Page 138 of One Last Chance

Or as if bodies were fighting beneath the surface.

“Axel!”

“There!” Kennedy motioned to something surfacing at the far end of the pit. Hunchback—no, a backpack.

Floating free.

“Axel!”

Then another form surfaced. Bobbing up, rolling over, his face pale.

Axel.

He looked dead.

“Is he breathing?” Kennedy said.

“I don’t know—Axel!”

He didn’t move, and no, it didn’t look like he was breathing.

“We have to get him out of there!”

“I’m going in.” Flynn dropped the stick and, just like that, jumped in.

Not as cold as the river, but dank and thick, like swimming in oil. She swam over to Axel, put her hand to his neck.

A heartbeat. But . . . no breath. “Get help!”

Kennedy took off running.

Flynn tucked her hand under his neck, moved his face to hers, and breathed for him.

The air spat out of him, water spewing from his lungs.

That’s right, get it out. She blew again, and his body shuddered. More water.

She blew again, and another jerk.

“Stay with me!”

She kept breathing for him, checking his pulse. Still the heartbeat?—

She didn’t know how long she’d gone before a body landed in the water next to her.

Shep. “Let’s get him out of here!” He grabbed Axel by the armpits and swam him against the wall. Barking sounded above, and a ladder came down into the hole.

She looked up to see Jericho and Moose above, Wilson beside them. Moose scrambled down the ladder, grabbed Axel’s vest, and he and Shep pulled him up.

Flynn climbed up after them, stood watching as Boo started breaths.

Axel’s body shuddered again.

“He’s getting air, but there’s a blockage.” She rolled him over and pressed on his diaphragm, and water spewed out of his lungs.

Then she rolled him back and started again.

His chest rose and fell. Flynn wrapped her arms around herself.

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