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"Yesterday's trial tested how each of you worked as part of a team. Today's trial will test you each on a solo mission. Miss Smith will guide you downstairs to the parking area. We're going outside today," Bullhorn man said. Adelaide still wanted to call him that, even though she'd already learned his name was Mr. Custis. It just seemed to fit him better, since he could even bellow across the room without his bullhorn.
The murmurs in the cafeteria rose to a new level. Outside. They'd only been in the Horizon Corporation building for a few days, but it felt like they were being offered time out in the yard to play. Scotty leaned across their table. "This is new. I've never heard of them taking initiates on a test outside. I wonder what it could be," he said, stuffing the last bite of his toast in his mouth.
Adelaide shrugged and picked up the last of her eggs and shoveled them in as well. They would be moving out the door soon, and she didn't want to leave any nourishment on her plate. If this test was as physically demanding as the last one, she needed every bit of energy she could get from the food.
Miss Smith was the younger, thinner woman who'd occasionally guided them from place to place. She stood near the doorway at the end of the cafeteria and waited for the group to make their way over to her. Jo grabbed a hold of her brother's arm. "I'm not letting you two out of my sight this time. You can't go sneaking off and having all the fun on your own, you know?"
Adelaide and Nathan had told their companions everything about what had happened the night before over their breakfast. In the light of day, things seemed a little bit hazy, and when they met eyes with one another, they came to an unspoken agreement not to mention the wolf they'd seen. They kept things focused on the other route in the terrarium and the ridiculous differences between their route and the one everyone else had taken.
Jo puffed up a little bit. She had been the one to make the choice on which route to take, and had rallied everyone in their group to support her decision saying, "No pain, no gain." Which had apparently been their uncle's mantra.
When they reached the parking garage together, there were four white vans with the Horizon logo on the side waiting for them with doors open. They piled in, and luckily their full group was able to stick together in the same vehicle. Though they couldn't see where they were going in the windowless van, they anxiously rode over bumpy terrain that slowly evened out. And only a half hour later, they pulled to a stop. When the van door opened, Adelaide's heart leapt. The sea spread out before her.
The salt air hit her like the smell of home. The full group piled out of the van, and the murmurs began as well. "What on Earth are we doing here?" Gerald asked.
"Beats me, but I've never been to the ocean before," Scotty answered, stretching his arms out as soon as he dismounted the van.
Jo jumped out behind him, using his shoulders to help herself down. "Me neither. But I'd never been in a car or van before, either."
Nathan shook his head and laughed. "No one has. It's not like in the olden days, when everyone had a car in their garage, and there were gas stations on every corner."
Jo laughed and punched her brother in the arm. "Now you sound like Uncle Hoyt."
He snickered and threw her into headlock, rubbing the top of her hair with his knuckles. "Don't insult your loving brother like that."
After three rubs, he released her. Her dark brown hair stood up and frizzed out where he'd rubbed it, and she tried to smooth it down while offering him a harsh glare.
Mr. Custis stood on the sand of the beach, his bullhorn back in his hand. He called out through it, "Each of you will be getting into the water from here, swimming out to the orange buoy you see out there, and then swimming back. We have flotation devices if you wish to use them, but life jackets are required for everyone. You'll see that we have no other safety net. If you drown, you fail. So make your decisions wisely. The first person to make it back to shore after rounding the buoy wins. The last... four will be dismissed. Regardless of whether they are male or female."
He appeared to pull the number off the top of his head. But it didn't matter to Adelaide. She couldn't help the smile that stole across her face. A swimming competition. She couldn't have been more in her element. Excitement coursed across her skin like electricity.
She unzipped her jumpsuit and stood on the shore in the swimsuit she'd been given that morning, just like everyone else. Then she took one of the assigned life preservers. They zipped up in the front, but she struggled with figuring out how to get the teeth to catch at the bottom. No surprise, since she'd never dealt with a zipper outside of the jumpsuit before, and the bottom was already connected on it.
While she was looking down, trying to get the teeth at the bottom to catch, warm hands covered hers. She looked up into Nathan's bright green eyes. "Let me help."
She swallowed, her throat suddenly feeling dry, but she pulled her hands away.
He grabbed both ends and chewed on his lip while he connected them together. Then he zipped it up to the top for her. With a smile he patted her on the top of the head. "You know how to swim?"
His emerald eyes mesmerized her for a moment. She nodded.
He winked. "Then you're one up on most of us. The rest of us will be flailing around, doing the doggy paddle. Good thing they are requiring these life jackets."
She nodded. She didn't feel that she needed it, but was glad they would keep her friends safe. Friends. It was the first time she'd even thought the word, much less said it. Back home, she'd only considered one person to be her friend, and that was Jonas. Now it seemed she could count her friends. Jo, Nathan, Scotty, and even Gerald seemed to accept her as a part of their group. Jonas was wrong. Not only did she belong in this trial, but she belonged with these people. At least right now in this moment, she felt like she was where she was meant to be.
A whistle blew.
"Everyone to the start line," Bullhorn man said into his megaphone.
