Cheryl Tardif - Submerged

“What kind of choices?”

“I had a shoulder injury after a mountain rescue. My doctor prescribed some heavy-duty painkillers. After a while, they stopped working. Some nights the pain was unbearable, but I still had to do my job.”

“Why didn’t you take time off so you could heal?”

“We were short-staffed, and I couldn’t afford to take time off.”

“So you took prescription drugs? Why would that be a problem if a doctor prescribed them?”

“When the drugs stopped being effective in managing the pain, I tried to get a stronger prescription but was told I wouldn’t be able to work if I took it.”

“So you tried to ignore the pain?”

“I wish I had. No, I made a decision that has haunted me ever since.”

“What decision?”

She heard him inhale deeply. “I took drugs from our paramedic supplies.”

“And you became addicted,” she guessed.

Marcus cleared his throat. “Yes.”

“So they fired you.”

“They called it a temporary suspension. Said I could find another job until I had kicked my habit. Then I could come back to EMS. Leo helped me get a job at the center.”

She swallowed. “Did your wife know about the addiction?”

“She suspected. But she never knew the extent of it. I tried to shelter her from that part of my life.”

“When your wife and son were killed, were you—?”

“I was shooting up in a cabin in Cadomin.”

There was such intense bitterness in his voice that she flinched at his words.

“I got out of the cabin as soon as I heard, but by the time I made it to the accident scene… it was too late. ” The last four words came in a strained whisper.

A tear slid down her cheek and she left it there, soaking in the trickle of heat it emitted before it cooled.

“How did they die exactly?” As soon as the words left her mouth, she wished she could take them back.

“Jane’s car hit a patch of ice on the highway and rolled into a ditch.”

Something in his voice suggested he wasn’t telling her everything. “Do you want to talk about it? I’ve got nothing better to do than listen.”

“I’m not really supposed to be telling you my life story.”

“I need a distraction, Marcus. I can’t keep thinking about where I am, where my kids are. Talk to me. About anything.”

“I took off on them,” he began. “I was holed up in that cabin in the woods, near the bat cave. I convinced Jane that I needed some time to think, to clear my head. I insisted that I wanted a week of fishing, nothing more. But I lied. I went there with drugs. I planned to stay in a fog of oblivion.”

“So did you?”

“For four days I was stoned out of my mind. I started imagining things, seeing things.”

“What kind of things?”

“Children. In the woods around the cabin. They were wearing pajamas, even when it was freezing outside.”

“Did they say anything to you?”

“Not at first. But they left me signs that they were there. Strange gifts on my doorstep.”

Rebecca shivered. “And this was all imaginary?”

“Except for the gifts. They were real. Fruit, candy… I can’t explain it.”

“Maybe someone was playing a prank on you.”

“I thought that too. So I asked the cabin owner if there were any kids in the area.”

“What did she say?”

“She gave me a weird look, shook her head and walked away. I figured she knew I was on drugs. Probably thought I was hallucinating. I’m not sure I wasn’t.”

“So what did you do?”

“The next time I was in Hinton getting groceries, I hunted down a dealer in the park and bought two Vicodin tablets. To numb the weird visions, I told myself. Figured I’d be back to normal after that and wouldn’t need anything else.”

“But it didn’t work,” she guessed.

“Yeah. I kept seeing those children. Two days later, I bought a vial of heroin and a package of hypodermic needles from a kid in the park. I don’t remember much. I spent two days lying on the couch in a dazed stupor. Then I got the call that Ryan and Jane had been in a car accident. I got into my car and drove. But I didn’t get there in time.”

“I’m so sorry, Marcus. I can tell you loved them very much.”

“They were my world. Until drugs took over my life. They died because of me.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” she argued.

“Yes it was. Jane was driving out to see me, probably to bring me home.”

“Still…” She paused, searching for the right words. “It wasn’t your fault. It was an accident . An awful twist of fate.”

She heard more noises on the other end. Then a horn blared. Since when did they have horns like that in an office building? “ Marcus, where are you?”

“I’m on the highway.”

She was instantly filled with hope. “You’re looking for us?”

“Yes.”

She blinked back the tears. “I thought you were at the 911 center.”

“I’m calling you from my cell phone, so just hit redial if you need to call me back.”

“Don’t you have others looking for us?”

“I’m going to be honest with you, Rebecca. We have too many rescue vehicles already in the field at other locations. When you called in, we were down to our last police car.”

“No!” she cried out, then muffled a sob. “So other than one police car, no one else is looking for us?”

“I am.” His voice was firm this time, full of resolve. “I’ll be there soon. You have to hang up now. I’ll call you in five minutes.”

“You really are a superhero,” she said with a whimper.

She disconnected the call and slipped the phone between her bra and her skin. “Colton? How are you doing back there?”

No answer.

She strained to listen and heard the familiar sounds of soft snoring. Colton was okay. It was probably better that he was sleeping. At least that way he wasn’t feeling the cold.

Speaking of cold…

She wiggled her toes in her shoes. She could barely feel them, or the cheap leather of her last Payless splurge. But she did feel something. Water on her ankles.

The interior lights flickered on and off like a strobe light. She didn’t want to think of what would happen once the lights turned off and they were plunged into complete darkness. The mere thought made her body quake.

Plucking the phone from her bra, she shone the light from it toward the floor. Murky brown water covered her ankles completely.

If she wasn’t found soon, hypothermia would set in. If it hadn’t already.

She thought about Colton. His leg was trapped, which meant his foot was sitting in freezing water too.

She shone her phone toward the back seat and angled the mirror so she could see him. He’d managed to find his hockey gear and had a sweatshirt draped across Ella. His leggings and other gear were piled on top of him, not much of a barrier to the cold.

“Oh, Colton… Ella…” she sobbed.

One of Colton’s shoulder pads rolled off him and landed on the floor.

Marcus had made her promise to call if the water rose.

She pointed the soft light from her cell phone at the windshield, but could see nothing beyond the glass. Just black oblivion.

What if we’re already underwater?

Bile rose in her throat, and she battled to keep it at bay. Her stomach clenched, then lurched. Grabbing the steering wheel for balance with her good hand, she leaned as far as she could toward the passenger seat and threw up. The smell was overwhelming, a combination of sourness and sulfur. Fear and death.

She opened her phone, saw Marcus’s phone number and hit call .

It had been about twenty minutes since Marcus had left Edson and the rain had finally let up. But still no sign of Rebecca’s Hyundai. He hadn’t seen any fresh tracks leading to any of the side roads. Had he already passed the area where Rebecca had been forced from the highway?