Page 113 of Wrecked
“Got that. Don’t move.” He punched her bag and it flattened beneath his fist. Then he found her seat belt latch and released it while holding her upright with his arm. She was free.
He hit his seat belt release, but it wouldn’t unsnap.
Why couldn’t he be lucky twice?
Something pinged the roof. Shots hitting them.
The back window broke. That round must have burrowed into a seat.
He kept his voice calm, but nothing would slow his racing heart. “We gotta get out. They’re shooting and will follow the car to confirm we’re dead. Can you breathe through your nose?”
She wiped her nose, flinched, but said, “I can breathe.” She reached around her legs and dragged her wet bag up to the seat. The car was half submerged. She pulled out a switchblade and cut him free.
“Thanks.”
Bullets struck the water around them.
No way to get to the weapon Nitro had put in the vehicle. Sam pulled his gun from the console now loaded with ammo he’d found before they stopped for lunch. “Put this in your bag.”
“We have to wait to get out of range,” she warned, taking the gun to shove in her bag with the knife. She sat her bag on the airbag, deflating it more.
Sam wouldn’t tell her they wouldn’t be out of range soon if their attackers included a sniper. That wouldn’t be an issue if they drowned. One problem at a time.
He took in the river they would have crossed if he’d made it over the bridge.
Bullets kept zinging around them, but the river was curving.
Water rushed around his knees and kept creeping up. He wished he’d left a window open, but he’d closed it to shut out road noise. He tried the window button. Not working, as he expected since the lights had shorted out.
She used the bottom of her shirt to wipe blood from under her nose and sounded congested when she spoke. “Have you escaped a sinking vehicle before?”
He admired her for staying calm, but her voice shook. “No, but I’ve spent a lot of time in water, and I know what to do to free us. I’m gonna climb over to your side to tilt the car more so it fills faster, then we’ll exit on your side.”
She didn’t appear to have much faith in that suggestion, but she didn’t argue. “This is probably a laminated window, which won’t break easily, right?”
“Most likely. Have you got anything like a rescue hammer in that bag?”
“No. What about a gun?”
“Shooting that will blow out our eardrums.”
“I meant will it break the window?”
He gave it a second before saying, “Never tried that. I don’t want to risk not breaking the whole window at one time and flooding us too quickly.” He could get out on his own.
Sending her out quickly would be a challenge but getting her out of here first was the escape plan.
Doing his best to sound confident so she would trust him to follow his instructions, he said, “We have to let the door completely submerge. Once that happens, the pressure inside and outside will have equalized so we can easily open the door to swim out. We have to grab a big lung full of air at the last second.”
He’d caught himself before saying theyshouldbe able to do this. If it didn’t work, failing to disclose everything was the least of his concerns.
Rain began coming down faster, slapping the still exposed roof so hard it was difficult to tell if any of the strikes were from bullets.
The SUV floated around a bend in the river. This was their chance.
“Ready, babe?”
A sign of this woman’s strength came in her unhesitating answer. “Yes. Tell me what to do.”
