Falling for You
Wind whipped my ears and stung my eyes as I hit the brakes on the cliff. My helmet and harness already on, I scrambled from the rig into the headlights where the raindrops flickered in an unrelenting deluge. Even over the rain I could smell the scent of the burnt rubber tracks which lead through a twisted hole in the guardrail.
I clipped onto the winch cable and set it to slack with the remote. Then I sprinted suicidally for the edge. All at once the roar of the sea joined the roar of the wind in a maddening crescendo. In thin air for a moment I twisted around and my four paws slapped firm onto the vertical cliff face.
As I started my descent I could see the red tail lights of the wrecked car just feet below me and a million miles beyond that, Zuma's hovercraft on the sea training a blinding searchlight on the vehicle.
Under better flying conditions this would have been a slam dunk with Skye helping, but instead here I was doing it the hard way. The only reason this car wasn't already in the bay was because of the enormous tree just below the road which had caught and cradled it, but for how much longer? In the searchlight I could see roots and soft upturned earth at the base of its tilting trunk, heightening my sense of urgency.
I rappelled hard from the wall to reach the upper branches of the tree which now leaned toward the sea. The wood gave a loud yawning creak as I worked my way down.
"Can you hear me?" I shouted over the gale and the surf, but I could barely hear myself. Hearing no response I shouted again, never stopping my crawl toward the car.
"Hello?" yelled a voice.
Good. They were at least conscious. "Stay where you are," I replied. "I'm almost there." Finally I was down on the thickest branches of the tree and right at the driver's side of the vehicle. I jammed a paw into the door handle and yanked hard, but the door stopped short, butting up against solid wood. I looked through the spider webbed window to see the terrified face of a kid who was barely old enough to drive.
"Get back from the window," I yelled. The pup pack on my back sprouted a robotic arm. I drove the claw through the remainder of the glass pane, sweeping it across the bottom to knock it out entirely.
"Can you get out?" I asked.
"I think so," answered the boy, already leaning his head through in desperation. I bit the back of his collar and pulled as he wriggled out and crawled on his arms. With his legs free he got on all fours to face me. The next words that came from my mouth were drowned out by a sickening crack.
Our faces must have been mirror images of horror as the tree began toppling over the edge, taking everything with it. I was yanked away into the air, but my cable cinched tight in the branches above me preventing my escape. There was a heavy jerk as the cable went taut above the tangle. The kid fell away out of sight and my rig, the last thing anchoring me to the ground, scraped off of the road and over the side. I rushed down into darkness with a twisting stomach and eyes clenched shut.