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The front of the car did not rise in the currents, as it had done previously It was settling deeper than before, so there was less river under it to provide lift The water continued to pour in, quickly rising past Lindsey’s ankles tonow, shaking hiushed inside, rising to seat level, churning up foaht froolden Christmas tinsel

Lindsey pulled her feet out of the water, knelt on her seat, and splashed Hatch’s face, desperately hoping to bring him around

But he was sunk in deeper levels of unconsciousness than mere concussive sleep, perhaps in a co water rose to the botto wheel

Frantically Lindsey ripped at Hatch’s safety harness, trying to strip it away from him, only half aware of the hot flashes of pain when she tore a couple of fingernails

"Hatch, da wheel, and the Honda all but ceased its forward ed by the persistent pressure of the river behind it

Hatch was five-feet-ten, a hundred and sixty pounds, only average in size, but he ht, resistant to her every effort, he was virtually iled to free hile him from the straps, the water had risen over the top of the dashboard, her on Hatch, just under his chin, because he was slumped in his seat

The river was unbelievably icy, and Lindsey felt the war from a severed artery As body heat bled froan to ache

Nevertheless, she welco flood because it would make Hatch buoyant and therefore easier to h the shattered windshield That was her theory, anyway, but when she tugged on him, he seemed heavier than ever, and now the water was at his lips

"Coonna drown, da his beer truck off the road, Bill Cooper broadcast a Mayday on his CB radio Another trucker responded and, equipped with a cellular telephone as well as a CB, pro up the citizen’s-band handset, took a long-handled six-battery flashlight from under the driver’s seat, and stepped out into the storh even his fleece-lined deniht was not half as icy as his stomach, which had turned sour and cold as he had watched the Honda spin its luckless occupants down the highway and over the brink of the chas the shoulder to the uardrail He hoped to see the Honda close below, caught up against the trunk of a tree But there were no trees on that slope--just a smooth e of the car, disappearing beyond the reach of his flashlight beah hiain Not much A few shots out of the flask he carried He had been certain he was sober when he’d started up the mountain Noasn’t so sure He felt… fuzzy And suddenly it seemed stupid to have tried to ly so fast

Below him, the abyss appeared supernaturally bottoendered in Bill the feeling that he was gazing into the damnation to which he’d be delivered when his own life ended He was paralyzed by that sense of futility that soh usually when they were alone in a bedrooless patterns of shadows on the ceiling at three o’clock in the

Then the curtains of snow parted for a moment, and he saw the floor of the ravine about a hundred or a hundred and fifty feet below, not as deep as he had feared He stepped through the gap in the guardrail, intending to crab down the treacherous hillside and assist the survivors if there were any Instead he hesitated on the narrow shelf of flat earth at the brink of the slope because he hiskey-dizzy but also because he could not see where the car had come to rest

A serpentine black band, like satin ribbon, curved through the snon there, intersecting the tracks the car hadat an abstract painting, until he reone into that ebony ribbon of water

Following a winter of freakishly heavy snow, the weather had turned war melt The runoff continued, for winter had returned too recently to have locked the river in ice again The terees above freezing Any occupant of the car, having survived both the wreck and death by drowning, would perish swiftly froht, I would’ve turned back in this weather I’m a pathetic joke, a tanked-up beer deliveryet plastered on beer Christ

A joke, but people were dying because of him He tasted vomit in the back of his throat, choked it down

Frantically he surveyed the murky ravine until he spotted an eerie radiance, like an otherworldly presence, drifting spectrally with the river to the right of hi snow He figured itborne downriver

Hunched for protection against the biting wind, holding on to the guardrail in case he slipped and fell over the edge, Bill scuttled along the top of the slope, in the sa to keep it in sight The Honda drifted swiftly at first, then slower, slower Finally it came to a complete halt, perhaps stopped by rocks in the watercourse or by a projection of the river bank

The light was slowly fading, as if the car’s battery was running out of juice

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Though Hatch was freed froe hi she could not see, ed under the brake pedal or bent back and trapped under his own seat

The water rose over Hatch’s nose Lindsey could not hold his head any higher He was breathing the river now

She let go of him because she hoped that the loss of his air supply would finally bring hi up froy to continue struggling with hith With frightening rapidity, her extre numb Her exhaled breath seemed just as cold as every inhalation, as if her body had no heat left to i It was resting on the bottohed doater, except for a bubble of air under the shallow do for breath

She washorrid little sounds of terror, like the bleats of an animal She tried to silence herself but could not