Daybreak

by Nicole Fox

  I grab Dmitry’s hand and pull him gently to a seated position. He winces, but the color in his face is already better. When he looks at me, his blue eyes are clear, and I can see that he’s pulling through the pain and rebounding.

  “Get him something to eat.” I hear Sevastian jump into action and root around in the supplies. He returns with a granola bar.

  “That’s for the trip,” Dmitry says, trying to wave it away.

  I peel back the foil and force it into his hand. “A trip you won’t be conscious for if you don’t eat something.”

  He sighs but does as I say. While he eats, I find a body-wrap bandage and begin winding it around his midsection tightly. I also use the scissors from the kit to cut a strip of blanket to wedge between the layers to try and contain any additional bleeding.

  By the time I’m done, his entire midsection is wrapped and bandaged like a mummy, but he’s able to stand up without stumbling, so I count it as a win.

  “Enough about me,” he says. “We have to go.”

  Sevastian and I help Dmitry into the boat, despite his protestations while Sadie loads the girls inside.

  Tati runs to Dmitry the moment she’s inside and wraps her arms around his midsection. I see the flash of pain in his eyes as she squeezes his wound, but he doesn’t say anything. Instead, he hugs her close and rests his cheek on her head.

  “You next,” Sevastian says, holding out a hand to help me inside. I accept and join my family.

  Sadie hands me Olivia, who is still fast asleep in a tangle of blankets. She looks more like a human burrito than a toddler.

  “Do you need any help?” Sadie asks Sevastian, moving to the side of the boat.

  He glances up at her and then away quickly, shaking his head. “I just need to start the process and then I’ll be able to jump in.”

  She smiles and then sits down, hands folded in her lap patiently.

  Overall, the entire process is very … calm. I imagined we would be desperately trying to get the boat in the water while guards fired at us and tried to reel the boat back in. I imagined Elena and Devon would be running towards us just as we began to lower down the side of the ship.

  Instead, the corner of the deck we’re on is quiet and everyone seems at ease. Or at least, as much as they can be under the circumstances.

  Then, there is a loud metallic crack.

  “Fuck!”

  We all turn to Sevastian who is holding a rusted metal gear, broken off in his hand. He drops to his knees and tries to fit the piece back into the machinery, but it clatters to the deck again. He stares at it helplessly for a moment before looking up at us.

  “What the fuck was that for?” Dmitry asks.

  “The lowering mechanism,” he says. “It’s what allows the boats to drop all the way into the water unmanned. Without it, someone will have to manually lower it down.”

  An obstacle. That’s all this is. A small obstacle. We can overcome it.

  “Then we’ll take a different boat.” I quickly start pulling the provisions we loaded out of the storage bins. “We can move all of the supplies and be out of here in a few minutes.”

  Dmitry looks disappointed, but there isn’t another option, so he nods. “Everyone, grab something.”

  I start handing armfuls of things to everyone, including the girls, but before we can move anything, a person rounds the nearest corner and slams to a stop.

  “Annika?” I blink, surprised to see her here. After she ran off earlier, I assumed she’d be caught and face the same fate as Larissa’s mother.

  Her eyes are wide as she takes in our crew. Larissa reaches out for the woman who has become her surrogate mother over the last few weeks, but Annika stares at her blankly like she doesn’t even know her.

  “Annika,” I say more gently. “You can come with us. We’re escaping. Come with us, please.”

  She shakes her head, and I drop the supplies I’m holding and climb out of the boat. Like a cornered animal, she begins to back away. I can see that she wants to run again.

  “Courtney,” Dmitry warns.

  I wave him away over my shoulder. Annika is here in part because of him. I don’t want to leave without her. I want to right the wrong if possible.

  I draw closer to Annika, making up more ground than she’s retreating. I just need to get close enough to grab her, to keep her from running.

  Suddenly, Annika bolts to her left, headed for the side deck that runs the length of the ship. I bolt with her, cutting off her escape.

  “I know you are upset with Dmitry,” I say. “And I know that is an understatement. You blame him for you being here, but if you let us, we’ll get you out.”

