Geoffrey looked into the river. “The idea is to hang on to the bottom rope and walk through the water, right? I’m not meant to attempt a tightrope technique, am I?”

“I think the top rope is for those who carry their supplies with them. They’d tie the bags above them to keep everything dry.”

“Right,” he said, sounding anything but sure as he placed a hand on the lower rope.

“Wait,” shouted Bev, who had followed Helen to where the others were.

Everyone turned to look at her, Derek with a frown. Surely she wasn’t going to insist that they follow her wife’s suggestion after all.

“Go on the upper side of the rope. So that it’s between you and being washed away,” she said.

“Good point,” said Derek.

It was a slow process and, with the water flowing knee-high and the rain coming down harder, the hikers were saturated when Geoffrey, Bruce, Helen and Bev reached the other side. While Geoffrey helped his friends out of the river and up the bank, Derek had taken up the position of helping them find their footing as they began crossing. It allowed him to urge them on.

“Okay, Di, your turn,” he said, once Helen and Bev, melded together like frightened children for the entire crossing, were out of the water.

Holding onto Derek with one hand and the rope with the other, Diane stepped into the water. She’d watched her friends totter across, gasping as the cold water soaked their clothing, and hoped she’d worked out where the wobbly boulders and potholes were.

“Thanks,” she said, releasing Derek’s hand so that she could clutch the rope with both hands.

She was almost midway across the river when they heard it. The water grew louder. At first it seemed to roar, but then the thunderous rolling was accompanied by cracking and crashing sounds. Diane, head down as she concentrated on placing one foot ahead of the other, didn’t look up. The flood advanced like an ocean wave, surging to the shore with no sign of breaking. It swept with it debris from upstream, a weighty, tangled mass of branches, reeds and uprooted plants. Diane was oblivious and didn’t notice anything until it reached her.

The muddy water and saturated wreckage hit her hard, flinging her body around so that she was facing it. Branches walloped her as they sped by. The force against her body and the ropes made her convulse as if electrified. Diane screamed and clasped the rope with both hands, her back pinned against the thick cable. The water and its woody contents rose around her legs.

Geoffrey leapt backwards to avoid a waterborne tree, which—with its branches caught up in the rope—swung around towards him. Bruce, Helen and Bev looked on, aghast, from the bank.

“Oh, my God! Diane!” yelled Bev. “Hold on!”