Guilt.
He didn’t have the capacity to decipher that right now. He climbed onward, shouting the entire time. Searching. They reached the base of the exposed cliff face that rose about fifteen more feet vertically, and carefully began to walk onto the loose soil of the slump. Larger chucks of rock, muddy soil…their feet slipped, ankles threatened more than once to twist as rocks gave way and rolled beneath them, as rainwater matted them down and rivers formed from the channels of before, rushing downhill—
“Dad!”
It was faint. His skin prickled. Could he have imagined it?
“Seth!” he boomed. “Answer me, son!”
“Daddy!” It came again, faint, Daddy, but he’d heard the uncharacteristically affectionate name. His boy wasn’t a tough-ass right now. His boy needed him.
“Keep calling, son!”
Such immense relief rippled through him as Seth shouted again, he doubled over and braced his knees to suck in a deep breath.
Flashlights in the distance below bobbed as his men maneuvered along the creek.
“Up here!” Tyler bellowed. “He’s up here somewhere! Seth! Keep shouting so I can hear you!” he called through the rain, eyes sweeping the hill, inching closer to where the sound seemed as if it was coming from as the rest of the crew began to climb.
He finally spotted Seth’s tie-dyed shirt. He skidded down the mud and rocks, bracing himself on a fallen tree trunk, the commotion and his men zeroing in on him blurring to the sidelines of thought.
Seth was lying on the muddy slope.
“I’ve got you, boy,” he muttered roughly, falling to his knees on the cutting rocks that sliced through his denim and drew blood, to take Seth into his arms.
“My arm is stuck.” Seth winced, and it was then that Tyler realized his arm was wedged under a tumbled rock. A rock that wouldn’t have tumbled had this area been cleared and secured. Tyler swallowed down his anger.
“It hurts.”
Tyler shoved the rock off. It tumbled downhill, catapulting over the debris it had been caught on. His shirt soaked, Seth’s hair was plastered to his face. Tyler flipped the water from his eyes and felt Seth’s arm, anguish twisting his stomach at his son’s distressed cry and grunts of discomfort.
“What on earth were you thinkin’?” he fumed, so grateful he didn’t know what else to say. “Seth, I could have lost you and I…” Lost for words, he frowned—
The rushing rain, weakening the ground, gave way. Soil sloped downhill, a sinkhole forming, widening, sliding. No…they needed to get out of here. Now—
The soil beneath them slipped. They began to slide. Heart cried out as she, too, slid downhill toward the cave-in, but managed to catch herself.
“Seth!” He scrambled to catch Seth. Missed. Lost his foothold as Seth, wailing, slipped right through his fingers toward the cave-in.
Panic lapped through Tyler’s gut. He was going to be sick.
His shouts blurred with his worst fears realized, a sickening cocktail churning in his belly, the sound of Heart screaming at 911 ringing like a distant death knell; it was too much. Yet for hours he dug mud with bare hands despite rescue workers and heavy equipment rattling and scooping. Shoved off the random hands that tried to pull him away from the tons of soil filling in the sinkhole with vicious shoves.
He couldn’t stop digging. Couldn’t rest. Couldn’t breathe. Blacked out with disbelief squeezing his chest, constricting…