Dance Moms - Lorelei (2) Finding Clara

Chapter 8 : Drown

Passing the river was a challenge. Chloe strapped her belongings on a door panel she found, pushing it across the water like a raft. The ground beneath slowly descending by her steps, the water was reaching chest height. Then the ground suddenly disappeared under her feet.

Caught the door frame with one hand, she tried to swim up, but the new hiking boots were like dead weight, restraining her leg movements, pulling her under the surface. She held onto the floating door with one hand, trying to reach down and remove the boot with another. The laces were strapped above the ankles, and there was no way she could pull them off like standard shoes. Then on the brink of panic, her fingers slipped off the wet door panel.

Sinking deep, Chloe using both hands to untie the boot lace. It could be easily done seeing the knot, but in murky water she was as good as blind. She tried to feel the ball of knot, pulling and tugging. Pressure began building at her ear drums, light from the surface fading, pulling her into the dark abyss.

She held her breath for as long as she could, her lungs were burning in distress, until it reached breaking point, and began sucking freezing water into her lungs, sending her entire body into tremor.

"Happy now? You should have turn around long ago. Now you're going to be fish food, and no one will ever know where you end up!" she heard her subconscious telling her.

* * *

Without steering, the wooden door was floating aimlessly on the silent river. A hand burst through the water surface, slamming a boot hard on the panel.

"I didn't come all this way to be fish food!!" she told her reflection.

Chloe holding the door for dear life, inhaled deeply and coughed out the water in her lungs. Her other hand popped out of the water, slammed the other boot on the floating door.

She pushed with her feet, slowly moving across the river with the little strength she got left, until she found footing once again.

Out of the water, Chloe felt the world weighing down on her. She has just survived from drowning, the horrifying experience drained the life out of her. She dropped to the muddy ground, vomited violently, flushing river water out of her system, until she finally collapsed, panting and shivering in the cold wind.

"Give it up!" her reflection said. "It's a miracle you live, you're not going to make it in this shape!"

I can't stop! Not now! Chloe was too weak to speak, all she could think was how close she was to the church.

The cold has drained much of the strength out of her. She crawled to the strapped of belongings, shivering, reached inside the backpack and took out the insulin pen Doctor Arroway gave her. She bit off the cap and stabbed it at the side of her left thigh.

It didn't go in, the pain automatically triggered her hand to retreat.

"You're pathetic! You can't even save yourself, let alone others!"

"Watch me!"

Chloe held the pen to her thigh again, this time instead of pushing it into the skin, she rolled her entire weight over it, leaving no room for doubt.

The needle pierced through her pants and into the skin, she let out a painful cry. Looking down at the needle deep in her thigh, she held the pen with trembling fingers, clenched her teeth and pressed the end, injected the drug into her muscles, then she collapsed again.

She has never taken insulin, and did not know what to expect, but moments later her heart began pounding so hard she could feel her finger tips throbbing, so hard that her head was about to explode.

It was not the effect she was hoping for, not a miracle drug that send her to warmth and clarity, but a raw motor set off inside her, driving her body to wear it out. She pushed herself to one knee, steadied her footing, then set firmly with the other foot.

Standing up, her breathing grew rapid trying to cope with her heartbeat, her brain was throbbing so hard she could hardly think straight.

It took some time to regain her focus. She has crossed the river, that would put her within a mile range from the church, all she had to do was finding it out of the vast wasteland.

She closed her eyes and tried to recall the terrain in her last visit. She remembered landing at the river, crossing through a land of woods and arrived the church. She opened her eyes again and looked for woods.

There was a line of trees to her left, she couldn't make out any houses, but she figured the church would be somewhere along that line.