In a straight line across the sand, everyone lined up in their gray swimsuits and red neoprene life jackets. Adelaide's heart pounded in her chest. She waited, pulling her breath in slowly and pushing it back out just as slowly. She needed to get ready for the water to hit her body, knowing it was going to be cold.
The whistle blew again, and everyone ran for the waves.
Even though she'd prepared herself for the cold, her body still felt shocked by the temperature difference. Her breath froze in her lungs, and it took a moment for her to get a full breath in while she ran in the thigh high waters. Once the water level reached her waist, she dove in. The life jacket kept her from getting into the water like she wanted, but she'd decided to make due with staying on the surface. She pushed her arms forward to cut through the waves and purposed her magic to pull the friction to her sides while her legs worked together to propel her forward. Her water magic was much weaker than it normally was. But she still moved along at a much faster rate than her peers. When she looked to either side of her, she found herself several yards ahead. With a smile she continued to push herself forward, the magic making it easier to cut through the waves and currents. By the time she reached the buoy, she found she could even get under the surface better. Her life jacket wasn't keeping her afloat as it had at the beginning.
She waded by the buoy, suddenly realizing something was wrong. Not only was her life jacket not helping her stay afloat, it was dragging her down. Its weight in the waves had grown exponentially. The neoprene bubbled up around her. It was taking on water. She shook her head and set a hand on the buoy. "No way."
She unzipped it and pulled her arms through the loops. Her body felt twenty pounds lighter. If it had taken on twenty pounds of water in the swim up, how many more pounds would it have taken on on the way back? She released it from her hand and let it sink to the ocean floor.
Jo reached her position by the buoy and started to circle around it, her torso fully planted on the floating kick board she'd opted for since she knew she couldn't swim. Adelaide's shoulders re
laxed. It didn't seem that Jo had taken on water. And the small girl was in the lead because her light body cut through the waters so well. Jo stared at her. "Are you okay?"
Adelaide nodded. "I'm fine. Don't worry about me. Keep going."
Jo nodded as she finished rounding the buoy and then started back toward the shore. A couple more people were rounding the buoy, some had kick boards, some didn't. None of their life jackets seemed to have taken on water the way that hers had. Until Scotty came by. He clung to his kick board for dear life, but the weight of his body and his inflated neoprene life jacket were too much for the board to handle. She swam toward him, yelling, "Scotty!"
But she was too late. He'd already slipped off his board and had started to sink.
She dove under the waves, using her water magic to help her cut through the current faster. When she reached Scotty, she found him with his eyes closed, his body still as if he'd given up on trying to get back to the surface. She rushed forward and unzipped his life jacket, pulling it from over his shoulders and letting it go to the bottom of the waters, just like hers had. Then she grabbed him from under the arms and pulled with all her might, kicking her legs to drag him back to the surface. They broke the surface and she took a deep breath. Scotty hit the air and suddenly came alive. He screamed out. "Help!" and began to struggle in her grip, pushing her back down under the waves.
He kicked her and pushed her under, hitting her in the temple with his elbow. Stars flashed in her vision. When she'd finally let him go he swam away from her and to the buoy, the closest thing to land this far in the water.
Hands gripped her and pulled her back to the surface. She gasped for breath, her head feeling foggy. After blinking the saltwater from her eyes, she met gazes with Nathan's wide, worried, emerald eyes. He frowned at her. "Are you okay? Where is your life vest?"
She shook her head. "It was taking on water. I had to let it go. Scotty's too."
He blinked and looked over at Scotty who clung to the buoy. Nathan held two kick boards. "Is this yours or Scotty's?"
"His."
He nodded. "Do you want mine? Are you going to be okay?”
Her vision had returned to normal and her head had cleared. She believed she'd be okay to swim. She nodded.
Nathan looked her over again, seemingly worried about leaving her.
"I'll be fine. Help Scotty."
He nodded and swam over to his friend on the buoy.
Adelaide counted the number of people she'd seen. She wanted to make sure that there were no more faulty flotation devices. If someone else needed help, there wasn't another strong swimmer among the initiates who could save them the way she could. She counted seven that had already passed the buoy and were headed back to shore. Nathan and Scotty were just rounding the buoy. Two more swimmers approached her quickly, and both of them looked fine as they clung to their kick boards. She swallowed. Seven more people still approached. Then she saw the one near the back who slipped off her kick board.
After sucking in a deep breath of air, Adelaide dove down and cut through the water to the person who'd slipped under the waves. When she caught her, she unzipped the life jacket quickly and it sank to the bottom. Then she tugged the girl back to the top and helped her to her kick board. The girl pushed her red hair out of her face and met eyes with Adelaide. Annette's brown eyes grew wide and then narrowed at her. "What are you trying to do? Kill me?"
She swung a punch toward Adelaide and gripped her kick board.
Adelaide dodged the girl's arm and then ducked away from the splashes that came at her as Annette kicked away from her.
