Undercover Badge; Next Generation

Chapter fifteen

Darkness.

***

When I felt consciousness kiss my frontal lobes, I thought I was going to sit up, cough out a shit load of water, thank the Baywatch-esque styled hot shirtless guy and we'd ride off into the sunset and live happily ever after.

It was idealistic, I know.

So, that didn't happen. Well, I did sit up and the water did come out. But when I opened my eyes I was still in the trunk, and I was still cold and the water was still freezing. I sat up, and my forehead bent back as water forced its way up my nose and filled my mouth considering it couldn't pass my ductaped lips. I felt like I was dying. And after minutes of the water spewing from my nose I could take a small breath in the cup of air I'd been gifted. Looking down I could see the tape had come loose, folded over in one corner of my mouth. So I closed my eyes and held my breath and began to rub my face against the material. It took four tries, but the tape came loose and with more rubbing, the resilient tape stuck and stayed to the submerged fabric.

I put my face to the air. It was warm and I was starting to feel lightheaded. Carbon dioxide poisoning from air my lungs had plundered for oxygen. But my brain flew.

I had drowned. Drowned. And somehow I sat up, coughed the water out and woke up. That was not possible.

All my limbs were frozen numb. I needed to get out of here and I needed my hands to do it. In the gap of the lip, a sharp twist of metal spiked in where it had folded toward the trunk's interior, and so I gulped a breath, twisted away and set about trying to tear the plastic free. I hooked it there, and used my body weight to twist and pull at the tie. Again I had to try multiple times. One snapped. My hands were free, however bloody. The cold numbed my reaction the the tearing of my skin. I blew out the air I'd taken and watched it sit with what oxygen was left.

Ok. Ok. We'll deal with this later but first we need to get out... the lid wasn't opening. But, could the back seats fold forward? It was a Hail Mary.

So I took the fullest breath I could, turned the other way and kicked at the seat. It gave three inches. I twisted around and shoved my shoulder to it, braced my feet against the lid and pushed. The seat folded and I drifted into the car.

The men were there, in the front and passenger seat.
They were dead.

Bile built in my throat and I'd begun getting insanely light headed, I didn't have the time. I'd throw up when I was out of here.

It was dark under the water, like a navy lit midnight. The doors were one of those old ones with a classic lock you could just pull up- I did and pushed at the door. It didn't budge. A mewl of frustration left my throat and the desperation clutched my chest again. But the window- the front left window was broken apart, and I could get through it.

I steeled myself and grabbed the headrests, trying desperately not to stare at their ice blue, corpsy pallor, their wide eyes, the way their hair floated. I pulled myself forward, having to shimmy my hips and bend at an odd angle with my back to the red haired man in the passenger seat. I could feel him against my back- his body. I was getting sick, and he was dead oh god, oh god.
I grabbed at the frame and pulled myself out, shimmying, shifting, arching to avoid contact with the -oh, God- corpse.
And then, head and shoulders clearing the car, I looked up and saw the surface.
But I was starting to loose consciousness, fast. I had one chance. I put my feet to the roof and kicked as hard as I dared, opening my mouth and breathing out as I did so the air pressure wouldn't destroy my lungs. I counted the seconds from the roof.

One.

It was so cold. I was freezing cold and I couldn't feel if I was moving with water against my numb flesh.