Wipeout | Book 3 | Empty Vault

by Richards, E. S.

  Mason nodded and gritted his teeth as Samuel eased their canoe out onto the river. For Samuel, the boat became almost instantly weightless as it floated on the water, however he could also feel the current pulling at it and trying to take the vessel from his grasp. He lined it up against the shoreline so that Mason could reach over and grab a fistful of the long grass that grew there, then waded into the river and began maneuvering himself into the small canoe. Remarkably he found his seat with only a few splashes of cold water being thrown up into the air and within a couple of minutes he and Mason were ready to take on the Hudson.

  “You good?” Samuel called over at Austin and Noah. The pair of them sat in their canoe and waited in a similar fashion against the river bank. The canoes were loaded to capacity with the four of them and their gear – having only been designed for children to use on a still lake, this would be the biggest challenge the boats had ever encountered.

  “Yeah,” Austin called back, “see you on the other side!”

  Samuel nodded and Mason gave his brother a thumb’s up, before they pushed away from the river bank and turned into the current, facing the other side. As soon as the canoe was pointing in the right direction, Samuel felt the force of the water beneath him and immediately began to battle against it. He put his paddle in the water, made sure it was deep beneath the surface and pushed backwards, propelling the boat forward. Mason sat in front of him and tried to paddle too, though the young boy offered very little against the raging current.

  It was up to Samuel to get the pair of them over to the other side. He focused entirely on that. Austin’s canoe moved forward just at the edge of his vision, but Samuel couldn’t pay any real attention to his friend. If he didn’t focus all his efforts on keeping the canoe moving in the right direction, he knew that the current could get the better of him and they could very quickly end up in a lot of trouble.

  After no more than a couple of minutes, Samuel’s arms ached more than he had ever experienced. He felt like he had just spent several hours in the gym lifting heavy weights, they were like jelly, hanging loosely by his sides and serving only to cause him pain. Unlike how he had reacted on many other occasions in his life however, Samuel focused on the burn in his muscles and used that to keep pushing forward. He refused to let the pain become failure, this wasn’t just his battle to lose, there were other people relying on him now as well and he needed to succeed for them.

  Cold water splashed up in his face as the current created waves within the river. With even the slightest bend the water reacted like it was being thrown off a cliff, tossing up into the air and showering down on both Samuel and Mason. The young boy sat ahead of him showed incredible resilience; not once did Mason threaten to put down his paddle, give up or complain that it was too hard. He just kept going, focusing on the riverbank ahead of them.

  A couple more minutes passed and the pain in Samuel’s arms started to numb. He could hardly feel them anymore but once again he used that to find more inner strength and keep making progress. They were nearly at the halfway point of the river, the water at its deepest and most dangerous. Looking down at it was almost like looking into a black hole, it swirled and churned about like it was powered by some hidden electric motor, never stopping and never looking like it was going to run out of steam.

  Lifting his head, Samuel tried to keep his eyes focused on the river bank ahead of him instead. There was a large tree that he was aiming for and he narrowed his eyes and paddled straight for it. The motion was finally starting to become rhythmic and dare he even think it, simple, when a frightened scream tore him out of his almost meditative state. His eyes went immediately to Austin’s canoe as he recognized straight away that his friend was in danger.

  The front of Austin’s canoe, where Noah sat motionless, was stuck against a bit of rock which jutted out of the water at an angle, stopping the small vessel from being able to move forward. Austin was trying his hardest to free the canoe, but with the current pushing him in the other direction he was fighting a losing battle. They were no longer pointing in the right direction as the boat slowly spun around, leaving Austin with his back facing the direction the current was trying to push them.

  “Hang on!”

  Samuel shouted over to his friend, quickly trying to figure out if there was a way he could help him. He couldn’t just sit by and do nothing but even in the few short seconds he sat and contemplated what to do, the current started tugging him in the wrong direction as well. No matter what he decided to do, he couldn’t stop paddling and keeping his own canoe moving in the right direction, otherwise they both might end up being swept away.

  Austin was struggling though. With the canoe too heavily weighted to the stern where he sat, it was easy for the current to push the small vessel along with it, the front where Noah sat acting almost like an anchor against the rock as the canoe slowly swiveled and landing him in a complicated position. He was still paddling but now he was working against the full force of the current, rather than just the half of it as he had been before. Angles were everything when out on the water and he knew just how much trouble being off by only a couple of degrees could cause. He was already in a compromised position and with every passing second it only seemed to get worse.

  “Noah,” Austin urged the child in front of him, desperately asking for help from the last place he expected it to come from. “I need you to try and paddle, okay? Only on the right-hand side. On the right. Paddle as hard as you can. Okay, Noah? Can you do that for me? Paddle on the right.”

  Noah looked back over his shoulder and nodded nervously, seeing the panic and strain on Austin’s face. Samuel and Mason were still hovering further up river on their canoe, but the longer they watched and waited, the more danger they were inevitably putting themselves in. Samuel could see how desperate Austin was if he was asking Noah for help, he was only a child, there was no way that Noah could fight against the violent current. He had to do something.

