“Can they be scary?” Charlotte’s eyes widened. “Really scary?”
Some of the girls murmured in agreement, but a few of the others didn’t look as excited at the prospect.
“Not scary,” he told them. “I’ll start. Once upon a time there was a lonely bunny.”
“I know this one,” Regan told him. “My mom read me all the Lonely Bunny books when I was little. Lonely Bunny Finds a Friend, Lonely Bunny Takes a Trip. Lonely Bunny and the Severed Hand.”
Taryn tensed. “What? There’s a children’s book about a severed hand?”
Regan giggled. “No, I was kidding about that.”
“Good to know,” Taryn murmured, even as she wondered how Angel knew about the Lonely Bunny books at all. Had he read them to his son, years ago? A question she would wait to ask, she thought, then realized the rain had gotten a lot harder. It pounded on the tent like a drum. So far it wasn’t seeping through the fabric, but wasn’t that going to happen eventually?
Before she could ask Angel, one of the other Grove Keepers unzipped the front of the tent.
“We just checked the weather,” the woman said. “It’s going to be raining all night. The front that was supposed to go north of us has dropped south and parked overhead. Apparently it’s been pouring up in the mountains for hours.”
* * *
“WHERE IN THE MOUNTAINS?” Angel asked, careful to keep his voice calm. Because the stream in the campsite was fed from mountain runoff. Depending on where the rain was falling, the stream would start to rise. The question was how fast that would happen.
The other Grove Keeper shrugged. “I’m not sure. East of us. We’re thinking we should pack up the girls and get them home.”
Angel hesitated. Weather was a part of camping, and learning to deal with the elements would be good practice. On the other hand, his girls were young and for most of them, this was their first experience camping. He didn’t want the rain to be the only thing they remembered.
He looked at Taryn, who shrugged. “I can argue both sides,” she told him. “Yes, it would be nice if the weather were better, but that will never be a guarantee.”
The girls listened but didn’t offer an opinion.
The other Grove Keeper said, “I’ll talk to the rest of the groves and see what they have to say. Then we’ll make a group decision.”
“Works for me,” Angel said.
The woman stood and started to pull the zipper closed. As she did, there was a scream from another part of the camp.
Angel was through the opening and shifting the other Grove Keeper aside before the sound had finished echoing off the trees. He’d left on his boots, so he moved easily over the wet terrain. The rain soaked through his shirt and stung his eyes as he searched through the darkness to find the source of the problem.
“It’s rising! It’s rising fast.”
He headed toward the woman yelling. Other Grove Keepers and a few of the older girls joined him. He found two women standing by the benches were they’d eaten dinner a few hours before. Only what had been an open area and a gentle slope down to a stream was now a rapidly flowing and quickly rising river.
“I don’t understand,” one of the women said.
“It’s a flash flood,” he said flatly, remembering the mention of rain in the mountains. “Combined with snowmelt. It’s coming up fast. We have to get out of here.” The other three stared at him. “Now!” he added in a loud voice. “Get your groves and get back to your cars. Keep a head count. Don’t leave anyone behind.”
Aware of his girls waiting for him, he went from campsite to campsite and got everyone else. Some of the girls grabbed gear; others simply started running for the trail. He circled back to his tent and found Taryn waiting in the rain. Water dripped down her face and she was shivering.
“The stream is rising,” he told her. “There’s a flash flood coming through. Get the girls and head for the trail. You’ll be safe once you reach the cars.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Check that everyone else got out, then join you by the cars.” He grabbed her upper arms. “Do a head count when you get there.”
She nodded.
He squatted down and opened the tent flap. Eight pairs of eyes stared at him.
“There’s a flash flood,” he told them. “We’re getting out now. Taryn is going to lead you up the trail while I check to make sure all the other girls got out. Everybody pair up. You leave in pairs and you arrive in pairs. No one gets left behind.”
He felt their fear. In his head, a voice kept reminding him that while he could save the world, he hadn’t been able to protect his own. That these girls were just like Marcus, and Marcus was dead.
“You’re ready for this,” he told them gently. “I have faith in you. We’ll meet at the top by the cars. Everybody ready?”