Using her knife, she separated the wood near the end of the branches and sliced off half the wood at the bottom foot of each branch. This made a sort of scoop that could act as a paddle. It wasn’t pretty, but it would do the job.
* * *
Back on the other side of the wall, Eric counted to six-hundred. Bracing himself under the lever, he pushed, and it flew up with a snap. The lights immediately blacked out, and within a few seconds, he began to hear a low hum coming from deep underneath him. “Shit,” he said. He hadn’t known he would have to find his way out in the dark.
He knew his destination was directly across the room from where he stood. With no light at all, how was he going to swim a straight line from one side to the other? He figured he would have to do his best. The hum from underneath was getting more intense, and he did not intend to stick around to see what that meant.
Carefully climbing over the railing, he stood for a moment, with the heels of his feet on the ledge and his hands behind his back, holding onto the railing. He wanted to center his thoughts and concentrate. He didn’t even have to close his eyes. He could not see a thing anyway. As it often did, his mind drifted to Abby. He might just be in love with her. With that thought, he dove into the water and swam for several minutes, until his right hand smacked against what felt like the wall he was looking for.
He had watched Abby for as long as he could see her when she swam out. From what he figured, she just swam straight down the wall and up the other side. Briefly, he wondered how he could know she made it to the other side. What if something had happened underwater, and she was stuck under there in the darkness? He smiled. He just knew that was not the case. Failing was one thing that girl did not know how to do.
Taking in a deep breath, he dove under the water and kicked straight down. For a moment, he questioned how he would find the bottom of the wall in the darkness, but then, he saw the faint light at the bottom and headed straight for that.
Under the water, the hum was very loud; only now, it sounded like engines of some sort. Maybe engines sucked the water down and spat it back out into the ocean? He kicked harder, determined not to be in there long enough to find out.
24
AS ERIC EMERGED FROM THE water, he announced it was time to go. “The current is definitely kicking in. It’s not flowing fast yet, but I could definitely feel it.”
They dragged the raft into the water, worried it may not float. To their delight, it did. Some of the logs were a little loose, but Eric quickly tightened the vines securing them, and they hopped on to test it with their weight. Satisfied they would not sink immediately, they grabbed the oars and pushed out into the channel to paddle toward open water.
As they approached the mouth of the cove, Eric turned to look back at the beach. “Wait! The satchel!”
Abby looked up. “What’s that?”
Eric was looking back toward the beach. “The satchel I packed at the camp this morning with fruit and water; it’s right there on the beach. Son-of-a-bitch.” He stared at it, and Abby could tell what he was thinking.
She stopped paddling and grabbed the back of his shirt. “Don’t even think about swimming back for it. You are not leaving me alone on this raft a second time.”
He smiled, flashing his dimples. “I meant well, anyway.” He kissed her. Not a quick peck on the lips, but a long, slow kiss that told her he meant business.
Abby allowed herself to fantasize for a moment about taking him right then and there on the raft, current be damned. Since she’d seen him back at Emily’s camp and realized he was still alive, the thought of tearing off his clothes and consummating their relationship had never been far from her mind. As they kissed, and his hand traveled up her inner thigh, it sent sparks of electricity through her body. It probably hasn’t been far from his mind either, she thought. She was a little lightheaded; maybe from the sun, maybe from the kiss, maybe a little bit of both. Summoning every ounce of willpower she had, she broke off the kiss. “Let’s paddle out of here first.”
He kissed her one more time and smiled. “You’re absolutely right.”
They paddled hard, trying to make it out of the cove. The current wasn’t strong, but moving the raft through it proved difficult regardless. As they crossed the threshold of the cove, they almost immediately noticed the work becoming easier once they crossed the boundary where the water flowed in. It wasn’t a strong current yet, but it had definitely started back up again. They did not let up in their efforts. Despite her tired arms, Abby kept in time with Eric’s strong strokes, using his makeshift oar. He was stronger, though, so they were drifting to the left.
It wasn’t long before they saw Emily’s body, far to the left and floating ahead in the distance.
Abby wondered out loud, “What if she’s alive?”
“I can’t imagine she would be. She’s been out here... must be damn near an hour. It doesn’t look like she’s swimming.”
“We can’t just leave her out here.”
“What are we supposed to do? I don’t think we have any time to waste here.”
Abby stopped paddling and called out, “Em! Emily!”
No response, though they were still hundreds of yards from her.
“She’s gone, Abby. Come on; we need to paddle.”
They sliced through the water with their oars as fast as they could. The only sounds they heard were their own labored breathing and the splash of the water when the paddles hit the surface. It was warm, and the water that sprayed up felt good. It was funny to Abby that there were so many good things about water. She needed it to live, yet had spent an inordinate amount of time over the past few weeks fighting against it for her life.
