by Lisa Lace
I cut my eyes over towards her, not bothering to turn my head and waste energy. I gave a tiny nod and continued putting one foot in front of the other. Samantha looked worried, but squeezed my hand and kept walking. Soon we arrived at a boardwalk stretching out to the docks. All the ships came to port and transferred cargo here.
"Won't we stand out in our bodysuits?" Sam whispered to me.
I shook my head, not bothering to explain. She would see soon enough. The atmosphere at the docks was crazy. It wasn't just where ships loaded and unloaded, but it was also a fair where hundreds of sellers came to hock their wares. There were performers and all sorts of unusual people. We would blend in with all the other weirdos. As soon as we walked into the crowd, I saw her smile. She understood.
Our relief was short-lived. There was a shout behind us. Sam turned her head, and said, "Jori. It's them."
I didn't ask if she were sure. I didn't ask how she knew. I moved, dragging the last bit of energy out of my body to force my tired arms and legs to run one last time. We took off down the fairgrounds area of the docks, dodging around people and booths. There was another boardwalk further on that would take us back to land. I guided us in that direction, turning sharply without altering my speed.
As I ran, Sam suddenly put on the brakes and tried to drag me back.
"Wait!" she yelled.
I lost my footing and slipped, crashing into a chain. Sam yanked my arm. I couldn't believe she had all that strength packed into a little body. I landed on my ass, cursing in my mind because I didn't have the energy to speak.
"Jori. I can't read the signs, but it's under construction," she said. "There's nothing to walk on."
I finally looked where I was rushing and saw a dark yawning abyss below us. At the bottom of the long drop was a pile of sharp rocks in shallow water, waiting to break my back.
Samantha wasn't looking at me, but she pulled me to my feet again. I groaned.
"Come on, Jori," she said. Her voice quavered. "They're still coming."
When I looked back, I saw our pursuers had been slowed by the crowd and had lost sight of us for the moment. I made a decision and took off at a slow jog with Sam by my side.
We ran down one of the arms of the docks, where ships of all sizes were moored, loading and unloading their cargo. We shouldn't have run; it may have made us stand out in the crowd. Our assailants caught sight of us and moved in our direction.
"Jori, where do we go?" Sam wailed. There was no way out of our location. Each arm of the docks stretched out but ended at the ocean. If we wanted to go back, we would have to retrace our steps.
I tried to stay calm and remember my training. There was always a way out. Scan. Look for it. Something will be here, but it might not be obvious at first glance. I quickly searched around us.
At the end of the dock, a large ship was pulling away.
"That ship," I whispered, tapping my computer until the scrambler activated. We would need it to block the cameras around us. "Run to it."
"There's no way to board," she said. I was already tugging on her hand, and we took off. The ship was gaining speed. It was moving faster than we could.
"We're going to have to jump," I said. "Run as fast as you can, Sam."
We tore along the dock. People dashed out of our way when they saw us sprinting at them. I tried to run faster, reaching deep within myself for more strength. Sam kept up with me. I didn't know if it was in spite of or because of her fear.
When we reached the end of the platform, we jumped to the ship. I saw Sam land and collapse on the deck of the vessel, groaning when she hit. I wasn't able to jump far enough. I was exhausted from my swim and the run afterward. I managed to grab hold of the bottom rung of a railing. I looped my arm through it and clasped my hands together.
I hung suspended for the moment. I could feel my grip slipping.
Shots rang out, and I felt more stings on my back as some of them found their target. As the ship accelerated, we started to leave them behind. Unfortunately, gunfire wasn't the biggest threat anymore. I was about to fall back into the ocean. In my exhausted state, I wouldn't be able to swim.
"Sam," I called. My voice croaked out of my body.
She stirred and opened her eyes. When she saw my situation, she rushed to me immediately.
"Can you get your leg up? Hold on. I'll get you, somehow."
