Frank Branson
Chapter 9
Charlie
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I thrashed wildly, tumbling in a torrent of red sludge, but couldn't tell which way was up. The muddy current seized me like a predator, dragging me into its churning depths. Mud surged into my nose and down my throat, and I gagged, swallowing half the bloody river as my lungs burned with a desperate need for air.
I clawed toward what I hoped was the surface and burst through to fresh air with a painful gasp, coughing so hard that stars sparked across my vision.
"Charlie!" Doug's frantic voice echoed somewhere behind me.
Before I could respond, another wall of brown water slammed into me, tossing me backward. My shoulder smashed into a boulder. Or maybe it was one of my precious fossilized skulls. White-hot pain ripped down my arm and exploded in my elbow.
Blinking through the rain as I surfaced again, I saw a man on a black horse, thundering along the ridge.
Oh my God, it's the man in the cowboy hat.
His wide-brimmed hat was pulled low, rain streaming off the brim in miniature waterfalls. When his eyes locked onto mine, the focus in them was so sharp it made my chest seize. The stallion's muscles rippled beneath him as the cowboy leaned low over its neck, driving him hard through the downpour.
The river yanked me under again, and the world dissolved into muffled, watery chaos. My boots were dead weights, turning every movement into a frantic, losing battle. My lungs burned with bursting pressure. In a blind thrash for the surface, my knuckles slammed into something hard. Wood! I grabbed the splintered branch and hauled myself up, choking on muddy water and air.
I latched onto the dead tree, its limbs bleached bone-white from years exposed to the blistering sun. As I spat out grit and mud, the tree groaned under my weight.
"Charlie!" Doug's scream cut through the roar of water somewhere upstream. "Help!"
I spotted him thrashing in the current, terror stretched across his face as he fought to keep his head above the surface.
"Grab my leg!" Holding onto the branch, I reached my foot out as far as I dared.
He lunged toward me, and his weight slammed into my legs like a freight train. The impact nearly ripped me from the branch. His hands clamped around my ankles, then my boots, his grip crushing.
My fingers slipped on the wet wood, but I adjusted my hold, gripping tighter. "Grab a branch." I gasped, trying to reach down and pull him up.
The brittle tree creaked beneath us.
"Doug, let me go!" I tried to pull myself higher, but his dead weight dragged me back down.
He clawed his way up my leg to my knees, dragging himself hand over hand. Each jerk sent white-hot pain through my battered elbow.
"Doug, get off me!"
The branch splintered with an explosive crack.
His thrashing threw me off-balance, and we plunged back into the churning water.
The torrent crashed into us with brutal force.
Doug's boot slammed into my ribs, sending a jolt of pain through my chest. I lost what little air I had left as his grip tore free. We tumbled apart, and his terrified shouts vanished into the flood's deafening roar.
I kicked hard, desperate to break the surface, but the river had me in its grip. The current hurled me against submerged rocks and debris, each impact stealing more of my strength. My vision blurred at the edges. The roar of the water became a distant, pulsing thud.
No. I am not dying like this. Not now. Not when I've come so close to the discovery of a lifetime.
I clawed toward a shimmering patch of light and burst through into chaos, choking on air and water.
"Charlie!" a voice thundered over the flood.