The Last Bastion_Book 4
Page 20
The pine tree anchor onshore behind them now tilted at a 45-degree angle, the roots on one side beginning to show. Michael realized that it wouldn’t last much longer. It didn’t matter. If they didn’t get the kayak free soon, the tree giving way would be the least of their worries. But they could do nothing. It was the forces of nature versus the forces of physics. The human element involved appeared to be a non-factor.
Suddenly the tree entangled with the kayakers gave a sort of shudder and then bounced in the water. Then the tautness on the tether the Blenders were holding slackened. They stared out across the water, watching the tree slowly begin its path downriver again.
The group collectively held their breath, along with the two unfortunate souls beneath the river’s chop. Suddenly, a flash of forest green emerged from beneath the brown water, and the Blenders could make out the kayak, bottom-up, still tethered to their line.
“PULL!” Michael instructed, and everyone began reeling the boat back in toward shore.
An instant later, a head appeared beside the kayak, and then another. But then one head bobbed away from the boat and began floating downriver. It was Josh.
There was an undecipherable utterance from Patrick, who held himself against the side of the up-turned kayak while still gripping his paddle. Then he reached his paddle out toward Josh just as Josh floated past him. Josh reached out and grabbed the paddle’s end, using it to pull himself back to the kayak that he soon clung to alongside Patrick.
Two harrowing minutes later, the Blenders had the kayak and its displaced occupants, both of whom looked like half-drowned river rats, back on shore.
The two men were so waterlogged and exhausted they could barely stand. They had to be helped to dry land by the others. They slumped to the ground where they sat shivering in the rain, trying to catch their breath.
Josh had lost both his socks. Patrick still had one dangling from a foot. Josh had lost his paddle. And both men looked as though they had been sent through a washing machine’s ‘heavy duty’ cycle. They had been bumped, banged, bruised, cut, and close to drowned.
And while the kayak had taken some hard knocks and been partially filled with water, it came out intact.
After having caught their breath and taken a moment to shake the cobwebs out after their river bashing, Josh turned his eyes up toward Michael who stood nearby.
“Now what?” he asked, still breathing hard while wiping a combination of dripping river water and drenching rain from his eyes with a thumb and middle finger.
The rest of the group turned their eyes toward Michael.
Michael’s stomach churned, his body tensing with uncertainty at the question.
“I don’t know,” he shook his head. “I just don’t know,” he looked at the group around him, their faces filled with fear.
“Come on,” he said to the two men, helping them to their feet. “For now, let’s get you two back to camp, dried off, and warmed up.”
It was all he could offer as the wind-driven rain whipped around them and what had already been a pounding, saturating soak became a torrential deluge.
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Thank you for reading! Please be on the lookout for the final book in The Last Bastion series, due out in August of 2018.
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