The thought that the water had taken Emily’s life struck her. That could have been me, she thought. That should have been me. She owed her life to Emily. She could not just let her body drift off through the ocean to eventually be picked at by sea birds and fish. Her body was moving in a counter-clockwise direction in relation to the island now, and so were they. The current was back on, and they were clearly caught in the band of it that surrounded the island. They were still making progress—at least, it appeared that way. She didn’t know how wide a band the current was out here. They were paddling through it. Maybe Emily would drift out of it?
“We have to take her with us. I just can’t stand the thought of leaving her out here. She’s right there.” The body was now fairly close.
Eric didn’t break from paddling, though Abby had. He paddled from one side, then the other, to make up for her lack of contribution. “We can’t, Abby. If you haven’t noticed, we’re moving left, but we’re not paddling in that direction. If this thing gets up to full speed, and it’s as strong as you said, we’re going to be stuck here.”
“But, we’re so close. She can’t be more than fifty yards out.”
He stopped paddling, and they started drifting. He turned to her. “Damn it, Abby, I want to get her too, but we can’t. How long before this thing gets up to full speed?”
They sat on the raft, looking at each other. Neither of them wanted to budge. Abby looked over Eric’s shoulder and saw that Emily’s body had floated farther away from them than it had been just a few moments ago. She looked back at the island and made a mental note of the cluster of rocks on the shore directly in front of their location. She looked back to Emily a couple of minutes later and saw she was even farther away now. After watching her continue to drift farther away for a full minute, she looked back to the island and saw the rocks were basically in the exact same position.
“We’re not moving, Eric!”
“I know, so let’s get working on that.” He nodded toward the oar, sitting lifelessly in her hand.
“No, I mean, we’re not moving along with Emily. We’re not in the current. We must be on the other side of it. Look!” She pointed out her landmark on the shore, and then Emily, floating further away to their left.
He breathed a sigh of relief and looked out towar
d the island they were trying to get to. There was still a lot of work ahead, but the toughest part was hopefully over. “Thank God. I was starting to worry we weren’t going to make it out. How long do you think it takes that thing to get up to speed?”
She was looking out at Emily. She figured her body must be a hundred yards out by now. Looking at Eric, she said, “Let’s hope it takes a little longer.” Diving into the water, she made straight for Emily’s location.
“Abby! What the hell are you doing?”
She never answered him; just swam as hard as she could toward Emily. Maybe she was alive; more than likely, she was dead. But either way, Abby couldn’t just leave her there. Had Emily not gone in first, it most certainly would have been Abby. Had it not been for luck, all three of them would have been floating lifelessly out there.
Once she was a few dozen yards away, Eric saw Abby moving more swiftly than she should. She must have been in the current now. Emily was dead weight, but Abby was pounding the water hard and closing the distance fast. He thought about turning the raft around and going in after her but decided against it. It had been hard enough paddling out the first time.
Eric began moving the raft parallel to where Abby was swimming, and Emily was floating. He was trying to close the distance between them without winding up back in the current. There was no line in the water to tell him where the current began. However, about twenty yards out, he could see a large cluster of seaweed and driftwood, floating on the surface of the water, heading in the same direction he was. It passed him.
He figured he was about as close as he dared to get. Eric began planning out loud. “She’s strong, and she will be able to swim back out. If she can’t, I’ll paddle in and pick them up. We’ll never get back out, but we will figure something out and make our way back to the island, if nothing else.”
Abby had caught up to Emily and was trying to drag her out to sea, away from the island and closer to Eric and the raft. She was having a difficult time, though; more from dragging a body than fighting the current. She actually found it much easier to cut through the water swimming than it had been when she was trying to maneuver the raft. Whatever purpose the current served, it seemed that a smaller body—like a person—was able to maneuver through it much easier than a large object, like a raft or a boat. Seeing the island hundreds of yards in the distance, Abby doubted anyone in their right mind would ever attempt to swim out this far on their own.
Eric watched from the raft, maybe thirty yards away. He could tell she was struggling and feared she might drown. He would have to paddle in to pick up two bodies. When she took a break for a moment and just floated there, he yelled out to her, “Just wait there! I’m coming to pick you up!”
She waived her free arm frantically and yelled back, “No! No! I can do this!” She began kicking and swimming with one hand, dragging Emily’s body behind her. Eric was overwhelmed with concern as he watched her bob up and down in the water. Each time she went out of sight behind a swell, he held his breath until it went down, and he saw her again. She was clearly exhausted, barely making a splash as she struggled toward the raft.
She was close now, just a few yards away, and he stretched out his hand, reaching as far toward her as he could. He called out to her, “Come on, Abby; just a few more feet!” Abby floated in the water, exhausted, reaching out with her hand. Their fingertips touched, and he grabbed her hand tightly. He pulled Abby up first, and then, they heaved Emily onto the raft together.
Abby immediately began trying to resuscitate her, but it was pointless—though that didn’t stop her from continuing to try. She compressed Emily’s chest and gave her mouth-to-mouth for nearly ten minutes with increasing urgency before Eric pulled her off when she became frantic.
“She’s gone,” he said.
