Tethered Souls (Tethered Twins Book 2)

Chapter Four

The explosion rippled outwards rapidly, sending a burst of water towards us filled with shards of sharp plastic and components from the scoodo.

I felt the explosion pulse through my body, causing me to gasp out for air in shock. I breathed in through my mask whilst it started to crack from the pressure. In a panic I placed a hand over what remained of the mask, just enough to keep it functioning.

Chris, who had been closest to the blast, had been knocked backwards, his mask completely destroyed and his tanks hissing air out into the water.

Tom was hunched over holding tightly on to his chest, a look of pain on his face. Meanwhile the bullets continued to fly, leaving trails in the water, each one a reminder of how close the bullets came to hitting us.

Grace moved the light on her scoodo forwards and I started to swim towards it, everyone else doing the same to regroup. As the light glimmered under the water the direction of the bullets changed, now firing directly towards us. Realising the mistake she had made Grace pushed the scoodo away from her and we promptly swam away from where the light had been.

Momentarily reunited we shared masks with each other and made the most of the remaining air by passing tanks around. With our scoodos gone and our light source destroyed we swam through the darkness, the strong dragging the weak along hand in hand.

After we had swum away from the shooting I noticed it stop abruptly. This did nothing to calm my nerves. Hearing the gunfire coming from behind me had made me think that we were safe and putting distance between us and the shooters. In the now silent water it was impossible to ascertain if our location had been discovered. All I could hope was that the darkness of the night was concealing us as we swam deeper into the city.

The GPS on Grace's wrist emitted a small ray of light, which caused Grace to motion her arm to the right towards a small opening that branched off from the main flow of water.

As we approached the opening it became clear that Grace was directing us towards a tunnel that sat on the river bed. The tunnel was tall enough to stand up in, although it was still easier to swim and had a handrail either side that we used to pull ourselves inside.

The first thing that hit me in the tunnel was the smell. The cracks in my mask allowed it to enter and it filled my nose until I felt like I needed to gag.

It was on a different level to anything I'd ever known. Even rotting food and burning rancid fish couldn't compare to the smell.

As we descended deeper into the tunnel my nose started to adjust to the smell. It lingered on but the initial shock started to wane. Although he tried to appear tough it was clear from his face that Chris was thankful that the shock was short-lived, not having a mask on all the time meant he'd been even further exposed to the smell.

The tunnel was angled downwards so the further we swam the more it felt like we were descending into darkness. Had Grace not been in front of me I doubt I would have trusted anyone else to lead me down there.

Sunlight started to filter into the tunnel and it felt like morning was breaking around us. The anonymity of the night-time would soon be lost. As we swam closer to the source of the light we could see that it wasn't the sun, it was the brightness of artificial lights emanating from a hole overhead.

On seeing the light R&R sped up their swimming, no doubt hopeful for the chance to stop carrying Olive. When Chris saw the light he let go of the mask he had temporarily borrowed from Tom and swam forwards. A far more capable swimmer than the rest of us, he was the first to reach the hole and stick his head through it. The man seemed to have no concern for his own safety.