No matter how hard I pressed myself into that harness, the impact of hitting the lake’s surface rattled me to my core. My young body was not made to withstand such sudden changes in velocity, and the air was knocked from my lungs to a taste of blood; the straps holding me in place having dug deep into my chest and thighs.

I was just lucky I’d remembered to keep hold of my glasses, or I’d been blinded as well.

Chipping for breath, it was to a chorus of pained wails and terrified cries that I took in our situation.

From the way we’d fallen, the harness that still cut into me was all that kept me strapped into what’d effectively become our ceiling.

Then again, with how our surroundings were swaying, I wasn’t sure for how long that would remain true. Raising the tablet I’d clutched to my chest, what few blurry images of static and broken pixels I saw of the outside world didn’t look promising.

The lake we’d crashed into was deep, we were on our side, and the rain was turning its surface into a sizzling cauldron — a surface that was steadily rising higher around us, no bottom in sight.

What few cameras pointed downward showed nothing but darkness and…something moving within?

Slithering silhouettes, separated from us by nothing but a few cracked sheets of steel that were rapidly taking in water.

From the cries echoing below me, it seemed the kids down there had realized the same thing. My heart sank.

Strapped with their backs to our new floor, the murky lake must already be reaching them. Hundreds of kids, locked inside their harnesses to slowly suffocate within the rising water.

I’d barely heard that first cry for help turn into a desperate gurgle as I dropped the tablet and grabbed hold of the central ring of my own harness. A single firm yank, and the straps had come undone, leaving me to crash into the catwalk’s railing a few steps below.

Without it, I would’ve fallen far further.

The heavy underbelly of the Charger was sinking the fastest, and now, upon an awkwardly angled walkway, ours had become the highest point within that cargo space. Some nine meters below, I could see the water already flooding the first level.

More panicked screams. I needed to save them.

Snapping around, I could see a terrified Myla still hanging there above me. “The ring, pull on it!” I yelled, tapping myself on the chest as her wide eyes briefly flickered my way.

It was where her release mechanism was located, but she just kept staring at me.

“Do it, Myla!”

And then, her hand moved, and I barely had the time to throw myself to the side and catch her as she fell. It was a clumsy rescue, nearly dislocating my shoulder and causing us both to fall down. But I did manage to keep the shivering girl stable.

“Help the others up here!” I barked. “Get as many loose as you can!”

I’d barely seen a weak nod as I freed myself from her embrace and turned my attention downward – toward a first level of harnesses that were already submerged in water.

Too long had passed. Children were drowning down there.

There was no second thought as I swung myself over the railing and jumped. I’d only just heard Myla’s wordless cry behind me as I broke the surface of the surging lake…and struck metal too soon after.

Something snapped in my hips, but I had no time to care as I’d just glimpsed a pair of eyes frozen in horror before me, tiny arms weakly flailing through the water as a last few bubbles escaped their lips wide in a silent scream.

I threw myself forward, grasped the ring at their chest, and yanked it loose. A second later, I’d pulled the drowning kid to the surface.

“Climb up!” I yelled as I pushed the gasping boy’s hands towards the railing above, the water level still rising around us. “I need to—”

The rest of my words were cut short as the weeping boy’s arms just clutched firmer around my neck, pulling us both under once more. Water filled my airways.

I didn’t possess the strength to carry a kid even bigger than myself to safety, less so fight him. And now, both of us were rapidly drowning in the boy’s blind thrashing for salvation.

I hadn’t even had time to fill my lungs with air.

Blindly – my surroundings a swirling darkness of pained bubbles and flailing limbs – I tried to find the railing we’d just left behind, more water rushing into my mouth.

Rather than metal, however, what my fingers found was something slippery that’d just darted past me, straight towards the thrashing boy I’d tried to rescue.

An instant later, the pressure around my neck was gone, I found the railing, and managed to pull myself up.

Coughing up every drop of the lake I’d swallowed, my eyes flickered back just to see a cloud of red taint the water where I’d just been — the tail of some ten foot eel, leech or serpent having just dipped below the surface once more.

My stomach twisted, knuckles whitening around the railing before me. Tears burned in my juvenile eyes, still not used to the scenes of the battlefield, but it was too early to morn that kid.

Cut your losses. Save what you can.

