Christina Thorne and Claudia Schultz were thrown against a tree trunk, while Raymond Shepherd and Chet Lawrence were flung into the muddy water. Ronan Kendrick yanked the raft aside just as a boulder scraped past them. It crushed several trees before disappearing from sight, but the flattened trees suddenly sprang back up, spraying mud and small rocks all over Raymond and Chet.
"Everyone, hurry! More rocks are rolling down behind us!" Evelyn Ford shouted. The mudslide was nearly on top of them. Another thirty meters and they should be clear of it. Evelyn paddled with all her might, and the others didn't dare to hesitate. The raft was difficult to steer through the trees, so everyone jumped off and started pushing it.
They had just reached a safe zone and hadn't even had a chance to catch their breath when the surging mudslide obliterated a huge swath of the forest behind them.
