Free Vortex of Evil by S D Taylor Page B

outright.  It had knocked off her precious Red Sox cap and even in the circumstance they were in, Tom knew she would want him to rescue that cap as soon as he made sure she was alive and safe.  He managed to get his arms around her and pull her head clear of the water.  Struggling against the light wave action to keep himself afloat, he squeezed her below her ribs to see if she would cough out the seawater she had swallowed.  In a couple of seconds, she was coughing and able to catch her breath, much to Tom’s relief.
    “You’re ok.  I’ve got you.”  He held her with his left arm and used his right arm to tread water as best as he could.
    “What happened?”  Megan felt stunned from the blast, like a horse had kicked her in the head.  If Tom hadn’t been able to pull her off the zodiac and hang on to her, she would have surely died from the blast or from drowning.
    “They fired that energy pulse at us.  I saw the orange glow just in time to pull us both into the water.  Our missile didn’t do any real damage to them, but I managed to see their boat out to the west.  They may have taken Erin and Peter there.  And Gaby.”
    Megan felt dizzy but was able to start treading water and let Tom take care of keeping himself afloat.  She wanted to take off her shoes so she could swim more easily but if she lost them there may not be another pair in her immediate future.  “Can we make it to the shore?”
    Tom turned towards her and smiled.  “We don’t have much choice, do we?  Unless you want to hang out and see if Arny and his friends come this way.  I don’t think the wind is with them.”
    The water was cold and Tom knew that they had a limited time to reach the shore before they ran out of energy or got too cold to go on.  He figured it would be a fifty/fifty chance that they would both make it.  He grabbed Megan’s cap before it floated out of reach. “Let’s swim for it while we can.”
    Megan reached out and touched his cheek.  “Come on, lover.  I’ll race you to the shore.”
    They turned and began swimming at a steady, measured pace.  It was important to keep moving, but they had to be careful not to burn themselves out too quickly.  It was a long swim and their clothes were making it more taxing as they had to carry along the extra weight.  Tom knew that getting to the shore was not a guarantee of success since the rocks and crashing waves had nearly done them in the first time they reached this island in their life raft.
    Megan tried not to look at the island as they swam towards it.  She knew that it would not seem much closer for a long time and she did not want that apparent lack of progress to get inside her head.  She focused on staying close to Tom and swimming steadily along with him.
    Tom was likewise preoccupied with watching Megan and being sure she was doing ok as they ever so slowly made their way toward the shore.  If either one of them had glanced up, the seemingly sudden appearance of the Haida Canoe and Chief Flying Raven would not have been such great a surprise since they would have seen it coming. 
    “Megan!  Look behind you.”  Tom was smiling as he saw the Chief extending an oar in their direction.  Grasping Megan’s arm he grabbed the oar and hung on while the Chief dragged them close enough to the boat that they could reach out and grasp the helping arms of the crew.
    “We meet again, Tom.  Megan.” The Chief looked down at his tired and wet passengers as they sat on the floor of the canoe catching their breath.
    Tom raised his arm and managed a tired sounding “Thanks.  What are you doing here?  I thought you were headed south.”
    Flying Raven nodded.  “We wanted to see what happened to our other canoe.  Apparently, it was too damaged and sank.  It is fortunate we saw you here.”
    Megan looked up at their rescuer and smiled broadly.  “We thought we were in real trouble.  It is good to have friends when the times get