Thirty Nine Minutes (COMPLETE)

Chapter Twenty Four: Others

Craig was glowing, making the air tank she'd discarded just seven minutes ago light up in the cramped darkness of the cave. His chiseled frame decorated with myriad rivers of incandescence that danced over his torso and arms. He was truly beautiful.

There probably wasn't much air left in this pocket she found herself floundering in. No life in here but the frothing water she made whilst treading it. Only her. And Craig.

She dived under to retrieve him, exhausted beyond comprehension and her lungs were hot and raw. The water was cold, and her limbs were iron as she pushed against the chill and the heavy feeling, down towards Craig.

He seemed lifeless as he lay there, half twisted over her air tank. Her lungs began to burn as she grabbed one limp arm, beginning the laborious process of dragging the relatively larger man up to the surface. He appeared to be comatose, a thin line of bubbles escaping his nose but otherwise he seemed completely out of it, his eyes half closed and glazed. She kicked her legs back towards the air pocket. Progress was slow, but relatively steady, although at this point her lungs felt fit to burst right out of her chest. She kicked as hard as she could, the surface tantalizingly close. She barely had seconds, but she couldn't bear to count. Kick for all your little legs are worth, she screamed in her head. Craig got heavier and heavier in her arms.

The surface broke, and with it, the froth she'd churned bubbled around her and Craig's lifeless body. At first, she could only gasp and choke, holding Craig with one arm and trying to keep herself afloat with the other. It was not a plan that could last beyond the next three minutes, and even now, her head kept dipping under as her legs began to buckle in their fatigue.

After about twenty seconds, a decision was made for her, and something tugged at her ankle. Something she couldn't even protest. Within half a second she and Craig had been dragged down like a pair of torpedos. The scant air Helen had managed to pull into her lungs had already been wrenched out of her, and so she did the only thing she could do: she held onto Craig for dear life.

Downwards, sideways, round and round they went like a freezing cold and pitch black washer dryer. Helen buried her head into Craig's chest as they flew through the water, not, she realized in the midst of the madness, dissimilar to the speeds she had witnessed Craig doing in the pool. Helen's lungs began to burn.

*****

Air, cold, damp air hit Helen's face and she gasped, choking and spluttering as she surfaced right by Craig, who seemed to be doing his own fair amount of coughing in her arms.

"Craig!" She exclaimed through half gasps and wheezes as she struggled to keep her head above water. As she kicked, her fins brushed silt or sand and discovered the ground was, at least where she was, available to stand on. Craig's huge, glowing tail stretched out below him, lighting up her legs and the sandy bank. It coiled at the bottom and rested on the floor, keeping his balance on the sandbank for the most part.

"H, Helen." He looked dazed, but well. One arm reached out to her, and she grabbed it, pulling herself to him.

Their moment didn't last long.

The cavern they were in was deep and vast, with walls seemingly cut or chiseled as the sides were quite smooth. There was a small island just behind them, explaining the raised silt they stood on. Above, a natural chimney reached right up through the ceiling and let the moonlight bleed in from the inky sky above. It was a waxing moon, almost full, and its light reflected on the rippling water in the cavern.

Helen was about to ask how he was but the surface of the water broke, and from its depths rose a full head of long hair, dripping wet. Water ran off in large droplets off a sharp, pointed nose and the creases of skin that housed large, dark eyes. Another and another joined them, ringing them. Helen held onto Craig a little bit tighter. Looking under the water, she saw something familiar. Strong, supple tails, but not alight like Craig's. Her breath hitched as the first one to emerge pointed a webbed hand at Craig's short hair. It barked something at him.

Craig's eyes widened as he whispered to Helen, "what did he say?"

"I don't know! They're not exactly my species, are they?" She hissed. The creature barked again, swimming closer to them and grabbing Craig's arm before he could flinch away.

"Akasha!" It said, fingering the glowing barbs protruding from Craig's forearms, before pointing a finger at Helen. "Elura!"

Both Craig and Helen were none the wiser, but the creature soon made his intentions clear: he grabbed Craig by the neck and pulled him into the deeper water. As good as a swimmer Craig was, he was exhausted, and this guy was clearly far more accomplished in choppy sea waters.

"Hey!" She said, but Craig had already gone, along with all the other long haired oddities that had disappeared under the dark water. "Goddamnit." She looked up at the luminous moon, the only source of light now Craig had gone.

She began to have a ridiculous idea.

*****

It didn't help that her legs felt like lead, and her arms and shoulders trembled with each subsequent effort to pull herself up the narrow chimney, but Helen pressed on, climbing onwards and upwards. She didn't have long: the moon was already halfway across the opening, and would disappear soon enough and leave her in darkness if she didn't hurry.

The rocks were slippery and covered in barnacles, limpets and algae. Many times she lost her footing but because the shaft was so narrow, she could brace herself with her back and prevent herself falling. Sometimes she shimmied up inch by inch, other times she grabbed and scrabbled up the cold, wet boulders. As she felt the cool air blowing fresh off the waves it bolstered her confidence even more and she practically jumped the last few feet, throwing her arms out and pulling herself out into the night.

Fleur's ship was harboured in the lagoon she looked out over. Helen flattened herself, trying to stop her teeth chattering as the adrenaline from her climb was fast wearing off. A large trawl net had been anchored from one end to the other, just by a small and innocuous opening. What could she do from here? Soaked and shivering, with nothing to her name but a wetsuit that was slowly freezing her to death.