Chapter 41
The rain started in heavy and kept falling. At first it was a pleasant sound to sleep to, but the relentless pounding, in the end, woke everyone. After a while their convenient sand bar started to get wet. As the water rose it started coming up through the floor of the tent. Amaris began feeling cold and within moments realized that she was getting wet. "The tent is getting wet on the inside too." Amaris said sitting up suddenly. Amaris and Lyle scrambled up as they heard the cries of surprise from the others in the other tent. Looking around the tent they could see that the water was starting to rise and they soon realized that they too were starting to flood. They could no longer stay here. Lyle grabbed the two backpacks that were at their feet and handed one to Amaris. “Fit everything that you can in these. If you come across anything that is waterproof that we could put over Gran, hold it aside. We will need it to move her out of here.” Amaris grabbed everything she could wet or not and shoved it into the backpack. When she was done it was so full it did not zip. Lyle’s was the same. She wondered how it all had fit in there in the first place. Lyle handed his back pack to her, and started to pick up the now soaked blanket that they had used to lay on. The water was pouring out of it and he twisted the material to try and wring some of the water out of it. Amaris grabbed the other end and tried to help.
When they were finished, Lyle reached for the tent flaps saying "Stay here with Gran. I will be right back. I need to get them started up the bank and I will be back with Anna's Dad to move Gran." Lyle left the tent and went and talked with Anna’s father. They both came back immediately and ushered Amaris out of the tent and then both men climbed in the tent and maneuvered Gran out. Once outside Amaris could see that Anna and her mother were at the top of the bank and they had moved their tent up there. The two of them were in the process of trying to move the kayaks to the higher ground. Amaris climbed up the bank and threw the back packs in the tent and then scurried back down the bank to help.
The river was rising quickly and they did not have much time. “Amaris, start pulling the stakes on your tent but keep hold of it so it does not get washed away. We will be right back to help you get it up the bank.” Anna's Mom told Amaris as she walked to the last kayak. Anna and her mom team carried the kayak up the bank as Amaris did as she was told and began pulling tent pegs. She put the metal pegs in the pocket of her jumpsuit, which had large workman’s pockets. The water was now up to her knees on the sandbar and was pushing hard on the tent as it rushed by. With each stake that she pulled out Amaris found it harder and harder to hold onto the tent. She walked around to get the last two stakes, when suddenly the tent gave a mighty lurch and flew off down the river taking Amaris by surprise. She was pulled down the river with it.
Amaris screamed as she was instantly tangled in the flowing lines dangling in the water from the tent. Everyone else was at the top of the bank helping the men get Gran up the bank and into the tent. They all turned in horror as they saw the tent sailing away down stream and could barely make out Amaris’s head and arm sticking out of the water behind it.
Amaris only had a second to see the look of shock and desperation cross all their faces before a wave swept over her head and took her under. She tried to kick her feet and pump her arms which only served to tangle her in the ropes further. Her hand brushed the side of the tent and she grabbed on. She felt a slight pull downward from one leg and realized that the metal tent pegs were pulling her down. Keeping her head and still holding her breath she reached into the jumpsuit pocket and pulled out the tent pegs that were in there. She let them all drop out of her hand and into the roiling river. The tent was still floating next to her in the water and Amaris used it to pull herself up. She reached the surface of the water and, breaking throught, was able to take a breath of air. Some of the building panic temporarily relieved. She was bobbing along with the fast moving water. It was dark and she could not see much since the clouds obscured the moon. Amaris began trying to look around her to see if she could get to the bank. She saw that she was traveling backward down the river. As she looked to her left, a huge dark shape flew into the river and landed with a splash right next to her. A large dark head popped up out of the water next to her. It was a wolf. She began to panic. She did not know if this was one of the wolves that had been following her, or if it was one of her little group. The wolf was able to swim to her and avoid the ropes swirling around her. Carefully with it’s teeth it grabbed the back of her jumpsuit and began to swim for shore.
“We are coming Amaris. Hold on!” Anna suddenly popped in Amaris’ head. Amaris froze in horror. “If this is not one of you then who is the wolf in the river trying to drag me out?” Amaris could feel Anna’s panic, and knew this was not one of their group. Immediately Amaris began to thrash around trying to get away.