Christine Kling [Seychelle Su Bitter End (epub)

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.I stopped to listen.Then a different voice, a lower voice, the one that had been coughing and spitting earlier, started choking out the word, “Help.Help me,” he said.I picked up the bar we’d taken out of the closet and began banging on the door.“Richard, Anna, Jason, unlock this door and I can help you.”“Help, help me,” he said again, and I attacked that door, beating on it with everything I had, cursing and spewing every curse word I knew.I threw my shoulder at the wood, oblivious to the pain in my ribs, until finally, tears streaming down my cheeks, I pounded my head against the door as the moaning and crying faded.When I stopped, exhausted, there was no sound but the lapping of the waves against the hull.The water was already up to my midcalf.“Hello? Are you there?”No moaning.No coughing.No answer.I looked at Zale’s wide eyes and saw that he was hyperventilating.I knew I had to pull myself together, calm down, think this through.“Come on.We can do this together.” There were only about three to four feet from the cabin door to the edge of the lower bunk.I pulled Zale next to me and said, “On three.One, two, three,” and we both slammed our shoulders into the door.Nothing moved.I looked down at the door handle and saw below that water was pouring in around the edges of the door.This meant that the water level was much higher outside the door than it was inside our cabin.There was no way we were going to budge that door against that kind of water pressure.I knew what that meant, and I didn’t like it at all.“Zale, listen.” I looked up at the top of the door.There were a good three inches between the top of the door frame and the vinyl headliner.“See if you can use that metal cage off the fan to tear down some of that headliner.We’re going to need every last inch of space in here.See that ventilation hole there? That’s what’s letting the air out so that the water can come in this fast.”Before I’d even stopped talking, the boy had seen what I was thinking.Whereas a few minutes ago he’d been willing to lie there and let death take him, now that he had something to do, he was attacking it with an enthusiasm that would have made Molly proud.“I’m going to have to wait until the pressure on the outside of this door is equalized before I’ll be able to bust it down.Once the water reaches the top of the door frame, there will still be a few inches of air left.I might have about four or five chances to try to bust through, then we’ll take a breath and swim out.” Standing as I was on the cabin sole, the water was already up to my armpits.It was achingly cold.Zale was pulling down the vinyl in long sheets, exposing the fiberglass underside of the deck.Once he saw that the hole for the ventilator was only about five inches across and nothing we could crawl out through, he began stuffing vinyl in the hole, trying to slow down the exiting air so we might be left with a little pocket.I was standing on the lower bunk with my face up close to the overhead, trying to make myself take long calm breaths, oxygenating my blood, when the boat lurched aft and the bow rose, tilting everything in the cabin at a crazy angle.Zale and I both lost our balance and our heads went underwater.There was now a pocket of air in the bow big enough for us to breathe in, but the door to the cabin was about two feet underwater.Amazingly, the upper bunk light was still on.I took three deep breaths and pulled myself underwater.I opened my eyes.I couldn’t see a thing.I felt for the door, found it, then found the bunks opposite.It was amazing how just tilting the cabin on its side had disoriented me so.I braced my back against the bunk, holding on with both arms, and kicked with everything I had.The door didn’t move.I resurfaced for air.In the small remaining air space in the bow, it was difficult to get through to the surface.The bunk cushions and pillows had floated up to the top of the four-foot-square hole, where Zale kept pushing them aside.There was just enough space now for me to get my head above water, but the top of my head bumped against the overhead.Somehow, Zale’s glasses were still on his face, but they were covered with droplets of saltwater and for some reason, as I took my next three deep breaths, I wondered how well he could see.Another deep breath, and down I pulled my body.This time I didn’t take as long getting lined up on the door, as the geography of the strangely canted boat had grown more familiar.I braced my back once again and kicked with both feet.Nothing.I paused to refocus and this time as I kicked, I screamed with all the rage and will to live I had inside me.My right foot busted through the plywood as the bubbles floated up around my face.I was desperate for air.For a second, when I tried to withdraw my shoe, I thought my leg was stuck, but then I twisted right and pointed my toe and pulled free.I brought myself up for air, hoping there would still be some.Zale was holding aside the debris so I could get my head into the tiny air pocket.This time, I had to hold my head sideways, my mouth close to the overhead.I allowed myself four breaths before I spoke.“This time, you’ve got to come with me, okay? I’m almost through the door.Hold my hand.Don’t let go.We’re going to take three deep breaths.Okay? On the count of three.One, two, three.”We both took slow, long, deep breaths, our cheeks scraping against the scratchy underside of the fiberglass deck, and we dove.XXVII held tight to his hand as I felt again for the door and then lined my body up, my back against the bunk.That’s when his hand slipped out of mine.I opened my eyes and looked around in the darkness, feeling this moment of utter despair.Somewhere in my mind or my heart, Zale and Molly had become one, and I knew if I could only save him, I could save us and restore all that I had once lost.I wanted to rewrite that ending.I wanted to create a new beginning.I could not leave him behind.And then, as I was just about ready to start for the surface, I felt his arm over my shoulder, his back, too, against the bunk, and together we kicked for our lives.Two kicks later and the hole was big enough to swim through.Without a face mask, it’s difficult to see underwater, and with all the chop the north wind was kicking up, the water was unusually murky as well.I didn’t even try to open my eyes.My brain was screaming for air but I tried to concentrate on the layout of the boat.I told myself to stay calm [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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