Snapping away from more clouds of blood tainting the water, I threw myself towards the nearest kid of the second level instead.

Those below I could do nothing for.

“Look!” I coughed, slapping the hysterical girl across the face to catch her attention.

I grabbed hold of her release mechanism, tugged at it, and let her fall free of the harness.

Like a weak pile of bones, she crumpled to the grated floor where the water was already reaching up to my knees. I didn’t have any time to comfort the weeping girl.

“Help the others!” I just yelled, already bolting for the next harness over.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

But there were too many of them. The water was rising too fast, and whatever had snapped in my hip wasn’t helping.

By the time the murky lake was reaching for my shoulders, I’d only managed to pull some six kids loose.

I’d tried to rescue a seventh, but a dark silhouette had slithered past me, reaching the trashing boy first. His terrified face, barely poking out of the water, was still etched to my mind – his screams having reach a heart-wrenching crescendo mere moments before the lake swallowed him.

For a long, precious second, I’d only been able to stare as nausea had washed over me.

They’re aiming for the panicked once first…

“Stay calm!” I cried out at the top of my lungs, but I had no clue if anyone heard me. I wasn’t even sure if they would’ve listened if they did.

Too many desperate hands and legs were kicking up the water, ringing the dining bell of whatever things were greedily darting back and forth just below the surface.

Fuck, fuck, fuck!

I retched, throwing up slimy water as I pulled myself up to a third level that was already taking in water. I felt sick to my bones, abandoning everyone down there to their fate, but there was nothing I could do for them.

I couldn’t even see the kids that I’d freed anymore.

My futile struggle had amounted to nothing.

Where the fuck is the crew of this thing?

I could’ve sworn I’d heard gunfire earlier, but now, there was only splashing water, cries, and panicked yells to ring in my ears.

Then I saw it, an adult figure bent over the railing not far from me — one of the first to fall as the massive vehicle toppled over.

She was motionless, and there were no vitals to be found by the time I’d stumbled over.

I couldn’t help her either.

Cursing, I ripped the gun and knife from her belt, stuffing my pajamas with spare ammunition as my eyes darted across my chaotic surroundings, trying to find any place where I could make a difference. Where I could do something.

That’s when I heard it, my own name cutting through the air, “Nyamien!”

My eyes flickered upwards, toward where Myla hung from the railing of the last catwalk that’d yet to see any water. Her legs were wrapped around the metal bars, hands desperately clutching at another girl that hung freely in the air, sobbing about how she didn’t want to die.

One of the kids she’d tried to save, that I’d told her to save, gradually pulling her down.

“Hold on!” I cried out, desperately seeking any way to get up there. “Hold on and I’ll—”

The creak of bending metal drowned out my words, and I could only watch as that railing, never meant to hold up some dozen terrified kids at once — all those whom Myla had managed to free — began twisting downward. A second later, and it’d violently snapped in half, leaving them all to fall.

Even before they broke the surface, I dove in after them.

If it’d been chaos up above, it was mayhem down within the water. Countless dark silhouettes thrashed and slithered around me, fighting for severed legs, limbs, and tiny torsos that they greedily gulped down their gullets.

Nausea and cold hatred cut me as I sent those first few bullets ripping through the water, but there were too many of them. Even as some of them stilled, there were countless more teeth and fins that whipped up the water.

I couldn’t even try to avoid that one tail which cracked me across the ribs, pushing the breath from my lungs and forcing me to break the surface for air.

“Myla!” I gasped, but she was nowhere to be seen.

I’d barely tasted the air as I dove back down into the writhing darkness once more, into death and pandemonium.

Teeth grazing my heel, several bullets fired, and another break for air. A third scream for Myla, a third dive, and then, I finally glimpsed a figure desperately trying to pull an arm free from a tight coil of slippery scales and misty blood; a rapid stream of bubbles racing for the surface.

I kicked forward, grasped for the girl’s collar, only to nearly be elbowed in the face for it. She was frantic, desperately trying to save that other girl.

But maybe Myla, too, realized it was too late as I somehow managed to get her above the surface, spluttering and gasped for air. “Stay calm!” I wheezed into her ear. “They’ll come for you if you panic!”

For a second, I wasn’t sure she’d heard me. Through the auburn bangs that clung to her face, all I saw was fear, anger, and tears. A stubborn expression that seemingly refused to leave anyone behind.

