Before Katie could react, Cyrus dived again.
“Yeah ‘cause that last one was a piece of cake. Everyone can easily hold their breath for two minutes,” Katie said sarcastically. Tyson gave her a quick understanding look, took a deep breath and dove under. Katie followed him.
One of the first things Katie noticed was that Cyrus was right; it was a longer dive. They made their way through debris and large pieces of wood. Ahead of them was the majority of the ship, mostly intact, just underwater.
Katie and Tyson followed Cyrus through a gap in the ship’s hull. By this time, Katie was ready to breathe in water as she couldn’t stand not breathing for another second. Yet again, seemingly just in time, Cyrus had them resurface.
This time they were inside the ship. They looked around the small air pocket that Cyrus had led them to. To their sides, there were the wooden walls of the ship that hadn’t been damaged by the crash. The water level rose up and down, unsteadily and erratically, occasionally rising high enough to immerse their heads.
“From here things will get tricky,” Cyrus said.
“And dangerous,” added Tyson, spitting out water.
Cyrus nodded. “Right. We will have to be more careful. It gets hard from here to tell how far down we must go and how far we may have to swim before we can reach air again.”
“I can hold my breath pretty long,” Tyson said. “The last dive wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be.”
“Good,” Cyrus said, nodding his approval. “What about you, Katie?”
Katie shook her head, still blinking the burn out of her eyes from the salt water, “No, not too long. I almost drowned in the last dive.”
Cyrus nodded slowly in understanding. “Not to worry,” he said. “Tyson and I will go first to see what’s ahead. One of us will come back to get you and show you how to get through.”
“I don’t like it,” Katie said in a small voice.
“I’ll be fine,” Tyson said, grabbing her head and kissing the top of it. They looked at each other for a moment, then Katie nodded and Tyson dived under, following Cyrus.
Katie didn’t know how long she was waiting. It felt too long for her. What if they drowned? She wouldn’t know. What if they just got lost?
What if something happened to her while they were gone? Would she be able to escape? Would they go looking for her or think she was dead?
And then she thought that that thought was selfish and worried about Tyson and Cyrus again.
Cyrus wouldn’t let any of that happen. She knew he wouldn’t. Still, she felt like she was waiting for too long. Soon she began to shiver, the cold temperature of the sea cooling her unmoving body dramatically.
Water splashed her face as Cyrus resurfaced. He spat water and shook his hair. “All right, we think we’ve found the best way. It leads to another part of the ship which is much larger, and we can walk through it. Tyson is there waiting for us.”
Katie nodded, still shivering.
“Just stay close. Take a deep breath and follow me closely. We’ll just take a straight path.”
Katie was unsure of her ability to make it, but she didn’t really have a choice. She wanted to find her mother’s necklace, not only because someone else could misuse it, but because it was a reminder of her mother. It was a part of her.
Cyrus looked at Katie. She could tell that he was also worried. She nodded with all the determination she could muster.
“Deep breath,” Cyrus reminded her and then dove under. Katie inhaled deeply, filling her lungs as much as she could and dove under the water. When she opened her eyes, she saw Cyrus up ahead. He looked back to make sure she was there. He gave her a thumbs-up and swam forward.
Katie knew that she wasn’t a bad swimmer. She just wasn’t used to it. It had been a while since she last went swimming, and she had never tested how long she could hold her breath.
Nearly a minute passed. A minute, just a short period of time, but still, too long underwater. Katie pushed herself further, knowing that the only alternative was a painful, frightening death. Cyrus looked back to check on her and then swam faster. Katie sped up too.
Almost a minute and a half, Katie couldn’t take it much longer. Cyrus swam up towards the surface. Katie swam up towards him. She could see distorted rays of light, indicating that she was near air.
Before Cyrus had surfaced, Katie heard a loud noise. One of the wooden beams that had been part of the ship dislodged itself and fell towards them.
Katie almost screamed, opened her mouth slightly and choked a bit, but she didn’t open her mouth again. The wooden beam nearly hit Cyrus, but he steered himself out of harm’s way. The beam continued its slow descent, towards Katie. She panicked. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Cyrus flailing his hands, surely telling her urgently to move out of the way. He pointed up.
Katie gave up. This is where it would end; she was going to drown herself, as it was the obvious fate that awaited her. As the beam neared her, she screamed. Bubbles spewed out of her mouth. She felt water fill her mouth and let it go into her lungs. Air bubbles came out of her and a few more spilled from her mouth and then there was no more oxygen; just heavy water that her lungs refused to take in.
Her vision that was so quickly fading just moments earlier, leaving her in a blur of whiteness, slowly came back to her. The water in her lungs wasn’t so
