Page 112 of The Sleeping Girls

“We’ll explain everything later. But we have to get out of here now.”

Cord’s voice returned. “There’s an exit south of where you are but it’s blocked. Get to it and we’ll be there with equipment to dig you out.”

“I… I’m scared,” Ruby screeched.

“Me, too,” Bianca cried.

“I know,” Ellie assured them, fighting her own terror. “But there’s a rescue team here to help us.”

“Lead the way, Derrick,” Ellie said. “I’ll bring up the rear with Bianca.”

Ellie and Bianca fell in line behind Derrick as he helped Ruby, who seemed to be steadier than Bianca. The flooring was slippery with mud and rain and Bianca stumbled and went under, flailing. “Help me! I can’t swim!”

“Keep going,” Ellie shouted to Derrick and Ruby. “I’ll get her.”

She caught Bianca’s arm and yanked her back to the surface, but the girl was screaming and hysterical, fighting her. “I don’t want to drown!”

“You’re not going to,” Ellie said, trying to hold Bianca up. “But you have to stop fighting me and hang on to me.”

The water was chest-deep now and rising, the walls closing around Ellie.

Derrick’s shout echoed from ahead, his voice booming off the concrete walls. By the time she and Bianca reached him, he was staring at a blank wall.

“It’s closed up with mud and debris,” he said, his voice thick. “What do we do now?”

“Cord is here,” Ellie said. “He’ll get us out.”

ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-SIX

Cord’s pulse pounded with fear. Ellie was down there, trapped, and the place was flooding fast. If it kept pouring like this, there’d be a damn mudslide and everyone might die.

Milo and another SAR team member named Chase showed up along with Deputy Landrum and his brother, Digger.

“We’re here to help,” Landrum said.

Cord glanced at Digger and Landrum gave Cord a challenging look. “He’s in the clear now. You need hands, we’ve got them.”

He was right. They needed all the manpower they could get. “Then let’s get to work. We have to clear the opening.”

Milo and Chase handed out gloves and shovels and the men began digging. Sweat blended with rain, streaming down Cord’s face as they worked.

“How many are there?” Milo asked.

“Detective Reeves, Agent Fox and the two teens. They’re alive.”

Relieved surprise flashed in Landrum’s eyes and Digger’s face, and they began to dig faster, pulling away brush, tree limbs and tossing them aside.

Thunder crackled and lightning struck a tree in the distance. The raging water washed debris and mud around them. They worked faster, sweating with their efforts as the storm intensified.

ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-SEVEN

Derrick frantically dug away mud from the opening. Bianca was so hysterical that Ruby consoled her, the two of them rocking back and forth as the water rose.

Keeping an eye on them, Ellie helped Derrick tear away mud with their fingers.

“I hear shouts,” Derrick said. “Someone’s coming for us.”

“Tread water,” Ellie told the girls.

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