  “Hang on Mason,” Samuel shouted forward over the wind and waves. The four of them were pretty much smack bang in the middle of the Hudson, there was no chance they could make it to either side for help. They were out on their own and they had to deal with it now. “We’re going to try and get them, okay?”

  Mason nodded firmly, watching his younger brother closely and seeing how perilous their situation had become. He felt a lump forming in his throat as he imagined seeing Noah and Austin float away down the river; they had already been separated from their parents – Mason couldn’t sit by and lose his brother as well. Whatever Samuel needed him to do, he was ready.

  “Let the current take us down,” Samuel instructed his younger companion, thinking quickly and trying to understand how the river would work. “But try and keep the canoe straight, okay? We need to paddle to keep us facing the right direction, but let the current take us to Austin and your brother.”

  Even though he spoke with confidence, Samuel had no idea if what he was telling Mason to do was going to work. He was only guessing at how the river might carry them, but it was the best option they had and time was quickly slipping away. As the pair of them lifted their paddles from the water, the current immediately grabbed hold of their canoe and started carrying them away.

  They used their paddles to steer as best they could, struggling to keep the canoe pointing to the other shoreline and where they needed to be. With the weight at the back of the vessel, the canoe threatened to spin around and send Samuel careering backwards down the river, just like Austin had wound up. He fought hard against it, using muscles he didn’t know he had and paddling harder than he ever knew he had the strength for. His arms protested but he kept fighting, knowing that if he failed there were lives which could be lost.

  “Austin!” Samuel shouted as they floated closer and closer, his friend now entirely spun around in the canoe and paddling against the full force of the current. “What can we do?”

  “Take Noah!” Austin cried back, water splashing up into his m
outh and eyes as he spoke, the spray from the river and his paddling soaking him through to the skin. His arms were starting to give up the fight but he knew he had to keep going at least until Noah was out of harms way. He knew he stood a chance of fighting the current on his own, but with a little boy in the boat there was no way he could surf the waves as he was planning to. The only way to guarantee Noah’s safety was to get him into the other canoe and then Austin would take on the river himself.

  “What?” Samuel shook his head and questioned his friend, confused by what Austin was suggesting. “What do you mean?”

  “Get Noah into your boat!” Austin shouted back, painfully aware that he had no time to argue the point. “Trust me!” He echoed the words he had spoken to Samuel before they entered the river, pushing his friend to believe that he knew what he was doing. “Noah,” he then spoke in a softer voice to the little boy, though he still maintained a sense of urgency in his voice. “You’re going to have to make the jump little man. You need to get into your brother’s canoe. Can you do that?”

  Noah looked back over his shoulder to Austin and shook his head; he was aware of Samuel and his brother approaching, their canoe getting closer and closer, but he still doubted whether he could reach it. “I – I can’t,” he stuttered in fear, his body shivering as more river water was thrown over him.

  “You have to,” Austin urged him. “Sam! Try and bring your boat in on the other side of the rock – you can use it to push back off again.”

  Samuel followed Austin’s instruction as best he could, understanding what his friend was asking of him but still unclear about what the end result would be. He battled the current with all his might and worked with Mason, the young boy using all his energy to do everything he could to help save his little brother. All the while Austin spoke softly to Noah, encouraging him to do what he needed to do and make the jump once Samuel’s canoe was close enough.

  “You can do it, Noah,” Austin pressed on, aware that they were running out of time. “Jump. Now!”

  Samuel and Mason could only watch as Noah gradually plucked up the courage to do what was needed of him. He rose to his feet in the wobbling canoe, struggling to maintain his low center of gravity as he stood at the end of the canoe, poised to make the leap into Samuel’s arms. The gap was no more than a foot and something that Noah could certainly make on solid ground, but with the Hudson swirling dangerously beneath them there was no way to predict what would happen.

  “Come on Noah,” Mason cheered on his brother. “You’ve got this. Three, two, one… jump!”

  On his brother’s signal, Noah lurched forward and propelled his body over the edge of Austin’s canoe, flying through the air for a few short seconds before landing with a thump in Samuel’s arms. The extra weight on the canoe jolted it heavily, threatening to turn them off course and leave them in a similar position. Samuel reacted quickly, ensuring Noah was safe between his legs and shoving his paddle into the water again. Mason copied his older companion, putting the safety of the three of them ahead of his desire to grab ahold of his brother.

  “Nice, Mason!” Samuel whooped from the back of the canoe. “Keep paddling! You’re doing great!”

  For about sixty seconds Samuel forgot about everything else and returned to his fight against the river, struggling to get the canoe back into a comfortable position so they could reach the opposing shore. Once they were straight again, he glanced back over his shoulder, his eyes searching for Austin in the same position against the rock which had anchored them in place. But his friend was nowhere to be seen.

  “Austin!”

  Samuel let out a loud cry which caused both Mason and Noah to turn around and look, gasping as they saw Austin’s canoe was no longer in place. Samuel’s eyes scanned the river while wrestling with his own canoe, searching for his friend and trying to figure out what had happened to him. If Austin had fallen into the river then Samuel needed to decide quickly whether he was going in after him – the temperature of the water could do serious damage, he had no idea how long Austin could survive in there.

