The B Girls

Water Water Everywhere





"Don't panic," Jane said as the sound got louder.

Lucy surged forward reflexively in an attempt to get away from the water coming into the hole behind her. Her right hand made hard contact with Jane's shoulder, jarring her injured arm.

"Ouch! Damn it, I said don't panic."

Jane's cry of pain reached the thinking part of Lucy's brain. Going forward would hurt Jane. Back. She had to go backward. She shoved one foot back the way they'd come and came in contact with her pack. She kicked at it, trying to shove it out of her way. It slid away but not far and she was forced to fight it again. Too slow! The water was going to win.

"Lucy? You have to stay with me," Jane called.

Lucy heard and stopped fighting her pack. Her feeling had been right, she was going to die in this hole but Jane didn't have to. If Lucy didn't let the panic win, she might be able to do her part to shove Jane to safety. If only Mae would hurry.

The makeshift stretcher started inching toward freedom again but not nearly fast enough.

Did Mae even realize it was raining? Was there water running toward her as well?

The first trickle of water slithered up Lucy's leg.

She shrieked like a B horror movie heroine.

"Now what?" Jane asked.

"The water's running this way."

"That doesn't make any sense. There's a much better way for it to go in the last room."

"Unless it's got another way in here with us," Lucy said.

"I think I know how," Jane said. "A few yards back I felt a little breeze on my face. I thought I was imagining it but there must be a small opening to the surface."

The water rolled under Lucy's hands and slid under the stretcher. At this point it was a paper-thin dampness. But that was bound to change.

Lucy blocked out everything except the need to push Jane as close to safety as she could before the water overcame her.

The stretcher picked up speed.

"Mae must have realized what's happening," Jane said.

Lucy didn't hear her. Her world was reduced to the feel of the water soaking more of her coveralls with each passing second and the sight of Jane's head moving ahead of her one painful inch at a time and the sound of water over rocks that would have been pleasantly soothing in a summer garden.

The stretcher continued to slide and Lucy kept pace with it.

The water was now covering her hands and still rising. It was harder to push against the slick floor and Lucy was doing more slithering than crawling.

Lucy saw the water trickle into Jane's ear.

"Whose brilliant idea was it for me to be trussed up like a turkey and shoved into this f*cking hole?" Fear tinged Jane's voice.

The stretcher slowed down again. The water poured in faster.

Lucy paused to try and pull her pack in front of her and fell behind.

"What are you doing?" Jane raised her voice over the sound of the water and the blanket sloshing through.

Lucy didn't bother to answer as she continued to struggle with the pack in the small space. Finally through a combination of lifting her body on hands and toes and pushing to one side of the passage, she managed to get the pack in front of her and scramble double fast to catch up to Jane.

The rising water licked at Lucy's shins. It had to be coming in from more than one point to be filling the tunnel so fast.

Lucy put a hand on Jane's left shoulder and tried to shove the backpack under Jane's head as she crawled. The extra effort left her breathless but after a few clumsy tries, Jane figured out what Lucy was trying to do and heaved her head up off the ground. Lucy shoved the pack home, buying Jane a few extra inches above the rising water.

Gasping for air, Lucy crawled along pushing on the pack to keep it in place under Jane's head.

The water reached her stomach. Her abdominal muscles contracted painfully in an attempt to lift away from the cold water.

Jane's face was still above water, propped on the pack, but Lucy was getting tired and the water was still rising.

The stretcher's slide came to an abrupt halt.

Lucy used breath she couldn't spare in a low keening moan and mustered the effort to shove hard at Jane's shoulders.

The stretcher didn't budge but Jane yelped in pain.

"Stuck," Jane said.

Lucy raised her head to try and get a breath past her panic-closed throat. Jane was going to drown in here with her unless she did something. She squeezed her eyes closed, summoned the last shred of rationality left in her brain and forced herself to take just one second to think.

Action. She had to take some action.

Stop being such a f*cking wimp. Get it together and act like a grown ass woman instead of some weak-minded twit.

Lucy opened her eyes, did a push-up, and swept her light around the edges of the stretcher looking for the snag. She found the problem. One of the straps they'd used to tighten the blanket around Jane's thighs was caught on a small knob of rock on the left side if the tunnel.

"Hold on," Lucy said.

"Like I have a choice."

With the extra bulk of the helmet, Lucy couldn't find the room to slither over Jane to reach the snag. She yanked the helmet off, propped it on Jane's right shoulder.

Jane was going to have to lower her head to make room for Lucy. "Take a deep breath and don't move."

Lucy took a breath of her own then rolled to the left and inched over Jane. She could feel the water running faster under her legs, climbing higher in the tunnel at an exponential rate.

Reaching as far forward as she could, she managed to slip a finger between the strap and the rock and pop the strap free.

The makeshift stretcher began to move again with more speed, sliding out from under Lucy. The water was now only six inches from the ceiling. She grabbed her helmet and light, shoved it back onto her head and started crawling again.

Every few ghastly feet, Lucy had to stop, tilt her head around toward the ceiling and take a gasping breath. Each time she wondered if the next time she'd find only water.

The stretcher continued to slide through the tunnel just ahead of Lucy's face. In between her own breaths Lucy crowded close to the stretcher and lifted Jane's head up above the water so she could get a breath as well while the stretcher slid forward stretching Lucy's arm to the limit.

Each time it was harder to muster the strength to lift Jane. Each time there was a smaller pocket of air at the top of the tunnel.

Lucy's arm quivered with the strain of letting Jane's head down gently. She'd lost count of how many times she'd repeated the maneuver but said a mental thank you to God and the cosmos that she managed it again.

She pushed the last air out of her lungs and levered herself up for another breath. Her hardhat scraped the top of the tunnel and she turned her head, straining for every fraction of an inch. The corner of her mouth broke the surface and she managed to sip a thin stream of air before the water finished filling the gap.

This was it. The last gasp. The last chance to save her friend.

Praying there was still enough of an air pocket for Jane to get a breath or two, Lucy pushed forward with her toes and her right elbow while she pushed Jane's head up with her left hand.

In seconds her lungs started to burn. She struggled forward a few more inches her left arm trembling with the strain of holding Jane's head up.

Lucy exhaled a puff of air to relieve some of the pressure on her lungs. The maneuver bought her a few seconds. Her toes slipped and Jane started to move away from her.

She let out more air as the stretcher moved out of reach and tried to dig her toes harder into the floor.

She didn't have any strength left.

Going limp, she fought the overwhelming urge to take a breath of water. Her mind and her lungs screamed for relief. Water would be better than the emptiness.

Her toes scraped uselessly on the floor.

She slammed her head into the ceiling searching for an air pocket that wasn't there.

Colored lights danced behind her closed eyelids.

She gave in and risked sucking in just a tiny bit of water. The lights disappeared and the world went dark.

Ryan's face appeared out of the black.

Lucy smiled and reached for him. The one good thing that had come from a life of playing it safe.