The B Girls - By Cari Cole Page 0,71

Too slow! The water was going to win.

"Lucy? You have to stay with me," Jane called.

Lucy heard and stopped fighting her pack. Her feeling had been right, she was going to die in this hole but Jane didn't have to. If Lucy didn't let the panic win, she might be able to do her part to shove Jane to safety. If only Mae would hurry.

The makeshift stretcher started inching toward freedom again but not nearly fast enough.

Did Mae even realize it was raining? Was there water running toward her as well?

The first trickle of water slithered up Lucy's leg.

She shrieked like a B horror movie heroine.

"Now what?" Jane asked.

"The water's running this way."

"That doesn't make any sense. There's a much better way for it to go in the last room."

"Unless it's got another way in here with us," Lucy said.

"I think I know how," Jane said. "A few yards back I felt a little breeze on my face. I thought I was imagining it but there must be a small opening to the surface."

The water rolled under Lucy's hands and slid under the stretcher. At this point it was a paper-thin dampness. But that was bound to change.

Lucy blocked out everything except the need to push Jane as close to safety as she could before the water overcame her.

The stretcher picked up speed.

"Mae must have realized what's happening," Jane said.

Lucy didn't hear her. Her world was reduced to the feel of the water soaking more of her coveralls with each passing second and the sight of Jane's head moving ahead of her one painful inch at a time and the sound of water over rocks that would have been pleasantly soothing in a summer garden.

The stretcher continued to slide and Lucy kept pace with it.

The water was now covering her hands and still rising. It was harder to push against the slick floor and Lucy was doing more slithering than crawling.

Lucy saw the water trickle into Jane's ear.

"Whose brilliant idea was it for me to be trussed up like a turkey and shoved into this fucking hole?" Fear tinged Jane's voice.

The stretcher slowed down again. The water poured in faster.

Lucy paused to try and pull her pack in front of her and fell behind.

"What are you doing?" Jane raised her voice over the sound of the water and the blanket sloshing through.

Lucy didn't bother to answer as she continued to struggle with the pack in the small space. Finally through a combination of lifting her body on hands and toes and pushing to one side of the passage, she managed to get the pack in front of her and scramble double fast to catch up to Jane.

The rising water licked at Lucy's shins. It had to be coming in from more than one point to be filling the tunnel so fast.

Lucy put a hand on Jane's left shoulder and tried to shove the backpack under Jane's head as she crawled. The extra effort left her breathless but after a few clumsy tries, Jane figured out what Lucy was trying to do and heaved her head up off the ground. Lucy shoved the pack home, buying Jane a few extra inches above the rising water.

Gasping for air, Lucy crawled along pushing on the pack to keep it in place under Jane's head.

The water reached her stomach. Her abdominal muscles contracted painfully in an attempt to lift away from the cold water.

Jane's face was still above water, propped on the pack, but Lucy was getting tired and the water was still rising.

The stretcher's slide came to an abrupt halt.

Lucy used breath she couldn't spare in a low keening moan and mustered the effort to shove hard at Jane's shoulders.

The stretcher didn't budge but Jane yelped in pain.

"Stuck," Jane said.

Lucy raised her head to try and get a breath past her panic-closed throat. Jane was going to drown in here with her unless she did something. She squeezed her eyes closed, summoned the last shred of rationality left in her brain and forced herself to take just one second to think.

Action. She had to take some action.

Stop being such a fucking wimp. Get it together and act like a grown ass woman instead of some weak-minded twit.

Lucy opened her eyes, did a push-up, and swept her light around the edges of the stretcher looking for the snag. She found the problem. One of the straps they'd used to tighten the blanket around Jane's thighs was caught on a small knob of rock on