Free Water by Natasha Hardy Page A

impishly at me.
    “Good to see you, Al. Enjoying the sun tanning?”
    I smiled a wobbly smile back, too tired and scared to answer him.
    Josh directed Luke until he was directly above me, and a few moments later a rope tumbled over the ledge. It hung about two metres from the rock I was sitting on directly over the deep-blue water.
    “Alex, we need you to get into the water and then tie your pack to the rope.” Josh’s voice echoed as I watched him scamper around the edge of the pool to where Luke must have been.
    The thought of going back into the water that had almost claimed me sent panic racing through my veins. My breathing, coming in short shallow gasps, echoed off the rock walls and seemed to get louder and louder.
    “Alex, what’s wrong?” Luke’s voice floated down to me. He sounded worried.
    “N-n-nothing.” My teeth chattered together, betraying me.
    Just take a deep breath
, I told myself,
you can do this.
    “You can do this, Alex.” Luke echoed my thoughts. “Just stay calm.”
    I slipped into the frigid water, hauling the already sodden pack off the rock. It was like being attached to a rock as it almost immediately pulled me under, it was so heavy. I kicked as hard as I could but within a few seconds realised I didn’t have the strength to keep us both at the surface.
    My head had just dipped below the water, panic closing my throat, when the pack seemed to grow suddenly lighter and my thrashing legs managed to push me back. I peered down through the rippling water, trying to work out how it was possible that I was at the surface, and moving, almost without trying, toward the dangling rope. A shadow that I was too afraid to explore extended from beneath my pack.
    In a daze I swam to the rope and somehow looped the end of it into the handle.
    The effort left me drained and it took all of my energy to simply float on my back as the boys hauled the pack up.
    As soon as my ears dipped below the surface of the water, the whispered talking I’d heard at the previous pool swirled around me. The voices were slightly louder this time and seemed angry. I quickly flipped vertical again, treading water as I waited for the rope to reappear.
    When it did, I struggled to push my cold stupid limbs to do as I commanded, shoving them into the makeshift harness the boys had created. After what felt like an age, I was ready. “OK,” I yelled.
    I could hear Luke and Josh straining as they pulled my dead, water-sodden weight up and out of the pool. I grabbed at the rock ledge as it came into reach and hauled myself over the edge, scraping the skin off my elbows and bruising my hips and knees as I scrambled out.
    I rolled away from the edge and lay panting on my back, the hot afternoon sun a welcome relief from the shadowed icy water.
    Luke helped me up, pulling me into a bear hug that took my breath away. After a few moments, he gently pushed me away from him and held me at arm’s length, dipping his head to look directly into my eyes.
    “Don’t ever do that to me again, Alex!”
    I nodded and gave him a wobbly smile, my mind still trying to unscramble the mysterious events that resulted in me still being alive.
    Josh draped his arm around my shoulders as we walked to the cave we’d be staying in that night, keeping up a falsely cheerful conversation that soothed my shattered nerves, and a tight hold on me that bore most of my body weight.
    The boys treated me like I was made of china for the rest of the day, insisting that I get into some borrowed dry clothes as soon as we reached the overhang which was to be our shelter for the evening. Josh quickly built a fire while Luke went hunting for our dinner.
    I watched in awe as the sun, which had almost set, bathed the view from the cave in blood-red light edged in shadows.
    Directly beneath me and above me, the rock face ran in an unrelenting gash across the middle of this comparatively small mountain, curving away from me into a valley dark with trees. I could hear