Blackwater (Episode IX)
Out of the Frying Pan...
Jack looked over his shoulder to see Sari’s face close to his own. She was peering up the chimney, her brows drawn together in concern.
“How will you fit?” she asked.
“I guess we’ll have to find out.”
“If you don’t?”
“We’ll figure something out.”
Sari pressed her lips together. “I read your file. Your life vest has failed over five times.”
Jack’s mouth opened slightly. He drew a sharp breath. “You’re kidding.”
“Wish I were.”
“Well, shit.”
Sari elbowed her way in and looked up the flue. “Ever been spelunking?” she asked.
Jack rubbed his jaw. “I tunnelled for a bit in Guam.”
It was silent a moment. Historically, those tunnels had been the source of major loss-of-life missions during the Sino-American War. The CCP wound hunt for and fill the passages with water.
Forcing a smile and releasing a slow, deep breath; Jack said, “I’ve got this. Don’t worry.”
“You should go first,” Sari said.
“Why?”
“Because you don’t be able to get your gun in the chimney.”
Once again Jack inhaled and exhaled heavily. He already felt claustrophobic. The trick was to think of anything else.
Sari smiled, the first she’d offered since they’d met in the Undertow. “I’ve got your sixth, boss.” She saluted—poorly.
Jack adjusted her elbow to the correct angle. “They never taught our spies any respect.”
“Nope.” Sari paused and reached into her boot and procured a wicked looking dagger. She held it out to him. “Here.”
Jack accepted it. “Thanks.”
They began their ascent. At first, it was a slow upward crawl but—as things were in the Undertow—gravity shifted so that up was no longer up. They were level. Jack could feel Sari at his heels. He had to wriggle on his belly, arms raised above him. The walls pressed on his chest and back. Was it in his head or was it hard to breathe? He wished that Sari would say something, anything to distract—
“Jack?”
“Hm?”
“I just realized we’ve worked together for almost two years.”
“Yeah?”
“And I never knew you tunnelled in Guam.”
“I don’t know much about you either,” he said.
“What do you wanna know?”
Jack paused his upward progression to peer down. He saw Sari’s face, a pale shape in the darkness. There wasn’t enough light to make out her expression. “I don’t know… Have you ever been to Guam?”
They both continued their slow crawl.
Sari was silent a moment. “I grew up there.”
“Did you like it?”
“Until the firebombing, yes.”
Jack hesitated before asking, “where were you when it happened?”
“I was auditioning for music school.”
“I didn’t know you played an instrument.”
He could hear the smile in her voice. “Mhm. I played violin.”
“Who would’ve guessed,” said Jack. “We’ll be best friends by the end of this.”
“Let’s,” agreed Sari. Jack couldn’t detect any jest in her tone. Then she added with a soft laugh, “We’ll be unstoppable. Poor Byron.”
At that moment, there was a sound at the foot of the tunnel.
“What was that?” Jack whispered down to Sari.
She didn’t answer immediately. Jack could hear Sari’s shaky breaths and the soft click of the safety being shut off of her weapon. Soot ground into the stone walls as something shifted. Finally, she whispered, “there’s someone else here. Someone’s following.”
“We’re almost there, so let’s hurry,” he urged. “C’mon.”
Jack disappeared into the dark and at some point, it swallowed Sari too.
Sari coughed up briney water. She was in the space beneath Jack’s hospital room. Looking up, she could see the grate.
Her gaze settled on the still black water. She leaned over the edge of the fissure, staring into her own eyes. They blinked on their own and her reflection reached out, beckoning her to return.
Come try again. You can save Isaac. You will not die. You will live and live and live and live.
Recoiling, Sari coughed again. The fog that hung over her mind since the drowned orchard continued to hang over her thoughts. In fact, it was worse now that she’d left. Or had she left?
The voice layered everything, like a mimicking child.
Where did Jack go?
Where did Jack go?
