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Michael and his friends continued to sink, slowly but steadily, the physics of the situation see to have vanished now that they’d decided what to do Down, down they went, ar

Michael reached out, tapped them both As he did, they each opened their eyes And then they were all staring at one another Michael knew that the fear on his face and in his eyes matched what he saw in his friends’ Terror They were about to do the one thing every human feared, no matter how brave

Drown

Michael pointed at histo show thes burned, begging him to take a breath If they didn’t psych out their bodies soon, they ht very well die of asphyxiation

Sarah nodded, and so did Bryson

It had been Michael’s idea, so he felt like he had to do it first Every molecule of his body screamed at him to shoot back to the surface, breathe in that rich air that filled the world above the ocean But he fought back With one last, desperate look at his friends, he opened his mouth and let the water rush in, then sucked it down his throat and into his lungs

There were a few seconds of sheer panic, his chest filled with agony and a wrenching need for air Spasms riddled his body, and his heart suddenly felt e how to beat He twisted left, then right, instinctively sucking again and again at the sea around hien fro the process, bubbles of air strea from their ht herush of cals filled with air His heart hole again, thu, if a little fast

The transition was instant, nothing like that of a newly surfaced , and he knehat had happened: his body and mind--safe and sound back in the VNS Coffin--had switched from the state of illusion within the Sleep to nore-of-death fantasy to all-syste like water The cold, the wet, the ocean pressing down on hione, replaced by open air Michael still felt buoyant, as if he were floating, and was still surrounded by lines of code, but he could breathe And each lungful of air felt like heaven

Sarah was just a few feet away, and he could see by her ease that she’d co a few seconds after her, though he was farther away Together they floated in a surreal world of purple lights and code, in desperate need of soether

"That was the worst few seconds of my entire life," Sarah said Her voice was a little … off Aled with static "Reain"

Bryson flapped his ared oversized bird, but soonna have to say that was about a nine on the old sucky scale I’d rather get eaten by the Lizards of Laos than go through that again"

"But it worked, right?" Michael asked He didn’t mean it in an I-told-you-so way He was just filled with a ridiculous amount of relief that they hadn’t drowned Of the countless tihout the years, for souess," Brysonwith his hands at the bizarre world around the for a library or so At least a chair"