Not that Adelaide had expected thanks, exactly, but the last thing she did expect was to be treated with hostility when she was only trying to help. Now she'd lost count of the swimmers. Nearly all of the ones that were visible had made it around the buoy. As far as she could tell, there were no more swimmers heading toward the turn around point, and everyone seemed to be doing well on their kick boards. With a nod, she dove back under the waves, where she felt the most comfortable, the most at home, and started for the shore.
Almost immediately, she heard a gurgled cry for help and felt the pressure of struggle in the waters. She dove in the direction of the pressure. When she reached him, he'd already sunk more than ten feet below the surface of the water, and bubbles floated from his lips. If he took on water, he'd drown. It was Liam, the smallest, youngest boy in the trial. Adelaide's lungs burned by the time she reached him. Why couldn't she hold her breath longer? And had he been under longer than her? Liam must have been out of breath as well. She unzipped his life jacket and let it slip through her fingers. The surface looked so far away as her eyes stung from the need to take in a breath. She shot upward as fast as she could darting through to the air in a split second, her water magic pushing her up at a rocket's pace.
As soon as she reached the air, she heaved in a couple of deep breaths, her arm pulling Liam over the waves with her. His eyes were closed, and water spilled from his nostrils. He didn't even attempt to breath in. Not good.
She struggled and pulled the boy to shore as quickly as she could but it was difficult to carry the boy's weight with her, even with her water magic. When she reached the shallows strong hands pulled Liam's body from her and helped her to her feet. She sputtered, trying to blink the stinging salt water from her eyes. When she was finally able to see, it appeared a small crowd stood around Liam's body, where Nathan was trying to resuscitate him.
The Horizon Corporation employees stood back and whispered to each other while watching. Adelaide frowned. Why weren't they doing anything? At least four of the life jackets were faulty. Did they expect those people to make it back to shore? Or did they account for the possibility that the kids would drown? Her fists clenched at her sides. She wanted to hit one of them.
Jo came up and grabbed Adelaide by the arm, unknowingly holding her back. "Are you okay?"
Adelaide shook her head, but looked around at the crowd. "Is everyone here. Are they all accounted for?"
Her eyes darted back toward the water. What if there was another one who needed help? She needed to go back and get them. Jo continued to hold onto her arm. "Everyone is here. You and Liam were last."
Relief washed over Adelaide and the tension left her shoulders.
"He's not breathing. I think he swallowed too much water," Nathan called out, sitting back on his heels, worry lines deepening on his forehead.
Adelaide rushed over and collapsed next to Liam. "We can't give up. Not yet."
She settled her hands on Liam's chest and pushed him over to his side. Using her water magic, she guided the salt water out of Liam's lungs. Gurgling, water mixed with air and came out of his mouth with bubbles. Once she was certain all of the water had gone, she turned the boy back onto his back. "Nathan. Push air into his mouth."
He nodded and started to do what she'd said.
Adelaide took her hands and began pumping on his chest, willing the blood to pump through the boy's heart and push through his veins. Blood was mostly water, but she wasn't entirely certain it would obey her command. She wasn't a trained healer.
How long had Liam been underwater. How long ago had he stopped breathing? It had to have been a few minutes... maybe several. She continued to pump his chest while Nathan blew air into the boy's lungs. After a few more minutes, she became aware that the heart wasn't even trying to pump the blood on its own. Only that which she forced through was circulating through the boy's body. His diaphragm had not begun to work. He was gone.
Nathan seemed to come to the same conclusion as she did when he stopped and looked at her. He shook his head, sadness filling his eyes. Adelaide's hands dropped to her sides. She'd failed to save him. Even with all her magic, even when she'd cut through the waves as fast as she could, she'd failed.
She didn't even realize she'd been crying until Nathan grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her into him. Her face rested against his sandy, bare chest, and the sobs started racking h
er body. Other mournful sounds continued over her head.
The only dead body Adelaide had ever seen was her mother's. And even though she didn't know Liam well, she mourned for him. She mourned for her mother, and she felt sorry. To Liam. To her mother. She wished she could have done more for them both.
The sound of a bullhorn broke through her grief. "Please back away from the body. The guards will remove it for disposal."
Nathan helped Adelaide to her feet, his body tensing at the sound of the man's voice.
Scotty yelled, "Disposal? What do you mean by that? Liam had a family. You need to return him to his family."
The bullhorn sounded again. "We will check to see if someone in town wants to claim the body. But again, we ask that you all back away."
Four black suited guards came forward and pushed people back, including Nathan who continued to grip Adelaide in his arms.
His warm body comforted her, and she wasn't ready to let go.
The guards picked up Liam's lifeless form and started away with it. She gripped Nathan tighter as she watched the body until it disappeared around the other side of the vans parked along the shore.
The bullhorn squawked. "Please gather round while we announce the winner and the initiates who have failed this round of the trial."
Murmurs continued as they gathered around Mr. Custis. Adelaide still felt as though she were in a daze. She didn't want to be with these people any longer. As far as she was concerned, Liam's blood was on the hands of the Horizon Corporation and its employees. Mr. Custis was the most guilty as far as she was concerned. She pulled away from Nathan who looked down at her and asked, "Are you sure you're okay?"
One Thousand Tears_a dystopian mermaid tale Page 9