Archipelago N.Y.: Flynn

by Todorov, Vladimir

  Madison’s long eyelashes fluttered and she opened her eyes. Flynn looked away, but not fast enough. “What?” she asked, propping herself up on her elbows.

  “Err ... nothing!” Flynn picked up a jar filled with seal fat, scooped a handful and slapped it on his chest. Avoiding any eye contact with Madison, he started smearing the grease all over his body.

  Madison rubbed her arm, sniffed her fingers and scrunched up her nose. “Ugh! This stuff stinks worse than my pigeons!”

  “Yeah! But it sure keeps you warm when you’re in the water.”

  “This is harder than I thought, Flynn… I'm not sure if I can keep pace with you....”

  “You're doing fine for someone who hasn’t practiced in a while,” said Flynn, reassuringly. He was covered from head to toe in grease now. “A lot to catch up on, but we can't do it in just a few days.”

  “I thought I was only going to work on the pedals and the air-pump...”

  “You will be… But, as my Crew Mate, you’ve got to dive well enough in case of an emergency. You’re here to watch my back,” said Flynn, stretching out his hand. “Goggles, please!”

  “Hey! I thought you said enough diving for today.”

  “I need to get something… Just one quick dive and we're going back.”

  Madison untangled the goggles from her hair and handed them to Flynn. Then she shook out her long, wet mane, sending a cloud of tiny water drops flying in the air.

  “You know, you’ll have to cut it all off,” Flynn said.

  “Why?”

  “Can’t take unnecessary risks… with hair like that… It can get caught in something down there. Trap you, or strangle you…. And you’ll be dead before you know it.” Flynn stepped to the edge of the raft, closed his eyes and relaxed his body. Standing perfectly still, he looked like a golden statue, his oiled skin catching the light of the strong afternoon sun.

  “What’re you doing?”

  Flynn opened one eye slightly, caught Madison looking at him then closed it. “Concentrating… Slowing down my heart beat.”

  “Really… you can do that…by concentrating?”

  “Just watch… I'll teach you all the tricks of deep free diving after the Trials.”

  “Aren't you supposed to take deep breaths… get more oxygen before you dive?”

  “Bad idea.”

  “Why?”

  Flynn gave up, opened his eyes and faced Madison. With all her questions, she was making it really hard for him to concentrate. “’Cause I'll be hyper-ventilating then, and black out. That's why.”

  “Oh... that makes sense,” she said, scowling. “You must think I’m stupid for asking.”

  “No, I don’t!” Flynn felt like kicking himself. The last thing he needed was for Madison to get offended and give up on the whole Crew Mate deal. “I think you’re very wise, asking me about stuff…” he mumbled...Wise and very pretty, Flynn thought, not realizing he was staring at Madison again.

  “So, are you going in, or not?”

  Flynn looked away from the girl and began to scan the horizon. “Just making sure we’re alone,” he said. Flynn had positioned the Seeker at the same spot he and Tony had last scavenged. Yes, he knew that he was pushing his luck, and he shouldn’t be there… Not so soon after being caught “trespassing”, anyway… But, he also knew there was so much more stuff to be scavvied/found in the pharmacy down below. It would be such a shame to abandon it now. Most importantly, there was medicine that could help Tony get better. He had to risk it.

  “Looks like the coast’s clear!” He snapped his goggles on. “OK, one more time… When you hear the rattle, start pumping. The second time you hear it go off, you stop. Are we good?”

  Madison nodded, took her position on the seat and placed her foot on the oxygen pump.

  “See you in a bit.”

  Flynn attached his mesh sack to his belt and without looking back at Madison, he dived in. Kicking his feet, he made a few wide breast strokes which propelled him deeper down in the water. Then, he placed his arms beside his torso and let himself sink. His body went rigid and straight as an arrow, something Flynn would do on purpose to conserve energy and air as long as possible. Now he was sinking, using his own weight.