Even as she was gasping for breath, and for a moment, I feared that Myla would dive back down in an attempt to save the other girl.

But then the mask cracked, and all that was left behind was a sobbing child I dragged her towards the nearest railings. She was heavy, my limbs were weak, but with the rising water, that final catwalk wasn’t far off.

The lamps of the cargo hold were blinking a violent red around us by the time we’d manage to pulled ourselves up there. The engines must’ve gotten flooded, leaving the emergency generators to now kick in.

“Do…do you know how to swim?” I coughed and heaved where my arms remained wrapped around the railing, having barely managed to get out of the water.

Myla, however, just stood there, soaked and dazed, staring at a hand that was still clutched in her own fingers. The rest of the girl she’d tried to save was nowhere to be seen.

Wincing, I got to my legs, gently easing Myla’s grip until the stiff digits fell into the roiling waters below us. “Myla,” I said, raising her chin until I looked straight into her blurry eyes. “We need to get out of here, OK?”

A short pause followed, and she weakly nodded.

“Can you swim?”

For a second, a more stubborn expression had flashed across the girl’s features. One more familiar. One alive.

“I…” she sniveled, wiping her nose with her sleeve and lips quivering. “I know how to swim better than you.”

Right, right.

Countless times when Nyamien had refused to visit the neighborhood rivers, stubbornly remaining alone in his room. But she’d always been there, laughing, cheering, and relishing the water.

I gave her the ghost of a smile.

“Good, then be ready,” I said. “Climb as high as you can without leaving the backside of the Charger. Hold on as tight as you can, and if you get the chance, swim to the surface and wait for me there.”

“Hey, where—”

But I’d already set off running.

You’re an idiot, Yamien. A Void Sworn idiot.

Once my uplink to the Charger had been broken, I’d become tunnel visioned. The chaos around me, the kids drowning, had made me panic. Too long had passed since I had to care for anyone but myself, and now, by trying to save everyone, maybe no one would survive.

May I rot among dying stars. I should’ve done this from the beginning…

I clenched my teeth as I reached the very end of the Charger, drew a deep breath, and dove back into the water.

This had been the place where the first kids died. The clouds of blood were thicker here, but the trashing was also less intense. Most of those creatures had moved on to fresher prey, deeper inside the Charger.

Only a few elongated silhouettes – outlined with each pulse of the blinking lights – lingered within these crimson clouds. But any that dared turn my way, attracted by the strokes of my arms in these calmer waters, was greeted by a bullet to the face.

Eyeless heads that were more teeth than anything.

At least until the magazine ran empty, but by that time, I’d already reached the access panel I was chasing, down within the deepest parts of the charger.

My untrained lungs strained for air, but even so, I forced myself to stay calm as I swam up to it. Even without the tablet, I could feel the skeleton key activate.

Merely raising my hand towards its terminal caused it to come alive, and I blessed whatever engineer had made sure it would function even in these horrid conditions. For how long that would remain true, I wasn’t sure, but I only needed a few seconds.

I’d spent decades working with these systems. I knew them like the back of my own hand, and my fingers now flew across the panel.

[Overriding Harness Release Mechanism]

Whipping bubbles cut through the water to my side as every harness nearby came undone, not that the ravaged corpses within thanked me for it. It was too late for them. But maybe, maybe someone would survive because to it. Or so I prayed as I typed in my second command, my arm firmly wrapped around a nearby ladder before pressing enter.

[Emergency Command: Detaching Exit Hatch]

A heavy groan sounded beside me, those blinking lights having turned to a burning red. I was already climbing up that ladder as the back of the Charger fell away, and every ounce of the lake that’d been fighting to fill the massive vehicle came crashing inside with unrelenting force.

If not for the way I’d wrapped my arms around the ladder rungs, it would’ve ripped me away. Even now, I was smacked into a sharp metal edge, knocking the last air from my lungs. But even before the pressure had disappeared from around me, I was climbing once more, praying I was heading for the surface faster than we were sinking.

Countless more serpents had just been pushed inside behind me, a swirling mass of hunger, and I only had my scavenged dagger if they dared look my way.

There was no way for me to locate Myla within the dark. The best I could do was pray as I pushed away from the ladder and began swimming.

She would make it. She had to…