I still have to figure out how to get us out from under the apron. Get the rope on her and get down here. Or we lose everyone, Tess. Do you understand?”

Tess’s body was moving at a speed she didn’t know was possible. After arranging the ropes as Levi specified, she did as the others had done. Rolling her hips onto the beam, wrapping her fingers as best she could, and stretching her arms long, she dangled over the raging waters.

Tess hadn’t understood how frightening this was.

Trust Levi?

Absolutely.

Trust Mojo as backup?

Yes.

But she had been in flood waters with jugs before. She remembered swallowing the muddy water and how it filled her nose and made her gasp for air.

She remembered the terror.

“Tess, I know. And I’ve got you.” Levi called. “Believe in me.”

Those were the magic words. Eyes squeezed shut, she let go.

Sliding through the humid air, toes in the freezing cold water, as the tide dragged her body, Levi’s grip tightened around her arm.

He pulled her to his chest. “Swing your leg over, Tess. Good job.”

And now that she was here, Tess could see why Levi’s voice, calm and steady, had the sharp edge of do-or-die.

The water was almost to the edge of the bridge.

“Lean right, Tess. Hold out your arms like you’re going to dive. I’m lowering her now.”

The tree, with her added weight, sank deeper into the flood waters.

For Tess, this was the reason why they shouldn’t be on top of the trunk but holding hands across the trunk.

But after the current reminded Tess of its strength and how that felt as a child, Tess understood that this was a risk they needed to take.

Tess’s heart wanted to mourn those who wouldn’t make it. Surely, the idea of all of them getting to safety was improbable.

How many could they save?

And could they even save themselves?

A glimmer of hope; it looked like they had a reprieve.

For the moment, the rain had stopped again.

As Levi and Tess worked to lower the teacher. Mojo started barking.

The barks rang against the cement and filled their space.

Was he warning them about something they hadn’t perceived yet?

Tess fought to keep her whole attention on getting the teacher situated.

They ended up laying her across Tess’s lap.

While Levi freed the rope, Tess tied the jugs back onto the teacher.

Just looking at her face, Tess thought that whatever injury she had sustained when the schoolhouse flooded and she had nearly drowned was making her system deteriorate. This woman desperately needed a hospital. Even if everything had worked perfectly when this whole day had started with the lightning strike, the hospital was an hour away from where the school had been.

Mojo’s barks grew more frantic and more aggressive.

It reminded Tess of a woman in labor or those who were dying when they seemed to reach out to the world beyond. Abraham said it was a call to the ancestors for help in passage.

Levi had pushed his floatation to his back and tied the rope under his armpits, then once around the trunk without any knots, handing the end to Tess.

“What’s happening here?” she asked. The tree sunk until the water hit her thighs as she bent her feet backward against the current and squeezed her knees together.

Levi leaned in and spoke near her ear; so their plans were between them alone. “I’m going to move forward and get into those branches and see if I can’t compress them to fit under the ledge. When I do that, I have no idea what will happen next. You must—Tess, listen to me—you must let go of the rope. I need a chance to swim away. You must let go of the teacher to save yourself because the children will need your help. If they float to shore, they will be hypothermic without food, water, or skills. You will get to shore. You will save the children.”

Tess got it.

He was right.

“And you,” she insisted. “You and Mojo will help them, too.”