  The sun beams penetrated the turquoise water around him, the colors gradually becoming a darker shade of blue as he kept going deeper and deeper. A school of silver bellied fish shot past his head, but he paid them no attention. Flynn was following the length of the rope and the hose attached to the diving bell. The bell would be his first destination. Without stopping, he pinched his nose and blew against his closed lips to equalize the pressure building up in his body. The water was dark blue now, and he could see the diving bell, only a few feet away. In just under three minutes, Flynn had successfully completed the first phase of his dive to the ocean bed. The bell was his little safe haven. He dove under it, and his head popped up in the bell’s air bubble.

  Flynn took a deep breath. The air was good enough to replenish his oxygen intake. He anchored his feet to the small platform, attached to the bottom of the bell, and rummaged inside his satchel. He found the flashlight, tightly sealed and secured with duct tape, felt for the switch under the plastic wrap and pressed it. A beam of bright light illuminated the bell, making its dome glow like a lantern in the murkiness of the water outside. Flynn fastened the flashlight to the strap of his goggles, took a few short breaths and swam out of the bell. This was the second phase of his dive, and soon, the beam of his light was bouncing off the submerged buildings of the city below.

  It was always an eerie sight, serene and hauntingly beautiful. Flynn swam down towards a mass of twisted metal, crusted with barnacles, covering the length of what was once a suburban Queens’ street. There were cars, trucks and buses, piled on top of each other, having found and settled into their final resting place after the Flood. Flynn dove under the tangled power cables, still hanging from tilted electricity poles, and made his way through the rusty cab of a large overturned truck. He spotted the human remains, lying in a heap on the driver’s seat. The bones were polished clean by the fish and crabs. Flynn knew that skeletons were everywhere when he went on such deep dives… especially in the old residential areas. Nothing out of the ordinary, he thought. The ocean bed around the Archipelago was one big cemetery… Flynn inspected quickly the remains for anything worth scavenging… Sometimes, he would find a watch or a piece of jewelry, a golden tooth crown, a pair of shoes or an item of clothing that could still be worn…the kind of stuff he could easily trade on the Black Market…This time, he found nothing of value in the cab and swam on toward his final destination.

  As expected, and without much trouble, his flashlight located the pharmacy’s sign from the day before. Flynn dived through a gap in the wall and swam straight for the row of silt covered cabinets at the back of the shop. His hand wiped the black slime away, revealing the cabinets’ glass doors. Behind them were shelves stacked with vacuum-packed medicine. Flynn pulled at one of the doors, but it was sealed shut by the thick crust of a dozen giant clams. Not wasting any time, he rotated his arms, backed up and kicked the glass with his heel. The glass cracked and caved in a little. He gave it another kick and it imploded. Water rushed in, sweeping the packages into a frothy whirlpool. Avoiding the sharp pieces of glass, Flynn grabbed at the floating packs, and began to stuff them in his sack. He had practiced these moves many times. As always, Flynn was fast and efficient.

  Halfway through his scavenging run, Flynn stopped, turned and swam away. He had been holding his breath for about three and a half minutes, and he knew it was time to head back to the diving bell for some more air. A few moments later, he was inside the bell’s dome and immediately noticed that the air in the capsule had become stuffy… It needed more oxygen… Flynn reached up and pulled on the piece of rope, hanging above his head. Up on the raft, the rattle would tell Madison that she needed to pump him some more fresh air. They had practiced the drill a hundred times that day, so Fl
ynn had no reason to worry. He headed straight down to the pharmacy again, without giving the oxygen pump a second thought.

  Back at the cabinets, he gathered the remaining floating packs, took one last look around, and his eyes fell on an overturned vending machine. It was lying on the floor, half-buried in sea shells and kelp weeds. With its backside cracked open, there were a few soda cans that had spilled out, and Flynn collected them quickly in his sack. He then reached inside the vending machine, hoping to find some more of its valuable stash. As his hand closed over a can, Flynn suddenly felt an electrical current run through his whole body. His hand shot back out of the crack, followed by a huge eel. Its jaws snapped shut, inches from Flynn's fingers. Instantly, the eel coiled back into the vending machine, its mouth wide open, waiting to strike again. For a split second Flynn thought about killing the eel and taking it home for dinner, but then decided to let the creature live… It would have been too risky! He was now dangerously close to running out of oxygen again. It was time for Flynn to turn around and swim back to the bell.

