”Kynan! Hold on!”
She drew a breath for courage -then let go with one hand and snatched the cable. Kynan yelled
Margo flung the cable around him.
He grabbed for it as his grip on the raft broke loose.
Margo hung onto one end and Kynan clung to the other. Please. . , Margo sobbed under her breath. She rolled over and scooted backwards, hauling with the leverage of arms and legs this time. Kynan’s arms appeared over the edge. Then his head and back appeared. He slithered forward, clutching at the cable, the PVC, anything he could grasp Margo pulled until Kynan had wriggled completely onto the raft. Then she fell backwards, panting.
Grimly, Margo tied herself to a lifeline and tied one around the gasping Welshman. Koot was fighting to secure the raft to another tree, braced on one foot and one knee while he struggled with coiled cable and vicious wind and current.
”KOOT! TIE A LIFELINE!”
Before he could respond, another tree went CRACK! The raft lurched underfoot. Margo fell flat. She caught a glimpse of Koot in a strobe-flare of lightning. He was sawing frantically at the other cable with his own knife. Then they spun free. The river sucked them downstream. Margo whimpered, but forced herself to crawl forward.
”Get a lifeline on!” she shouted at him.
Koot, looking numb and shaken, fumbled for a rope.
Then lightning flared and Margo caught sight of the rapids.
”Oh, God … Oh, GOD…”
Margo groped blindly for a paddle, a pole, anything she could use to shove off those looming rocks. The river spat them at those rapids like a watermelon seed in a millrace. Margo found breath to scream just once. Then she was fighting for survival in the strobe-lit night. Every time lightning flared, she shoved the paddle at anything that looked dark. Usually the paddle connected sickeningly with solid stone, jarring her whole body with bruising force. The raft spun, lurched, plunged through the darkness. Spray and rain battered them. Margo couldn’t hear anything but the roar of water. If anyone yelled for help, she’d never hear them.