She lay flat on the deck and reached down, grabbing for my leg. Her breath hissed as she stretched her hurt arm towards me. I tried to lift my leg to help her, but it was impossible. It took everything I had to cling to the rail. She inched closer. I was worried she would tumble into the ocean.
"You're going to fall in," I said.
"No, I'm not," she said. She hooked her legs around a nearby vertical post. She was able to lower her body slightly and this time she could reach me. On the third try, she pulled my leg up.
"I've got you."
She hooked my foot around a rung so I couldn't slip back again. She could easily reach my other leg now; soon she had my whole body on the deck. It was difficult to pull my hands apart. I tried to release them, but they were stiff, and she had to pull with all her might. Lactic acid spread through my body from my exertions, and I was stiffening up. With a grunt, she got me away from the edge and dragged me along the deck.
"There," I whispered, pointing to a spot I knew the ship's cameras didn't reach. I had spent some time hitching rides on ships like this one as a teenager. "Beside the barrel."
She didn't ask any questions. She dragged me along, pulling my arms along the deck until we were in position. I pointed to my computer.
"Turn off the scrambler," I said. "It's not necessary anymore. No cameras will see us here."
I lay my head down on the wooden boards and fell asleep.
Chapter Eleven
SAMANTHA
When Jori passed out on the deck of the ship, I was worried. I didn't know anything about Vandwans. Was he dead? He had done an awful lot of swimming. I checked his mouth, and he was still breathing. Maybe he had pushed his body to its limits. I wasn't as tired as Jori because I hadn't physically exerted myself. He had towed me through miles of ocean to a different city. How was that possible, even for a merman?
I recalled people on Earth who set records swimming distances much further than twenty miles. I supposed it was reasonable after all, on a water world, but to see it in front of my eyes was amazing.
There was no way I would be able to sleep. I was wound up, nauseated, and seasick already.
I lay down with my back against his and replayed the events of the night, trying to come to terms with what had happened to us. The party had been decent, but then I had panicked, and we'd gone out on the patio. I had seen glimpses of the real Jori two times. What had he said?
Would an asshole give up five years of his life, his name, the love of his family, and the possibility of a relationship with an amazing woman just to save some kids that he doesn't even know?
The truth of his words hit me again. An asshole wouldn't do that, but Jori had. He wasn't an asshole; he just played one in real life. Would an asshole swim miles carrying me on his back? Of course, he couldn't take the chance that Harrington would capture me. But somehow I sensed that even if I weren't a risk to his operation, Jori would have protected me. He could have stashed me somewhere and made his escape without being encumbered by me.
But he hadn't. He'd taken me with him. Nobody had ever done anything like that for me before.
Was Jori a hero? I was surprised I hadn't realized it sooner.
I remembered the rogahz and how hard he worked to get us out of the water before it ate us. What kind of sick fucks keep sea creatures to eat people? Only on Vandwa.
Thank goodness for Jori and this ship to put some distance between us and those goons. Finally, my thoughts circled back to almost losing Jori. It didn't matter if he could breathe underwater. He would have been in trouble if he slipped off the ship. I was lucky to have lifted him up.
All my years in grade school hanging from monkey bars helped me later in life.
I sighed.
We were safe for now. And I was more tired than I thought. My eyelids were getting heavy. I turned and cuddled up close to Jori, wrapping my arm around him. For this particular moment in time, he was mine to hold.
JORI
The wind blowing in my face woke me up. It was powerful; more than a gust, but less than a gale. I cursed and wondered what I had done to deserve such rotten luck.
Sam had her body wrapped around me. She clutched me tightly as she slept soundly. Lying next to her was nice, but the wind was not. I looked at the clouds and noted that the ship sails stood completely billowed out. The ship was steady. For now, the computers were able to correct the course.
I allowed myself to enjoy the feeling of Sam's arms around me for another blissful minute. I noticed the ship was going up and down on the dips and swells of the enormous waves. The computers were no longer able to compensate for the vertical motion. Without warning, the sails began to retract into the masts. The loss of our sails was a bad sign.