He stroked Abby’s soft hair as she cried into his shoulder, repeating, “It could have been me... it could have been me.”
* * *
Olivia disconnected the call and quickly dialed Robert, who picked up immediately. “You’re not going to believe this,” she said very excitedly.
“What is that?”
“I just got a call on the satellite from the crew that was going out to retrieve the body.” She paused for dramatic effect. “They are alive!”
“What? Who is alive?”
“Abby and Eric. The guy I spoke with was looking at them through his binoculars. They’re alive on their raft and paddling toward the other island. And get this—they have Emily, too.”
“She made it?” Robert was thrilled. He felt a lump in his throat, overcome with joy.
“No, Robert. I’m sorry. It looks like she died.”
He was quiet for a while. At least Abby and Eric had made it... but how? “How did they get from the cavern out into open water?”
“I don’t know, but they did.”
Robert observed, “Well, I guess we will still have one hell of a show to do.”
“Why’s that?”
He laughed. “It’s a first, Olivia.” His excitement quickly escalated. “They escaped. I know we’re still done for the season, but at least they are not dead. They still won. They escaped the island! Oh, this is going to be great.”
“It would be better if we were filming.”
“Damn, that’s right. We don’t have any of our remote cameras out there. What about the team on the boat?”
“I already asked. They don’t have a camera that can zoom in close enough, and I told them to stay out of sight until I talked to you. Don’t you have a helicopter at your place on the other island? How quickly can it get in the air?”
“Just about as quickly as my pilot can spin her up. Tell the crew in the boat to stay back for a bit. Let me get on the line across the way and get the bird in the air. It is only a ten-minute flight from one island to the next, but I’m going to have him circle wide around to come over and pick me up, so they don’t notice it. I have got my camera here.” He checked his watch. “By the time it picks me up, and we get back out there, we can be in the air, filming inside of forty minutes. They will be all right for at least that long, right?”
“Robert, I don’t think anything can kill these two. I’m sure they will survive another forty minutes on a raft.” Olivia laughed. “You sound like a little schoolboy.”
“They are alive! Thank heavens!”
* * *
Forty-five minutes later, Abby and Eric were still paddling. It was hard work, but they were making progress. They just were not making the progress they’d hoped for, mainly due to their makeshift oars. Their hands were becoming raw and numb, and the lower the sun got in the sky, the lower their energy levels became. It was closing in on dusk, and the few lights on the island they were heading toward began to flicker on.
The stinging in her hands caused Abby to stop, and Eric soon joined her. They tried to ignore the waterlogged body lying on the raft, but that was a tall order under the circumstances. They both knew they could cover far more ground without the extra weight, but neither wanted to suggest they leave Emily behind, especially after the effort they had gone through to retrieve her.
“How far, you think?” Abby asked.
“At this rate, I honestly don’t know. I’m running on empty. Once it gets dark, if we lose sight of those few lights up there, or there’s a strong current... I just don’t know.”
They sat silently, rising and falling with the swells in the water.
“I think it’s time,” she said.
Eric nodded his head in agreement. Abby was upset because she felt Emily’s fate could have—or should have—been her own. She had not spent the past week with Emily though, as Eric had. A week on this island was like a dog year, and Emily had quite literally saved his life. The guilt of just leaving her out there was heavy on his heart. However, he knew that, had she been able to speak for herself, she would have told them never to fish her out of the water in the first place. It was what had to be done.
Abby asked, “Shou
ld we say a prayer?”
Neither of them was particularly religious, but they bowed their heads and held hands. Abby quietly prayed that Emily, after a long year of hard living, had finally found peace. They held her shoulders and, nodding at each other, began to slide her feet-first into the water. Warm tears rolled down Abby’s cheeks, and Eric bit his lower lip, trying to stifle his own tears.
Before the body was halfway in, a massive blast from an air horn behind the raft caused them both to jump and snap their heads around to see where the sound had come from. They heard the motor next and hauled Emily back onto the raft. The sudden shift in weight caused the raft to tilt and nearly flip, but they leaned back to right it before finally pulling her aboard. On their knees, they began frantically waving at the approaching boat, even though it was obvious it was heading straight for their location.
Smiles broke out across their faces, and they embraced in a kiss. They crouched down as the boat pulled up, careful not to let the wave send them toppling off their little raft. There were smiles all around, and the men on the boat helped them onboard. They pulled Emily up, as well, and lay her across the bench at the rear of the boat, laying a blanket over her.
Very concerned, one of the men asked, “How are you guys doing?”
Eric clapped him on the shoulder and gave him a bear hug. “Great, now! We’re lucky you guys were out here.”
“What are you folks doing, floating out here on those logs?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you, brother. But if you get us back to that island you came from over there, I’ll tell y’all about it.”
“Sounds like a deal.”
They wrapped Abby and Eric in thick blankets. It was warm, but the sun was down, and they had been wet for hours. They were shivering.
Escape, the Complete Trilogy Page 18