Page 109 of Buck & Mari
For a moment.
Then it was gone.
She screamed, managing more sound than she thought was possible.
BUCK
His head broke through the water, exchanging the thick smothering layer of water for the pelting drops of rain.
Swimming in a flood was just as unnerving as it sounded.
Panic didn’t just rise to the surface, it rode him.
Hard.
As he drove his hands through the water, struggling to keep his head literally above water, he tried to remember what they’d seen on the maps earlier.
The dam was likely to overflow into a catchment along the mountains. It wouldn’t take the entire volume of water behind the aging dam, but it was enough to alleviate some of the release.
The flood that pulled Mari and likely the whole damn front porch off the Sakamoto home wasn’t controlled by a runoff.
How much water had collected behind the dam since the last time someone had measured it?
It had to be a massive amount to pull the porch off of a house and people under the tow.
WUUF
“Unn-”
His back hit something.
The impact across his shoulders and his hips for a second before his whole torso pushed back and his spine bowed into the space.
Something bit into the back of his neck, tearing flesh, and he threw out his arms, and his fingers found the gaps in what was some kind of chain-link fence.
The water twisted and pushed against him, climbing up his chest toward his face.
He used the heels of his boots to dig into the fence, pushing himself higher.
He didn’t want the water to push him under the surface.
He pushed higher, trying to open his mouth to call out, but water came in more than air was going out.
Maybe, too much.
The crush of the water was… punishing.
Time felt like it was slowing down and his energy began to flag.
And then he heard Mari scream.
He felt that scream as if it had come from his own throat.
The sound of the water rushing over his shoulders made it hard to hear where her voice was coming from.
“M-Mari!”
He turned, fighting the pressure of the water and grasped the top of the fence in his hands.
