SAFE

by Dawn Husted

  “Can you get word to my parents, letting them know we’re alive?” That was a concern, them not ever knowing what happened to me.

  Lucan nodded and patted his leg, signaling for the dog to come over. He gave me one last look before they both hobbled out of sight.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Now what?” I asked James.

  “Climb on my back and I’ll take us down the side.”

  Before today, this never would’ve been something I even remotely considered. However, this was no ordinary day. I climbed onto his back and he walked over to the edge.

  “You ready?” he asked, hollering over the fire, and the waves roaring below.

  “Ready as I’ll ever be. Let’s do this.” I held my arms tight under his and coiled my legs around his waist, then closed my eyes, not wanting to see what was below. His body turned over, slid down, and started the descent. Seconds passed. I felt his legs one by one move side to side, stabilizing on each small ridge protruding itself from the giant rock. I opened my eyes for a brief second to see his hands clenched to the side. A handful of pebbles fell after his left hand moved to the next spot. I closed my eyes again; the only thing I felt was my fear accompanied with the skid noises of his boots. Moving. Gripping. Sliding. Feet and hands finding their next spot.

  I breathed in slowly. It felt good to breathe. The air above had been thick with smoke, now it was much fresher. I listened for the waves and heard them splashing, but couldn’t feel the water yet. We were still far enough from the bottom. I wondered how much longer it would be.

  I listened again. Loud and powerful water. I looked up, the sky was dark, the rock even darker.

  I heard James’ voice. “I love you,” he said.

  I didn’t reply, I wanted too, but my heart was gripped with fear as death lingered with every move. The very last thought on my mind was about him and me, where we stood with that situation. The only thing I could do was grab tighter around his body, holding onto the only thing keeping me from dying. I swallowed and shut my eyes.

  Water began splattering my legs, the bottom becoming nearer. This time I was too scared to open my eyes and focused on the repetitiveness of booming waves.

  “We have a few more minutes, and then we will have to swim,” he shouted.

  “What!” He wasn’t wet when he climbed back up top where we waited for him—minutes before. I felt his clothes with my hands as they clasped around him, they were semi dry, but not soaked from swimming.

  “Look.” He pointed to our right and a large, black hole greeted my eyes as we dangled backwards from the rock. A cave. The water rushed wildly inside the mouth of it, whirlpool like. It was strong and scary—the I’m-going-to-kill-you kind of water.

  “We can’t go in there!” I screamed, simultaneous waves crashing everywhere. Everywhere.

  “We have to! It’s the only way! It’s where everything is!”

  I took a second look. There was nothing there except a ginormous cave. No lights inside, I couldn’t see a thing, especially some boat he dreamt of. “You’re insane. We’ll both die!” I said. The thought of death had come and gone so many times over the past couple of days, now it was a normal routine, stuck in my brain on autopilot. My normal reaction to everything new.

  “Do you trust me?” His voice was loud and ferocious like the water below. “Do you trust me?” he said again.

  Thoughts ran through my head, glimpses of every way I could’ve died already. “Yes!” I hollered back. My hair was now drenched with the spray from the water and my clothes too.

  I knew how to swim, but I had never been close to anything of this magnitude, positive the power of churning water would pull me under as soon as we entered.

  “Hold on tight!” he warned.

  Then he plunged backwards, headed for the foamy death pool. I held my breath as he cleared the jagged rocks to our left and landed directly in the middle of the rushing path, shooting straight into the dark mouth.

  Immediately, our bodies yanked under water, a force so strong that there was no use in fighting. My grip began loosening from being whipped about. Salty liquid filled my nostrils and I kept my mouth closed tightly, trapping the only oxygen I had left. Seconds passed, my legs jolted out of place, my hands gripped tighter with all my strength. The two of us churned in all directions, flipping over one another, still connected, our heads banging together multiple times. My hands gripped tighter.

  For a brief moment, my mouth surfaced and I gulped a quick pocket of air before the out-of-control current pulled me back under. Pictures of my mom and dad crying lingered in my thoughts—I couldn’t die. They may never know how I died, but would feel it in their gut. I held tighter and gripped harder, entangling my fingers from the position they’d been forced from.

  My body crashed into something hard, the edge of the cave. James and I rolled together simultaneously. Suddenly, I felt a sharp stabbing pain in my back. I was running out of air.

  Another thud and my hands loosened from their position. I felt James grab my wrist just before I was hauled away and the pressure began to weaken. I had no energy or breath left. And my thoughts began to fade, everything black, as I felt my body pulled from the cold water onto a hard surface. I quickly took another breath and coughed out salt water from my lungs. I didn’t move. My body slowly filled with life again.

  I opened my eyes to a small light flickering. A string of ten, fist-size bulbs glimmered throughout the cave, lighting up the inside. I slowly turned my head and around me was exactly what I imagined a cave to look like. A huge, giant rock sat to the left of me and to my front was the death machine I had been saved from. I looked over as James walked towards me.

  “Are you okay?” He bent down and wiped the hair clinging to my face, holding on for its own life. My body shivered. I nodded.

  “How did you know this was here?” I coughed out. How did he find this cave, let alone what was inside of it? A boat?

