Mcca
wipers swept frantically at their highest setting, yet the downpour kept swallowing the
main highway was flooded. The bridge leading to the wealt
to stop me. The world
he fire in my
ehind the abandoned Goldwater University campus. It was a rou
d the truck lurched off the paved
eld on, my knuckles white on the wheel. I fought the truck, wrestled it, using
I reached the creek that bordered th
ng, muddy torrent, a furious brown river that had already swallo
uld see the faint glow
't hes
I dragged out my old "bug-ou
a tightly packed bundle and a small air p
the raft from my hands as I pumped air into
e raft, stripped off the soaking
tole my breath. It surged around my waist, its curren
ambling onto the small raf
ck in the middle of a churning,
ed the version of events they had chosen to present. They were probably celebrating as though
Styx, and I was coming to
wn into the torrent. I clung to the sides, my fingers raw, my body screamin
Martha's cruelty. Sloane's smug s
came fuel. The pai
the raft slammed into the
tly I could barely move. I was soaked to the bone,
ket of bushes. From my bag, I pulled a small
ture stared back, her hair plastered to her head, her dress torn a
d the lights of the man
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