Suddenly it struck her. “Have to pull the life vest,” she mumbled, stumbling to her feet.
There were dozens of buttons, none of which made any sense.
A door opened and shut. Sari turned to see a round nurse standing there with a clipboard in hand and his mouth opened in a perfect ‘O’.
He took in her soaked clothes and dishevelled appearance. “Who—” he began.
Sari drew back the hammer on her gun. “Lock the door behind you.”
Lock the door behind you, the voice echoed.
Sari gave her head a harsh shake. “Shut up!” she said aloud.
“I-I didn’t say anything,” stammered the nurse.
She glared, not bothering to correct him. “I said lock the door,” she snapped.
With trembling hands, he did.
Gesturing to Jack, she ordered, “now pull him up.”
“Now, pull him up. Pull him up. Pull him up.” The voice was closer now. Sari felt something standing just behind her shoulder, a shadow that existed because she existed.
She could see Isaac out of the corner of her eye. If he was a ghost, would he have lost his warmth?
“This room is overcrowded,” she whispered.
“Huh?” asked the nurse.
She zeroed in on him. “I told you pull him up!”
“It won’t work,” he argued.
Sari gritted her teeth. “Do it or I pull the f—!” She cut herself off, forcing a deep breath. Whatever plagued her mind wanted her to be upset. Sari shut her eyes and exhaled through her nose. Then she opened her eyes and quietly said. “Do it or I will pull this trigger.”
“Okay, okay!”
He pulled a series of chords and buttons. He laid his thumb over a red switch and flicked it.
Nothing happened.
“When will it kick in?” Sari barked.
“It should start immediately.”
“Then, why won’t it work?”
“I told you! We’ve been trying to pull him up for weeks!”
Sari kicked a nearby chair and sent it flying. The nurse let out a cry and cowered in the corner. Annoyed, Sari paced before him. She noticed a tray and several injections laid neatly upon it.
She pointed. “What’s this?”
“Th-that’s a tranquilizer.”
She took one up in her free hand. Setting her jaw, Sari met the nurse’s eye. “Good.”
Sari stood over the unconscious nurse, chewing the inside of her cheek. She could take his clothes. That might be a good way out. First, however, she needed to wake Jack. But how?
The building trembled. Alarms blared. Sari rushed to the edge of the grate and witnessed water bubbling up and spilling into the room. She gasped softly. “What the hell?” she breathed.
Sari grabbed the switch and flicked it again and again.
“C’mon, Jack,” she whispered. “Wake up.”
Bring him back. Bring the breaker back.
Two voices in her head. Hers, the entity, now one more…
Sari could see herself from behind, she was kneeling by Jack’s side with the life vest switch in her hands.
Her hands curled around the lip of the grate. Those weren’t her hands.
From behind, Sari heard the grate slide open. She whipped around, half expecting to see Jack.
It wasn’t.
She frowned. “Who the hell are you?”
A woman in a once-white leather jumpsuit stood before her. She smiled. Sari’s eyes lowered to the ray gun in her hand, the one pointed right at her gut. The engraving glittered: F L O VV D 4 8
Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed.
This story was only meant to be six episodes but here we are at episode nine! I’d like to thank everyone who participated and those who read. This was so much fun to write and even more fun to read others’ amazing tales.
See the list of stories here:
The Blackwater Files
Welcome to Elysium™. We are so glad you decided join us! Death is inevitable. For all of human-history, mankind has sought to elude it. Immortality was believed unattainable. Here at Elysium, we believe the future is now and from this moment you’re part of that journey.
As a final note: I’m super excited to say that I will be working with in a crossover for the series finale (episode X). Stay tuned for the next and final episode of my branch of the Blackwater Files.
Sari meets Rikki! Can't wait to see what happens next!
I'm not a fan of Sci-fi yet somehow you've sold me on this story, keep writing Chronicler! Loved that ending, I like the rise in tension throughout the story.