As I inspected the ship carefully, it appeared rickety and old. The main mast looked dried out. My brother would be appalled if he saw the condition of the vessel. It looked like it would snap in a storm.
If I read the winds correctly, there was a storm brewing out in the middle of the ocean right now.
I closed my eyes. We needed to get off this ship before it collapsed around us.
"Sam," I said immediately. "Sam, wake up."
My voice croaked, and my throat felt raw and painful. Her eyes fluttered open.
"Jori? Are you all right?"
"I'm okay. Can you help me sit up?"
"What's wrong?" she asked, picking up on my anxiety right away.
I thought I would be able to conceal my concern, but I was starting to realize that it was difficult to hide my innermost thoughts from Sam.
"The wind's picking up."
"Where did the sails go?"
"The ship automatically lowered them, because the computers predicted a storm."
"What do we do? Tie ourselves to the mast or something?"
A horrified look crept over my face. "Why would we do something like that?" I said. I was unable to understand the thought process that would lead her to her conclusion.
"Oh, I don't know," she laughed nervously. "It was something they used to do in the sailing ship books I used to read when I was younger." She paused. "Come to think of it, I might have read it in the story of Odysseus."
"Maybe that's standard on Earth," I said. I was still appalled at the idea. "Not on Vandwa."
"Oh right. Of course a merman wouldn't want to be tied to a ship," she said, understanding my horror. "But what about a frail human, unable to breathe underwater? She might want to make sure she didn't get washed overboard."
"I would never leave you on board during a storm, Sam. Do you know what happens to people who are stuck on a ship if it goes down?"
"No?"
"They get sucked under with the current," I said. "Even if you can breathe underwater, you don't want that. It's better to swim away while you can."
The weather punctuated my sentence. We heard the first clap of thunder, followed immediately by a bolt of lightning.
"The storm is right over us, Sam. We have to get off now."
"I'm afraid, Jori," she said. Her hand went to her stomach. The ship was starting to roll violently up and down on the waves.
"If the mast gets hit by lightning, nothing's going to save this vessel. You don't want to get sucked beneath when it goes down into the ocean."
She stared at the water. "I'm not afraid the ocean. I'm a pretty good swimmer. I'm scared of drowning," she said. Sam's eyes were filled with dread.
I grabbed her shoulders to get her attention. She winced as I moved her hurt arm, but I refused to let go and gazed into her eyes.
"I won't let you drown, Sam. I can make sure you have oxygen in your lungs."
The day after we first met, she had taunted me and made light of Vandwans. It had made me furious at the time, but I had reflected on the conversation since then. I knew now that she had been teasing me and trying to taunt me after I had insulted her social status. The memory made me embarrassed. I wanted to put it behind me and my mind brought me back into the present. I needed to convince her.
"Do you believe me?" I said, looking into her eyes earnestly. I would never let her drown.
"No," she said. Her eyes appeared sad, and her mouth set into a firm line. "But I'm going to have to trust you."
"Give me your hand and let's jump before the mast goes down."
She pressed her lips together, and moved to my other side. Over here, I could grasp her good hand. I led her to the stern. There was no railing on this side.
"When it's time to jump, move as far away from the ship as you can so you don't hit the tiller," I said, pointing to a large paddle barely visible under water. "And when you hit the water, surface as quickly as you can and swim away from the ship. I'll help you if I can."
She nodded and climbed the stairs. I joined her. She had her eyes closed.
"On three. One, two, three." We leapt as far out as we could, holding hands as long as possible. I didn't even bother taking a breath of air, but I heard her drawing in a deep breath as we fell into the ocean. When we hit the water, we were torn apart.
I flipped my inner eyelid down before I opened my eyes. I wasn't in a hurry to surface as I drew in oxygen from the water through the skin of my torso. I saw Sam fighting to make it to the top of the water. When I saw her head poke into the air, I felt relieved, and I headed up myself.
