20. Reaper
20
Fuck! There isn’t time to think or plan. I grab Mila and try to hold myself as long and vertically as possible so I hit first. It still hurts like a bitch, and as soon as we go under, Mila's grip around me is torn away in an instant. I try to twist and reach for her, but the current’s too strong and we’re both still rocketing down through the shit colored water.
She's gone.
I wanna scream, but if I do, I'm gonna drink down this whole damn river. She better be able to fucking swim or I’m going to kill her.
It goes against every instinct, but I keep my head cool and work with the current not against it. Eventually the momentum lets up and I can push towards the surface. My lungs are fucking burning when I take the first gasp of air mixed with muddy water. Jesus, this current is gonna rip my fucking clothes off if they don’t sink me first. The bridge is already way behind me and it’s disappearing fast. I should be glad the fall didn't kill me, but unless I get myself under control I'm either gonna be smashed against a rock or washed out at sea.
And where the fuck is Mila?
Shit.
The river roars in my ears as I try to move closer to shore every time the current works in my favor. I’m trying to save energy, but it’s fucking hard when my clothes are trying to kill me. We said we'd keep her safe, and if I fucked that up, I don't know if I can fucking live with myself. I might be an asshole, but I've always been a man of my goddamn word.
The current spins me around, slamming me into something so hard I lose my breath, then carries me with it before I can get a grip on it. I think it was a post left over from one of the old wooden bridges that have never been cleared out. I right myself just in time to spot another one, but my fingers slide over the rotten wood, not finding anything to grab onto.
I will not fucking die here.
Then I spot something. Just a blob in the water, but it's light colored and sometimes an arm flips out of the water and splashes again.
Mila.
She’s completely caught in the current, spinning out of control and bobbing in and out of the water. I swim with everything I’ve got, letting it carry me straight to her. I call her name and get a mouthful of gritty water out of it. But for a moment, she spins and I get a flash of her terrified face as she struggles to stay afloat. Did she hear me? See me?
And then I'm there, like the water decided we belong together, so sudden that we almost crack heads. But I get my arms around her. “Mila!”
Her eyes pop open, but they're unfocused. She tries to say something, but starts coughing on the rushing water instead.
I look ahead, to see if there's anywhere for us, someplace we can get out of the water. An old railroad bridge crosses the river a little ways downstream, and there’s a wide support right in the center of the river. If we’re lucky, there will be something to grab onto, and maybe even a ledge or platform.
Otherwise, we’re fucked.
A bent piece of rusty rebar sticks out from a part of the base that's crumbled away, and with one arm around Mila, holding her tight, I bend my other arm to try and hook the bar. Something in my shoulder pops when I hit, but we finally fucking stop. The muscles in my arm and shoulder scream as I pull us closer, around to the other side where the water is more calm. Mila coughs, and I’m not sure she entirely knows what's going on yet, but at least we're not spinning wildly down the river anymore.
Using the rebar for leverage and praying to every fucking god out there that it'll hold, I try to push her up. “You gotta help me, girl. Can you push off, or get hold of something?”
And whether it's adrenaline or my voice, she nods, reaching weakly to grab a second bar. With me pushing on her ass, she manages to pull herself up and drops on the narrow platform. On her hands and knees, she moans miserably and vomits up water before flopping over on her side. “Ew,” she whimpers.
“Mila, I need your help.” I hate saying it, but I'm not gonna be able to pull myself up on my own. I’m pretty sure I need to get my shoulder back in its socket and I'm only gonna get one or two attempts at this before my strength gives out.
She nods. “Coming.” She braces herself against the bar she used and then holds out her hand. “I don't know if I can pull you out.”
“I've got some leverage. Just need a little—” Water fills my mouth. I spit it out, frustrated. “Just hold on, okay?”
She nods, and we clasp hands. Fuck, she's cold, but one thing at a time. Under the water, my boot catches on something and I use every remaining ounce of my strength to pull myself up. The rebar bends with an ominous creak, but I’m afraid if I pull any harder on Mila, I’m just going to pull her back in and we might not have the energy to do this again.
But it works. She grits her teeth and spreads herself out enough to make a good enough counterweight for just long enough to let me roll myself up onto the base next to her. There's barely enough space for both of us to lie next to each other, but it's enough. We're out of the water.
We're God knows how fucking far down the river, and this isn’t one of the nice areas where someone might jog by and see us, but we’re alive and not drowning anymore.
“You okay?”
“Y—y—yes,” she stammers, her teeth clattering together as her body tries to shake itself apart.
“Mila, I need to do something and you aren’t going to like it.”
“What?”
“I need to pop my shoulder back into place.”
She gapes at me in horror. “I’m a journalism student! N—not a nurse! Oh my God. Okay. Okay. T—tell me what to do.”
I kneel down and let my arm hang, trying to let the muscles relax so it doesn’t do even more damage. “Don’t let me pass out and fall back into the water.”
I grit my teeth and get it done. A wave of nausea nearly drops me as I feel everything slide back into place. “Fuck!”
“I’ve got you!” Mila grabs my waist and hugs me tight.
I’m not in any danger of falling, but I put my good arm around her and hug her back. She’s still shivering. “Baby, I think we should get out of our wet clothes. There’s still daylight left and they’ll dry faster that way. I don’t know how long we’re going to be stuck here and it’s going to be fucking cold once the sun goes down.”
“You ju—just, wanna s—see me naked.” She gives me a weak smile.
“Yeah, you caught me. I was fucking jealous that Scrapper got you all to himself and this seemed like the easiest way to get some private time for just the two of us.”
I help her strip down and spread out her clothes as best we can. Then it’s my turn. A few minutes later, we’re sitting in a patch of sunlight on the cold cement. Water sprays up occasionally, but it’s not too bad. Not yet anyway. I pull her into my lap and wrap my arms around her. Eventually her shivering slows, then goes away. She leans her face into my chest and closes her eyes.
“You know,” I say, “I was hoping to get you naked tonight. Didn't have this in mind, though.”
Despite everything, a soft chuckle escapes her. I try to ignore how it makes her pretty tits jiggle, and how good her ass feels in my lap. Too bad my dick doesn’t understand that there's a time and place for everything.
“Are you about to suggest that exercise will help keep us warm, too?” She's joking. That's a good sign.
We press closer to the wall, and I try to shield her from the worst of the spray. Fuck, everything aches. I feel like I've been run through a goddamn thresher, and I bet Mila feels no better.
“You're bleeding,” she says, tracing a path with her finger down my side.
“Look bad?”
“No, it's shallow. Looks painful, mostly.”
My laugh is dry. “Maybe it is. I don't fucking know. Still hopped up on adrenaline. But if it doesn't look too bad, I'll just count my fucking blessings.”
She sighs. “How are we going to get off this thing?”
I look up, examining what I can see above me in the early evening dusk. “Not sure. No way we're gonna be able to climb sheer concrete.” I search my jeans for my phone, but it's dead and I can't get it started.
“Need to put it in a bag of rice,” Mila says deadpan.
“Shit. I usually keep one on me, but I forgot it today. How’s yours?”
“It was in my purse.”
So still in the case on the back of my bike. Fuck. “The best thing we can do right now is stay put. I don’t want to go back into the water again unless we have to, and if they don’t know we’re missing, they will soon.”
I leave out the obvious what if. Those motherfuckers got me, so they might've gotten Mack and Scrapper, too. I've ridden with those guys since I became a blooded member, and known Mack a lot longer than that.
They made it, of course they did.