The wash.

She walked over the dip in the driveway. The water level was rising, and the culverts were clogging up, but had yet to hit the saturation point. The noise from above was deafening. She heard rocks slamming against the structures and the roar of the water.

The sound of a skip loader beeped outside her gate. She recognized the driver who worked to push the escaping mud from Sutter Canyon as it fell.

Her neighbors were all outside. One was on his personal tractor trying to keep up with the mud. His son had a shovel in his hand and was pushing water away from the fence.

As much of a mess things were, the waterways were somewhat under control. Her neighbor Tracy walked up to the gate. “This is crazy.”

“I’m over it.”

She could see from her face, her neighbor was, too.

“What’s it look like up there?” Tracy indicated the main wash with a wave of her hand.

“I haven’t looked yet.”

Together they walked along the high end of the property as a cloud overhead let loose.

Tracy carried an umbrella, where Parker didn’t bother. A raincoat was good enough. Besides, she’d take a shower before going to work, so there was no reason to stay completely dry now. Not that staying dry was possible. Wind blew the rain in all directions.

They walked past the first structure that had reached the brim and was starting to spill over. The second structure was bowing under the force of water behind it.

“I don’t think this will last the afternoon,” Parker told her.

“It doesn’t look like it.”

Band-Aid on a hemorrhage. Water rushed off the mountain like anxious kids on a slip-and-slide. All Parker could think was she hoped the people downstream had prepared. If the dam burst, homes could be lost.

By the time they walked back by her driveway, Keith had positioned the backhoe portion of his skip loader by her culverts. Rocks were threatening to clog it again.

Parker waved at the man and kept walking beside her neighbor.

A shout from the Sutters had them both turning. There had to be eight people, all with shovels, working against time.

Water flowed off the back hillside and straight toward their house.

Seeing the need, Parker rushed back to her house and grabbed as many shovels as she could before joining the fight.

“The back needs more hands.” This from the homeowner.

Parker ran to the back and started pushing mud and rock away from the house as it flowed toward them.

No matter how hard they worked, the mud kept coming.

So far, they were staying on top of it. Even when the sky opened up and rain pelted down on all of them, they managed to divert much of the mud. They grabbed bigger rocks and created dams. Pots from the garden and plywood they’d bought as a precaution.

Parker lost track of time.

The rain kept coming.

It took a bolt of lightning to make her snap out of the fight.

She looked at her watch. She had to go. Didn’t want to.

Parker handed her shovel to someone who didn’t have one. “I need to check on my house.”

“Go.”

Almost jogging down their driveway, and then past her gate, Keith stopped her.

Rain poured in buckets. “Your bridge is gone!”

“What?”

“Gone. Your bridge is gone.”

Her nose flared. “You mean I can’t cross over the wash?” She assumed he meant the culverts had filled up. But that she expected. So why was he wide-eyed and serious?

“Your footbridge.”

Chills ran down Parker’s back.

And not the good kind.

She ran around the corner and lost her ability to speak.

Not only were the culverts filled up, but water was hitting the side of her Arizona crossing with such a force that the wave it crafted was fifteen feet tall. The split rail decorative fence was annihilated, and the footbridge had been swept away as if it had never been.

“Oh my God.”

She walked closer.

“Oh my God!”

She stood on the high side of the water flow, outside of the danger zone, and watched as the water gushed by.

Her heart slammed in her chest. Seeing her home, completely cut off from her reach, made her want to scream.

The roar of the water made it impossible to hear her own voice. Boulders the size of smart cars bounced in the water.

Once she caught her breath, she walked up the length of her property. Water rushed over the K-rails Colin and his crew put in place. It was obvious that the structures had gaping holes in them because of the amount of water that rushed through sections of the structures meant to hold them back.

The next time she looked at her watch it was a half an hour after she was meant to be at work.

Not that it mattered.

The keys to her car were in the house, and she couldn’t get over the water to retrieve them.

She stood at the water’s edge, chest heaving for several minutes, and mourned what would be the end of her job with the school district.

Janice would fire her.

And Parker didn’t care.

She walked off the high side of the wash and back to her neighbors who were struggling to save their home.

This was more important.

This was where she needed to be.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Colin turned up Creek Canyon to see a police car backing down. Full-on reverse, lights flashing.

“Holy shit.”

Mud was flowing down the street, bringing rocks with it. Not something normal cars could handle.

Colin turned the flashing light on his truck on and pulled to the side. He lowered his window and waited for the sheriff to pull alongside him.

“We’re locking this down,” the sheriff yelled between the cars.

The water in the wash had swelled to street level and was billowing out of its banks.

“I have equipment coming.”

The officer nodded. “We need to keep this clear for emergency vehicles.”

“I’m on it.” Colin rolled up his window and slowly made his way up the street.

He called in to Ed, put him on speaker. “We have a situation here. I need every available piece of machinery and man to run them at Creek Canyon.”

“I already got a call from the sheriff’s department. Did the structures hold?”

“I’m not even there yet.” Colin stopped his truck by one of the Arizona crossings that traversed the wash. Water was flowing so fast it was hitting the sides and spilling over the cross streets, directing the mud to run down the center of the road.

“Keep me updated.”

Colin hung up.

Two of his crew were busy chipping away at what looked like a losing battle by Parker’s and her neighbors’ gates.

He pulled his truck to the side and jumped out.

Keith cut the engine to his skip loader, making it possible to hear him.

“I need you to sweep down the road, keep it clear enough for emergency vehicles.”

“Got it.”

“How does it look up there?”

Keith shrugged. “A shit show, but nothing we didn’t expect.”

“Help is coming. Let’s give them a path.”

Keith fired up his loader and moved it down the street.

Colin slid back into his truck and drove the rest of the way in. His guys managed to keep Parker’s drive somewhat clear. From the big stuff, in any event.