Reese helped Ben stand on shaky legs. "I don't like the way those trees are moving, man. I think we need to keep going.”
Squealing tires behind them proceeded a meaty thwack, and Reese jumped to the side, slamming into the guardrail. The next thing he knew, Ben crashed into him like an NFL linebacker and the two of them tumbled back over the rail. There was a long, heart-stopping moment where the sky switched places with rocks and trees before he and Ben came to a bone-jarring stop against an unyielding pine.
The air had been knocked out of Reese’s lungs sometime during the fall and he opened his mouth in a silent gasp of pain. Next to him Ben groaned, his face contorted, and one hand slapped at the ground. Reese scrabbled up from his position on the rocks against the tree, and shoved Ben away.
"Owwww!” Reese groaned as his tortured lungs sucked in life-giving air at last. "What was that for?” he demanded.
"My leg," Ben cried out through clenched teeth over the noise of the wave. "My leg!"
"Hey! You okay down there?" a new voice called out. Reese looked up from his position by the tree and squinted in the sunlight through the dust and pine needles in the air. Someone leaned over the guard rail up the embankment he’d just climbed. It looked like a kid.
"What happened?" Reese called.
“Dude—I think I hit you with my car! Are you okay?"
"Are you freaking kidding me?" Reese snarled.
"Worry about it later! Leg!” Ben said, grabbing at the rocks around him in an attempt to sit up. “Wave!” he yelled and pointed downhill.
"Oh, crap," Reese said as he looked down at Ben's right leg. The knee had already swollen double in size.
"Hey, stay right there,” the kid called out. “I’ll come down and help you!"
“No! You stay up there!” Reese countermanded, throwing up a hand. “We have to get higher!”
The kid was already halfway down the embankment. "Whoa! Dude, you need a doctor—”
“We need a helicopter,” Ben retorted.
“I don't know where a doctor’s office is,” the kid continued, “but there's a ranger station at the top of the mountain—I saw a sign back around the curve before I…”
“Before you hit me with your car?" Ben demanded, his voice rising through the pain.
"I'm so sorry, man—I’ve never hit anybody before.”
“First time for everything, I guess,” Reese replied under his breath. “Let’s get back up to the road, I can’t tell if the wave is cresting or not…”
“We weren't even on the road!" Ben complained, ignoring the wave. “I was on the shoulder! Who taught you how to drive?”
“My mom!” The kid snapped. “I—I didn't even see—I was just trying to get away from the waves!"
Tires squealed and horns honked, as several more cars raced by their position, heading up the mountain. Bits of gravel tumbled down the embankment, kicked up by the passing vehicles.
"Whatever—we’ll sort this out later,” Reese said. “We gotta get you to that ranger station. Hopefully it’s higher up the hill.“
"I am so sorry," the kid said, putting his hands out, showing his palms. "I'll help you—whatever I can do—oh man, look at your knee!"
"I don’t like the way you're turning green, kid," Ben snarled. "I'm the one that got hit!"
The sound of tree trunks snapping downhill was sharp as gunfire over the dull roar of the waves. Reese's mind came to a sharp focus. "Save it. There’ll be time for that later, we have to get away from the flood zone."
It took even longer to climb the embankment the second time, but eventually all three managed to make it over the guard rail, sweating and exhausted. Reese took the fact that they hadn’t been swept away by the raging torrent just a few dozen yards below them as a good sign.
“I think the water’s cresting…look, it’s not coming up the hill any higher,” he observed.
Ben looked up from the road, as he leaned against the guard rail on his good leg. “Thank God…” he muttered. When he turned away from the tsunami that clawed at the hill, his eyes opened wide in shock. "A Prius? You hit me with a Prius?”
Reese, knowing Ben's penchant for big, diesel-powered Ford trucks, laughed as he helped him hobble toward the mint green hybrid. “It has wheels and a motor…sort of…it’ll do.”
"It—it’s my dad's," the kid replied, blushing. “It gets great gas mileage.”
Another car roared by, going well over the speed limit, and bumped the driver’s side. The side mirror shattered, and plastic flew in the air, but the other driver didn't so much as stop after regaining control. The black sedan raced around the curve in the road and disappeared uphill to the sound of squealing tires and a racing engine.
"Hey!" the teenager yelled as he stepped out into the middle of the road with a raised fist.
"Forget about it, kid!” Reese called.
"I'd say that makes us even,” Ben laughed.
"He's right,” Reese said, getting the young man’s attention. “We’ll have a lot more things to worry about than dents on your car if we don't get uphill, real quick."
“I’m Aiden, by the way," the freckle faced kid said, extending a shaking hand to Ben.
Ben stared at the outstretched hand for a moment, his eyes narrowed and his jaw working. "Ben," he said, grasping the kid’s hand.
"And I'm Reese. There, we’re all introduced—now can we get going, please?"
"I don't even know what's going on!" Aiden cried, running both hands through his curly brown hair, his eyes wide, face covered in a sheen of sweat.
"Just settle down and take a deep breath, Aiden," Reese said, helping Ben into the back seat. "Let's focus on one thing at a time okay? Get in the car and get us to the top of this
