Absolution River (16 page)

They began to move. Struggling every step to remain upright. The wind pounded in their faces and each donated blood to the beach as they pushed through the wet sand. Four hundred feet. They could hear the boat beat against the dock in the waves. No way of knowing if it needed a key, if it had fuel, or if it would start. They pushed into the water. As they became fully submerged into the icy waters, only the pain of their wounds dominated the shock of the cold. There were splashes around them as the bullets once again were shot in their direction.

“Under, we have to go under!” Jack yelled as he was trying to swim with half of his body in near collapse from the pain.

They all submerged but could only stay so for a few seconds at a time, as their bodies were nearing the limit of their exhaustion. Every stroke a reminder that they were still alive and that it may be their last. Jack looked out the corner of his eye every time he emerged from the depths and he could see the muzzle flashes and the outline of a dark figure standing on a rock at the shore. The waves coming over his face and each time choking on the water that found its way into his lungs. The wind on the lake was brutal and they were less than a hundred feet from the boat. Anders began to flail his arms wildly as the lack of blood in his leg made him cramp to the point of being unable to hold his head above the water.

“Keep going Marie! Have to get Anders!”

Marie looked back and saw a splash of water land between them. She immediately ducked under the water once again. She remained under for nearly a minute. Her lungs burst with the need for oxygen. Denying this need was her only chance at survival, her only chance to get to the boat and save her friends. As she continued to pump her arms for every inch of ground she could cover, struggling against the darkness coming in around her eyes as the oxygen deprivation was overtaking her consciousness. She thought of Jack, of their moment next to the river. How he looked when he smiled at her. The mystery surrounding him in that moment and the undeniable feeling she had for him. This idea kept her focused and unwilling to give in, to give up. She struck her head on something hard, and pushing her arms out, she realized she had made it to the boat. The cold aluminum on her hands and a sense of utter relief filled her body in the realization that she had finally made it. She jumped up into the boat and heard a ping as a bullet struck the thin metal exterior. There was at least a foot of water at the bottom of the boat as it was taking on water from the torrential downpour. It was a standard fishing boat, twelve feet long with a Mercury 85 single engine. Pull start. She would have to stand to get the leverage to get it started. Taking stock of the situation as well as a deep breath, she stood. She grabbed the pull start handle and began to wrench. Nothing. The icy waters and wind froze the cable within the engine.
Damn.
She began to kick and punch and scream at the engine and another bullet whizzed by her head. Inches this time. She tried again and the pull seemed to give way easier. The ice broke by her rage. Pulling again and again. Each attempt was easier than the last. Finally the engine turned a little. It tried to start, but it was stubborn to the end. Five more pulls. The boat was struck two more times, and the water was rushing in through where the bullets ripped into the hull. The engine finally came alive. She ducked down and grabbed the hand throttle, turning it as hard as she could. The boat’s engine screamed alive but wouldn’t budge. The force of the engine on the small boat nearly flipped it entirely over. The rope. Marie screamed out in frustration as she could sense Jack and Anders alone out in the water. Struggling to stay alive. Struggling to keep the water from entering their lungs and darkness of the water grabbing at their feet, inviting, pulling them to the bottom. She put her hand up over the crest of the boat’s hull and searched around for the rope. Found it. The rope was tight from her attempt to race off and there was no way she was going to be able to untie it. She scrambled around in the now two feet of water at the bottom of the boat for something she could cut the rope with. All she could find was the large and impossibly heavy anchor. The type of anchor with two triangular teeth designed to catch the bottom of the lake. She stood up and knelt down and grabbed it with two hands. Turning towards the rope she came down with all of her strength frantically trying to cut the only obstacle left before she could finally be free. The lighting burst through the clouds, striking the lake, and the loud thunder that followed was deafening. The rain beat down on her face and her hair was matted down in front of her eyes.
Strike. Strike. Strike. Nothing.
Harder and faster, and eventually she could feel the boat released from the grip of the dock. A pain shot up her arm and she collapsed into the water within the boat. Her face momentarily submerged in the boat and the water stained with her own blood. She held up her right arms and saw a small hole straight through her forearm. The pain was blinding but there was no time to give in to it. Pushing it in the back of her mind, she turned her body over to the hand throttle and the boat launched in the air under the power of the massive engine. She could see Jack and Anders treading water with their heads barely above the surface, struggling to hold on to whatever air they could grab. Marie brought the boat around to the front of them to block the shooter from targeting them. She could see Jack’s hand grip the outside of the boat and it leaned hard in their direction.

