Chapter 52
Then
amy
Amy watched Finn dive into the watery darkness. He was young and brave, but he had no real idea how dangerous – how hopeless – his heroic mission was. This wasn’t a Hollywood movie, and it wouldn’t have a happy Hollywood ending.
The fact they’d all survived trapped down here this long was a miracle, but the odds and the science were stacked against any of them making it out of here alive.
They’d been inhaling oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide for more than an hour now; with no fresh air circulating, it was like being trapped inside the cylinder of a giant diesel engine.
It was already getting harder to breathe as the air turned toxic.
They were all beginning to pant, unable to get enough oxygen into their lungs.
Soon, they’d start to lose consciousness.
Amy waded through the waist-deep water towards Iris, her long skirts tangling around her legs. She was so cold she could barely feel her feet.
Iris was shivering uncontrollably. Amy rubbed her palms briskly against her sister’s upper arms, ignoring the shooting pain in her dislocated shoulder as she tried to warm her.
‘Did I do the right thing?’ Iris asked, her voice raw.
‘You didn’t do anything,’ Amy said. ‘It was Finn’s decision.’
‘I helped him,’ Iris said. ‘I should have stopped him.’
‘It wasn’t up to you,’ Amy said. ‘Whatever happens next, Iris, you know the man your son has become. You should be so goddamn proud of him, because I know I am.’
‘I am,’ Iris said. ‘I really am.’
Amy pulled her into a hug, so her sister couldn’t see the truth written in her face.
If Finn managed to swim safely down through the flooded stairwell in the pitch-blackness, if he somehow opened the door, if he actually escaped from the Lady, he’d then have to manage his ascent carefully, so very carefully, fighting every instinct to swim as fast as he could to the surface as he ran out of air.
Fresh lake water lacked the buoyancy of salty seawater.
He’d have to kick his way up forty, sixty, maybe a hundred feet, exhaling all the while.
If he didn’t get it exactly right, if he ascended too fast, the air trapped in his lungs would expand and rupture them.
The surrounding water pressure would decrease too quickly for the gas bubbles in his body to dissipate.
They’d enter his blood and travel throughout his circulatory system; they could get lodged in his spinal cord or brain.
He would die.
And even if Finn got Powerball, one-in-seventy-three-million lottery-winner lucky and made it to the surface safely, he still had to somehow find his way to the shore in the darkness, with no lights to show him where safety lay.
If they’d had any other choice, any choice at all, she’d never have let him go.
She released Iris as several students pushed through the water towards them, their movements sending floating debris rippling through the cabin. The boat shifted uneasily against the lakebed.
‘You all need to keep still,’ Amy called out. ‘We can’t risk destabilising the boat. I know you’re cold and frightened, but help is coming—’
‘You don’t know that,’ Ashley said.
Even in this moment of life-and-death crisis, she was salty and defiant.
‘It won’t be for much longer,’ Amy said. ‘Rescue is on the way. In the meantime, try to move as little as possible. We all need to conserve air.’
‘I feel sick,’ Darcey said.
She’d climbed down from her perch on the underside of the table, and the freezing water reached almost to her chest. Her lips were pinched and blue, but her cheeks were bright red from inhaling too much carbon dioxide.
‘I’m cold,’ she said. ‘And I’m so tired.’
Behind her, Jenna Lincoln was rocking back and forth, muttering incoherently to herself. Amy could hear people breathing rapidly, sucking in air, on the verge of hysteria. She knew how contagious panic was.
‘Listen to me, all of you. You need to buddy up with a friend,’ she said, trying to ignore the movement of the boat beneath her feet. ‘Keep talking to each other. Stay close together, and keep each other warm—’
‘Where’s Finn?’ Ashley asked abruptly.
‘Finn’s trying to find a way out,’ Iris said.
‘What? He wouldn’t go without me,’ Ashley said. ‘He’d never leave me behind.’
‘Jesus fuck, it’s not all about you,’ Nicky snarled. ‘He’s trying to save your life, you asshole.’
‘What did you just say?’
‘Enough,’ Iris said. ‘This isn’t helping anyone.’
The boat was rocking noticeably now. Water sloshed about the cabin, pitching against the walls, and the lights flickered, growing dimmer every time. Something bumped against Amy’s legs in the near darkness, almost knocking her off balance.
‘What’s happening?’ Darcey said, her voice high and thin. ‘Why’s the boat suddenly moving so much?’
‘Maybe we’re being rescued,’ someone said.
A murmur of excitement rippled around the cabin. ‘They’re bringing us up!’ a girl exclaimed. ‘We’re going to be OK! They’ll get us out!’
Other students caught up the cry. They were suddenly all talking over each other, desperately grasping at hope.
Amy caught hold of the brass cabin rail as the boat lurched again. This wasn’t rescue. Finn hadn’t even had time to surface, never mind get help. And it would take days, maybe weeks, to raise the Lady from the bottom of the lakebed. Rescue, if it came, wouldn’t look like this.
The boat had landed at an awkward angle when she sank; now she was rolling, caught under lake currents or simply a victim of her own gravity. If she turned over completely—
‘Finn!’ Amy shouted, suddenly turning back towards the stairwell.
‘What’s the matter?’ Iris asked.
‘He needs to come back now,’ Amy said. She fought against her heavy skirts, feeling as if she was caught up in a childhood nightmare, running and running but unable to get anywhere. ‘We need to get him back. The boat’s moving, Iris!’
It took a moment for Iris to understand.
If the boat turned over, Finn would be trapped, unable either to swim out of the boat, or return to them inside the cabin. He could be crushed by debris; if he’d already made it out of the boat, he could be caught up in the suction created by the shifting vessel, and trapped beneath it.
Together she and Iris threw themselves into the water, yanking on the fire hose.
And then suddenly he was there. Finn was there, swimming up through the stairwell, pulling himself hand over hand along the fire hose.
He emerged into the cabin, bursting up through the water, sucking in a deep lungful of the putrid air, panting and pale-faced.
Even though Amy knew it wasn’t rational, that his return meant his mission had failed, she couldn’t help feeling a ridiculous surge of relief.
‘Blocked,’ he panted. ‘The door’s blocked. I tried to open it, I did everything I could—’
‘It’s OK,’ Iris said, hugging her son close. ‘It’s OK.’
‘Mom,’ Finn said, urgently. ‘I need to tell you something—’
The hull groaned and creaked ominously. Amy stumbled again as the boat lurched.
‘Hold on!’ she shouted. ‘Grab something! The boat’s turning over!’
‘Mom!’ Nicky cried.
And then suddenly the water was swirling around them again with increasing momentum, rushing in to fill the space.
Amy watched helplessly as her sister was torn away by a violent surge that simultaneously knocked Finn off his feet. He fell backwards, and there was a sickening thud as his head hit a porthole cover and he slid, unconscious, into the water.
Nicky clung desperately to the cabin rail with both hands. ‘Mom!’
Amy caught hold of the table bolted to the floor as the Lady started slowly, lumberingly, to tumble over itself for the last time.
Nicky cried out in terror. He needed her, but so did Finn.
It was the choice that’d been chasing her for eighteen years.
She couldn’t save them both.