Drastic Times (Book 3): Fierce Freedom

by Rock, R. A.

  By now the rage had subsided and I felt horrible about what I had said and done. But the pity party I was now entertaining was superseding any need to apologize. I was so ashamed of myself, I didn’t see how I would be able to say sorry anyway.

  I just skulked farther into my corner, pulling my hair over my face and trying to avoid his notice. It seemed to be working as he talked with the other prisoners, not looking around at me or the unconscious people on the floor.

  I listened and pieced together what had happened. It seemed that the Sipwesk people had staged a revolt. That they had been planning it for a while. They had killed the guard, thus earning Nathan’s wrath. And it seemed as though it had gone very badly, ending with them being captured before they got anywhere near the gates.

  And now, here they were in the water chamber.

  Some people sounded like they were losing their minds already and the water hadn’t even begun to rise.

  In the stories they had told us since we got here, nobody seemed sure what made the water rise or not rise. Or what decided whether it only rose a couple feet or whether it filled the entire room, killing everyone in it. But it seemed to be a combination of the flow of the river itself and the weather — because if the wind was blowing it would push the water into the room.

  I tried not to think about the fact that soon the water would rise up over my head and I wouldn’t be able to swim or get away from it. I had almost been drowned recently and I had some trauma from that incident. Although, I probably ought to give myself a break. Most of these people hadn’t been recently drowned and they seemed pretty freaked out, too, so maybe I wasn’t overreacting.

  I looked over at the water intake and watched as it flowed in, moving over the concrete in ripples. It was quite pretty. Too bad it was going to kill me. Us.

  The river water was icy cold and my butt and feet were already going numb from the two inches of water that were covering the floor. I wondered how many people survived drowning only to succumb to hypothermia.

  As I watched, more water streamed in and my heart rate kicked up. The flow was still slow, but within a few minutes water filled half of the intake hole. And it was up to my waist and calves where I was forced to sit on the floor because of the chains.

  As the water continued to spill in, I just stared at the stream coming into the room. It was lovely, really. At least my death would be pretty.

  The water rose another inch and I felt a shiver go through me, then another, and then I couldn’t stop shivering.

  I smiled to myself.

  Perhaps I might be very, very lucky.

  Maybe I would freeze to death before I could drown.

  I drew in a shuddering breath and let it out slowly.

  If only I should be so fortunate.

  THE WATER CHAMBER was slowly but surely filling with water and there was no way I was going to escape. Morning would come soon and find me dead. But at least all the pain of this life would be gone.

  Or at least I hoped it would.

  I laid my head on my knees and tried to block out how horrible I felt about Zoe’s death and what I had said to Chad and how cold this damn water was and how I was probably going to die soon.

  Across the room, Chad began a discussion with the other prisoners about trying to escape but I ignored it. I didn’t deserve to escape. I should die in this prison, chained to the floor after what I had said to Chad.

  After what I hadn’t done to save Zoe.

  After the way I had put my baby in danger by going to that battle.

  I froze. Even my involuntary shivering stopped as I was hit by a realization that rocked me to my bones.

  It had been my decision that had led to us losing the baby.

  Not Chad’s.

  It was like a slap in the face and woke me up completely.

  All this time I had been thinking that it had been his fault and really it was me who had made the decision to go to what I knew would be a dangerous battle — and put my baby in jeopardy.

  That had been all me.

  I couldn’t believe it.

  I was flabbergasted.

  Everything in my world suddenly turned upside down.

  And I understood.

  I really understood.

  I was responsible for my own life.

  I made my choices and had to live with the consequences. Nobody could control my choices.

  Nobody determined my life but me.

  I saw it as clear as day. When I blamed someone else for what had gone wrong, I gave up my power. I gave up my power and became a victim. All this time I had been playing the victim, never realizing that the very role I was adopting to protect myself was leeching my strength out of me a little at a time.

  The water was completely covering the lower half of my body and had just reached my breasts, making me gasp. This happened just as there was a lull in their conversation about how to escape, making every eye in the place turn to me.

  “Yumi?” Chad took in my situation in one glance and hurried to my side.

  “Leave me alone,” I said, trying to push him away. “You can’t help me anyways. And I don’t deserve to be helped. Go figure out your escape.”

  But he didn’t leave.

  Figured.

  Typical too good to be true redheads behaviour.

  He squatted down, getting wet, but not seeming to notice. His intelligent blue eyes, one of them ringed by the purple bruise of his black eye, were examining me and assessing the situation.

  “Why are you sitting?” he said, pulling at my upper arm a little frantically. “Get up.”

  “Can’t,” I said, pushing on one of his knees because that was all I could reach and still keep my shackles underwater. I didn’t want him to see what an idiot I had been. I was so ashamed of myself.

  “You stand up. You’re getting all wet. Now the hypothermia will set in sooner.” I scowled up at him. “You have to stay as dry as you can for as long as you can.”

  “Yumi…” he said, gazing at me, confounded.