  “Ha!” she screams in my face. “You think you’re going to escape? Please. You’ll die in the open water.”

  I hear Larissa release a scared sob behind me and take another step towards Annika. She’s too worked up to realize, so she doesn’t back away. I take another step and grab her wrist, holding her as tightly as I can without alarming her.

  “And you’ll die on this ship,” I say. “The people here will kill you or sell you. We are giving you the opportunity for freedom.”

  Annika stares at me, and I don’t see the woman I spoke with in the crate. The cool gaze through which she usually viewed the world has been replaced with a kind of wide-eyed craziness. Something inside of her is broken, and I’m not sure anything I say will fix it.

  “There is no freedom from what I’ve seen. From what I’ve been through.” She looks over my shoulder at Dmitry, her eyes narrowing. “My life has been decided by men like him for way too long, and it’s time for me to make my own decisions.”

  “Decide to come with us,” I beg. “I know you don’t like Dmitry. For good reason. But he’s not an evil man. He did what he thought he had to do to save his family. You can be part of that family. You can come with us. We will help you start over. Please, Annika.”

  Annika tips her head to the side in contemplation and looks at me as though she’s trying to decide. Then, she slowly slips her hand from my grip.

  I think she’s choosing to stay. I think she’s choosing to go with us, but just as I let go, she throws back her head and screams.

  “They are here. Right here. The trespassers are here. Get them.”

  Her shouts reverberate off the metal ship, echoing into the vast expanse of water and sky, but I know someone on the ship will hear her. Our quiet little corner of the ship will soon be overrun with guards. We have to get out of here.

  Dmitry curses behind me and jumps up to try and quiet Annika, but before he can even get out of the boat, Annika runs to the edge and crawls over the railing, standing on the ledge.

  I’m too horrified to move even though Sevastian is calling my name, beckoning for me to get in the boat. I stand perfectly still, watching Annika as she looks over her shoulder at me and smiles.

  “I am starting over,” she says.

  Then, like a mirage, she disappears from view.

  Sevastian grabs my arm and hauls me towards the boat, practically throwing me inside, and it isn’t until I hear the faint splash below that I realize Annika jumped into the water.

  Suddenly, the boat starts to move. It’s a jerky crawl over the same railing Annika just jumped from.

  “Sevastian, no,” Dmitry says, grabbing his side and standing up. “You won’t be able to get in. We have to move to a new boat.”

  Sevastian shakes his head just as loud voices grow closer. “There isn’t time.”

  “They’ll kill you,” he says, a pained look on his face I’ve rarely seen before. “They’ll kill you for helping us.”

  Sevastian shrugs and smiles sadly. “I’ve cheated death before. Maybe I’ll get lucky again.”

  He won’t. We all know that. Yet, unless we all want to stay and die, there isn’t another choice. Someone has to stay on deck and lower us down. That’s the only way.

  Sevastian gives one final nod and then uses both hands to speed up the proce
ss. He groans as he exerts himself, turning the dial and lowering the boat of women, children, and an injured man into the water.

  We move over the edge of the ship and begin rappelling down the side, two taut coils of rope snaking from our boat up to the ship.

  Dmitry stands up as we lower down, trying to see what is happening on the deck. I ensure Olivia and Tati are safe with Sadie and do the same.

  Just as I stand up, a crowd of guards enters the space. Led by the Tiger.

  I don’t know whether he escaped the bonds I tied on him or whether he was freed by someone, but he’s loose and coming for us. I should have killed him.

  Dmitry pulls out a gun he had stowed at his hip and begins firing. Sevastian jumps in surprise and then begins working even faster. He knows he doesn’t have much time left. Dmitry will only be able to hold them off for a few seconds at most.

  One of the guards goes down as he’s shot, grabbing his shoulder and falling sideways, but the Tiger presses on, undeterred by the bullets flying. Then, we’re out of sight.

  As the boat gets lower, it begins moving faster. Sevastian needs to turn the handle, but gravity is doing a lot of the work. The ropes want to break free of the gears. They want to drop us into the water.

