“How . . .” was all Matt managed to say as he saw Arthur swimming to his side before he took in a mouthful of seawater and went under once more before bobbing up again.
“Don’t talk!” Arthur yelled above the ocean.
And just as Matt was about to slip beneath the ocean’s surface again, Arthur grabbed him.
He needs your help, Topo, Arthur thought. You need to take him to the boat. Take him now!
Arthur was still floored that the octopus could somehow understand his feelings, could react to them. As Arthur kept Matt’s head above the water, Topo threw four tentacles around him—tight, but not too tight. Then the octopus started toward the catamaran.
The sky lit up as a bolt of lightning struck.
Thunder.
Rain.
Wind.
Arthur gaped as he saw the mast on the catamaran crack in two, falling into the ocean.
Buffeted by the gale-force winds, Arthur could only watch as the catamaran was tossed by the ocean’s whims, hopelessly out of control.
Chapter Twenty
THE OCTOPUS WAS USING ITS FREE tentacles to try to steady the catamaran, to keep it from capsizing, all while cradling Matt with its other limbs. Topo was doing its best to get Matt aboard the catamaran, but Arthur wondered if he would be any safer there than in the ocean.
The wind blew Arthur backward, and the waves crashed around him.
It’s now or never, Arthur thought. Either we bring everyone to shore now, or it ends here.
Arthur swam over to Topo’s side and looked at Matt, now unconscious. He checked to make sure Matt was breathing, which he was.
What else can you do? Arthur thought, looking at Topo. He could have sworn that the octopus was giving him a dirty look.
The storm was only getting worse. Moving quickly, Arthur swam up to the catamaran, and pulled himself up so he was half out of the water.
“Curry, what the hell?” Mike asked, as he held on to Peanut.
“How can you swim like that? How can you swim in this?” Nikki said, stunned at the sight.
“Give me that line,” Arthur ordered, nodding his head sharply. Nikki grabbed the line from the broken mast and handed the end to Arthur.
“What are you gonna do?” Nikki yelled. “Are we gonna die?”
“No! Not today,” Arthur said as he took the line and dived back into the water. Then he shouted back to Mike, “Lock off the other end of the line on one of those boat hooks!”
“Lock off the other . . . ,” Mike said with worry in his voice. “I . . . I don’t know how to lock off anything! I don’t know how to sail!”
“I do,” Nikki said, and she took the other end of the line and began to wrap it around the boat hook, crisscrossing the line until it was tight. “All good!”
“Now hang on!” Arthur screamed, as he reared up. Before slipping below the surface, he saw that Topo had managed to put Matt safely aboard the catamaran.
Good, Arthur thought.
Beneath the water, Arthur took the other end of the line, and wrapped it around his waist. Then he tied a simple overhand knot to keep it in place. He hoped the knot would hold.
It would have to.
Now or never.
Arthur began kicking both legs, faster and faster, and slowly he moved ahead, toward the shore.
Arthur was pulling the catamaran and amazed that he was doing so.
But his amazement turned to horror as he glanced back and saw the catamaran begin to sink.
Chapter Twenty-One
HE SCREAMED, BUT NOT OUT LOUD.
I need help! Someone to get this thing above water!
But there was no one around him. Just the kids on the catamaran, and they couldn’t help themselves, let alone Arthur.
What am I gonna do?
For every stroke he took, the waves and the wind seemed to knock him back another ten feet. It was like a prizefight—the ocean itself was battling Arthur and determined to win.
The catamaran sank lower into the ocean, the kids scrambling to hang on.
Suddenly, the catamaran rose in the water. It wasn’t sinking anymore, and Arthur couldn’t understand why. He quickly ducked his head below the surface of the ocean, and then he saw them.
Dolphins.
Four of them, to be exact. They were swimming right beneath the catamaran, butting their heads up against the twin hulls, two dolphins to a hull.
Somehow, Arthur’s desperate plea had been heard by unexpected saviors.
His courage redoubled, Arthur set to work.
The line tied around his waist, Arthur pulled and pulled, trying to bring the catamaran closer to shore. Every inch was pure agony. He felt like he was being torn in half, the sensation of pins and needles racing through his nerves. His muscles burned, like his body was on fire, despite the water all around him. The ocean just wouldn’t stop fighting. Pulling and pushing and slamming and smashing. It refused to lose.
