Breathe Again

Chapter 30

Tears filled his eyes when he found the slow and steady ba-dum beneath his fingers. A lump of emotion clogged his throat, but he swallowed past it and shook her, pleading, "Dottie, stay awake."

She forced her eyes open and tried pushing against the immovable log, grumbling, "You're awful bossy..."

Sterling cradled her face and tilted it so he could see her better. Blood flowed from a goose egg on the side of her head, steadily seeping down her face and neck. With renewed vigor, he grabbed a nearby branch and lodged it under the limb imprisoning her legs.

With bleary and sluggish eyes, Dottie looked up at him and said with a smile, "I can move my toes." Being able to get the words free of her mouth after the atrocious failed attempt a moment before was a triumphant moment.

He bent down, wiped blood and dirt from her face, and placed a kiss to her lips, "That's good news, honey." Standing up, he ordered, "When I say so, I need you to pull your legs free, do you think you can do that?"

Dottie grimaced but nodded.

Sterling's grasped the crude makeshift lever, holding it as tightly as he could in his rain slickened grip, and waited for her answer. Lightning glimmered faintly overhead followed by a distant roll of thunder.

When he set his upper body over the lever and braced his feet, the rain picked up its intensity. It was as though someone pulled another thread and opened the clouds wider. If it kept up at this rate, he did not know how long it would be before the trickling stream beneath his feet became a churning river.

With a plea to the heavens he would have the strength and the time needed to save her, Sterling gave one mighty push against the makeshift lever and yelled, "NOW."

Muscles and veins bulged with the exertion necessary to move the trunk high enough for her to scrape her legs across the loose rocks.

Suddenly, she stopped moving, and cast terrified eyes up to him, "Something—I-I can't move—Hawk!" She tugged at her skirts with all her strength. The unmistakable sound of tearing fabric met her ears. Seconds later, she muttered an unladylike curse when her efforts to release them proved futile.

Straining under the prolonged weight of the log, Sterling shifted his body and pressed his weight more fully onto the lever, bringing it further off the ground. The hanging branches of the log on top noticeably interlinked with the broken branches underneath, preventing the full weight of the log from crushing Dottie.

She yanked on her skirts, not caring when the material ripped further and was at last able to pull her legs free. The broken tree limbs kept their tenacious hold on the thick material of her skirts, claiming its prize of shredded cloth.

Sterling reached down with one hand and helped Dottie to stand, allowing the log to crash to its resting place just as a thundering roar filled the valley and the wind picked up its terrifying wail with renewed vigor. Horrendous cracking noises and explosions joined in the tumultuous sounds heralding the impending doom behind them.

He turned to the West where the noise steadily grew deafening, and shouted over the cacophony, "We have to get out of here. D'you think you can walk?"

Dottie nodded and grabbed his hand, tugging him forward as she limped to the steep bank leading up to the road. Loose shale skittered down beneath their slipping feet, making it difficult to find purchase among the mud and trees jutting out offering precarious refuge.

Latching onto a sturdy-looking tree, Sterling anchored an arm around Dottie's waist and pulled her up next to him before stretching for the next outreaching tree.