Earth(16)

Robert continued pestering me. "You want to throw me in too? How can we follow you? How can we trust you? You have no idea what you are doing." He angled his kayak so the tip of it moved in front of me.

The river pushed me into the side of his boat. I put my hands on it, trying to pull my head far enough out of the water to see what was happening.

Alex had come up with Susan, who held a limp Bee in her arms.

"Hey!" Robert yelled. "Get off." He raised his paddle, aiming at my already slippery grasp of the side of his boat.

I pulled, yanking on his kayak. As the edge submerged, I ripped the paddle from his hand. Robert went upside down just as the river turned rough, reacting to my energy. I got pulled under without having the chance to suck in air first. My body somersaulted until I was so disoriented I didn't know which way was up.

Bee would have never been able to hold her breath through this. My elbow hit hard rock. I forced my feet against it and pushed off. I swam until my mouth breached the surface. I got a quick glance of Alex's canoe, now parallel to me. He already had a bag valve mask out.

"Bee!" I managed to shout until I got sucked back under. I floundered around again. My limbs were growing tired and refusing to do what I wanted. I didn't go nearly so deep this time, and popped up again without hitting the bottom first. Now the canoe was upstream from me. Susan leaned over Bee. I could see water particles being pulled from her mouth and returning to the river. Could her tiny lungs even hold that much water and still function afterward?

Another surge of adrenaline hit me. I tapped into the air element, weaving a windstorm just above my head. Clouds rolled in, thundering at the disturbance in the atmosphere. I raised my arms and lifted myself from the river. It required more control than I had ever used with the air element; ten times as much as I used with Robert's arrows.

Water dripped as I flung my body forward. It was a hard landing in Alex's canoe, but he and Susan managed to keep it upright. I turned to see Bee's blue lips, water still trickling from them.

"That's enough," Alex said to Susan. "Let me do the chest compressions again."

I was frozen still, too scared to move. My unfortunate reaction to facing down my worst nightmare. Susan and Alex were focused, determined to bring Bee back to life. Alex placed his hands at her sternum and pushed, counting out loud. "One, two, three."

Susan squeezed the bag valve mask, forcing air into her lungs.

"One, two, three."

In contrast to my frozen over limbs, my stomach felt like it was on fire. It grew as I stared at Bee's blue lips, obscured when Susan placed the mask back over them.

"One, two, three," Alex said again, his voice cracking.

The fire reached my chest now, and my cheeks were going hot.

One, two, three. I counted inside my head with Alex, willing him not to give up. Too much time had passed. The fire was molten hot, consuming me.

"You bitch, are you trying to kill everybody?!" Robert yelled, bobbing up and down on the other side of the river.

I released my fire directly above his head at a tree on the bank. The tree cracked and fell forward into the river. Robert went under just before the tree hit. The huge wake rocked our canoe. We all came a few inches off the seats, including Bee. When she landed, a splash of water was forced from her lungs and she began coughing.

Alex rolled her on her side, patting her back. "There, there," he said. "Get it all out."

As soon as she had the breath, she began to cry. I dropped to my knees, my eyes also brimming with tears. Across from me, a drenched Susan sat back, hands shaking.

Alex pulled out several blankets and wrapped all three of us, then retrieved his oar and steered us toward the bank. I glanced back. Robert clung to the fallen tree trunk; both making quick progress down the river. Beyond him, on the opposite shore, I spotted Margie pulling herself up onto the bank. She turned just in time to see her husband go floating past, still cursing me. She shook her head, then placed her hand on the ground beside her. Seconds later, vines tumbled down from branches hanging over the water. Robert and his trunk became tangled. His forward momentum stopped until another canoe could catch up and retrieve him.

Before I could look back at Margie, we were jolted forward as our canoe hit land. Alex helped us each out; we all shook with exhaustion and cold. Bee's crying had subsided. She clung to my neck, hiccupping. Susan and I stood, side by side, saying nothing while Alex tied up the boat then started a fire. Half of the rest of the convoy pulled up on our side of the river; half on the other.

Alex intercepted them as they came ashore, keeping them clear of us despite their concern to see if we were ok. He suggested everyone start setting up camp for the night. We sat around a fire, bare under blankets while our clothes dried nearby. Alex passed out portions for dinner, but I was too upset to eat. Bee was ravenous; she finished mine for me.