Page 2 (1/2)

Catherine could swim

So could Travis

But Hannah…

I took off at a dead sprint, racing down the rocky embankment I slipped about halfway down and slid the rest of the way on my ass, but I didn’t let it slow id water, fully clothed

Adrenaline had taken over

It took no less than seven hundred years for me to reach that car And with every second that passed, when none of their heads popped up frouely aware of people yelling fro in from the opposite side of the banks But I was too focused onjourney to reach my family to find any relief in the fact that people had stopped to help

By the tiot to the car, the front end was underwater, the roof only partially visible and the bu so fast I feared it would explode And that would have been fine by h for me to pull them to safety first

"Travis!" I frantically tried to pull open his door to no avail "I’ht!" I yelled, clueless if he could hear me or not But I needed hiainst the , but the only thing that broke was the flesh on ure a way in until I heard his garbled cry

"Dad!"

My heart stopped, and the world shattered aroundmy hands on either side of my face to block the sun out, I peered inside the back

Catherine was holding hi from her eyebrow Travis’s head was craned back, his hands flailing against the surface, and hisfor air as the water rose around thelass "Unlock the door Give hilassy eyes stared back at me as her chin disappeared under the water

"No! No! No!" I chanted Scanning the inside of the car, I noticed the front s had been opened an inch and water was pouring in through the full of air, I went under water The river was murky and I could only ed to find the front door Hooking lass, I pulled as hard as I possibly could, using e It shattered in st the adrenaline

After cliht up to the air pocket

"Get out of here!" I yelled at Catherine, shoving her and Travis toward the

Panic ricocheted through ed Frantic, I went straight to her and began the tedious task of getting her out with shaking fingers Each strap and buckle becoot back to the pocket, I pushed Hannah into the air She wasn’t conscious, but I prayed that air would s My sto and flailing in her arms, his face al the front of her shirt and pulling her with hter tucked in the crook of my arm

When I breached the surface, I lifted Hannah’s tiny body high, treading water while I spun in a circle, waiting to see the tops of Catherine’s and Travis’s heads e aroundwater

Not the sirens blaring in the distance

Not the bile clawing up the back ofbut those two dark heads I so desperately needed to pop up

"Come on, come on, come on," I prayed as I swairl’s lifeless body

I didn’t even look at the person I handed her off to before I started swiht of a thousand ships onout of the water, and it felt as thoughaith that car

Where the fuck were they?