The 34th Floor

The 34th Floor - Chapter 38 - Cade

Author's Note:

Thank you for all of your support. Posting this new chapter and hopefully more regularly since summer is finally here. [= Enjoy.

The 34th Floor

Chapter 38:

Cade

“Hurry, Cade!” Grace shouted, her voice muffled by the noisy gargling of the water.

“You need to hurry, man, or else we won’t be able to make it,” Noah’s words made him lightheaded with the pressure placed on his back.

“Oh, Cade, just do what you can and swim back fast,” Grace moaned before Noah threw some comforting words in her direction.

I got this, I thought. This was my chance to prove to Rachel she was worthy of living, that I was committed to take care of her, to make her feel good about herself.

I plunged into the water, a lungful of air in my chest. I thought I heard her voice back up in the air vents. Grace said it was an illusion, for she had not heard it. Noah believed I was finding another excuse to delay them all from leaving the place, but I knew otherwise. I heard the waves, I heard the gargling, but when I called out to her she responded not at all. Up from the corner of the room, I thought I could see something of a figure buried at the bottom and so I pursued.

By now, Grace and Noah’s words were blocked by the pounding of the water beating in harmony with the growing throbbing in my chest. An endless list of possibilities of seeing her unconscious, alive, or worse, dead, made my head race.

I looked over my shoulder, cursing as the water licked the edges of the air vent. The water was deathly close in flooding the air vents, in tearing the room completely apart. This pushed me to go faster, to swim quicker.  

I surged through the water at full speed, paddling my feet up and down. My eyes were trained on the murky figure swaying at the bottom as I escalated downwards. Ripping in and out of my currents, the tightness already began to stretch across my chest. Withdrawing my arms to my side, I circled Rachel’s body, taking in her dainty figure and limp body. Feeling a pang in my chest, I didn’t know if it was because I was seeing her so torn or if my lungs were beginning to give up. Drawing Rachel into my arms, my bottom lip almost trembled at the paleness of her face and the blueness of her lips. I let my fingers trail down her hair, watching as it glued to the side of her face in a curled mess.

An echoing and hollering of some sort pulled me of my on-looking. Cursing under my breath at my carelessness, I gripped Rachel’s hand and dragged her behind me. Swimming through the water with my chest threatening to explode and my limbs weighing me down, I put ever inch of my effort in make it through.

I kicked and thrashed in the water, unable to sense the surface, losing all control. I found my body sinking farther down into the water, Rachel’s body becoming heavy in my grip. My eyes trailed over towards her slim figure, she already looked dead, but a part of me was hoping she would be alive.

I pushed my body faster through the water, crossing my fingers and hoping the surface wouldn’t be too far out. I thought I heard Grace sobbing and Noah shouting, but it was all just a massive bur under the sound of the water.

The little breath I had in my system was beginning to depart slowly until I could feel my lungs giving out and my eyes beginning to droop.

“Cade! Cade!” I heard a distant voice calling my name. “The water’s too close. We won’t make it!”

The words kept echoing through my mind, registering not, but nevertheless flowing in and out of my train of thoughts. I swam forward, arms falling to my side each time I propelled my body through the water.

“I see him!” I heard again, the same voice or a different one, I didn’t know.

Head hurt. Body weak. I thought I saw something over my head, a piece of metal glistening over my head. It was close, but seemed so far away. I thought that I had surely hit a roadblock, and this was the last for Rachel and I.

“Right here, Cade. Take our hand!” The voice shouted.

I didn’t have to think much about it. I just did what the voice said: extended my arm over my head. If the person had not grabbed it faster, my arm might have fallen back down to my side without my doing.

A tugging pulled me out from the water, momentarily exposing me to air. I latched on to the end of the air vent. I gasped, filling my lungs with it all too quick that I began to chock violently.

“Slow down,” Noah instructed, bringing me up to the place near him in the crapped air vent.

 “Oh, you’re alright!” Grace shouted in relief.

I could barely nod my head in agreement. Grace took a hold of Rachel’s other arm and pulled her up on the air vent near her. Grace’s face morphed into one of misery and sympathy as she took in Rachel’s lifeless body.

“She doesn’t look too good,” Grace mumbled, running her finger near the side of her face. “What are we going to do?”

“We need to get air back into her lungs,” Noah voiced, eyeing Rachel.

“We got to get her some place better though,” Grace murmured, twisting the ends of Rachel’s clothes to get rid of the excess water.

I stared at Rachel longingly, wanting her to be okay. I felt dizzy with all the emotions coursing through me.

“Come on, man. We got to get out of this air vent fast,” Noah informed me. I followed his gaze behind my shoulder, and my eyes widened.

We all scrambled to half-crawl and half-slide through the passage in the vent as a fresh wave of water started towards the four of us.

“We’re doomed,” were the last words out of my mouth as the water broke through the air vent and we all went flying through the minuscule passageway.