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When Serena drowned, I'd been so worried about her that I'd paid no attention to what had me. This time, I could feel warm fingers wrapped around my icy-cold ankle, and when I kicked, my toes brushed what was unmistakably hair.
I tried to grab whoever was holding me, but every time I moved, my attacker moved. I couldn't see anything. My eyes stung and my lungs ached. But I knew it was a person holding me down. Just a person. I could fight that.
Only I couldn't. I kicked and I writhed, but those fingers weren't letting me go and I couldn't breathe, and when nails dug into my ankle, I shrieked and my mouth and throat filled with more water, and I realized I was drowning.
Then the toes of my free foot touched rock. The bottom. I pushed myself down even as my brain screamed that I was going the wrong way. I bent in half and reached to feel not fingers, but vegetation wrapped around my ankle. Seaweed. I ripped it off, then shot toward the surface.
After a few strokes, I wasn't sure I was still going up. All I could see was darkness. Then a scream sounded above me.
They were looking for me, yelling for me. I was going the right way. I was going to be fine, just fine. I put everything I had left into a few last strokes, propelling myself toward the surface, breaking through, then gasping for air too soon, water rushing in, choking me.
I went under again. I gave a tremendous kick, arms and legs flailing so hard that a cramp shot through my stomach and I screamed, swallowing more water.
I could hear Daniel shouting, then Corey. But no one was coming. Why wasn't anyone coming?
I broke the surface again, and this time managed to get a breath. Then I heard Nicole screaming for help--that something had her, was pulling her down.
A fresh cramp shot through me and I went under again.
My muscles pleaded for relief, but I managed to break the surface again.
"Maya!" Daniel yelled. "Where's Maya?"
Nicole shrieked and I wanted to shout to Daniel to forget me, save her before she drowned like Serena. That's all I could think of. How he'd saved me when Serena drowned. I wouldn't let that happen again. I couldn't.
Nails scraped my arm and I panicked, then felt wet fur.
Kenjii. I wrapped my arms around her neck and lay my face against her back, flutter-kicking as best I could. Daniel reached me then.
"Nicole," I said. "Get Nicole."
He hesitated. I pushed him toward Nicole, getting more and more frantic until Corey called that he and Hayley had Nicole and she was fine.
"Sam?" I croaked.
"Sam!" Daniel yelled. "Where are you?"
"She's--" Corey started. "Here she is. She's fine."
Daniel made me get on his back and we headed to shore, Kenjii swimming beside us.
FIVE
WHEN WE MADE IT to shore, Daniel didn't insist on getting to dry ground this time, just let us all collapse where we could, panting and shivering, Nicole crying softly, Hayley trying to comfort her, Sam hovering awkwardly.
We emptied the makeshift pack. It'd been on Corey, and he'd gone under in the search. We'd tied it as best we could, but there were openings. The clothing was wet. His pills had disintegrated. He said that was fine--he wasn't likely to get a migraine soon and if he did, he could tough it out. Which was a lie, but there was nothing we could do about it.
Daniel made the others put on their clothing, coaxing gently but insistently. Theirs were almost as soaked as Daniel's and mine, and they huddled there, shivering and sniffling.
The sky was so dark now it looked like night already. It smelled like rain, too. None for weeks and now it came and there was a small part of me that thought, It'll put out the fires, but I couldn't bring myself to ca
re. My forest might be saved, and all I could think was that night was coming and the temperature was dropping and if it did rain and we couldn't find shelter, get dry, and try to light a fire, hypothermia would kill us by morning.
We'd all be dead. Just like Rafe.
I pulled my legs up, wrapped my arms around them and shivered as I tried to get myself under control. Just beyond this rocky beach was the forest. I'd seen it earlier. I knew the forest. It was my home more than any house ever could be. I'd survive this. We'd all survive it.
But no matter how hard I stared to the west, I couldn't see the trees. Just fog and shadows everywhere, the six of us lost in it, as if we'd already died, stumbled into the afterlife and--
