Chapter 7 - Downstream
The shock of the freezing water hit Mark like a physical wall, knocking the breath from his lungs. The current was savage, dragging them beneath the surface into total blackness. Mud and silt stung his eyes. Debris scraped against his shoulders. His instincts as a father overrode every reflex of self-preservation; his arms remained locked around his two children like bands of steel.
He kicked violently, fighting the undertow until his head broke through the frothing surface. He gasped for air, coughing up muddy water. Beside him, Clara sputtered and choked, but she had kept her grip on his collar. Leo was gasping, terrified, his small hands clutching Mark’s soaked shirt.
"Keep your head up!" Mark screamed over the roar of the water.
The river curved sharply away from the mill, carrying them rapidly down the valley away from Amanda and Julian. A massive fallen oak tree blocked half the channel ahead, its submerged branches reaching out like skeletal fingers. The current swept them directly into the tangled canopy.
Mark threw his body forward to absorb the impact, taking the brunt of the collision against his ribs. The pain was blinding, a sharp crack indicating at least one broken bone. But the branches stopped their momentum, trapping them against the riverbank.
Gritting his teeth against the searing agony in his chest, Mark hauled Clara onto the slick muddy bank first. "Climb, Clara! Crawl into the brush!"
He followed, pushing Leo ahead of him onto the sodden grass before dragging his own battered body out of the water. They lay there for a moment in the pouring rain, panting and coughing. Behind them, far upriver, two distinct gunshots echoed faintly through the storm—Amanda, firing blindly into the water in frustration.
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They were alive, but they were stranded in the middle of Blackwood Forest, miles from any town, soaked to the bone, with hypothermia closing in. Leo’s skin was completely blue now, and his eyes were rolling back.
"Daddy," Clara cried, tears cutting through the mud on her face. "Leo isn't waking up. He’s not moving!"