  So rapidly, we move down the side of the ship. Then, when the boat is about ten feet from the water, we stop.

  “Shit, shit, shit,” Dmitry mumbles. He reaches out and grabs my hand, but doesn’t take his eyes off the railing of the ship.

  Then, suddenly, Sevastian is visible.

  It looks like he’s looking over the side at us, but I realize that he’s being held there. The Tiger is just over his shoulder, pinning him to the railing.

  He has been overtaken.

  “What are we going to do?” The water is dark beneath us. It looks close, but I can’t tell if that is an illusion or not.

  Dmitry stares up at where Sevastian is fighting. He has broken free of the Tiger’s hold, and we can just see the top of his head as he fights off the guards, but things don’t look good.

  For one horrified moment, I wonder whether he’s going to jump over the railing the way Annika did.

  If he does, we might be able to pull him into the boat and save him, though the fall might kill him. Even if it doesn’t, I’m not sure we’ll be able to get our own boat in the water. If Sevastian jumps to escape the guards, they will likely turn their attention to the rescue boat and begin reeling us in.

  “We have to cut it free,” I say, turning to dig through our supplies.

  “We’re too high.” Dmitry looks over the railing, staring down into the water.

  I pull open a leather pouch and realize it’s Sevastian’s personal weapon stash. Inside is a gun, a knife, and a switch blade. I pull out the knife and the blade and hand the blade to Dmitry.

  “Let’s hope you’re wrong,” I say, moving to the rope at the back of the boat.

  “The boat could overturn,” he says. At the same time, we both glance at our girls. Tati is shivering next to Sadie, and Olivia is still blissfully asleep. Though, I assume she won’t be for long.

  I kneel down and reach back into the supplies. Inside is an inflatable raft. A last-ditch rescue option in case everything else fails. It’s a tightly bound rectangle with a cord on one side. The instructions say “Pull and stand back.”

  “I’ll keep this,” I say, holding it up. “If the boat overturns, we’ll inflate this and make for shore.”

  “Will we all fit?” Sadie asks.

  I shrug. “Do we have another option?”

  A shot rings out above us followed by a scream of pain. I can’t tell whether it’s Sevastian or one of the guards, but either way, things are escalating on deck. We don’t have time to argue anymore.

  Dmitry realizes this, too.

  He shakes his head. “We don’t have another option. Let’s do it.”

  I wrap the life-raft string around my life vest, making sure it’s secure, and I won’t lose it in the fall. Then, I turn to Sadie. “Do you have the girls?”

  She checks all of their life vests and then hugs Olivia to her chest. “I have them. I’ll keep them safe.”

  I know she means what she’s saying, but I also know things could easily go wrong. The boat could flip over and send Sadie sinking to the bottom. She could lose hold of Olivia in the chaos, and she could be lost to the dark water. Same with Tati or Larissa.

  There are a million ways for things to go wrong and only one way for them to go right. I cling to that one in a million and move to the rope at the back of the boat.

  Dmitry positions himself at the front. He winks at me, and then we both begin to cut at the rope.

  It’s a blended, reinforced rope—strong enough to hold up a boat full of people—so it takes several slices before I see any tearing.

  Another shot rings out on the deck above, and I begin cutting with renewed force.

  “I’m halfway through,” Dmitry calls.

  I yelp and tell him to wait for me to catch up.

  I grit my teeth and slice carefully across the strands. Slowly, they begin to unwind. As they do, my heart rate increases. I feel like my chest is filled with bees, like an entire angry colony is buzzing away inside my chest.

  “Okay,” I say. “Keep going.”

  Dmitry nods and we both start cutting again. After only a few seconds, the boat is wrenched upward in one shaky tug. I scream in surprise and grab the edge of the boat to keep from falling backward. When I look up, I see the Tiger looking down at us. The only light comes from the deck over his head, so he’s mostly in shadow, but I would swear he’s smiling.

  “Faster,” Dmitry instructs, turning back to his own rope. “They’re reeling us in.”

