Desperate Measures Read Online Free PDF Page A

good.
    And then another sound emerged. Rushing water. Even better.
    His paper-dry throat clenched. He hadn’t noticed how desperate he was for a drink until now. The sound of the river, if that’s what it was, came from just ahead and to the left. If anything was worth making a run for, this was it.
    He stood up and took off again, heading toward the sound. Before long, the forest thinned enough to show him the rolling white breakers of a riverbed. The water was flowing east, but it looked dangerous, like a highway of rapids and boulders as far as Carter could see.
    Still, this was a way out. Maybe he couldn’t outrun the others, but he could ride the river as fast as anyone. If he was lucky, he’d be washed straight downstream.If he was unlucky, he’d get smashed against one of those rocks.
    Or even worse, he’d wind up held under by a recirculating current. It was called the washing machine effect. He’d heard about it when the family went rafting on the Wolf River in Wisconsin. That was the last thing you wanted if you fell into rapids. Once that happened, drowning was the easy part.
    Before there was time to think anymore, a shout came up from the woods. Someone was coming.
    Another shout, even closer, was all the push Carter needed. With a deep breath, he waded in, picked up his feet, and let the river take him.
    The current pulled him along even faster than he’d expected. For several seconds, he was underwater, rising and falling with the river’s swells. As soon as he left one stretch of white water behind, he was into the next.
    It was all a blur until a fallen tree caught him up short. Branches scratched at his arms and legs, and across his face, until he managed to land a hand on one of the sturdier limbs.
    His fingers closed around the moss-slick bark. There was no getting a firm grip, but it slowed him down. He slid several more feet, until his hand lodged into the crook between two branches. His body jerked to a stop, and a sharp pain ran up his arm.
    Still, the water was rushing over his head. He needed air—now. Carter reached around blindly for something else to hold on to, anything he could grab to get himself above the surface. He found a second branch, which snapped off, but then another that held. It was enough to let him shift his weight and free his stuck hand. Then he pulled himself up and out for a quick gulp of air.
    He could see the bank now. And there, clear enough, were three of the runners he’d left behind at the mouth of the gorge. They hadn’t seen him. Not yet. They were scanning the river and the woods on the far side.
    Carter kept as low as he could. The rise and fall of the water hid him from view, but he couldn’t stay here much longer. His grip wasn’t going to last, and the river seemed to want nothing more than to suck him farther downstream.
    Carter squeezed his eyes shut. He focused every thought on his hands.
    Hold on. Don’t let go. Hold on. . . .
    He just had to keep this position for a few more seconds. Just until the others turned away. Why were they taking so long to move on? His hand cramped. He could feel it giving way.
    One of the runners on the bank pointed into the woods. The others looked in that direction, and they all turned to run farther upstream.
    Half a second later, Carter’s fingers slipped free. He was moving again, tossing through swells and dips like a piece of driftwood as he scraped past one unseen rock after another. The river was carrying him east, anyway. But that didn’t mean he was safe.
    It didn’t even mean he was going to survive this.

    Buzz’s head swam as he pulled his arm out of the hot red dye. He’d gone as long as he could, but if he didn’t stop now, he was going to pass out. And there was no way he’d let these people see him hitthe dirt. Everyone else had stayed on their feet including Vanessa, who had finished first. If they could get through it,