Save ourselves- One Direction

Roxanne

The water was cold. Colder than I would have expected, but I tried not to pay too much attention as the boys and I pushed the raft into the water. Linda was already in the canoe and started paddling. She was giving the direction. The original plan was that I would still be in the boat with her and help her paddle, but with Avery now gone we needed everyone on the raft. It wasn't far to paddle but it was a different story to swim with a heavily laden raft. Niall was on my left while Harry and Louis were on my left and right. Zayn was on my right. He was meant to be a substitute. If one of us got too tired, he would push for them and then we would switch again. When the water finally sloshed against my chest, I gasped.

"Fuck, it's cold!", I cursed softly.

Then came the moment when none of us could stand and we all had to swim. With all my strength I braced my arms against the raft and pushed it in the direction Linda was pointing. Even though I knew I had to pace myself, I was already having to push myself harder than I had thought. Hopefully I would make it back at all.

"Hey, are you okay?" asked Niall next to me.

"Keep it down! We can't be heard!", I hissed.

In fact, every sound around us seemed too loud. The splashing of the waves against the canoe and the raft. The sound of Linda's paddle when she dipped it into the water. The creaking of the wooden boards from the raft. Even our own breathing seemed too loud.

"How much further is it?" gasped Harry beside us.

"We've just started!" hissed back Zayn.

"Linda, can you even see which way we have to go?" he then asked.

I didn't understand Linda's answer, but Zayn seemed satisfied.

"She says we're slowly approaching the middle."

I can't prove it to this day, of course, but I think Linda was lying a bit about that statement. Because we didn't reach the actual middle until what felt like an eternity later. As Louis had been the last to be put through the wringer by Hempton, he was of course in limited health. But he gritted his teeth and didn't make a sound until he let Zayn replace him. I was very proud of him. But at that moment, my thoughts were circling around completely different things. A thousand questions crowded into my head. Would we make it to the shore? Would we be seen from the other side? What should we do then so as not to betray Ed? Should one of us sacrifice himself? Were we being too loud or too conspicuous right now? What would happen to us if we were caught? What would happen to Linda? Would I even make it there and back with so little swimming experience? And in between the questions, all I could feel was the coldness of the water and the darkness around us and the fear that lay over it all, the one blanket you put on someone's face. A few times my thoughts really made me so afraid that for a moment I thought I couldn't breathe.

Nevertheless, I always managed to calm down enough to push on and swim. Even though my adrenaline was running really high due to the fear, I felt that with every metre it was getting harder to push the raft at all. But I didn't want to give up and let myself be replaced. Louis was much worse off than I was and had to save his strength.

"Roxy, are you okay?" whispered Niall beside me.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I gasped beside him.

"Do you want someone to take over for you?" he asked anxiously.

"No, Louis needs the rest. We just need to make it to shore and then I'll rest," I brought out breathlessly.

"Are you sure?"

"I can do this, Niall."

"Okay, how much further is it?" he then called out in a whisper.

Again Linda gave an answer I didn't understand.