  He lowered his knees to the ground and rested his hands on his legs. “Back there. When Mag had you, and Lucan and I were forced to stay where we were—”

  “Yes?”

  “I thought she was going to kill you.” He looked down at his legs and ran his hands nervously through his short hair. Water flung from the tips of his fingers as they passed each strand.

  “So did I.”

  “When I started running towards you, I couldn’t see anything. It was too dark. Then I heard what sounded like a gunshot and thought she finally went through with all of her threats.” He looked at me with his eyebrows scrunching together. His hand resting on mine was ice cold. “I thought you were dead.”

  For a while, I thought I was too.

  “That idea. That feeling of losing you. It triggered something; it was like a switch had been turned on and all of a sudden I saw clearly. As if I was wearing those goggles Lucan brought.”

  I leaned in closer and looked deeper into his eyes. “What do you mean?” His eyes looked as normal as mine. “Like night vision?”

  “Yes, I’ve been able to voluntarily switch it on and off ever since. It’s not perfect. Not even close… I have to get either really angry or really scared for it to jumpstart.” His hand pulled off mine and he examined them in front of his face, seeing differently than me.

  “So that’s how you were able to find the cave? See in here?”

  He nodded with a smile.

  “Are you okay? You swallowed a lot of water,” he said, looking me over.

  I sat up, felt a sharp pain shoot through my back, and paused in mid sit-up position. “My back,” I winced.

  He lifted my shirt and I leaned over as far as I could.

  “Hold on, this is going to hurt,” he warned.

  I braced myself for whatever he was about to do. Then I felt his cold hands against my back and another volt of pain from something being yanked out. Somehow, a part of the rock had been lodged in my back like a splinter, a couple inches in length. His hands were covered in blood. “I thin
k you’ll be okay.” Then he threw the splinter into the water and washed his hands off.

  “Thanks.”

  I slowly stood up and felt my back. My pack. My pack wasn’t there. I looked at James and he didn’t have it either, which meant it was long gone. Along with the vials and my only picture of Madeline.

  We begin searching the cave. The boat had been launched out of the water onto an electronic lift. It must’ve been there for a while. We walked towards the back of the cave—a large bag of ammo and guns were jumbled together. A smaller bag next to it held sheaths with large knives.

  “How do you think this works?” I pointed to the boat and walked over. It wasn’t large, but it wasn’t small either. Solid, greyish, material lined the exterior, a metal substance, only a few feet high. James lifted me up and I climbed inside. In the back of the boat was a small red bag with a white cross on top. We opened it and found first-aid supplies. Nothing like back in the Colony—older. Small white packages labeled with various antibiotic names, white pills for headaches, and other pain pills. I took one for my aching back.

  The front of the boat was filled with large jugs labeled Gasoline. I remembered reading about gasoline in prior books and knew exactly what it was used for. The supplies seemed ancient compared to the cars and gear we were accustomed to. James hopped out of the boat, grabbed the bags of guns and knives, and threw them inside the boat. He then pressed the only green button on the lift. It started to lower into the water and I filled the engine with gasoline, hoping I was filling the correct hole. Before it hit the foamy water, James jumped back in and the boat gradually entered. Instantly, we began being pulled away, dragged by the current, and I scrambled to the wheel. It was foreign looking. I started pressing buttons on the dashboard. A horn sound blared and lights flickered. I saw a stick to my right and the keys dangling next to it. I turned the keys and pushed the stick simultaneously, the motor sprang to life seconds before hitting the side of the cave. I turned the wheel and steered for the gigantic mouth. Our exit.

  James ran along the sides and pushed off the wall of the cave when we got too close. Within seconds, we had safely cleared the cave. I gradually drove further away from the cliffs and James suggested we take a right around the island. It was dark and we turned all the lights off so nobody would have a chance of seeing us. He said occasionally he’d seen the direction of the boats when they left the Academy’s port and that right should be our safest bet. We drove for hours until we spotted the Academy, careful of getting too close causing someone to possibly hear the engine. Then we turned the boat perpendicular to the Land and headed further out to sea. Eventually, we’d come across the other Land.

  Our boat was rather small and slow. After an hour passed, the few lights from our Land were still visible, resembling the stars above. If I hadn’t known better, I would’ve thought they were part of the sky.

  I took a break and let James drive for a while. The water was semi-choppy, but not nearly as bad as it had been within the cave. I stretched out on the floor of the boat; there were no seats except for the driver’s. And thanks to the medicine I took, my back was feeling much better. I folded my arms behind my head and gazed at the stars.

  “James—” I began, “—did you mean what you said back there? Back when you said you fell in love with me and it hadn’t all been a lie? Back at the grave.”

  The boat slowed to almost a complete stop and James locked the wheel in place. He sat down next to me. I stayed in position with my arms folded behind my head.

  “Penny. I love you. I always have—that was never a lie.”

  He leaned over and kissed me. His soft, gentle kiss quickly turned into a passionate one. The kind that made me wish I could linger for days on end without interruption. Then he slowly pulled away.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked. His face glistened against the night’s sky.