  The boat shakes again, and I realize we’re moving up in slow but steady inches. Two, four, six. Soon, we really will be too high to drop into the water safely.

  I cut with renewed vigor, gritting my teeth until I’m sure I’ll be left with nothing but gums. As I get through the rope it seems to cut easier. Like the strands are breaking willingly, ready to drop their heavy load.

  “I’m almost through,” I say. “Just one or two more cuts.”

  “Same,” Dmitry says, looking over at me.

  One or two more cuts until our fate is decided. Until we know whether this plan is a disaster or a success.

  We stare at one another for a second, but then the boat is pulled upward yet again. Eight inches.

  We don’t have time to be scared.

  I mouth three, two … When I get to one, Dmitry and I both turn away and cut.

  I’m surprised by how easily my knife cuts through the rope now. Like butter. Like it’s nothing.

  I’m looking at the rope holding us up and then, suddenly, I’m not.

  There isn’t time to understand what is happening or what it means as the side of the ship races past my face.

  I’m still standing up when we hit the water, and the force of it buckles my knees and sends me falling to the floor of the boat. Water splashes over the side, filling the boat up to an inch. Sadie is screaming, Olivia is crying, and Dmitry is shouting to see if everyone is okay.

  And that is when I realize …

  We are all okay.

  The boat is in one piece. The guards are cursing and yelling above our heads, but we’re no longer strapped to the ship.

  We are in the water, floating away from the ship, and we survived.

  Well, almost.

  Sevastian is still on board, but he sacrificed himself for us. Without him, we’d all be dead.

  Lying on the floor of the boat, cold and wet and shaken, I say a silent prayer of thanks to him for his sacrifice. Then, I turn and grab my girls, holding them close to my chest.

  When Dmitry wraps his arms around us, I finally let myself truly believe we will make it home.

  18

  Dmitry

  I allow myself a moment to hug my family before I grab the oars at the front of the boat and begin to row.

>   “You’ll hurt yourself,” Courtney says, laying a hand on my shoulder. “You shouldn’t be doing any physical labor.”

  But I can still hear the voices of the Tiger and the other guards on the ship above us. We don’t know if they’ll get in a boat and come after us or if they’ll start shooting into the water. We need to get away as fast as possible.

  “I’ll be okay,” I tell her, though I can already feel my side aching. “I’ll only row for a little while. Then we can switch.”

  She opens her mouth to argue, but then Olivia’s crying reaches new heights.

  “Get Olivia,” I say gently. “I’m okay.”

  Courtney sighs and grabs Olivia, laying her over her shoulder and patting her back. Sadie hugs Tati and Larissa, keeping them close, though Larissa appears to be in much worse shape than Tati. Tears and snot run down her face, and she’s beside herself in fear.

  Tati seems blank. Unaffected, though I know she isn’t. I know this is just another layer of trauma over her already difficult life.

  I did this to all of them.

  The only person in the boat who isn’t here because of me is Larissa. That I know of.

  I row long enough that my body feels numb. My arms are moving on reflex only, and even the pain in my side is gone.

  Courtney has pulled out blankets for all of the girls and has them bundled tightly. She and Sadie bailed out as much of the water as they could on the floor of the boat, but it’s still damp, and the bottoms of everyone’s pants and blankets are sopping up water. Still, they are managing to sleep, exhaustion having caught up with them after the adrenaline rush of our escape.

  “Let me take over,” Courtney says, wrapping her hand around the oar and tugging lightly.

  I’m too tired to argue. We are far enough away from the ship now that we aren’t in imminent danger of being followed. If they were going to come for us, they would have by now, and there is no sign of anyone following behind us.

  As soon as I stop rowing and my body is able to relax, my arm around Tati, my mind takes over and begins to race. I realize that Sevastian is gone.

  Dead.

  It seems obvious. Of course he’s dead. Still, I hadn’t let myself dwell on it. In my mind, he was still somewhere on the ship fighting off the guards. Because I didn’t see him die, I didn’t let myself play out the rest of the story. The part where he was overpowered by the guards and executed for his role in our escape.