Page 76 of Grumpy

And around again.

A sinking feeling threatened to pull her down into the water’s depths next to Grumpy. Shock from what she hadn’t noticed until now weighing on her soul until there was only one question to ask, “Where’s Jackson?”

CHAPTER 15

They weren’t the only survivors. Like prey emerging from their hidey-holes now that the predator was gone, people started appearing from the woods, cars, ditches, and a manhole. Someone had even attached themselves to the fence.

Destruction was everywhere. Cars overturned, light posts toppled, trees uprooted… Some vehicles were even on fire. It was disorienting, a reminder of just how easily the world could destroy everything man’s ever built.

There were also the wounded and the dead. Kelly tried not to allow her eyes to focus on a pair of legs sticking out from beneath a crushed car. People were shouting, crying, and calling out for loved ones.

Kelly’s heart wanted to drop everything and look for Jackson. She remembered seeing him enter the culvert with Maddie, so where was he? There was no sign of the SUV. Without her phone, there was no way for her to call him outside of shouting. Even in the absence of the earsplitting roar of the tornado, it was not quiet around them. Car horns, people crying, metal groaning… Kelly shouted at the top of her lungs and she barely could hear herself. What hope did Jackson have of hearing her?

Why wasn’t he here? Was it possible he’d already gone for help?

Her mind answered that question before her heart would allow her to. Jackson wouldn’t have left them to get help without telling them first, and he certainly wouldn’t have left them in that ditch with Grumpy so clearly injured.

Sloshing movement drew Kelly’s attention to Maddie. She was still shivering, desperately trying to hold her father’s head out of the filthy water they were standing in. Fuck. Kelly needed to get Maddie out of this water and someplace warm and dry.

But she also couldn’t leave Grumpy behind. Was it better for Maddie to get out of the water and have the strain on her body of pulling Grumpy up or better for her to remain in the cold water longer and have the easier task of pushing Grumpy out of the ditch? Kelly didn’t know! She was a waitress, not a doctor. She wasn’t smart enough to figure these things out.

What she did know was that standing here panicking about it would help neither Maddie nor Grumpy.

Lowering his feet, Kelly hurried over to Maddie. “I can’t leave him here to help you up. He could drown. Him first, then you.” She prayed she was making the right decision.

Maddie nodded her agreement. They moved to the edge. It looked so much steeper now than when Kelly had slid down it in her haste to get to the culvert.

Kelly got a grip under Grumpy’s armpits. She heaved and pulled, wondering just where that so-called super-strength women claimed they had that could lift cars off babies. Grumpy certainly couldn’t weigh more than a car. And why are babies always going under cars? Like, why was that the example used?

It took far longer than she cared to think about to get Grumpy onto the shoulder of the road. She didn’t like putting him down on the hard surface, but it was that or muddy grass. Huffing and puffing like a chain smoker, Kelly worked her way back down into the ditch to help Maddie.

By the time they reached the top, two men came running over to help them.

“Thank you,” Kelly gasped, accepting the offered hand.

The other removed his jacket and wrapped Maddie in it, which Kelly was extremely grateful for. Even if she’d had her jacket, it would be just as soaked as the rest of her and likely useless to Maddie.

The man who helped Kelly up knelt next to Grumpy. Her world seemed to stop until he announced, “I’ve got a pulse.” Then he added, “Jesus,” as he took in Grumpy’s previous injuries. “This guy looks like he survived hell just to be thrown back into it.”

On legs that felt like rubber, Kelly made her way over to Grumpy’s other side. She wanted to place his head in her lap rather than having him rest on that hard ground, but she feared moving his neck. That was a thing doctors did on TV, right? To protect the spinal cord? Instead, she took his hand, kissing his dirty knuckles. “Have you seen our friend?” she asked the man. “About six feet, brown hair around his ears, late twenties?”

The man shook his head. “Sorry, ma’am.”

Kelly cursed, and cradled Grumpy’s hand to her chest for comfort. “He was down there with us, but now we can’t find him. He must have gone for help. He had to have.”

The two men exchanged a look that Kelly ignored.

“He’s bleeding from somewhere on his back,” the first man told the other. “We need to turn him.”

Both seemed young, college age. The one who’d given Maddie his coat was bronze skinned with jet black hair while the other had strawberry blonde hair and a distinct chin dimple. Despite their age, they seemed far more adept at helping than Kelly was.

“I need you to let go of his hand, Miss,” the one with black hair said. “We’re medical students.”

Kelly wanted to refuse, but a hand on her shoulder pulled her attention up to Maddie. Though she was still shivering, her lips had lost that blueish tint to them. The sun was dying fast, and along with it, their current source of heat.

Standing, Kelly took Maddie into her arms, rubbing her hands up and down Maddie’s back. She hoped the friction would help. Somewhere in the distance, Kelly heard sirens.

Together, the two men worked to turn Grumpy over. They jumped back at the same time, giving Kelly an unobstructed view of Grumpy’s flayed back. It looked like someone had taken a whip to him, tearing through his shirt and his compression wraps, down to skin and muscle.