Chapter 49: Chapter 049 [Rick]

Rick looked upon the mountain as it fell. Thousands of tonnes of stone and dirt loosened by the flood and damp soil. Boulders the size of houses were following the stream. And their current location happened to be in their trajectory.

Even though it was early morning, there was barely enough light to make out the shifting terrain, the raging river, and the rolling boulders. Each one moved along the river as if it weighed less than a marble, but seeing how the trees were flattened in their wake, it was clear they were anything but an unstoppable force.

The rumbling was becoming louder, an earthquake that rose through their soles and rattled their bones. The floor was shaking with each thud of the spinning stones that were larger than the very structure they were standing on. And these gigantic stones were coming their way.

“What’s going on!?”

The flash of lightning streaked through the sky above as Rick turned to the two students. They were holding hands in a death-grip. Their faces were slack, eyes wide and panicked. And they were looking at him. They were unsure of what to do, or where to go. They were scared.

In Rick’s mind, Charlie screamed for help.

The knot tied inside his gut, and he turned to focus on the outside once more, up the hill, the incoming boulders, and the falling mountain. The house would be crushed, and them with it. Did they have a way out? What was the way out? His mind raced, how much time before it reached them?

They couldn’t wait.

“We need to swim.”

And the world became silent as the two of them looked at him.

Kat and Tomas then turned to glance at each other. The young man hesitated, initiating half a step that turned into a full one when the young woman moved to follow. Kat reached out and gripped Rick’s hand. Her eyes reflected the lightning that roiled outside. “I trust you.”

The teacher turned to look back outside, at the mountain, and at the river. The water level was not much lower than the window itself. The slush lapped against the building and the house groaned the closer the tremors were becoming. Even if the boulders missed, there was the question whether the house would collapse on its own, anyway.

“Fasten everything down!” Tomas spoke up in a near shout, quickly taking his backpack and hanging it so it would be in front of him rather than behind. “Also… also…” He was taking deep fast breaths. “Air, air, need air, in bags, floating.”

“Tomas.” Rick gripped his hand. “We don’t have time.” His eyes turned to Kat. “As soon as we are out, we swim AWAY from the stream, we have to avoid the rapids and get to shore.”

She nodded, trembling.

Swallowing hard, Rick moved closer to the window and grasped their hands. “You two first, quickly!”

Tomas took the lead, hopping over the windowsill after a mere heartbeat. His grip on Rick’s hand became iron tight as soon as he hit the water. It almost pulled the teacher over, but with Kat’s help, he pulled Tomas closer and out of the water. “There’s a strong current!” The young man warned, using his free hand to hold on to the windowsill. “Kat.”

“Here goes nothing.” Her laugh was almost a shrill shriek that turned into a full cry the moment she’d been out the window. “F-FUCK! C-COLD!”

With one hand holding Tomas and the other Kat, Rick did what he could to help them move to the left. Wanting to avoid the raging river that was roaring down their right.

“RICK!”

The teacher looked up.

Just in time to see one of the smaller boulders crossing the space where a shed had once been. It bounced, taking air for a fraction of a second as it smashed into the side of the structure, punching through. A roar of water deafened them, the whole structure groaned and crumbled as if made of cards, twisting sideways towards the new hole that had been made on its side. With the drop of the building, the water rushed into the window- into the house through the window.

Rick’s face became submerged instantly, his grip on Kat’s and Tomas’ hand like iron. For a fraction of a second he realized that they were being pulled down with him. If he didn’t let go, he’d drag Tomas and Kat back into the building along with the rushing water.

So he did.

A muffled scream echoed around his ears; the world became dark as he was flung back into the house from the force of the current that was rushing in to fill out every available pocket of air within. Whirlwinds of mud slammed him against the walls, the ceiling, and the floor. The air was knocked out of Rick’s lungs as his cry was muffled under the muddy turbulence. He was blinded; it was too dark, too opaque. The water kept rushing past and around him, flinging him from one side to the other as if he were a rag doll. He lost all sense of direction or location, no longer even able to determine where in the house he found himself in.

Was the structure being pulled down the stream? Was he trapped?

His hand desperately grasped at anything he could, sliding off the cement walls.

Rick’s lungs burned, the taste of dirt choking out his mouth and throat.

There was a flash of dulled light, to his right. He had barely noticed. Rick kicked off of the chunk of cement and struggled to head to the light. The moment he’d detached himself from the whirlwind, he was slammed by a stream of faster water, accelerating him into what was undoubtedly the main stream of the river. He tumbled and spun, the world becoming dark again- he couldn’t breathe.

“RICK!”

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The voice pierced through his mind like a hot knife. He couldn’t see, but the voice had come from somewhere. His arms flailed, trying to gain upwards momentum, but everything spun out of control. So hard… to think…

“RICK!”

Flinging his arms and legs, he found a spark, a moment of stability as he was accelerated further, the turbulence leveling him out. Rick swam towards the voice.

He pierced the surface. Rick gave a gasp for air that was choked by a wave of water that yanked him back down. He had to breathe, he had to breathe, he had to swim, but the current was too strong.

“RICK!”

Something punched through, the sound followed immediately by something hard that grasped at his chest. The current abruptly became worse as he was pulled out of the water. He deeply gasped for air and coughed, and with another wave, they sank.

They?

The force that had gripped him pulled harder. They spun, and for a fraction of a second, the world became still. The force that held onto him had grasped onto something solid, something that wasn’t under the whims of the river’s current.

Air, another deep gasp, and he was yanked and flung out. His body rolled against solid land, earth, stable. Rick’s eyes were blurred, and his gut turned itself inside out as he vomited water with barely a second of pause. His mouth tasted mud. On his hands and knees, Rick could only cough and collapse. Every muscle in his body shook and trembled.

“Rick.”

This time the voice was solid, outside of his head, and in his ears. The clawed hand gripped his shirt and dragged him away from the sound of the roaring river, a good ten meters before she dropped him.

Monica’s blue-green eyes shone with concern as she looked at him. Her paw on his chest was tender. “Rick,” she stated again, frowning, leaning down, and licking his face, his cheek, his lips, his nose, and his forehead. “Rick,” she spoke once more. She was sodden, tired, drenched just as bad as he was.

“Monica.” He said the word and relief washed over her; she pressed her nose against his forehead, her arms moving to wrap around him in a wet embrace. He could barely summon the strength to return the gesture.

Lightning crackled across the sky.

Tomas and Kat.

The teacher instantly found the strength to stand up, escaping Monica’s hug. He was… near the raging river. Forest was at either side of it, though he was on the side with the bigger trees. The muddied water ran wild, a rampaging gargantuan snake that rolled its way downhill. Boulders tumbled in the flow’s wake.

He couldn’t recognize anything. Not a sign of the house, not a sign of the farm, not a sign of the barest scrap or clue of either of the sophomores.

“We… we need to find them.”

He stepped towards the river, to get a better view, to-

The paw gripped his shirt and tugged him back.

Rick whirled to meet Monica’s gaze. She was frowning. “Rick.”

There was no joy in that word, it was a warning.

“No, Monica, I need to find them, I need to go to get help!”

“Rick.” She pulled him back a step further, away from the river.

“I HAVE TO HELP THEM!” His voice rang out, his hands shivered. Rick glared at Monica. “I HAVE TO HELP THEM! I-.“

Gripping his shirt, she shook him, first left, then right, and just as easily as she’d thrown him from to side to side, she left him standing. He weighed nothing to her. “Rick.”

Slowly, she shook her head.

And the world tumbled around him.

He had failed.

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