But so did Arthur.
He was moving against the current, somehow. It wasn’t like that first time he kicked beneath the water, where he moved like a bullet toward the surface. It was slow going.
It was like slamming into a wall, over and over and over.
He felt battered, bruised.
Everything hurt.
And yet he kept fighting back.
Everything was white noise, his ears tortured by the water and wind. Arthur kept his head down, only looking up every now and then to make sure that he was still headed to shore. He had to constantly course-correct—the waves and current tried to put him off from his destination.
The ocean was vengeful today.
Not just the ocean was angry. The line tied around his waist was now cutting into it. Arthur could feel his skin, now raw, as the rope rubbed against it. He was sure he was bleeding.
But still he strained, still he struggled, still he pulled.
Getting there, he thought. Getting there. I am getting there, right?
He felt light-headed. On the brink of exhaustion. Beyond the brink of exhaustion.
Head popping above the water, he saw the shore. Was he any closer? Or maybe he was farther out than he thought? He could no longer tell.
The light-headed feeling starting to overtake him as Arthur fell below the surface, still swimming, still kicking. The water seemed darker than it had before.
No, not the water.
Passing out.
He shook his head, trying not to succumb. As he swam, he darted in and out of darkness. He saw shapes forming before his eyes, even when he closed them.
The shapes swirled, and sparkled, and Arthur tried not to see them, tried to look beyond, tried to keep swimming.
He took a breath and started to gag.
So tired . . .
The shapes continued to dance and bobble in the water all around Arthur. Then he saw something familiar.
Something . . . is . . . Topo?
No, not Topo. The octopus must still be back with the catamaran, doing its best to keep the boat steady.
It was something else. It was . . . a face . . .
I know that face, Arthur thought. I know that face.
He took another breath and didn’t gag this time.
Then he kicked, hard.
Not today, he thought.
How long had he been swimming? Hours? Days? There was no sense of time, only the unending agony that filled every fiber of his body. And the undeniable determination to save them.
For Claudia.
He had to make it for Claudia.
For his dad.
For the kids.
He had to make it.
He thought his body was going to pull itself apart, and he wanted to stop—so many times he wanted to stop. To just let the ocean take him wherever it wanted.
But he couldn’t.
He couldn’t.
And then just as he felt himself slipping into blackness, he felt it. Beneath his feet. The smooth and tiny fragments between his toes. Sand.<
br />
Arthur stood up, saw the catamaran behind him, Topo using its tentacles to steady the boat. Arthur pulled until the boat was firmly on the shore, away from the ocean and the still-violent waves that washed to shore, as if trying to grab the boat once more. But it wasn’t going to get that wish.
Not today.
The rain pounded him from above, and Arthur sank to his knees on the beach, his body spent.
Through the pouring rain, he made out the flashing lights from an ambulance and a police car. Arthur felt like he was having an out-of-body experience—as if his brain were a good ten feet above his body, and he was watching everything on the beach unfold before him, like he was watching it on TV.
He was light-headed and felt like he was going to pass out. Then he heard Claudia’s voice. “You look terrible,” she said, and he saw her drape a blanket around him, and she hugged him tightly.
“I do?” was all Arthur could manage before he collapsed on the sand. Claudia stayed with him until a paramedic ran over, and then he saw Claudia follow another paramedic to the catamaran. Together, they led the kids off the boat, and Claudia was there with an armful of blankets, giving them to Matt, Mike, Peanut, and Nikki.
He could hear Matt talking to Claudia. “Curry really did it,” he said. “That kid . . . after all the stuff I said to him. He might be a freak, but he’s a cool freak who saved us.”
A police officer rushed over to Arthur, kneeling next to him. “You’re Tom Curry’s kid, aren’t you?” he said.
Arthur nodded.
“You’re a hero,” the police officer said. “I don’t know how you did it, but you did.”
“I had . . . a little . . . help,” Arthur said, before he finally did pass out.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“I’M SORRY WE DON’T HAVE THE kind with the little marshmallows,” Tom said. “I know you like that one.”
