Diver's Heart

by K. A Knight

  I shake my head, searching for another option. Any option, anything.

  The others begin climbing, racing up the wall to reach us. Me? I grab my axe, and with a strength I didn’t know I had, I yank. It slides out, and I turn and start to climb down. Michael attempts to stop me, but I ignore him. When I reach him, I swipe at the creatures as they come near us, but they land on him and a scream leaves his throat.

  The guys have nearly joined us now, and I see Riggs being attacked, trying to climb as he soundlessly fends them off. His face is locked in concentration as he tries to get to me, to help, even when he’s being assaulted. One almost pulls him off the wall, so I make a split-second decision.

  I throw my axe.

  It sails through the air, and Riggs ducks into the ice as it hits the monster and sends it flying. He looks up, his eyes meeting mine. He knows I just sacrificed my weapon to save him.

  I have to climb a bit to escape one’s claws, but then I look down at Michael. Everything’s happening so fast, it’s chaos. He meets my gaze as yet more converge on him. There are too many to fight. My heart clenches. My usually calm, collected mind can’t see a way out of this.

  I don’t know how to help, but he does.

  He holds my gaze, and I see the acceptance in his eyes, the love and understanding. He nods at me, smiling widely for a moment, and my lips part, trying to stop whatever he’s going to do.

  He opens his mouth and screams.

  The guys quickly climb around him, racing past me, and try to drag me away, but I stay in place, even as they search for a way forward. I stare as all of the monsters converge on him, covering him, and he still screams, drawing as many as he can. He’s giving us a way out, a chance.

  Tears drip down my face, my own screams and shouts trapped in my throat as I hear them ripping into him. A muffled cry escapes me, and one of them lifts its head before it starts to climb towards me. My eyes widen as I look up, but then it’s there, clawing into my ankle just above Michael.

  I kick at it, trying to stay on the wall. For a moment, I see Michael’s bloodied, cut up face appear in the mass, and then his hand shoots out and grabs the monster.

  His eyes connect with mine.

  “I love you, Minnow! Let me save you the way I couldn’t save my family. Go! Get out of here! I love you!” His bellow is filled with agony, and then he unclips and throws himself backwards.

  “No!” I whisper.

  My hand goes out as my own choked scream catches in my throat. I watch brokenly as he falls through the air, his body weightless and covered in monsters. He doesn’t fight, he doesn’t try to stop his descent, he just takes as many with him as he can.

  He knew he was dying, he knew he was going to slow us down, and he knew we needed a way out. So Michael did what he always does best—he protected me. I turn, unable to watch anymore as I hear them ripping him to pieces, seeing the blood mist in the air. I press my face against the wall, stifling my sobs, my vision blurred from tears as my heart shatters and plummets with him.

  I want to scream, to kill them, but I’m trapped here.

  I hear a splash as Michael hits the water.

  “Climb!” someone hisses, and I look up to see them all waiting for me. Kalen is about to come back down, so I get my ass moving. My heart is broken, my body is shaking, and my throat is clogged with pain, but I won’t dishonour his sacrifice by remaining frozen.

  I climb, even when I can’t feel or see, until a hand grips mine and pulls me over the edge and into their waiting arms. I sob into their chests until I can’t take it anymore. I can’t breathe, can’t think. We sit there, listening to the water and the screeches, and when I can inhale, I lift my head.

  I peer over the edge at the bloodied, swirling water.

  He’s gone.

  Michael’s dead.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Kalen

  I watch Peyton. She’s trembling from her sobs, and her eyes are overflowing with tears. She stares down at the water as it bubbles, but I pull her back, turn her head, and rest it against my chest.

  I meet Tyler’s eyes over her head. He’s unsure, hurt, and worried for her, but I know loss, I know grief—maybe that’s why Peyton and I were always drawn to each other—so he lets me handle it, even as he leans in and kisses her shoulder.

