Page 12 of Alex

She’s good. She’s everything that’s good about my death. I can’t let her die along with me. She pushes herself up and her face rises above the water. Just as my body starts to give in to the lack of oxygen she pushes herself down to me and presses her lips to mine. She blows air into my mouth and goes back up for air for herself. A second later she is pulling herself down to where my leg is. I feel her trying to pull and push things where my legs are, but I can’t see what she’s doing. A few seconds later she goes back to the surface for more air, but I can see her struggling. Every second that the car is tossed downstream the deeper we get. She comes back down to me and breathes into my mouth before she goes up and gets more oxygen for herself. She pulls herself toward the back of the car, but I don’t know what she’s doing. I hate feeling so fucking helpless.

She comes back with something hard in her hand. I don’t know what it is but when she pushes it towards my foot, I realize it’s a hammer or mallet of some sort. She shoves it in between my leg and the part of the car that’s keeping me pinned. She tries to pull but I stop her immediately. I can feel the metal, hard object pressing into my ankle. She’ll break my leg before she frees me if she does it that way. I point up and she goes up for more air. She breathes into me and I start to get dizzy being underwater so long and only getting a little bit of oxygen from her. She’s giving me mostly carbon monoxide. I’m going to pass out soon anyway.

She gets more air again for herself. This time when she tries to put the tool in the right space, I adjust it, so she has to push and not pull. She sits with her back to my door and uses her feet to push against the object. Slowly, I feel the warped metal moving and a few seconds later I can pull my leg out.

There’s no time for celebration.

I push her to the other side so she can get air and try to follow, but the more weight I put in that direction the more the car sinks. I push towards the back where the window is busted out. She swims out and I pull myself behind her.

My head breaks the surface of the water and I suck in the sweet oxygen. I hear her squeal in fear and when I locate her, I see the current is pulling her away fast. I swim with it and grab hold of her.

“Hold onto my neck. Hold on and don’t let go!” I order her and she latches onto me.

I can feel the bottom with my feet.

“Take a deep breath, I need to go under.” I tell her and she complies. I take another deep breath and dive down to grab hold of the rocks and branches sticking up from the stream floor. The fixed objects make it easier for me to pull us across the width of the stream. This far down the small brook has opened into more of a rushing river. I have to come up three times before I make it to a point where I can stand and walk. She lets go of my neck and I have to hold her waist to make sure she can get the rest of the way across.

Once we get to the other side of the stream, we fall to the ground and breathe deeply. She hacks up some water a few times and part of me is concerned that she might still be drowning.

“Hey, are you okay?” I ask and roll over to her. I put a hand on her shoulder and she slaps it away.

“No! I’m not okay. I’ve been shot at, in a car chase, almost drowned, and almost swept away by a fucking river. Nothing about what just happened is okay! This isn’t okay. Tengo miedo.“ She lets her head drop to her hands and cries.

This is my fault and I feel like utter shit for getting her involved in this mess. If I knew what was going to happen, I wouldn’t have done it.

”Hey, you don’t have to be scared. They’re gone. No one here’s going to hurt you now. We made it. We survived, right. I’ll make sure you get a new car if that will help?” I move closer to her again and when she doesn’t stop crying, I pull her to my chest. I wrap my arms around her, and she collapses against me to cry some more.

“Shhhh, no llores. We’re going to be safe now. We’re going to be fine.” I promise her, hoping that’s enough to get her to stop crying. I lean down and a muted smell of spices and fruit wafts up my nose. “You smell like good food.” I say and she jerks away from me. She blinks a few times before she starts laughing.

“I can never get it out of my hair. I’m a chef.”

“Makes sense. Well, chef, what’s your name?” I ask her and move back slightly.

“Laura, you?”

“Alex.” I reply

“Well, Alex, I have no idea where I am, nor do I know how I’m going to get home. What’s the plan?”

Now it’s my turn to laugh, “I figured the second you calmed down enough you’d be on your way.”

“Nah, you seem more than capable to lead me. Let’s go. I’m right here with you.” She says and the words, though simple, strike a chord inside of me.

She didn’t have to help me. She didn’t have to stay with me in the car. Hell, she doesn't have to stay with me now, but she is. That type of trust, even if she doesn’t know she has it, is humbling.

I need to get her to safety. No matter what.

Alex

We walk through the woods and don’t get to town until late at night. I’m so sore that I feel like my feet will just fall off from all the blisters. At some point during the journey Laura took off her shoes and began walking barefoot. She said it was better than having the rubber of her wet sneakers rubbing against her heels.

We come out close to two hours away from the clubhouse but at least there’s no Rolling Cobras waiting for us. I hope they think I’m dead. I hope it's a surprise when I show up to kill them, because when I find them, I’m going to take my time ripping them apart. Hell, I might even join Wire in his dungeon just to make sure I torture them just right.

“Alex, look over there. That place seems to be open.” Laura points to a small corner store.

“Yeah, come on. I grab her hand and slowly we make our way over to the convenience store. I walk in and there are three men in the store waiting to buy some beer and another woman at the checkout line putting in her lottery. Laura walks in behind me and steps off to the side to slip back on her shoes. I watch as the three men look past me and stare at her. One of them licks his lips as if he’s going to come over and talk to her.

Does he not fucking see me here? I’m getting real fucking tired of people testing me.

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