“Go!” Jack screamed.

“You’re not in!”

“Go! I can hold him for a minute, just go now!”

Marie braced his hand on the side of the boat with her damaged arm and turned the hand throttle with her other. Going as slow as she could not to lose them they began to make ground across the lake. After a minute or so the shore was far in the distance and she slowed the boat to a stop. Grabbing his wrist with both of her arms, she tried to pull Jack in. But he was too heavy. There was no way she could bring in two grown men on her own.

“I can’t! You’re too heavy!” Marie screamed frantically.

“Yes you can!” Jack said from behind the hull and his head nearly entire underwater. Anders floated close to unconsciousness with Jack’s left arm around his chest to keep his head above the water.

“Just grab Anders!”

Leaning over the boat, she grabbed Anders’ shoulders and got his head up over the crest of the hull. Jack grabbed the side of the boat and pushed Anders with all his strength, ripping the remaining stitches. He screamed in pain, launching Anders fully into the boat. The boat swayed violently in the water and nearly turned over on its side. Marie and Anders fell back into the boat that now had at least three feet of water on the bottom. The water on the inside of the boat was barely perceptible from the water on the outside and soon it would begin to sink. Jack sat there in the water for moment with both hands holding the edge of the boat collecting himself. He finally gained the strength and thrust himself up over the edge and landed next to them. Marie put Anders aside, making sure his head was above the water, and hit the throttle as hard as she could. Jack attempted to push the water out over the edge with his hands, with little success.

After a minute the boat was nearing the other shore and the rocks were fast approaching. The boat was finally at its limit and it began to dive into the water. The engine went first as the boat began to sink and it finally became entirely submerged and died immediately. It slowed so fast that Anders and Jack were thrown forward into the water, crashing violently twenty feet from the shore. Marie started to swim as the boat was fully submerged in seconds. They all swam for a few feet, but the lake bottom came underneath them and they began to wade to the beach. Marie caught up with Jack and began to help him carry Anders. As the beach finally approached so did their exhaustion and once there was sand under their feet they all collapsed. The clouds parted and they all looked up to see the stars shining through the gap in the storm. The wind slowed and the rained stopped all together.

“Is it over yet?” Anders mumbled with his eyes closed.

Just then the gap in the sky was gobbled up by black storm clouds and the wind picked up as fierce as ever. The rain started again and the rumbling from the thunder beat in their ears.

“Guess not,” Jack said breathing heavily.

Marie lay on her back, chest heaving in exhaustion. Her arms were bleeding heavily but she didn’t have the energy to stop it. “Do you hear that?”

The two men lifted their heads off the sand and in an instant they all knew what it was. In the distance they could hear the sound of a boat, louder and louder as it approached. Jack looked up and he could see a lake house above a small rock outcropping just above the beach. The house was brown with a large bay window facing the lake, no larger than a standard garage. There was no way of telling if anyone was home.

“Gotta move,” Jack said as he lifted himself up. He put a hand out to Anders and Marie and helped them to their feet.

“You’re shot, again,” Jack said. “How bad is it?”

“Can’t feel it right now, but I will.”

Jack put his hand on her shoulder and forced a smile, “Don’t worry, we’re gonna make it.” He ripped off a piece of the pharmacy bought shirt that said, “Welcome to Lakeside!” and tied it tight around her forearm. He could see the pain in her face and he put his hand on her face to reassure her. Jack looked to Anders, “Now, we have to go now.”