  “I love you, baby. I’m going to find a way out, take as long as you need,” he whispers, staying quiet in case the creatures hear us. He takes Fin, whose lips are tilted down, and he hugs Peyton before following after Tyler.

  Riggs moves closer, stroking her back and shoulders as her hands fist my suit. Her face is pressed against my chest to muffle her sobs. Even now in her pain, she’s conscious of her surroundings, trying to protect us.

  “Shh, princess,” I whisper into her hair, holding her close. “I’ve got you, let it out.”

  So she does. We sit there silently as she weeps. Riggs holds her too, and she breaks between us. My eyes go from her to our surroundings, guarding her. Eventually, she lifts her head. Her eyes are red and still leaking, her nose is pink, and her lips are parted.

  I lean in and cup her cheeks before resting my forehead against hers. I wish I could make it better, that I could change what happened and take it back. I want to give her the words she needs, but I’m not Fin or Tyler. She smiles sadly and closes her eyes.

  “We need to get moving,” she murmurs brokenly.

  “It can wait,” Riggs says.

  “No,” she whispers and winces at how loud it was. “He told us to survive, and he’s right. I’ll have time to grieve when we get out of here. I’m not letting him…die” —she stumbles over the word— “for nothing. We need to get out of here.”

  Tyler and Fin return just then, kneeling next to her. Fin brushes back her hair and tells her he loves her, while Tyler looks her over and then kisses her. “I’m sorry, baby, but you’re right—we have a way out. Can you move?”

  She nods and begins to get to her feet, so we all jump up and help her. She scrubs at her face, pushes her hair back, and straightens her shoulders, but there’s a fractured way to how she carries herself. “Let’s go.”

  We share a look, knowing we all need to keep an eye on her. There is no point escaping this place if our girl isn’t okay. She is all that matters, always.

  We silently help pack her gear as well as ours and force her to drink some water. I look her over as we go. Her ankle has some scrapes, but other than that, she’s okay, thank fuck. I keep her hand in mine as Tyler goes first, then us, then Riggs and Fin. They protect our backs, their knives out as she holds onto me. Her expression is stern and strong, but her hand trembles slightly in mine. I squeeze it, giving her my own strength.

  Giving her whatever she needs.

  She glances back, swallows, and mouths, “Thank you.”

  “I love you,” I mouth in response, and she smiles faintly before turning forward and following Tyler through the narrow passage he found—guiding us away from Michael and the memory of his death that she will never forget.

  My girl has lost so much—her mum, her dad, and then the man who took her in and made her family—but she will never lose us, not ever again.

  We are apex predators for life, and she is our queen.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Peyton

  I can’t even fathom my life without Michael. Just thinking his name makes my breath hitch. I want to break down, to fall to my knees and rage at how unfair it all is, to scream and let it all out, but I can’t, so I trap my grief in my throat to protect us.

  So I don’t lose anyone else I love.

  It rots me from the inside out, until my breaths are short and sharp, and each step forward is a struggle. The only thing keeping me going is those behind and in front of me. My men, my family. I have to survive and hold it together for them. Once we are free of this nightmare, of this fucking dive, I can break. Until then, I have to push Mi—him to the back of my mind. I have to focus on the next moment, the next breath, th
e next step until it becomes slightly easier.

  The tunnel twists and turns and seems to be going back down. I can feel their worry that it’s just a maze taking us around in circles, but we’ve come this far. We can’t go back, we’ve lost too much, we have to keep moving until we find a way out. Tyler doesn’t stop, he keeps going, even as we grow increasingly tired and begin to lose hope.

  We have to break for water and food, and we stay silent the whole time. Kalen watches the way we came, while Tyler guards the way we are going. If we don’t get free soon, we’ll run out of supplies. Our situation is getting more and more dire by the hour. I know they will be working to get us out from up top, but we are too deep. By the time they got through the collapse and network of tunnels—if they survived the monsters—we would be dead.

