Part 2:
The pickup lay nose-down in a drainage ditch, half hidden by wet brush and mud.
Natalie reached the road as a rescue crew aimed portable lights down the embankment. The driver’s door hung open, but the cab was empty.
On the passenger floor sat a torn pharmacy bag.
Ashley’s medicine was still inside.
So were two electrolyte drinks, a bag of rice, and a package of chicken gone warm after four days.
A receipt showed Andrew had paid less than twenty minutes after leaving home.
He had kept his promise as far as the store.
Something had stopped him on the way back.
The neighbors’ videos were still spreading while Natalie followed a rescuer along the ditch. Rain had erased most of the ground, but one thing remained: a line of deep scrapes along the concrete channel, as if someone had dragged himself away from the truck.
The trail ended at a narrow storm culvert blocked by branches and collapsed fencing.
The crew killed the generator for a moment.
At first, there was only rain.
Then came three weak knocks from inside the darkness.
A rescuer dropped to one knee and called through the opening.
“Can you hear me?”
A man’s voice answered, cracked and barely human.
“My daughter…”
Natalie gripped the pharmacy bag against her chest.
Andrew was alive.
But when the crew began cutting through the twisted metal, the water inside the culvert started rising again.
