Page 442 of Coal Hearts

None of us would give up.

I’d been lucky enough to find two of the strongest girls I’d ever met and—

“Oh shit.” Mollie slammed to a stop, sending a ripple down our chain.

“Oh shit, what?” Rachel asked. “You know I don’t like it when you say things like that, Mols. Makes my imagination go into overdrive.”

I shivered as water lapped up my ankles, freezing my toes with insidious frostbite.

“The water is coming from the direction we need to go in,” Mollie muttered. “And it’s coming in fast.”

“So...what does that mean?” Rachel asked.

“It means...we can’t go that way.”

“But that’s the only way out.” I did my best to stay calm. “If we hurry, surely we can make it. The tide doesn’t come in that quickly.”

“You obviously don’t have a lot of experience with the sea. It can rise fast, and I’m not willing to take that chance.” Mollie turned, taking us all with her. “Damn.”

“Well, we can’t stay here,” Rachel gasped. “If the water is coming in that quickly, then...”

“We’ll drown,” Mollie snapped. “Yes, I’m aware.”

“Well, what the hell are we going to do?!” Rachel shouted. “I can’t...we can’t just stand here and die!”

“Shut up and let me think!”

“We don’t have time to think! We have to run.”

“Run to where?”

“I don’t fucking know, but—”

“Quiet, Rach. Your screeching is not helping—”

“Screeching? We’re running out of time, and you’re telling me to calm down?!”

“Perhaps the caves won’t fill completely,” Mollie mused aloud. “We could swim—”

“Swim?” Rachel’s voice turned brittle with horror. “That’s your plan? You study the damn universe, and the best you can come up with is—”

I shut them out.

I couldn’t listen.

Their energy fed into mine, braiding our panic into a living, gnawing thing. My lungs threatened to stop working. Every fear, every terror, every horror, pain, despair, and loss strangled me like a monster.

My ears rang as they fought.

My arms ached as I held Peter.

I was so, so close to snapping.

So...I did the only thing I could.

I pressed my toes against cold stone.

I ignored the rapidly rising water level as it kissed my calves and travelled higher, higher, higher.