CHAPTER FIVE
ELLIOT
Plunged into the icy ocean yet again, I gasp and choke. The raft is deflating and sinking next to me, and the current tugs at my feet.
“Hank!” I yell, sputtering and flailing. “Hank!”
“Elliot!” Hank yells, although I can’t find him in the waves.
I’m weak and exhausted, but the shock gives me a burst of energy as I swim. My feet are heavy, so I kick off my shoes. The island is close, but there’s still a daunting distance between us.
Hank appears next to me. “Shore,” he gasps. “We have to swim for it.”
“Oh shit.” I gasp for breath, trying to orient myself, but Hank doesn’t slow down. He spins and starts back-stroking, his face up to the morning sun.
I swim after him, disoriented and terrified.
“Are you okay?” he yells.
“I think so. What about you?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
Something under the water brushes past my leg, and I scream.
Hank turns to me, treading water. “Elliot!”
“It’s fine!” I answer, swimming faster. “I think it was just a fish.”
Hank falls into place alongside me. “Steady,” he says, but another wave pulls us apart.
“Hank!” I yell again, but hear no response.
For a moment, I think I’ve lost him. Fear surges through me. I don’t know if I can do this alone. Hank is basically a stranger to me, but right now, he’s all I have.
I swim as hard and fast as I can toward where I last saw him. “Hank!” I yell, coughing on salty water. “Hank!”
“I’m here,” he says, back-stroking next to me again, his feet kicking behind us.
Another current pulls at us, and Hank tugs my arm, guiding me sideways. We go on like that, my arms and legs burning as we fight the ocean. I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to make it. When I falter and sputter, Hank pulls me along.
“Almost there!”
With the last of my strength, I push forward, one stroke at a time. I think about home and everything good that’s waiting back in Seattle if I can just make it to shore.
“Fuck!” Hank yelps out.
“Is there a shark?” I yell, but when I turn, I see that he’s still, only his head above the water.
“I hit my foot on a rock,” he says.
It takes me a second to process, but when I swim forward and lower my legs, my toes hit something sharp and rocky.
Tears immediately fall down my face. “Oh my god, we made it.”
Another wave comes up, knocking me forward. Surprised, I swallow water before steadying myself again.
“Land,” Hank gasps, and I follow him, swimming and kicking off from the rocks as the water gets shallower and shallower.
