Page 176 of Hell and High Water

We’re tossed about like ragdolls all the way down.

When the front tires hit the road at the bottom of the hill, we fly off our seats, slamming back down.

“Fuck!” Tell yells over my scream of surprise.

Swerving with the momentum, he guides us back onto the pavement, heading down the actual road, but still at a wild tilt, slamming the brakes to keep us from losing control at the next turn. The zigzagging street actually saves us as he scrapes into the wall of the cliff face at the end, slowing us to a stop.

“Hella, you alright?” Tell groans, tugging at his seat belt and reaching for me.

“I think so. Check and see if my ribcage is outside.”

He starts to laugh nervously before grunting in pain. Instantly, I’m focused on his wellbeing, checking the gash along the side of his head as he grips his right side tenderly.

“Definitely cracked a rib. How bad’s the cut?”

“Shallow. You must have banged your head on the door.”

“How’s the door?”

“Gone.”

Tell falls for it, glancing to his left before sighing with a wince, trying not to laugh again. Several seconds pass in stunned silence.

“We can’t stay here.”

“Agreed.”

The fact that the black SUV hasn't made another appearance is a good sign that something awful happened to them. If we’re lucky.

But we still have to find Gavin and Evan. As soon as we’ve both calmed, Tell shifts the car back into gear, the truck shuddering as he turns back around to head back up the hill. Something’s off about the accelerator, but we make it as far as the base of the steep rise.

Where we see the other SUV, the bottom of the car facing us from the top of the hill. Smoke billows out of the engine, obscuring any other view.

Tell starts to rev the engine when another blast shakes the mountainside, wobbling the whole cab and deafening both of us.

“NO!” I scream, bolting from the car and sprinting up the hill.

“Hellena!” Tell’s hot on my heels, but slower, his gasps falling farther behind me as I run.

Avoiding the wreckage of the SUV, I vaguely make out the silhouettes of two bodies inside, not moving. Serves them right, the bastards.

Scraping and scuffing my way through the brush at the roadside, I skid to a stop as I see the devastation ahead of me. The water level is dropping away visibly before my eyes, the shore a hundred yards from our vantage off to my left.

The river alongside the road is dwindling as the water recedes on this side, funneled into two channels along what used to be the reservoir’s dam wall. Past that, all I can see is darkness, but I can hear the sound of roaring water, rushing away, echoing through the canyons.

“Holy fuck…” Tell exclaims, finally reaching me.

“Ev. Gav.”

“I’m sure they weren’t anywhere near that when it went off. Gavin wouldn’t…”

But his voice falters because we both know that he would.

If he thought for one second that he could stop it, that he could save a life by putting himself in harm’s way.

I’m scrambling back down the hill this time with Tell in tow, his arm around my shoulders. Veering toward the passenger door, I make to set him down.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

---