  “Look!” Mason shouted from the front of the canoe, lifting his paddle out of the water for a second and pointing down the river. “There he is!”

  Squinting, Samuel looked down the river, the sunlight bouncing up off of the water and making it difficult for him to see. But in the distance, he could just make out the outline of another canoe and someone paddling furiously to keep it afloat as they sped down the river, being carried by the current. It had to be Austin. His friend was alive and continuing with their mission to reach the other side. Now, with both young boys in his canoe with him, Samuel had to make sure he could do the same.

  Chapter 13

  The second that Noah leapt from his canoe, Austin felt the small boat shift away from the rock and succumb to the river even further. He knew that there was no time to wait around and check that Noah had made it safely into Samuel’s boat. As awful as he felt, Austin knew he had to move now or risk completely losing control and being pulled underneath the water himself.

  Holding his paddle firmly in both hands, Austin drove the left side of it deep into the river and pushed backwards, spinning his canoe away from the rock and turning one hundred and eighty degrees so that he was facing forward. As soon as his canoe was righted in the water, it began to be carried away by the current. This was no longer pleasant boating in the lake at Camp Placid, this was white-water rafting through some of the most dangerous waters Austin had ever experienced. It took everything he had to keep his canoe from tipping over, riding the waves and the current further down river and away from his friends.

  There was no time for Austin to look back or even shout to Samuel and the boys. He had to trust that his friend would get the kids safely to the opposite shore and hopefully that they would notice what he was doing. He could then reunite with them later, but the key focus for Austin was remaining above water and maneuvering the canoe as best he could through the icy blue liquid.

  Without Noah at the front of the canoe to keep the bow in the water, the boat veered upwards and caused water to splash back over him as Austin cut a trail through the river. He drove his right arm down on the paddle and tried to steer the small canoe in the direction he wanted, but it was like being caught in a rip tide at sea and for every inch he moved in the right direction, he was thrown several feet somewhere else at the mercy of the river. With a bend coming up that would carry him entirely out of sight from his friends, Austin pushed on even harder, using his sheer determination to navigate and propel the canoe where he wanted it.

  He knew he had to find strength from somewhere deep inside himself in order to survive this and so Austin cleared his mind and pictured his son. Bowie was his muse, his guiding light, his everything. He pictured Bowie standing on the river bank and paddled toward him, fighting against everything to reach his son.

  For a short period of time, it seemed to be working. Austin felt himself getting closer and closer to the shore and it looked like he might make it. He pushed forward striking down with his left and then his right, over and over, repeating the movement like a mantra as he guided the little canoe closer to shore. His eyes streamed water which was thrown up into his face, his mouth was dry of saliva and his clothes hung off his body like leaves ready to fall from a tree. It was a tiresome battle, but one that he felt like he was going to eventually win until yet another sharp rock caught him off guard and sent Austin flying through the air, hurtling out of his canoe and into the water.

  He gasped out for air, swallowing a mouthful of water and choking with panic. Kicking out and using his arms to swim, he pushed his way back up to the surface, breaking out into the air and gasping for breath, filling his lungs and coughing out the water which had settled there.

  His canoe had been tipped over as it struck a rock, sending him flying out of the vessel and into the freezing water. Austin saw it just a short distance ahead of him in the river and swam desperately after it, trying to grab hol
d of the boat and use it to keep his body out of the water. Already the cold was starting to get to him – the shock of being fully submerged in the water nearly sent his body into shock, it was only the adrenaline that coursed through his veins that allowed him to keep fighting, to keep his body from giving in.

  Kicking out with his legs as they grew heavier and heavier and threatened to drag him down to the riverbed, Austin swam to his canoe, managing to grab one of the ropes that was affixed to the side. In the rushing water there was no way he could right the vessel, but he had just about enough strength to pull himself onto it and keep most of his body out of the water.

  Now however, he was entirely at the mercy of the river. The paddles were nowhere to be seen. The only option Austin had was to try and use his arms to turn the canoe, his hands scooping through the icy water as his fingers turned numb and he lost all feeling in them.

  It took only a minute of trying for Austin to accept his efforts weren’t sustainable. If he continued attempting to navigate the canoe, he would lose more precious energy and he needed his reserves to simply hold onto the canoe itself and keep himself from being pulled under again. Resigned to his fate, he tucked his limbs in as tightly as possible to his body and held onto the canoe for dear life, allowing his body to be taken down river and away from his friends.

  ***

  Considerably further along the river, Samuel and the two boys had finally managed to make it to the river bank. They heaved the canoe up onto the shore and collapsed together in an exhausted heap, Mason hugging his younger brother while Samuel stared out into the now vacant river. Austin was gone. The last he had seen of his friend, he was disappearing around the river bend, fighting courageously against the raging current but slowly losing the battle.

  Samuel wondered how far the current would’ve carried him. Could Austin have been taken all the way south back past Poughkeepsie and further down toward New York? They had decided to cross the river further up north because of the current pulling them down toward the city, but Samuel had never thought they would be using the current for this reason. He wondered whether this was actually why Austin had changed their plans, offering another layer of safety just in case something went wrong.