the windowsill, and I pushed off, letting my body fall. Only a moment after I hit, Ryker landed next to me. The smell of the rotten food, feces, and dead animals spurted up my nose, choking me. Gooey, slimy items I didn’t even want to think about encircled me. I pushed through the bile and tried to get on my feet. Ryker hopped out with ease. Turning, he grabbed my waist, lugging me from the bin.
His feet were ready to run, and the second mine hit the ground, his powerful legs shot him off like a rocket. I tried to keep pace. And adrenaline did a good job—for a while. I started to lose the energy I needed to keep going.
“Come on. We are not safe yet,” he chided me. We ran down Fifteenth Avenue to the Ballard Bridge. My mouth went slack when I saw the familiar forest green span. Lightning from the ES had carved a huge chunk from it, destroying one side of the passage. The watch tower, which used to stand in the middle, was gone, leaving an open angry wound. Pieces of it floated on top of the frosty channel below. No railing or even a southbound lane was left, leaving it exposed. It didn’t look safe to cross, but it didn’t seem to stop us. The DMG was more of a threat than an unstable bridge. It was still attached to the other side, which was good enough.
I glanced over my shoulder to see if anyone was following us. Mistake. The movement caused me to drift to the side. My foot slipped on the fresh rainwater coating the metal. I stumbled, my head diving forward. I reached to grab for an object to stop me. Too late. The steel crossing was no longer underneath me. My stomach dropped as I plunged to the icy water below. Of all the dangerous things after me, this was not how I wanted to die. Taking a header off a bridge.
“Zoey!” Ryker’s deep voice boomed. As gravity dragged me into the lake, all I thought was, He said my name. He actually said it and not simply “human.” Then I hit. Frigid water slapped my exposed skin. Ice picks stabbed into me, twisting with immobilizing agony. Breath was sucked from my lungs as water wrapped me, pulling me down. This taught me not to have learned how to swim. It wasn’t like I had a parent who put me in classes when I was a kid. No foster parent I had would pay for an extra like swimming lessons. As an adult, it was something I eventually wanted to do but had yet to accomplish.
Oh, the irony.
My arms and legs moved frantically but not necessarily working together or helping. Water flooded the messenger bag around my neck, towing me deeper. Panic and cold tore all common sense from my brain. My lungs twitched, screaming for air.
Sinking.
My oxygen gave out, and I gulped at the water, filling my lungs with liquid. My mind grew hazy, my limbs no longer working.
I was going to die.
Through the murky darkness, arms reached for me, circling my waist and pulling me to the surface. We broke through, and I gasped for air, tugging it in with greedy gulps.
Coughs ripped at my throat as I hacked up some of the water I consumed. Ryker kept his form close to mine, giving me a heat source. The water had been so cold my extremities became immobile.
“Zoey, listen to me. I need you to climb on my back. Can you do it?”
My teeth rattled so hard it looked like I was nodding my head. He twisted me around and looped my arms around his neck, then swam. I floated behind him and curled my arms tighter around his neck, bringing me higher on his back. He reached the water’s edge. Oil and garbage whirled around us the closer we got to the shore.
He pulled us onto a rocky patch of beach, if you could call it that. I slid off his back and rolled onto the pebbles, coughing and sputtering. My lungs rejected the water I inhaled.
He lay on his back next to me. “That was an unexpected and creative means of escape.” He kept his eyes on the clouds above, water clinging to his lashes. “If you wanted to go for a swim in Lake Union, I would suggest summer next time.” He took a few deep breaths. “They will be searching for us soon,