  I didn’t want to show him. Didn’t want to at all. But it didn’t seem fair. So, I took pity on him and lifted one red, frozen hand to the surface of the water, so that he could see exactly what the problem was.

  “Jesus fucking Christ,” he said, staring at the shackles. “You really pissed him off, didn’t you?”

  He appeared to be trying to see through the water, to figure out how to get me out of them.

  “I guess I did.”

  “Do I want to know?” he said, tugging on the chains.

  “Probably not.”

  “Hm,” he grunted, pulling harder. “Tell me anyway.”

  “I shot him,” I said, causing him to look up, completely taken aback. “Twice.”

  He shook his head as if to clear it.

  “I should have known. Will he survive?”

  “Don’t know. Don’t care. Probably.”

  “Yumi, Yumi, Yumi,” he said, giving a violent tug on the chains each time he said my name.

  “Give it up, Chad,” I said, feeling tired. “You need to figure out an escape plan, not worry about me.”

  He gave me a irritated look.

  “I don’t deserve saving anyway,” I murmured, daring just a quick glance at his face to see his reaction to my words. To see if he agreed. Before I looked away again I saw him frown, and there was a hard look of anger, and then a fleeting emotion that I might have guessed was forgiveness if I hadn’t known damn well that he couldn’t, and shouldn’t, forgive me for what I had said.

  “Chad,” I said, trying to get his attention as he fooled around with the shackles. “Nathan’s locked me up and thrown away the key. Worry about saving these people. There’s no hope for me anyway.”

  “Locked you up and thrown away the key…” He repeated, as if he was trying to figure something out. He snapped his fingers. “That’s it.”

  Reaching into the pocket of his pants, he drew out a key.

  “What’s that?”
>
  “It’s the key,” he said, an amazed smile blooming on his face. “It’s the fucking key. Hawkings gave it to me in the chaos when they were stopping the riot. He said I would know what to do with it and not to lose it.”

  “Hawkings gave you the key after he locked me up?” I said, in disbelief.

  “Aw, come on, Yumi,” he said, taking off his shirt which was still mostly dry. “You know he has a soft spot for you.”

  “What are you doing?” I said, as he shoved his shirt into someone’s hands.

  “Finding out if I’m right.”

  And with that, he ducked under the freezing water.

  I TOOK A deep breath and dove for the floor of the water chamber where Yumi was chained.

  Well, if I was tired from being up all night, this freezing water ought to wake me up.

  I felt the urge to gasp and came back to the surface.

  Damn that water was cold.

  I forced myself to breathe slowly, fighting the hyperventilation that is the body’s natural response to being submerged in cold water. After I adjusted, I was able to calm my breathing enough that I could hold my breath. I dived down, opening my eyes, glad that the lights in the room were so bright. Though I might not appreciate that later when the water reached them. I wondered if any of the prisoners had died of electrocution, instead of drowning.

  Following one of the chains holding Yumi down to the concrete, I found a padlock that attached the chains from each of her wrists to a loop in the floor.

  But by the time I figured that out, I was out of breath.

  I burst out of the water.

  Yumi didn’t say anything, just lifted her chin higher, trying to keep her head above water. I knew she thought I didn’t forgive her for what she had said but I recognized her response for what it was. The last swan song of a behaviour pattern that was dying.

  Yes, it had been a horrible thing to say and it had hurt me but knowing how that whole situation must have triggered her, I could understand it. And against my better judgement, I had already forgiven her. As if my heart knew that she hadn’t meant it.

  But we didn’t have time for that.

  I needed to get these shackles off her.

  And anyways. Even if I had been still angry with her, I certainly didn’t want her to die, for god’s sake. Seeing Ernest’s grief over Zoe really hit home, reminding me of all the times Yumi had come close to dying. And it just gave me perspective. Her words weren’t important in the bigger picture, no matter how much they had cut me.

  I took as deep a breath as I could, filling my lungs to the top and dove again. This time I followed the chain down as fast as I could, feeling for the lock and getting the key to it immediately. I fumbled a bit but kept a death grip on the key. I didn’t want to drop it. Yumi didn’t have time for me to make mistakes.

  But I was on the wrong angle. I needed to twist around so that I could get at the lock from the right way but there wasn’t much room in this corner where she was chained. I looked around underwater for a solution and noticed the water intake opening. It looked big enough for me and I put my legs in, able to reach the lock perfectly from that angle.

  Before I ran out of breath, I managed to get the key into the lock but then I needed to go get some more air or I was going to black out.

  Shit.

  I swam as quickly as I could up to the surface, broke through, and was about to take a deep breath when I saw that Yumi’s mouth was already underwater and her nose was being splashed.

  Jesus.

  I dove again, shoving my legs into the water intake and tried turning the key but it wouldn’t turn. I struggled, trying to force it to turn but then ran out of oxygen again. I needed to return to the surface. Yumi was holding her breath, her eyes big, which made me remember when Hadley had tried to drown her.

  Damn it, she needed air.

  “Breathe out,” I said. Her eyes got bigger. “Breathe out, I’ll give you a breath.”