  Once inside, Flynn realized that the air had become much worse than before. “What’s she doing up there!” he shouted, grabbing for the rope. He gave it a sharp tug, then rested his feet on the bell’s platform and waited… A few moments passed. Nothing! No fresh air was coming down the hose. “C'mon Madison!” Flynn’s voice sounded hollow inside the little dome as he looked up in frustration… He was beginning to feel dizzy. The air inside the bell was now heavy with carbon dioxide.

  And then, the bell lurched violently, sending Flynn crashing into the wall behind him. If he had not grabbed hold of the hose, he would have slipped out of the bell and into the watery abyss below. What the hell was that? Flynn’s mind was now racing… Was it a seal… or a shark? Flynn shone his flashlight through the clear plastic wall into the darkness outside. He could see no farther than a few feet anyway... Seconds later, he felt another jolt, and then to Flynn’s surprise, the diving bell began to move. This was all wrong, he thought, trying desperately to keep his balance. Something was dragging the bell slowly to the right with Flynn still inside it, and with very little air left for him to survive such a ride.

  Flynn knew he had to act fast. Taking one last quick breath, he dived out of the bell, and then following the hose, swam up as fast as he could. Soon he could see the rectangular outline of the Seeker above, but his raft was not alone… It was flanked by the silhouettes of two other vessels. Flynn wasn’t sure, but they looked like boats…He kicked his feet harder, and as he got closer to the surface, he saw that the boats had powerful propellers, churning away in the water… Suddenly, there was no longer any doubt in Flynn’s mind… the Seeker had two motor boats for company and they were Government boats!

  Usually, like most experienced divers, Flynn would scream during the last few feet before surfacing from a deep dive, in order to get all the air out of his lungs. This time, he held his breath and came up behind his raft, making sure he was as silent as he could possibly be. He forced himself to suppress the urge to take a deep breath, taking a few shallow ones instead. Then he grabbed hold of one of the tires at the back of the Seeker and slowly hoisted himself up, his head peeking an inch above the platform. There was no sign of Madison! The raft was deserted… the oxygen pump pedals stood abandoned. Flynn pulled himself up a little higher and saw the motor boats in front of him. The bigger of the two was the Fury. She was leisurely tugging the Seeker in her wake, and at her helm stood the familiar figure of Leo Van Zandt.

  TEN

  “Damn!” Flynn lowered himself stealthily back into the water, cursing his bad luck…He had taken a huge gamble by coming back to this spot. Tony had warned him to stay away, and he should have listened to him… His friend was right…Flynn had become too cocky and reckless for his own good. But it was too late to do anything about it ... He had no choice, but to face the Van Zandt boy.

  Grasping onto the tires and ropes which hung on the side of the Seeker, Flynn began to move carefully toward the front. Once there, he pulled out his knife, hesitated for a moment, then reached up and cut the tug rope. Suddenly, free from the weight of the Seeker, Leo’s boat jumped forward; made a wide U-turn and came to a stop, facing the raft. The other boat made the same maneuver, cutting off its engine. Flynn was standing now on the deck of the Seeker with the knife still in his hand.

  “Flynn!” Madison cried and jumped up in the Van Zandt boat. The two boys sitting beside her dragged her down.

  “So...” Leo Van Zandt slowly rose from his seat. “Our trespasser decided to show his sorry face, after all!” He chuckled, then pushed the throttle and moved his boat forward. Her prow bumped roughly into the Seeker, making Flynn stumble back. Regaining his balance, he glared at Leo, his knuckles white from gripping the knife so hard.

  The guards in the second boat rose immediately, cocking their guns, but Leo waved them down. “I told you, I'd be watching you, Perry boy!” said Leo. He then patted the pair of binoculars hanging round his neck. “You think you're smarter than me? Or just plain stupid?" he asked.

  There was no response from Flynn. He was trying not to stare at Leo’s binoculars… the exact same pair Leo had on him when he had nearly drowned at the Pier… So, Leo had recognized him, Flynn thought, and that could only mean more trouble.