  “We made it.” He smiled, pointing at the vast ocean around us. We snuggled next to each other, watching the stars while the boat glided along. A hissing sound startled both of us. A large, silver object darted through the sky.

  “What was that?” I sat up and looked over the end of the boat, in the direction of the silver whistle.

  Out of nowhere, a large mushroom explosion lit up the sky. It was our Land. For as big as the mushroom was, it was clear it engulfed more room than necessary for the tiny blip of land in the distance. The large explosion was seen before the loud boom hit our ears. We both covered our eyes from the brightness and a huge wave of water shot towards us, giving me zero time to react. The wave flew over our boat, nearly knocking it over in the process. James fell backwards and I fell out into the ocean. He leaned over the edge as the waves toyed with me, my arms thrashed against the side, James grabbed my hands and pulled me in.

  Water poured off me and I looked at the mushroom cloud in place of the bright fire. Our entire island had been decimated.

  In an hour-long minute of horror, I screamed uncontrollably.

  “My family!” I cried. “Lucan.”

  The entire night I sobbed off and on as James drove. My body exhausted from crying, I finally fell asleep.

  The next morning, the sun rose from the horizon. A horrible welcome to the life I still had when everyone I had known perished. I sat up and rubbed my raw eyes. James’ face looked like death, eyes sunken in, barely open. He needed rest. I told him to sit and let me take over. He didn’t argue.

  The motor began spitting putt-putt sounds in between chokes, until it suddenly died.

  “There’s none left,” James said, pointing towards the gallons of gas that had been stored at the front of the boat.

  “What do you mean?” I ran up and shook each container. Empty.

  For hours the boat drifted with the current and the sun beamed down on us. My pack was gone; we didn’t have any food or water. We both assumed we would’ve reached the other Land by now, but we were wrong. Terribly wrong.

  The days passed with us in silence and the only comfort we had was each other. My stomach ached with hunger and my lips dry, fleshy prunes, from the sun’s bright rays. My fair skin was pink all over and it hurt to lift my hands. Poor James didn’t even have a shirt, so he poured out one of the bags into the boat and used it to shade us as much as possible.

  “Do you hear that?” James mumbled.

  All I heard was the emptiness of waves thrashing against one another.

  He stood up and used his hands as visors against the sun. “There it is. I see a boat.” He pointed.

  I peered into the distance—on the horizon was a boat heading our direction. The last of my adrenaline ran through my body. Thirty minutes passed as they got closer. James stuffed all the knives back into the bag. Three individuals stood aboard their ship staring at us. Two males and one female. One man was older than the other, and the female looked the same age as the young man, only a couple years older than me.

  “What are you doing all the way out here?” The older man hollered over to us with his hands cupped around his mouth.

  “We ran out of gas,” James yelled back.

  The old man scratched his forehead and ran his hand down the center of his long, white beard. He muttered something to the girl next to him and they talked back and forth before acknowledging us again. Then he shook his head at the girl in response to whatever they discussed. I asked James if he knew what they were saying, but he shook his head.

  “We don’t have any gas to lend you. Though you’re welcome to board our ship,” the girl said. Her hair was long and red, reminding me of Jessie from work. Tears filled my eyes and I swallowed them back down. She had a thin frame and wore loose khaki pants with pockets on the sides, and a roomy shirt that bubbled at the arms and fit at the hips. A red bandanna was tied around her hair, pressing flat against her forehead.

  “What do you think, James?”

  He shrugged his shoulders.

  “Thank you, that’s very kind,” I said, accepting their offer. They pulled the large boat up n
ext to ours, making our boat seem even smaller. They rolled down a ladder over the side. James and I each grabbed one of our bags, and climbed the rope.

  As soon as James cleared the side, the old man paused and looked James’ body up and down. We paused in the same fashion and I knew James was probably the first person they had ever seen with vines. A small pistol rested on a table near the old man and I wondered if James was thinking about grabbing it first, buying us time to explain. Explain where we were from. We weren’t going to hurt them. But it didn’t matter—we were really weak. James’ strengths wouldn’t be of much help right now.

  “That sure is a lot of tattoos boy,” the old man said before walking over and grabbing a bite of sliced bread sitting on a plate beside the gun.

  Tattoos?

  The younger man walked over, half his head was shaved and the other half combed forward in one long, brown swoop, ending just above his right eye. He muttered something in a language I’d never heard before—the words were beautiful in the way they rolled off his tongue. The old man responded in the same language and then the young man pulled up the ladder.

  The boat had a large, triangular bubble in the middle with a line of consecutive small, empty frames where windows once stood. We were told to follow the old man inside. I knew anything could happen, but I wasn’t afraid. They didn’t have to let us board and yet they did. So we followed him as he showed us the interior. A long, backless couch sat in the middle of the room and a bunch of buttons and knobs were on the far end, like a dashboard of a car, but not as advanced. Old, golden paper stripped in pieces, hanging down in all directions along the walls, and strings of dingy yarn-like fabric drooped from the ancient ceiling. We stepped down a couple of steps as the old man asked us to sit on the couch.

  “How long have you two been out here for?” His voice rough against my ears.