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A sudden lurch Soed She felt a jolt between her shoulder blades, and then a vicious cut as the Uzi’s strap sawed her throat Lifted by the current, her legs went nearly vertical She was still underwater--on the brink of drowning--but she wasn’t spinning anyht The Uzi The metal plate barrel must’ve jammed into the rocks If that was true, and the Uzi was locked tight and didn’t et et ainst the current, she hooked her left hand around the Uzi’s strap, still cutting into her neck, and reached back with her right All she grabbed ater She tried kicking herself closer Coht blister Her throat was doing that urk-urk-urk, battling with her to give it up already, stop fighting, let go Please, God, help ers scraped rock, and then there was the Uzi, jammed in a V-shaped cleft of stone above her head, not by an inch or two but at least two feet No way to get her head above water, not while she was tangled up in the carry strap and on her back She would have to flip completely over In order to do that, she would have to release the death grip she had on that carry strap and trust that she was strong enough to counter the pull of the current That she could hang on with only her right hand for those few seconds Otherwise, she would drown
She tried to let go of the carry strap; she really did But her left hand, frozen in a rictus of panic, refused to obey She couldn’t do this No way She wasn’t strong enough The water was going to get her One last second of blind fear and then she would have to mo ns ters breathe Her mouth would snap open and her life would be over Then there came a voice, a phantom of memory, so small and distant, barely audible over her terror: Coun or you’ll die Jump, Alex, jump--
But then, all at once, it was too late It was over, and even her father, as strong and sure as he was, couldn’t save her
What was left of her air boiled fro with it the thin, fiery ribbon of a final scream Her mind shi, letting go, hurtling up and away until she saw herself as if frolass: faraway, helpless in the chop and churn, red hair streaht at all, no planning whatsoever, her left hand slipped off the Uzi The greedy current instantly snatched her ankles If not for the huht shoulder, she’d have been torn free of the strap to swirl away and drown But it held, and then, soht hand was locked tight, and the Uzi held; her left hand found the weapon, and the Uzi held; and then she was surging up with a ainst the greater agony in her chest, because she had no air, she was out of air and tih, breaching the surface like a cluled aaahhhh, and that was all No ed, and she instantly sub on, hang on! A drill bit of fear cored straight into her heart As far as she could tell, the Uzi was locked tight With every shudder of the earth, however, the gun bucked like a bronco, and it was so far below the surface, she had to work for every breath
Another kick, another gulping razor of air, and then down she went again The burn in her chest was less, which was to say that her lungs weren’t on fire and herback into place But she couldn’t do this forever Although it felt like a century, she probably hadn’t been in the water ed clothes and boots were so heavy she , herher skin, leaching heat and the last of her will Another kick A sobbing breath There was an almost continual stream of stone: small rocks that bit her arms and nipped her scalp and drew blood, which the water washed away as soon as she suber chunks rained down, too, some so close she heard the whir and sploosh
Maybe try to rest sos calm down Which was almost funny, in a bizarre way Cal before then If she hadn’t needed the air, shefor the surface, she opened her mouth for a breath--
And that hen she realized, as she sucked in not air but water, that the tunnel was still filling, the water level rising--and fast
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No Flailing, she fell back with a splash Her left hand slipped froht, got her left hand around the Uzi, and surged up for a breath She only just h, she had to tip her head and still, water slopped over her chin to lick at her lower lip
Got to get out But how? She dropped beneath the surface again Fro, as if the earth was a shell that a giant was trying to crack An instant later, there was a dull boosh as another boulder bulleted into the water just off her right shoulder God, what if this tunnel broke up, or a wall collapsed? That ht happen, too, and then it would be like the Titanic It was that da air The sudden rush of water out of this tunnel and into an adjacent, dry cavern would be tooon then but be swept away to spin and drown in the dark
She held her breath as long as she could before struggling up for another precious sip of air She tried to think of what she could do to save herself, and came up empty Her only tools were the Uzi to which her hands were locked tight, the Glock 19 at the s While great for dirt or even chopping handholds in ice, the tanto was useless here The Glock was an option, but only if she wanted to go out with a bullet Could she risk butting the Uzi free, reseating it higher? Subain, she forced her eyes open The cold was a blowtorch against her corneas Couldn’t see a thing, not even her hands resting on the weapon Working blind, going by feel alone with nuers-- that was a nonstarter
No tools, then Just nuer snuffle of air High above, the tunnel seeone black Moon must’ve set But the space also felt dense andcrowded So the tunnel’s enie in a bottle And that was it, wasn’t it? Up was a dead end Probably just as well She truly did suck at cli
But life is precious and the body is stubborn, and so was she Dad is right You have to try Surfacing again, the peak of her nose just barely clearing, she pulled in another panicky breath Maybe twothat swiave her brief, bird’s-eye views of herself, waaay the hell down there Jump, Alex, jump Cliht, she let herself fall back Water closed over her head Then, gritting her teeth, she scissored her legs hard at the sa her hands as fast as she could, the right first and then the left, she went frorip to overhand Her elbows locked, and then she inging her left boot up so fast and hard and high, her hip joint shrieked She jammed rock, felt the jolt in her knee and thenup, locking her left leg as she straightened Her head broke the surface, followed by her chest and now her torso Panting, she hugged stone, balanced a quick second, then bent her right knee and repeated the process There was a white blink of pain in her ankle before the sturdy toe of her boot stubbed rock Sheonto her right foot, testing the joint, her knee Easy, easy, go slow, don’t push your luck She gradually relaxed, let her legshands Her ankle held, and her knee, too And so did the Uzi "Oh God" For the first tirated, she let herself enjoy a tiny squeak of triuht, there was a lot of distance to cover and, oh yes, all that rock jammed in the mouth of the tunnel besides Pain sparkled in her ankle, and her temples throbbed, a rapid puhpum-puhpum-puhpum in time with her pulse Water streamed from her hair and clothes Air stroked her cheeks, her neck, and she was starting to really shiver But she was standing, clutching razor-thin rock, precariously balanced on a thin ridge of metal as the tunnel shook and water bulled and sucked and eddied around her knees The shuddering was ers Between the water pounding and surging intoof the earth itself, the rock had to fatigue sooner or later She didn’t think she had oing, honey You can’t stay here" But, oh God, she was so scared A fit of tre, then trickling down her right cheek Don’t cry, come on, stop--
A sudden swoon swept her brain In her skull, the monster shimmied and twisted and stretched Beneath her hands, the rock seemed to evaporate as a black void opened in herwith the faint Not when I’ve made it this far
And then a hand spidered onto her shoulder
That touch snapped her back as crisp and sharp as a slap Shrieking, Alex flinched Her left leg shot off slickon a banana Her full weight dropped onto her battered right ankle She screaain, this time with pain Her vision purpled Off-balance, she scra stone Just as she was about to peel away, the hand on her shoulder grabbed a fistful of her parka and yanked her back She righted, blundering onto the precarious ledge of that Uzi
"No," she gasped, horrified, her heart a hard knot in her chest-- because now the pieces fell into place Everything fit: the slip-slides of her mind; the monster, so suddenly awakened; that sensation of a crowd and swarle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true">