  “What's your story this time?” Leo continued. “Fishing again?”

  “We were training...” replied Flynn, keeping his voice steady, “…for the Trials.”

  “Hah! And you think you'll make it to the Trials,” Leo scoffed. “After all your illegal activities here? You won’t be allowed to compete, scum boy!” Leo's smile had disappeared. “I see only one future job for you, Perry! The closest you'll ever get to scavenging is by picking garbage from the Junk Nets! Or even better ... join the Waste Crew on their stinking rafts!”

  Flynn tensed at the memory of the Waste Crew. The Junk Nets around the northern part of the Archipelago were there to catch any floating garbage from the ocean’s waters ... a slightly better option than the Waste Crew, but a horrible punishment, nevertheless. Flynn holstered his knife, suddenly feeling lightheaded. He wasn’t going to let Leo Van Zandt intimidate him, no matter what! If Tony had been there, he would have been shocked by the words Flynn was about to speak. Shocked and petrified, but Flynn didn’t care… “I definitely won’t be working the Junk Nets, or the Waste Crew!” he said slowly, holding his chin up in sheer defiance of the danger he was in. “I'm one of the best divers in town!”

  “Is that so?” Leo raised an eyebrow.

  “Yes! I don't think the Government would want to waste my skills on collecting garbage… that’s what the Greater Good Doctrine states…"

  “Enough!” Leo cut him off angrily. “It's not for you to say who or what the Government needs, scum boy!”

  “Well, it’s the truth...” Flynn took a step closer to Leo's boat. “Ask your father. Ask Duncan Roth.”

  The guards immediately raised their weapons, their muzzles pointing at him. There was a long, tense moment of silence. Leo and Flynn stood no more than a few feet apart, not taking their eyes off each other.

  “Tell you what, tough guy,” said Leo icily, “I'll make you an offer… A chance to get yourself out of this mess… and prove what a great diver you are.”

  “I'm listening.”

  “I want you to go down there, a straight dive, no bell, no extra air, and bring me ...”

  Leo scratched his chin, thinking. “What do we need, guys?” he asked, turning to look at his posse of friends with a wicked grin on his face.

  “Beer!” one of the boys shouted.

  “Any liquor stores down below, Perry?” asked Leo. “I believe you know the area well by now.”

  Flynn gave a slight nod.

  “Well, that's your challenge, then. Bring up some beer… You do that, and I promise I won't report you… I’ll forget we met here, and you’ll get your chance to compete in the Trials.”

  “Why should I trust you?”r />
  “Why indeed?” Leo drawled. “For starters, you don't have much of a choice! And because I don't believe you can do it… So, it's a pretty safe bet on my side.”

  Flynn stared at Leo for a long moment. A hint of a smile appeared on his lips.

  “All right, I'll do it!” he said.

  “Flynn! No!” Madison shouted and tried to get up again from her seat. “Are you crazy? You'll get yourself killed!” She struggled to break free, but the boys held her down.

  Leo threw a quick glance at her then turned to Flynn and said, “Deal?”

  “Deal,” Flynn replied as he snapped his goggles over his eyes and stepped to the edge of the raft.

  “Don't listen to him!” Madison cried. “It's not worth it! You hear me...”

  Flynn didn't hear her. He had already gone overboard and was on a dive which Madison knew was impossible to survive.

  Leo's eyes lingered over the ripples that Flynn's body had left on the surface of the water. There was no mistake, he thought… It was him! Flynn Perry was the boy who had made him look like a fool… It was the same kid who had humiliated him in front of so many people at the Pier. Back then, Leo had vowed to have his revenge… But the boy had simply vanished into the slums on the Lower Side. It had taken a long time for their paths to cross again, to put a name to the face…At first, when Leo had caught the Seeker outside the zone, he had not recognized who Flynn Perry was…But later that day, while lying in his hot bathtub, it had suddenly hit him… That’s why the Perry boy had looked so familiar… Well, Leo had finally found the bastard… And he was extremely pleased with himself.