I shoved Kieran to one side, and surged forward along the tunnel toward where Jake had been. What the hell had happened? How could he just disappear?
Beneath the water, I felt a hand grip my ankle.
And pull me under.
Cold water pressed against me as I went down. I kicked and thrashed. But I was being pulled into some kind of underwater pit.
And then, just as quickly, I was being yanked back to the surface. Kieran had reached down and gotten hold of me. By the time my face broke the surface, I had figured out what was going on. I gulped in some air.
“Let go of me!” I said. “Jake’s down there!”
Taking a final breath, I shook off Kieran and sank down again into the pit. It must have been some kind of drain tube, heading vertically down from the main tunnel. There was a small but steady current pulling at me as I dropped down four or five feet. When I hit bottom, I thrashed around. I could feel pieces of garbage, scraps of metal and torn up coils of wire. Then I connected with Jake’s leg.
It was wrapped up in some of the wire. The more he kicked and tried to free himself, more entangled he became. But I could tell that his movements were getting weaker. I wasn’t sure how long he’d been underwater, but it felt like forever. I had to get him back up to the surface. Now.
Fumbling around in the cold water, I reached into the pocket of my cargo pants for a wire cutter. I got it out, then pointed it down around his leg. I cut blindly, hoping I wasn’t connecting with any flesh by accident. A couple of snaps, and Jake was freed of the wire. He started floating toward the surface. I pushed off from the bottom, trying to get us both up as fast as possible.
We broke the surface at the same time. Kieran helped me up, and together we half-dragged, half-floated Jake back down the tunnel toward the entrance. Jake was conscious. Coughing up water. But he was breathing.
It wasn’t until we reached the tunnel entrance that I realized how badly Jake was bleeding. There were still pieces of wire wrapped around his leg. It was a bloody mess of torn jeans and steel. Like I’ve said before, I’m brave but I can’t handle gross. I panicked.
“Stop,” I said. “I’m going to call for an ambulance.”
“No!” said Kieran. He looked at me across Jake’s body. “You want to explain to the cops what we’re doing here?” We kept going toward the car, Jake stumbling between us through the dry leaves of the woods. When we finally got there, we put Jake in the backseat. The bleeding seemed to be slowing down. I wrapped the leg in an old blanket, then put my jacket over Jake. He was shivering from the cold. Maybe from shock. I got in the front passenger seat. Kieran opened the driver’s-side door but then stopped.
“We need to go back,” said Kieran.
“What? Into the tunnel? Are you crazy? We need to get Jake to a hospital!” I said.
“Just back to the tunnel entrance. We left the grate off of the tunnel. Someone could figure out that we’ve been in there. Blow the whole thing,” said Kieran. He was calm and focused. How could he not be freaking out?
“That is not the most important thing right now. Jake is hurt-don’t you get it?”
Kieran didn’t move.
“Get in the car,” I said, “or I call the cops right now.”