She was already swimming away from the boat and I quickly caught up to her. The waves were enormous. We were caught in between one wave after another. It didn't bother me much, but I could see Sam hoped none of the big ones would crash over her. I tried to stay nearby. My presence didn't reduce her fear.
When another clap of thunder and a bolt of lightning hit almost simultaneously, I knew we were right under the heart of the storm. The mast of the old ship finally succumbed to the weather. I heard the crack as lightning hit the main mast and turned to watch. A moment later, one of the bigger waves crashed over the vessel as it listed on its side.
"Hold on, Sam, we have to get out of here. It's going down," I said. I didn't want to look back. Sam wrapped her arms around me and held on. I didn't want to be anywhere near that ship as it sucked everything into a swirling vortex.
When we were at a safe distance, I turned to look at it again, but it was already gone. Sam's eyes looked bleak. She didn't dare ask what we were going to do. It was for the best because I didn't have a clue. We were in the middle of the ocean. On Vandwa, land is hard to find. There was only a small chance of survival.
"Out of the frying pan, into the fire," she said.
"What?" Why was she talking about cooking?
"It's a saying from Earth. It means you've escaped one terrible problem, only to be confronted by an even worse one."
"Don't worry, Sam. Something will come up," I said. I certainly hoped a solution would present itself. "Look, the storm's passing. That's good news."
She nodded but wouldn't look me in the eyes.
"If you can hold on and not die, I'll get us out of here." I could see she was beginning to protest. "I'm built for swimming. I'll go slow and I won't tire myself out? I'm a fucking merman, remember?"
That got a tiny smile. "Aren't I lucky to have such a husband?" she said.
"Yes, very useful. It'll be okay. I promise," I said, touching her face.
"How can you say that? Earlier, you complained about everything around you. Where is this hope coming from?"
"What can I say? I'm an optimist."
She shook her head. "And an actor as well. I didn't believe you when you said that you'd been acting all this time. But now I see it might be true."
I shrugged, trying to downplay how important my next w
ords were. "There's no one to act for out here."
I hoped she knew what that meant - I was myself with her.
"That's true. You can be yourself. Show me who you are, then, Jori."
"There's nothing I'd like more," I said.
She bit her lip and reached out her arms to hold onto me again. She winced when she pulled on her hurt arm but didn't whine or complain about the pain. Sam was a brave girl.
I started swimming and, despite the hopelessness of our situation, there was a tiny light inside of me. I was almost out of a job I no longer wanted. Sam might have feelings for me. I was beginning to see that I had feelings for her.
I just needed to stay alive.
After two hours, there was nothing around us but open ocean. I could breathe underwater, but that didn't mean I could live underwater. Sam could only remain in the sea for a limited amount of time. I didn't know what her limits were.
We didn't talk because I needed all my breath for swimming. I didn't want to say what I was thinking. We were doomed. We were going to die out here, and we could do nothing to prevent it.
I began to get tired. I needed to take breaks, and we floated on our backs next to each other. I didn't know how close we were to The Barrier. I wondered if we might cross it without realizing.
The fear seemed irrational because The Barrier was enormous. I had only seen it in videos at school, never in the wild. I wasn't even sure if it was possible for me to swim over it. Wasn't it supposed to keep everything out? Maybe that meant it would keep us in as well. Whatever the reality was, I was terrified I would miss it, and we would be exposed to the hungriest, deadliest aquatic animals Vandwa had to offer. Sam sensed the tension in me but had her own fears to deal with.
When the sun dropped lower in the sky, Sam began to shiver. Apparently Vandwans could retain their body heat more efficiently than humans as well. She was moving around so much trying to keep warm that I was afraid she might slip off me.
"J-J-Jori?" she managed to get out.
"Yeah?"
"What is that over there?" she said, pointing with her chin. Her face shook, making her teeth chatter. I looked in the direction she indicated, but the setting sun and the deepening shadows made it hard to tell what it was. I hoped there was something on the horizon.