Wild Kratts - Afraid of a Little Swim?

That Was A Close One

Martin's POV

He couldn't move, he couldn't speak. His lungs filled with water faster than his half-conscious self could realize it, his last vision being a blurry green shape slowly enlarging in front of him, then it all went black...

Chris' POV

He could see his brother lifelessly floating in the water, the sight frightening him. He reached him and wrapped his arms around his waist before pulling him back up to the surface, determined to save him from drowning.

Aviva, Koki and Jimmy were on the beach, nervously waiting for the brothers to show up. "Let's hope Martin's fine," just as Aviva spoke, two familiar heads popped out of the water.

"There they are!" Koki pointed at them. Chris was swimming with all of his remaining strength, bearing his and his brother's weight all together, but he was giving it all he got.

Finally, he made it. And as soon as he reached shore, he crawled out of the salty water, dragging his brother alongside him before dropping on the sand, breathing heavily.

"Chris!" He looked up to find Aviva's worried face. "Are you okay?"

He was certainly doing better than Martin, he thought... Martin!

He flung up, startling Aviva, and went to check on his brother, who was still lying face down on the sand. "Martin!" No reply. His form remained unmoving.

He turned him on his back: his eyes were closed shut, and he didn't seem to be breathing.

A lump suddenly formed in Chris' throat, and without a second thought, he began performing CPR on his unconscious brother. Not knowing how many compressions he had given him, Chris kept the procedure going, refusing to stop, not until he saw signs of life again, not until Martin was breathing again.

Each passing second felt more dreadful than the last, his heart even skipped a beat as a dark thought flew to his mind. At one point, he hadn't realized his eyes welling up.

"Come on, bro!" his voice cracked, arousing more inquietude from the crew. Jimmy was anxiously biting his nails, while Aviva and Koki just stood aside, sharing terrified expressions, accompanied with fresh tears. Just as he felt all hope was fading away, Martin flung up his head while intensely coughing out water, a mixture of abruptness and relief washing over his younger brother.

"That's right, let it all out," Chris said with a calm voice - hiding his previous irrational concern - as he soothingly rubbed his back, now more at ease knowing that breath was flooding back into his brother's lungs.

"Cough, C-Chris, cough..." Martin tried to speak, barely letting out his brother's name, but instead he was still coughing out the last bit of water from his lungs.

"Hey, don't try to talk right now, just focus on breathing," Chris squeezed his shoulder comfortingly, wearing a reassuring smile. Martin simply nodded when his coughing fits eventually came to an end, leaving him breathing heavily and with an abnormally pale face.

"Chris..." He looked longingly into his brother's eyes during a short pause, before collapsing in his arms. Chris held onto him tighter than ever, the pressure of the embrace helping both brothers tremendously, each in a certain way.

They stayed like that for a while, before Aviva broke the suffocated silence. "That was a close one," she breathed a sigh of relief, only dealing with the remains of her earlier feelings of worry and panic, similar to Koki and Jimmy.

Martin was alright now, that was all that mattered at that moment.