A Shard of Glass

Chapter 4 - The Escape

Dread lands in my stomach like a rock. His face is familiar. I have seen it for years in the photos down the hall. His face is bigger in real life. 

Jason, as steady as ever takes a pastry out of his bag and offers it to the boy. The boy cautiously moves forward, until his chubby fingertips make contact with the flaking pastry. He grabs it and sets off at a dangerous pace down the hallway towards the staircase on the far side of the corridor.

For a moment I am frozen in fear. Annie and Jason look to me for help, but my mind is blank. Hours of planning for the worst and when the worst arrives I freeze. My heart is beating in my ears and my body thrums to the rhythm.

"Eb?" Jason asks.

What do we do if we get caught? I risk Annie going to a work camp. Why did we bring Annie?

I force myself to take a shuddering breath and clear my mind.

"Run, pontoon, now," I whisper, panic lacing my voice.

Nothing more needed to be said. Jason takes off at a sprint, almost overtaking the child, who still waddles down the hall, and disappears effortlessly back through the floorboards. Once I am staring down into the hole, I pick up Annie who is at my heels, and pass her to Jason below.

"Muuuum", I hear the wails of the boy from one of the floors above, his heavy footsteps still audible. It's definitely time to go.

"Start swimming," I order, yelling down the hole. "I'll see you both there." Jason nods in response and dives down into the murky water. Annie follows.

I lower the bottom half of my body through the hole and use gravity to force my upper half to follow. I muffle a gasp in pain as I get stuck, but with desperate wriggling and ignoring and pain piercing my chest I drop into the floor space and then down onto the landing below. 

A different set of footsteps are running now. There is no time to replace the floorboards. We can never come back here anyway, I think to myself.

I take a short breath and dive from the top step into the lukewarm water.

The rucksack does little to slow me down as I power through the water. My heart rate is elevated and my adrenalin has spiked allowing me to push even harder than before. I hear the rush of the water and see the white peeks I create with each stroke.

I expertly navigate my way around the buildings recognising key features as I swim.

The rectangular, bright yellow pontoon is up ahead. It hasn't been used for a decade as the houses around this area were evacuated years ago. There is a ladder on one side with a few rungs missing but it is enough to pull myself up onto the platform. Immediately I look back at the way I came searching for movement in the water. About 200 meters away I see Jason. He looks tiny compared to the enormous buildings surrounding him. I squint to try to see further. 

The sun is slowly creeping towards the horizon behind me helping with visibility, but I can't see Annie anywhere.

When Jason reaches the pontoon I help him up.

"Where's Annie?" He asks as he looks into the distance. 

The sun has broken above the horizon but I still can't see her.

"I don't know," I whisper. I feel sick. Annie should be at least as fast as Jason. I stare down the corridor between the buildings but still can't see anything. 

Jason looks at me with a mixture of fear and uncertainty on his face, but the question is clear. What do we do now? If Annie was caught at the house, do we go back for her and risk losing the food? If only I hadn't frozen.