Washed Up ≫ A.I

Chapter [8]

 [Charlotte Kendall]

My arms pushed through the current with my fingers pulling at the strong rock on the walls. My nails would ripple in the dirty water as I was also blindly sucked backward. I was being pulled through a small hole underwater and panicking, never giving up on kicking. As soon as I was under, I just prayed Ashton had found a way out. I didn't want to run out of breath but my lungs were breaking to that point.

I grabbed another curve edged into the rock and pulled my weight up from the water, however nothing happened and that last pull sucked me under so damn fast, that air escaped my lungs entirely. That last pull suddenly released the suction of the water and my body was shot out of the underground cave like a rag doll. I let my breath go by the shock as I began flipping around through bubbles and hotter water. My arms flared all around searching for anything to grab but that only caused bruises and scratches. I kicked and flared outward as more air pockets left my mouth through my underwater screams. This was it, I was going to die.

The light to the other side was right in front of me but the water's force wasn't letting me go. Finally, I found myself screaming under the water for the last name I thought about before the black spots shaded in my eyes. Ashton.

He had disappeared shortly before me, and the only logical reason was that he was ahead, rushing through the hole like a rag doll himself.

Suddenly my body floated to the top and my head appeared over the surface. The length of the cave was still rushing however the ceiling above was high enough and filled with light air. "Ash-Ashton! I'm out!" I screamed while paddling through the fast current still hoping to find a stop. "Where are you?"

"Charlotte!" I heard his voice ahead in the distance. I decided to stop fighting the suction and allowed my body to be pulled through the cave towards him.

My legs scraped the bottom of the hole and nicked at rocks sticking out. My toes were clipped at and I was turned over onto my stomach. I hit the water face first before flipping over to slide down the water head first while lying on my back now. I was diving backward for the last half and then I shot out of the hole escaping into the night. I surfaced in a frantic, gasping desperately while my arms waved in the fresh air for support.

I was gasping and then I was laughing, "Ashton! Ashton are you alright?" I called in the dark behind the sound of a bubbling force. I was submerged in deep hot water and turned around to face the front side of a waterfall. "What the hell did we just fall into?" I ask the air while moving the water around me, still looking for him.

Above the short waterfall were the thickest trees, covering every inch of the surface around us. We somehow came out from inside the surroundings of the waterfall. However the bubbling wasn't the water hitting the surface, it was the water heating it. Water from inside the cave was from a dormant geyser.

I think we just found a death trap water slide.

"Charlotte!" Suddenly Ashton swam up from behind me and dragged us both out quickly.

He surfaced after me oddly enough and swam backward with me hovering across his stomach.

We paddled to the edge and climbed out before collapsing into the dirt, completely out of breath. My head rested beside his as I listened to his deep breaths, heating clouds above his face. Mist filled the air and everything felt hotter from the bubbling of the geyser. My toes and heels still sat in the water with Ashton's calves burning in the geyser heat as well. The exhaustion was excruciating, I felt the burn everywhere.

"Are you okay?" He finally gasped after collecting his breath.

"I think so," I say in a hushed tone.

Our breathing was in sync in a heavy pattern. I squeezed my eyes shut as I attempted to pull my feet out of the water but immediately stopped myself as soon as the numbness in my ankle snapped into reality.