Poison Bay Read Online Free PDF Page B

screamed. “The water’s too cold. You won’t survive!” Twelve degrees, that’s all she could think of. With ice on the bottom, and Bryan’s mouth frozen open eternally. And she had made it happen by imagining it that first day.
    The men dived frantically after Bryan, again and again, disappearing for eternal seconds before bobbing up to gulp air.
    The whole time, pressed hard against the rock wall, Sharon screamed—thin, terrified, animal noises. Rachel tried to quieten her, an arm around Sharon’s shoulders, rubbing her arm, rubbing, rubbing.  
    Kain and Erica stood like pillars of salt, watching with their mouths open. Callie ditched her pack and scrabbled back down the brutal rocks they’d climbed just minutes ago, her goal the slippery section near the waterline, low enough and wide enough for the swimmers to come ashore. She stood panting, pointing the camera in their general direction, but couldn’t bring herself to focus on the viewfinder.
    The two men were tiring.
    “Adam! Jack! You have to come in,” she yelled, but the wind grabbed her words and flung them into the mountains.
    Finally the two men began to swim for the position where she stood, and she was glad of her orange jacket to guide them to shore in the failing light. Her heart hammered against her ribcage. The sea was still rising, sometimes slopping across her boots, but she ignored it.  
    Adam drew close, but he couldn’t grip the slimy rock. Each time, the sea sucked him away. She shoved the camera in her pocket and tried to grab him, but he was pulled from her grasp, and she felt her back muscles scream.
    “Kain!” Callie screamed. Still on the platform above, he stared at her, eyes wide. “Help me get him in!”
    Finally his paralysis broke. He shouldered out of his pack and clambered down to where she stood. His strong arms grabbed Adam’s hand on the next heave of water, and hauled him ashore over the rock.
    Adam lay gasping, and Callie looked back to Jack. She grabbed the camera again and pointed it towards him, out of some inexplicable instinct to honor his wishes, and thought: Am I filming his death? He was maybe twenty meters from shore now, caught in the current. He was trying to swim, but his arms slopped feebly against the waves.
    Kain’s voice boomed, startling Callie. “Swim across the current, Jack! Don’t swim against it!”
    Jack seemed to hear and struck out in a different direction. After just a few strokes, he disappeared under a huge swell. When he finally came up, he sputtered and looked around desperately.
    Callie realized she was weeping aloud. Oh God, save him .
    Kain cast his boots and jacket aside and dived into the water, striking out smoothly towards Jack. Even his effortless strokes weren’t fast enough, and Jack disappeared again.
    The tawny head reappeared, mouth gaping to suck in air, just as Kain reached him. In one fluid movement Kain tucked him under his arm in the lifesaving position. He pulled him back across the heaving water with efficient, practiced strokes.
    Drawing near to Callie, Kain trod water, and judged his approach. He swept ashore on the peak of the wave, dragging Jack with him, their clothes and flesh tearing against the rock. The two lay tangled, Kain catching his breath while Jack vomited seawater and heaved with shock and exhaustion.
    Kain clambered upright and began a first-aid assessment of Jack, while glancing over his shoulder at Adam, who was shivering violently and weeping in gasps.
    “Where was Kain when Bryan was sinking?” Erica said, materializing at Callie’s shoulder. “Surely if anyone could have saved him, he was the one.”
    Callie snapped, “Everyone reacts differently to shock.” But disturbingly similar questions were swirling in her own mind.  

8

    We were supposed to be eating at a restaurant tonight . That was all Jack could think of as a small part of his brain listened to Callie and Rachel rummaging in packs behind him. Not much food left—why