Page 117 of The Last Hope

I relax suddenly.

He’s right.

If she’s feeling my hysteria, it’s not going to help her one bit. And if I’m underwater, that may even be worse for her.

He’s right.

I realize that this whole time, he’s been trying to be calm for her, and he’s doing a better job than I.

I’m messing it all up. I go limp in Stork’s hold but I let out an uncontrollable sob.

“Just breathe,” Court tells me, silent tears running down his cheeks.

Zimmer shakes his head, eyes glazed on the water. “They should be up by now,” he says. “That’s it. I’m fykking going in.” He’s about to jump, nobody stopping him.

But suddenly, three bodies breach the surface.

They all gasp for air.

A pool of red blooms around Franny, Padgett, and Gem like it’s staining the ocean. Padgett supports both girls the best she can and kicks over to us. Franny grabs one plank and Gem grabs the other. With Stork’s and my help, they both manage to rise fully onto the solid holograms.

Blood streams down the right side of Gem’s face. She groans in pain. Padgett’s usual cool exterior fissures. Her chin quivers and she holds her sister tightly to her chest.

Franny winces, eyes stinging with tears, and I can feel the gnarly wound on her back. It blazes like a thousand hells. Blood soaks the fabric of her shirt and drips from her back to her legs to the plank she stands on.

“Can you walk?” Court asks, sensing her wooziness.

“I think so…” She teeters, unsteady on her feet. “Those crocodiles… they aren’t like the ones in the Saltare-3 museum.” She pants, out of breath, and then coughs up a bit of water.

Gem holds a hand over her right eye and when she lifts it up, I see the mangled socket where her eyeball should be.

Padgett hugs her tighter and says, almost breathless, “They were long-armed, and they used their claws.”

The waves crash hard behind us.

“We have to move,” Court says, caution shading his gaze, but I feel his relief. Tenfold. Just glad Franny’s alive. He can patch her back up later. “The waves are growing.”

“She won’t be standing for long if she keeps bleeding,” I tellCourt, and I’m about to suggest carrying her, but they both send me a look that says,you can’t, Mykal.

Because I’d feel her wooziness, and if I trip, we both could end up in the ocean.

“You can ride on my back,” Stork suddenly tells Franny. “I’ll carry you.”

She nods without hesitation.

No one wastes time arguing, and Stork’s eyes pin to her wounds in deeper concern. “Let’s get off this bloody ocean.”

TWENTY-EIGHT

Franny

Horrific screams pitch the night sky, and then muffle in a trembling moan.

Gem.I hug my knees. Listening to her agony while Court cauterizes a deep gash where her eyeball used to be.

Before reaching the city, we came upon a crumbling, abandoned structure. Roof destroyed, the ocean laps against the mossy stone walls, the flooring damp beneath us. I imagine this must’ve been a house once upon an era, and over centuries, the thunderous sea took the home, and the family left for the calm mainwater of Montbay.

The mainwater is far in the distance. I only spy glimmering glass buildings that tower in the night, and electric lanterns swinging on the bows of ships. Casting a glow along gentler sea.