  Part of me hopes they don’t come. I can’t stand the idea of them burrowing into this cave and finding what we did. There would just be more death.

  “Ready?” Fin whispers, and I nod, packing my bag up. When I stand, I stumble, feeling cold and weary, not to mention the shock and grief is taking its toll. I need rest, but we don’t have time. He watches me with concern, but I wave him off.

  “I’m okay, let’s keep going,” I mumble. When I look up after donning my equipment, they are all staring at me, so I narrow my eyes in irritation. “I’m not lying, move,” I order.

  Tyler nods but sends a look over my head, and I know he’s telling them to keep an eye on me. It annoys me, so I push past him and take point. I don’t need babysitting, even if they are just trying to look after me. I just want to get out of this fucking cave.

  I keep moving, even as he catches up and lets me lead, probably realising I need to or I might lose my mind.

  We walk for another few hours, barely speaking, until I hear screeching. We can’t go back, but if we go forward, the monsters will be there. Tyler passes me a knife, and with a determined clench of my teeth, I slowly step forward, lifting my feet and setting them down softly.

  After another few minutes, the tunnel ends in another cavern, but this one is different. It’s huge. I can barely see the ceiling, there’s no wall or water that I can see from here, and it’s filled with those bastards and their kills.

  Skeletons litter the floor as they hang from the ceiling and stalactites, nesting on the ground and outcroppings. They cover nearly every inch of the space, and where they don’t, old, grey dirty bones stick up. Whether they’re from animals or people, I don’t know.

  I just stare, unsure what to do or where to go.

  Then I see it.

  Light.

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Riggs

  I stop, wide-eyed, as I scan the room. Numbers pop into my head as I estimate the size, height, diameter, and even the amount of kills it must have taken to fill a cavern like this. None of that’s helpful though. Peyton turns slightly, careful not to move or scrape the rocks underfoot, and points. I follow her finger and see the spark of light in the back right corner. It could be a trick, it happens sometimes in caves, but we can’t risk that it’s not. That could be our only chance out of here.

  Everyone is watching me, waiting to see if I’ll have a solution.

  How do we get across the floor? It will make too much noise. There isn’t a path at all. So if we can’t take the floor…we take the walls. The ceiling is filled with them, but the walls aren’t. Along the sharp outcropping and walls, however, are foot and handholds. If we can somehow climb as quietly as possible, we have a chance to reach that opening and get out of this monster-ridden cave.

  There’s a soft dripping of water to the left, and a slow-moving stream coming in from another opening. The tinkle and noise from those should cover our breathing and some movements, so as long as we remain as quiet as possible and use hand gestures, we may just make it.

  It’s a long shot, even for me, but we have no other choice. Numbers and statistics are good for evaluating, but even I know that sometimes with diving and cave exploring, you have to throw the odds to the wind and just go for it.

  Movement is life.

  I turn my head and start to mouth the plan to them, gesturing. Peyton frowns, even Kalen seems against it, but I narrow my eyes on them. “It’s the only way,” I mouth. “Floor is death, ceiling is death.”

  Peyton looks across the room, but her eyes harden, and then she turns back to me with a nod, clearly seeing what I’m going for. She slowly reaches down and into her pocket to dust her hands, but Fin stops her and sluggishly moves past her, clearly intent on going first to protect her, to protect us.

  He’s fast and quiet, but Peyton is the better climber—except we all know she isn’t going first again after what just happened. Instead, she goes second, Tyler goes third, then me, and finally Kalen. He’s the biggest and most likely to pull off any loose rock, so although it’s brutal, he knows he has to give us as much time in front as we can get.

  Everyone is nervous. Me? I’m afraid, but being a diver, I know how to conquer that and use it to help me. Fear can stop you if you let it, but when you channel it, you become unstoppable. It’s something we learned early on, and right now, we all need to remember it.

