UnBound - Neal Shusterman Page 0,30
if trapped in the infinitude where both the ocean and sky collide.
Roland screams, but he’s been dragged out too far for anyone to hear. He tries to paddle, but his arms grow weak, and the water begins to feel like gelatin. So he cries, only to have his tears swallowed by the ungrateful sea.
And then suddenly something bumps the bottom of his board.
Roland’s heart quickens. He begins to hyperventilate. He feels a pulse in the water beneath him. Undulations that grow in intensity. The pressure swells until a powerful force explodes upward, launching Roland into the air, ripping him from his board.
9 • Seventeen
Roland keeps a close eye on Zane throughout practice, and it’s not until the last water break that he makes his next move. Roland notices that Valerie sits on the bleachers with a few friends, waiting for Zane to finish practice. Now is the perfect time to close in. He spots Zane across the room, off the mat on the hard wood floor, navigates through a sea of wrestlers, and settles over him.
Zane looks up from his water bottle. “What do you want?” he sneers.
“I want to settle this.” Roland is confident and collected.
“You want a black eye now?” Zane scoffs.
“No, I want to settle this like men. On the mat . . .” Roland decides to cut to the chase. “I want a rematch.”
Zane beams arrogance. “I already beat you.” And he turns his back, letting it sting.
“If you win, I’ll leave her alone.”
This catches Zane’s attention. He stops, growling over his shoulder, “You’ll stay away from her no matter what.”
Roland knows all eyes are on them, so he takes another calculated risk. “And what happens if I don’t?”
Zane’s eyes spark red with anger, and he spins back around.
Roland grins. “Now we’re talking.”
Roland knows that Zane wants to make a statement, especially with Valerie there in the bleachers. However, Zane takes in his surroundings and realizes that he’s cornered, unable to start another fight in front of everyone. He shakes his head, incredulous. “I don’t get you, Taggart. What hell do you get out of all of this?”
“If I win, I take your spot on the team,” Roland says.
Zane laughs it off with feigned bravado, but Roland knows at the end of the day he can’t back down from a challenge, especially with Valerie watching. So Zane takes the bait and clicks his headgear on. “You ready to be humiliated again?”
Roland flashes his teeth, showing off a bloodstained smile. And he begins circling in his wrestling stance, ready to strike at any moment, closing in on his prey.
10 • Thirteen
The shark missed him in the first attack, but only because it caught the edge of his boogie board instead, taking out a chunk. Now it circles, its steely fin splitting water in the distance. Roland is getting closer and closer to the cliffs. He clings to what’s left of his board and kicks, his leg bleeding, having been grazed by the beast. He thinks about his sister, wondering if she’s found help; about his stepfather, who’s probably beaten his mother’s head in by now; about his screams, swept up and devoured by the wind.
When Roland finally reaches the shale cliffs, his chest is throbbing. He searches frantically along the stone wall for divots that might help him climb, but the cliff is steep and slimy, offering little to grab hold of. Roland manages to stand on his board and pull himself up, but a wave washes him off the rock’s slippery surface, and he’s back in the water.
The beast is coming for him. He can feel it—and his stomach knots.
The dark mass ripples stealthily through the water, terrifying in its silence.
Roland claws the wall of shale, his fingers raw and bleeding.
The predator strikes and rips away the rest of Roland’s boogie board, tearing it to pieces.
Roland clamps his eyes shut, wishing that he could snap them open and wake up, safe and warm in his bed—that this would all be just a dream—but reality hits him fast.
The shark comes around again, brushing past his side.
Roland tries the rocks once more, digging his raw fingers into the shale. And this time he pulls himself up, almost out of the water.
The shark approaches one last time, even faster than before. Roland grips the next protruding stone and pulls harder. The shale stone cracks loose, sending Roland falling, rock in hand.
Roland’s heart sinks to the farthest depths of his stomach, so low he feels as if he’ll be dragged