Inside the Currys’ kitchen, Arthur sat at the table, wrapped in a fluffy yellow blanket. He held a mugful of hot chocolate tightly in both hands. He stuck his mouth and nose into the mug, inhaling deeply, feeling the warmth flood his nostrils.
“S’okay,” Arthur said, taking a slow sip. The liquid burned his mouth and throat, but it felt good.
I’m surprised I can feel anything, he thought.
He took another drink of hot chocolate, then set the mug on the table.
I think my arms are gonna fall off.
“Do you wanna do this now, or do you wanna wait?” Tom asked.
“We can do it now,” Arthur said. “I have it coming.”
“You certainly do. This is the part where I tell you just how incredibly stupid that was, going out into the ocean all alone,” Tom said.
“But—” Arthur protested.
“Nuh-uh,” Tom stopped him. “Not done yet. What I should do, is ground you for the rest of the summer. Maybe the rest of the year.”
“But—” Arthur tried to interject.
“But I’m not going to, because I am so, so proud of you. So unbelievably proud of you.”
“You are?”
“Of course I am! You risked everything for those kids, Arthur. You didn’t even think about yourself. That’s something . . . ,” Tom said, struggling to find the right words. “That’s something your mom would have done.”
Tom sat down at the table, grabbed his son’s hands, and looked right into his eyes.
“I can’t lose you, Arthur. I promised your mother I would take care of you. And I thought for a minute there, when the police called me and told me what you’d done, I thought . . .”
Arthur didn’t say anything. He just kept looking at his father.
He heard the sound of the storm outside, the rain hitting the aluminum siding. Wind rattled the windows.
“What you did out there . . .”
“I didn’t know I could swim like that,” Arthur said. “I don’t know how I did that. Any of it. I don’t . . . How did I get so strong? So fast? I’ve never felt like that before.”
“You take after her, you know,” Tom said. “Headstrong. Stubborn. Strong. She would be proud.”
“Do you think so?” Arthur asked.
“I know so,” Tom replied. He stood up from the table and walked toward the door. Just as he was leaving, Tom turned around. “You know you are grounded for the rest of the week, though, right?”
Arthur smiled. “Yeah. I know.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
“I THOUGHT YOU WERE GROUNDED for the rest of eternity.”
Arthur turned from his perch on the rock, looking at the sandy beach behind him. There was Claudia, walking toward him, her bike resting on the ground. He smiled at her, then looked back at the ocean. Topo was by his side, and Arthur was resting one hand on Topo’s head.
“I don’t think my dad had the heart to follow through,” Arthur said. “I think he thinks I’ve been through enough, and that I’ve learned my lesson.”
Claudia climbed up the rock and sat down next to Arthur. “And have you?”
“Have I what?”
Claudia laughed. “Have you learned your lesson?”
Arthur smiled and looked at the ocean. It was much calmer now. The storm had passed a few days before. Strands of seaweed dotted the shore, kicked up by the violent ocean currents. He felt a tentacle tap his hand, and he watched as Topo waved with another tentacle and slid back into the water.
“See ya later, Topo,” Arthur said.
“That’s gonna take some getting used to,” Claudia said, shaking her head. “So, did you?”
“My lesson?” Arthur pondered. “I have no idea. I mean, going after the boat was dumb. So, so dumb. But . . . if I hadn’t, I would never have learned what I can do.”
“So,” Claudia said, her voice growing softer, “what you told me about your mom . . . it was all true?”
Epilogue
HE WATCHED THE OCTOPUS WAVE, and a moment later, it disappeared beneath the surface of the water.
“It’s always good to see you, old friend,” Arthur said out loud. He tugged at his beard and smiled at the ocean.
“It’s always good to see you, too,” a voice said from behind.
Arthur turned around and saw Tom Curry. His father.
They threw their arms around each other and embraced like only a father and son could.
“It’s good to be home,” Arthur said.
Copyright
AQUAMAN: UNDERTOW. Copyright © 2018 DC Comics and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. AQUAMAN and all related characters and elements © & ™ DC Comics and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. WB SHIELD: ™ & © Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (s18) All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
HARP41451
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018952747
Digital Edition NOVEMBER 2018 ISBN: 978-0-06-287420-7
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-287419-1
1819202122PC/LSCH10987654321
FIRST EDITION
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