  Knowing this could be the end, we huddle with our heads close together and our hands out, like we did on our first dive. Back then, the biggest thing we had to worry about was standing out as a new company, about having enough work for our expenses, but now it’s about our lives, about survival. Any misstep, any mistake, and we could die.

  But we do what we always do, work smart, fast, and together to get the job done.

  The thing that comes with being reckless, with fearlessness, is that it makes you beyond powerful. Fin has that, and as we break away, he doesn’t hesitate to step out onto the ledge and press to the wall. The tiny bits of rock used as footholds drop a bit but not much. He doesn’t spare them a glance, his demeanour calm but determined. He’s always been that way, there was nothing he couldn’t face, not until Peyton anyway. She showed him what true fear was, love too, and now he stays alive by reducing his risks to ensure he will be there for her forever.

  Now, though, we need the man who swung one-handed over the edge of a sixty-foot drop. Who swam with great white sharks without a cage. Who once fought a croc and dove into eel infested waters to retrieve a necklace Peyton dropped. We need that version of him, and I see him emerging in his eyes as he reaches across the darkened wall for the next handhold.

  Peyton steps to the edge and waits until he swings his leg forward, perching on a tiny little ledge with one hand gripping the rock as he searches for the next step. Giving us a smile, she moves out onto the wall, and they slowly start to move across it, stopping every now and then to make sure they are on the right path as she silently points sections out. By the time Kalen is on the wall, they are at least four moves ahead of us. At one point, they have to hang from just a handhold with their fingers and inch across to another foothold. We have to go up diagonally to avoid slippery areas and loud places. All the while, my back burns from having it towards those creatures, knowing they could swoop in at any given moment.

  We are exposed.

  Peyton stops, and I watch as she glances at us. She taps Fin on the shoulder, leans in, whispers something to him, and then takes a step back. Fin leaps across an opening, hitting the wall with a soft thud to grab onto the next hold. We all freeze, looking over our shoulders to see if they heard, but the noise of the water covered it, thank fuck.

  With a deep breath, she does the same, and again, we wait.

  It’s slow going, and when I’m across, we hear a tiny squeak. We stop, waiting until they settle down again while Fin climbs higher, too close to the ceiling, but it’s the only other ledge. Peyton follows and then descends again. I do the same, and Tyler waits until we are across to make a move, not wanting to spook or dislodge them. He hits the leap and quickly climbs up and down next to her. Kalen is next. His thud is the loudest, and he freezes, his hand going to his knife while I shake my head. />
  There’s some flapping of wings, but they don’t seem to know we are here. We keep moving, listening to the sounds of water dripping and their quiet squawks. Eventually, we make it about halfway around the room, and we’re settling into a rhythm, thinking we have got this.

  You can prepare for everything, think through every possibility, and come up with solutions…but something can still go wrong.

  And with our luck, it does.

  Tyler reaches up for a hold to swing onto the gap between the tiny ledges, but the rock rips from the wall. His hand drops, and he catches himself before he falls into the water, but he can’t stop the rock, which plunges into the water with an audible smack.

  We all freeze, pressing against the wall as we hold our breaths.

  Then they wake up.

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Peyton

  Kalen turns, hanging one-handed as we watch them flap their wings, flying into the air. Some drop, landing on the rocks and water with a shriek, and search for the source of the sound. Tyler looks over at me sadly.

  “Go,” he mouths as they soar straight for him, following the echo. Holding my gaze, he lets go and drops back, flipping to land on the rock below and pulling a knife. He holds it with the blade angled across his hand and crouches, waiting for them. Fin tries to grab me, to drag me with him, but I’m having none of it. I won’t leave someone else behind, no one else fucking dies.

  Not now, not when we are so close.

  Tyler is mine, my love, and I’m not abandoning him. If we die, we die together. I drop and land on my feet, stumbling slightly from the force. Tyler hears it, of course, and turns to glare at me. “Run! Go! Now!” he screams, ordering me around as he ducks and slashes up at the creature circling him, toying with him.