The three scrambled up the beach and helped each other over the rocks, each slipping over the wet surface of the rock outcropping, all while the sound of the engine became louder and louder. Soon there was no sound. The engine had been cut. Jack looked up and could see through the lightning flashes the figure leaning over the crest of the boat two hundred feet from shore.

“Get down!”

A bullet struck the rock next to them, throwing up shards of rock, another, then another, all within inches of striking them. They all dove over the rocks and landed hard on the dirt path that led up to the house.

“This guy is relentless!”

“That’s why we have to keep moving!”

“Get to the house!”

“We’ll be trapped,” said Anders in a sound of defeat.

Jack grabbed Anders’ shirt, hard, “We have to make our stand, no more running.”

Anders nodded and rolled over on to his hands and knees. Jack helped the two up and they all limped up to the house. Jack burst through the locked door and the house was black. Nobody home.

“Marie, look around for a gun or some kind of weapon. There has to be something around here.”

Jack carried Anders to a closet just off the kitchen and laid him down into it. “Just stay here buddy, stay low.”

Anders nodded and Jack looked him in the eyes as he closed the door on him, filling the closet with complete darkness.

Jack put his hand behind his back and was surprised to find the pistol still where he left it. He opened the chamber, took a hand towel off of the oven, and began to dry it frantically. All the while he kept his head up and his ears perked for the man he knew was coming to kill them. Marie came into the kitchen with an antique single-barreled shotgun and three shells. The barrel was slightly rusted and the shells looked like they had been around since the lake formed.

“Better than nothing,” Jack said with concern. Jack held his hand to Marie’s mouth, “Shhh,” He looked down and then looked up immediately.

“The engine. It started again.”

Jack put the two rounds back into the chamber of the revolver and slapped it shut. He grabbed the shotgun from Marie and loaded a round.

“You ever handle one of these before?”

Marie shook her head, “Never.”

Jack showed her how to open and close the chamber. “No safety, just load the round and pull the trigger. It’s going to have a big kick, but I’d rather you have it because you don’t even really need to aim it. This old thing will hit anything in the room. Just know where I am when you fire.”

Marie nodded in disbelief that she may have to shoot and kill another person. She never told Jack about the mace and the incident was still fresh in her mind. She felt revulsion just thinking about it now.

“Jack, I killed one of the guards back at the compound.”

“You did what you had to do. You survived, now you have to survive now.” Jack looked into her eyes and their faces were only inches apart. “I want us to make it out of here, I need us to.”

The engine from the boat shut off.

Jack broke contact and she backed off, terrified of the approaching man and terrified that she might lose Jack. She had only known him for a few days but she felt a connection and she hoped that he did too. There was so much she didn’t know, but she wanted the chance to find out.

Jack whispered, “Go behind the side door. When it opens, let him have it.”

“Where are you going to be?”

“I’ll be at the front door, go,” Jack said with urgency.

Jack sat down below the row of windows that lead to the front door. His breathing more controlled, remembering his training, going into that place of animal instinct, the need to survive. Footsteps, slow and methodical, louder and louder. The crunching of the gravel beneath the man’s feet closer now. Jack slowly cocked the revolver and held it up near his face. He could see the shadow of the figure looking into the window. Jack was ready to pounce at any moment, the sweat beading down the sides of his face as he wiped it away with his forearm. Anticipating the moment, sweat dripped into his eyes, burning. Then it passed. The man continued past the front door.
Oh no. He’s going for Marie.
The figure continued around the small house heading towards the side entrance.

Jack crouched and moved towards Marie. He headed into the living room and she would be around the corner, waiting nervously for the moment.

Just then the side door burst open and Jack could see Marie thrust the barrel of the shotgun into the man’s face and a loud crack filled the house. The light inside the house from the shot could be seen from across the lake. The man deflected the barrel at the last moment and knocked it out of her hand. Jack came rushing to help her but in a flash the man wrapped his arm around her neck and began firing in Jack’s direction with a silenced pistol. Jack dove behind an ancient TV and sparks flew in the air as several rounds struck the screen. Before he knew it the man was outside and he had Marie.