  As she blew bubbles into the water, I took a deep breath and then pressed my lips to hers, making a seal. She opened her lips and I breathed in all of my air.

  Then I got another huge breath and dove down, wedging my legs in the intake hole as quickly as I could. I was determined to unlock it this time. The key seemed stuck like maybe I hadn’t inserted it properly so I carefully withdrew it and wasted precious moments reinserting it as straight as I could. By the time that was done, I was starting to see black spots but I turned the key and the lock popped open.

  Feeling dizzy, I ripped the lock out and pushed out of the water, pulling in huge gulps of air. Yumi, feeling that the chains were free, had already scrambled to her feet and was gasping for breath, fear in her eyes.

  “You do like to live dangerously, don’t you, Tanaka?” I said, trying to catch my breath. “Now. How the hell are we going to get out of here?”

  “YOU’RE AN IDIOT,” I said, managing to get words out past the fear that was clogging my throat. I had died a thousand times over waiting for him to come back up out of that freezing cold water, holding my breath longer and longer, knowing that soon I wouldn’t be able to and I would breathe in water and drown.

  I could see why Nathan had such control over his people. All it would take was a threat to be sent here to the water chamber and everyone would be toeing the line.

  “You’re soaking,” I chided him, not able to express how worried I had been about him, how terrified I had been that I would drown. “You’ll end up getting hypothermia.”

  “You’re welcome,” he said, wryly, shaking his head as if he knew every thought I was thinking, which he probably did because I had completely lost control of my shield. I put it firmly back into place as he turned to the others who had been watching the whole thing with fear in their eyes. “Now, seriously people, let’s get some ideas going.”

  “There’s only one way in,” Matt pointed out. “The door.”

  Another man made a rather ridiculous suggestion of some plot he had heard once in a movie and I tuned him out.

  “Why were you thrashing around down there so much?” I said, quietly to Chad. “I thought you were going to drown yourself, never mind Nathan having to do it.”

  “I couldn’t reach the lock on the angle I was on. I had to put my legs into the intake hole in order to reach it,” he whispered, his mind clearly only half on what I was asking as he considered the idiot’s proposal.

  “Thanks for the suggestion. Any other ideas we should consider?” he said, giving the man a smile and then looking around at the others.

  I shook my head.

  Only Chad would thank someone for wasting our time with such a stupid idea.

  “We have to get out the door,” Matt said. “Maybe we could convince a guard to come down here. It should be morning by now and there must be someone on guard.”

  “How can we get him or her to come down here, though?” someone asked.

  Matt was silent.

  That was the problem, wasn’t it?

  This room was at the end of the hall, had no window in the door, and no one guarded it. Because it didn’t need to be guarded. There was no escape.

  No escape.

  There was an idea coming to me.

  If only I wasn’t so damn cold, I could grasp what it was. I wrapped my arms around my torso, trying to conserve body heat but I was already shivering so hard, I couldn’t even think.

  The idea had something to do with escaping.

  That the door wasn’t the only way into this place.

  What was it?

  What was it?

  But the thought eluded me.

  Goddamn it.

  “Maybe we could climb the walls, hang from the ceiling, and survive the night that way,” another person suggested.

  I scanned the smooth walls with only the light fixtures on them that would likely electrocute us once the water reached them and wondered what the woman was thinking. I came to the conclusion that they figured any suggestion no matter how stupid
was better than nothing at all. I didn’t agree.

  “There’s got to be something else,” Chad said.

  And then the room got quiet.

  All of us thinking desperately.

  And that’s when I heard it. The sucking sound the water made when it pulled out of the intake hole and then rushed back in.

  “There is more than one way into this place,” I said, a smile lighting my eyes. “The water has to get in somehow.”

  MY IDEA WAS decidedly trounced by everyone there.

  Except Chad, of course.

  He considered it.

  “No, she’s right,” he said, calming the arguing. “We could get out that way.”

  “And be taken into the spillway rapids?” one man said. “We’d never survive.”

  “We may not survive this,” a woman said. Her face strong and determined. “I’m in. Let’s do it.”

  “I’ll go first,” Chad said. Of course. “If I don’t come back then no one else should attempt it.”

  “Red,” I growled.

  He turned to me and took my face in his hands, pressing a quick kiss to my lips, not caring that we had an audience.

  “You know I have to do this.”

  “Fucking hero,” I ground out.

  He grinned at that.

  “In case I don’t come back,” he said, his face getting serious and those gorgeous blue eyes gazing into mine. “I forgive you for what you said. I know you didn’t mean it. And I love you.”

  “Red,” I said, and this time it was more of a sob. “I love you, too. Please don’t die.”

  “I won’t, Yumi,” he said and I had never seen his expression more solemn, more determined. “I promise.”

  “You better not,” I said, giving him one more kiss and then pushing him away before I made a fool of myself in front of all the people watching us.

  He took a long, long breath in and dove down.

  In an instant he was gone.

  ONCE I WAS under the water, it was cold. So cold.