Brooke and I walk side by side and then start climbing on top of the rock slide. Brooke puts her face into an opening between two giant rocks and yells, “Hello,” and then puts her ear into the opening and listens. After several seconds she shakes her head and moves on.
We spread out, each yelling into small openings and then turning to listen for responses. Every time I have to use my right foot to boost myself up higher, my calf throbs, but I keep going. I’m starting to warm up from the movement but my voice is going hoarse from all the yelling.
My mind jumps to Derrick and Shannon. Their solo camps were at least twice as far away as mine and Brooke’s, but if they’re okay they should be showing up soon. I stand up straight and turn toward the high ridge where Derrick’s camp is. I put my hand above my forehead to shield my eyes from the glare of the sun, which is growing brighter by the minute.
Before I can really focus, Brooke shouts, “Josh, I think I found something!”
CHAPTER 4
I SCRAMBLE ACROSS THE ROCK slide to where Brooke is. She’s lying on her stomach and peering into a small opening.
I sit next to Brooke. “What is it?”
She pushes up into a sitting position and her shoulder brushes mine. “Just look.” Frowning, she points toward the opening.
I lie down and press my face into the gap but it’s too dark to see anything, so I shift backward to let some light in, and then I see it. Several feet down, but it’s there. “Okay, I see the flag.” I sit up and face Brooke. “It was on the highest point down here, so it makes sense it’d be closest to the surface.”
Brooke shakes her head. “It’s more than just the flag. Didn’t you see the orange pole? Didn’t you—”
“Yeah,” I say. “I saw the pole, too.”
Brooke turns her head sideways, then thrusts her face back into the gap with her shoulder pressing against my thigh. “There,” she says. She pulls on my arm. “Look.”
I scoot in next to her, and she shifts her head away from the hole to make room for mine.
Now I’m looking down the hole.
“Okay,” she says. And I can feel her breath on my ear. “Look just below the flag. You see the orange pole, right?”
“Right,” I say.
“Then you see a little break or space, and then more orange pole. Right?”
“Right,” I say.
“Look at that space.”
I focus on the dark space between the two segments of orange, and at first all I see is nothing. Like maybe a rock smashed the pole. But then I see something else. Movement. A dark-skinned hand is barely opening and closing around the pole. There’s only one person at the camp whose hand that could be.
“Theo!” I shout. “Theo. We’re here. Are you okay?” I press my ear to the hole and listen but hear nothing, and my heart sags. Maybe he’s unconscious. Or maybe his face is so trapped that he can’t yell. But his fingers—they moved—so he’s got to be alive.
I sit up and turn to Brooke. “Help me. We’ve got to get him out of there.”
“Brooke. Josh.”
Brooke and I turn toward the voice, and there’s Shannon, almost on top of us.
I stare at the side of her face. “Are you okay?” Some of her hair, which is usually tied back in a ponytail, is plastered to her cheek—anchored there by blood.
“I’m fine. I took a fall and landed on my face.” She motions at the buried camp with her hand. “I’ve got nothing to complain about.”
When I look closely at Shannon’s eyes, I can see that she’s holding back tears, just like I was when I first took in the quadrillion tons of rock that now cover the camp and everyone who was down here.
I point down and say, “Theo’s under there. Brooke spotted his hand through this hole. We’ve seen it move. We’ve got to get these rocks off him now.”
“I’m surprised there’s no one else here,” Shannon says. “With all the planes and helicopters flying around, I was sure that a helicopter would’ve landed down here.”
“Helicopters?” I say, looking at Brooke. “All we saw were planes flying super high.”
“There were helicopters lower down. Lots of them. You probably didn’t see them,” Shannon explains, “because of the steep slopes surrounding the lake.”
“Helicopters or no helicopters,” I say, “we’ve got to help Theo.”
For the next few minutes we work together, trying to move the smaller of the two rocks on either side of the opening. If only there were some trees around, we could use a big branch to create some leverage. Instead, Shannon and Brooke are pulling on the rock from behind and I’m pushing on it. We’ve gotten it to move maybe a foot, but it keeps sliding back to its original spot whenever we let up. It must weigh at least two hundred pounds, and it’s mostly wedged in place.
If Derrick were here, it might make a difference. He’s the biggest of the four of us. And that gets me wondering where he is and if he’s okay. I mean, his camp is about as far away as Shannon’s.
“What if we all push it?” Shannon says. “But not in the direction we’re trying right now.” She points. “Let’s push it down the hill instead of across.”
Brooke says, “There’s not much space for all of us on the uphill side, but it’s worth a try.”
We regroup so we’re three across on the uphill side. I’m in a half squat, and I’ve got my arms and chest pressed up against the rock like I’m trying to tackle it. Shannon and Brooke are on either side of me, pushing on the rock above where I am, their sides pressing into the tops of my shoulders.
“Okay,” Shannon says, “on the count of three.”
But she doesn’t even get to one before the ground starts to shake with a strong aftershock.
“Hang on.” I hug the rock and feel Shannon and Brooke collapse onto it as well. My feet slide backward, and now I’m on my knees and my head is being jostled between Shannon’s and Brooke’s hips, but we’re all leaning onto the rock, riding out the aftershock. I don’t know if it’s because of the aftershock or in spite of it, but I can feel the rock starting to give. Starting to slide downhill.
CHAPTER 5
HIS GRIP IN MY HAND is weak. “Theo,” I shout. “Theo. Hang on. We’re going to get you out.” I drop his hand and turn to Shannon and Brooke, who are moving smaller rocks away from where we think Theo is buried, based on the angle and position that his hand is in. We’re trying to clear where we think his head is in case he’s having trouble breathing. The big rock that slid during the aftershock has made removing other rocks easier, but there’s no telling what got rearranged under the surface.
“Help me with this one,” Shannon says, her hands under one side of a rock the size of a daypack.
I squat and put my hands under the opposite side of the rock, and on three we lift it enough to tip it out of the way.
“I need both of you for this one,” Brooke says. The rock she’s working on is easily twice as big as the one Shannon and I just barely moved.