D. MacHale - The Pilgrims of Rayne

Dodger quickly pulled her back up. “What happened?” he asked.

“Something moved down there,” Courtney exclaimed. “I had my weight on my hands and it made something slide.”

Dodger looked down into the water, then ducked below the surface. A second later he came up, sputtering.

“The glass partition!” he exclaimed. “It’s not locked anymore. I can slide it open!”

As he spoke, Dodger pushed with his feet to slide open the glass partition that separated the backseat from the front seat. The water was now tickling their chins.

Courtney gasped, “Is the opening big enough to go through?”

“I think.”

“If we can get down there, maybe the front doors are unlocked.”

“What if they’re not?” Dodger asked.

“Dumb question.”

“Yeah, dumb question,” Dodger echoed.

The water was rising faster. Soon their heads would be bobbing against the rear window.

“It’s good the doors are underwater,” Courtney added hopefully. “It means the water pressure is equal, and the doors should open.”

“If they’re unlocked.”

“Yeah, if they’re unlocked.”

They looked at each other. Neither budged. Courtney saw the fear in Dodger’s eyes. “If we’re going, we gotta go now,” she said. “The car is sinking like a brick.”

“I’ll go,” Dodger said. “Give me time to get the door open.”

“Dodger?”

“Yeah?”

“I trust you now.”

Dodger smiled. “I guess I better not mess up.” He took a deep breath and ducked below the surface. Courtney watched as he went straight down through the opening in the partition, feet first. He pushed himself all the way down until his head was below the glass, then turned toward the front passenger door. He reached for the handle, twisted it, and pushed against the door. It didn’t move. He put his foot against the steering wheel and leaned into the door. It wouldn’t budge.

“Come back up!” Courtney shouted down through the water.

He didn’t. He pushed away from the passenger door and went to the driver’s door. He grasped the handle with one hand and the steering wheel with the other.

Courtney took a breath to say something, and got a mouthful of water. Her head bumped the glass of the rear window. She was underwater. The car was nearly full and beginning its final plummet to the bottom. She had no choice but to follow Dodger down into the front seat. She found the opening in the partition with her feet, hooked her toes under the glass, bent her knees, and pulled herself down. She grabbed the opening with her hands and pulled herself down the rest of the way. The water was dark and green… and getting darker. They were headed for the bottom. Still, she could see the blur of Dodger. With her back to the passenger door, she watched the small bellhop make one last attempt to save them. He twisted the door handle and put his shoulder against the door. Courtney leaned into Dodger, adding whatever force she had. She anchored her feet against the passenger door for leverage and pushed.

The door moved. Dodger forced it open just enough that he could slide out of the car into open water. Quickly he turned back for Courtney. She was already after him. She pushed off the passenger door and swam, head first, out of the driver’s door. They were free, but not safe. Neither knew how deep they had been pulled by the car. Courtney gave a quick glance down to see the blurry yellow cab sinking quickly beneath them. She stared at the ghostly image, mesmerized as it slid into the murky green depths. The idea that they might have been in that car froze her.

She felt a strong hand grab her arm. It brought her back to reality. They had to get to the surface. Courtney was already feeling the strain of having held her breath for too long. They were out of the death car, but if they couldn’t hold their breath long enough to get to the surface, it wouldn’t matter. They’d be just as dead. Dodger tugged, pulling her up. Courtney kicked, and the two rocketed for the surface. With nothing around them for perspective there was no way to know how deep they were. All Courtney could do was focus on the light above and hope they’d hit it before running out of air. She kicked and kicked. Her lungs ached. She wanted to exhale, but feared losing the last remaining bit of air in her lungs.

Dodger kicked just as furiously. They didn’t look at each other. There was no need. They knew where they had to go. Up. Up was air. Down was death. Courtney wanted to scream. She wanted to breathe. She felt she could last a little longer, if only she knew how many more seconds she’d have to hold out for. Two? Five? Twenty? She knew if it were twenty, she’d be dead.

It wasn’t. They both broke the surface, gasping for air. Courtney looked for Dodger. He bobbed next to her, looking just as scared as he had when they were trapped in the sinking car.

The two laughed. They couldn’t help themselves. It seemed like the thing to do. Total relief will do that.

“Can you make it to the pier?” Dodger asked.

Courtney nodded. Now that she could breathe, she was fine. She didn’t even feel the bump on her head. They weren’t far from the pier. It only took a minute to swim to the base of the huge wooden pilings and a metal ladder that reached into the water. Courtney got there first. She grabbed the ladder and held tight. Dodger joined her a second later. The two of them clung to the ladder to catch their breath.

“Saint Dane,” Dodger gasped.

“What about him?”

“You said you thought I might be Saint Dane.”

“I don’t think that anymore. He can do a lot of things, but he can’t be two people at once.”

“So now that we’re square, maybe you could tell me what’s really goin’ on?”

Courtney chuckled. “Yeah, you earned it. But you’re not going to like what you hear.”

“I don’t see how it can get any worse than this,” Dodger said.

“This?” Courtney scoffed. “This was nothing.”

Dodger looked sick.

Courtney pulled herself up on the ladder and made the climb to the top of the pier. Dodger followed close behind. It was low tide, so the climb was a long one. Neither looked down as they made their way up to safety.

When Courtney got to the top, she saw that a group of people had already gathered to see what was going on. More came running along the pier from the street. They peppered her with questions. “Are you okay?” “What happened?” “Do you need an ambulance?” “Did everyone get out?”

Courtney ignored them. It’s not that she was being rude.

Something else had gotten her attention. The people on the pier might as well have been invisible, because the sight before Courtney was too incredible, too breathtaking for her to focus on anything else. Rising high above her, on the far side of the pier, was a vast black wall. The sheer size was enough to make her knees buckle. It stretched nearly the entire length of the pier and reached high into the blue New York sky. At first she didn’t register what it could be. A building? Buildings weren’t black. She gazed up at the monstrous sight, feeling like an ant next to a house.

Reality intruded when Dodger stepped up next to her. “She’s something, ain’t she? Fast, too.”

Along the top of this impossible black wall was a wide, white band. Courtney’s eyes followed this band the length of the wall until she saw two words. Two simple black words against white. The letters had to be three feet high, big enough to be seen clearly from the buildings of Manhattan. Seeing the words made Courtney gasp. Those two words hit her harder than the breathtaking image of the black wall itself. It was like seeing history come to life. It was like seeing the future come to life. Seeing those words told her exactly what she needed to do. They told her the wall wasn’t a wall. It was the hull of a ship. A huge ship. An impossibly huge ship. The words were near its bow, proudly displaying her name for the world to see.