Elle slowly moved across the dry river bottom with her scanner, looking for any sign of the alien, a spiny toed Skilak, who had landed there the night before. Jay and Kay were busily inspecting either side of the river bed as she handled the bottom. Not a flicker on the scanner though. It looked like their perp had made a clean getaway.
"No sign of anything down here!" Elle called as she started towards the bank of the riverbed to climb out. Just then her foot slipped and twisted, wedging itself between two rocks. Elle started to struggle to free herself as a loud rumbling sound filled the air.
"Here. Let me give you a hand," Kay said as he slid down into the riverbed and knelt beside her, pulling at the rocks to free her trapped foot. Elle was watching Kay at first but suddenly the rumbling sound that she was hearing grew louder and she looked up just in time to see a large wall of water rushing down the riverbed heading straight for them.
"KAY!!" she screamed as the water hit them just as he freed her foot. Elle struggled against the powerful force as it swept her along, pounding her body against the sides and bottom of the river. She finally managed to get her head above water, he lungs burning as she drew in a breath of air before being swept back under. She didn't know how long this went on. She fought, clawed her way to the surface only to be sucked down again. Finally the water slammed her against the side of the river and she was able to grab onto a small outcropping and with a terrific struggle, she pulled herself out.
Elle laid there gasping for breath for a moment before sitting up and trying to figure out where she was. She had lost the scanner and her communicator when the water hit along with her shoes. She looked anxiously around but nothing seemed familiar, just miles of desert with no sign of Jay or.... She gasped as she remembered who had been with her when the water hit.
"KAY?!!" she called as she pulled herself to her feet and staggered along the riverbank looking for any sign of him. What if he had been hurt? She shook her head as she thought that. This was Kay she was thinking about, Kay who had survived man eating bugs and who knows how many horrors. A little water wasn't going to hurt him.
Elle stumbled along the riverbank for several minutes before she saw a flash of black washed up on the side. "Kay?" she whispered as she slipped down the bank, being careful not to fall in again. It was him, laying there still and unmoving, face down against the muddy edge of the river his lower body still in the water. Elle reached out and frantically shook his shoulders but he didn't respond to her touch or to her repeatedly calling his name.
She reached down and grabbed his jacket, pulling hard to get him to the top of the riverbank. She couldn't do anything with how he was laying and she was afraid that the water could snatch him away from her again. As soon as she had him on safe and level ground she knelt beside him and rolled him over onto his back. She gasped at the sight that greeted her. His face was battered and bruised, his eyes closed and his lips blue. She leaned down, putting an ear by his mouth and nose, tilting his head back with one hand while fumbling for a pulse with the other. Nothing. No breathing, no pulse. He was dead.