The Assemblage, Pt. 15 of 16.

         Vaughn and Iris had not breathed for almost forty-five seconds, and he did not hold her to hinder their ascent from the sinking vehicle.  Because she lacked buoyancy previously, it was a desperate struggle for her upward.  However, he did not want to lose her into the blurry indistinction or current and kept close below her as they moved up, where it became incredibly brighter.  She was not a very good swimmer and had expelled the last of her air as a futile scream; he subsequently saw her quickly put her hand to her chest and become much more sluggish.  She soon stopped rising while uttering gasps for air, and he pushed her toward their needed goal without any hesitation.

         Iris coughed out water when they broke the surface, and she quickly regained her strength like magic, as oxygen surged through her veins with each fast deep breath that cleared her lungs.  The first thing she did then was struggle vigorously and impede their progress to the unexpected shore, until he embraced her from behind and said, "Okay!  It's alright.  I have you now."

         "What?  Where are we?  It's . . . "

         Her head was briefly immersed when he shifted his position and began swimming with a kind of sidestroke to the shoreline almost fifty meters away.  She sputtered and said, "Thanks a lot!  You could . . . at least . . . "

         "Don't talk until I get you to safety.  It's not too . . . far away, I hope."

         Their minds remained stunned much longer than their bodies and tried to comprehend exactly how they got to the strange place, but it was a vain effort.  He saw a swirling patch of dissipating fog that resembled a gray-white dust devil move out of the wide channel and could only wonder in amazement.  The night they were in had evolved into a brightening morning equally as strange; even the surrounding odd trees, mostly calamites and ferns, looked like over-sized weeds instead of the majestic spruce forest they came from.  He made no firm conclusion as to whether the mysterious fog, the unknown aquatic being observing closer below, or something even more uncanny was responsible for the abnormal circumstance.  It was too late to turn around and reverse their coarse in any way now but not so to try and survive in the new world.

         When they were over halfway to the tree-lined side of the open passage, Iris started moving with her still-inefficient but independent efforts beside him and said, "Am I losing my mind . . . all the way, or do I . . . hear voices?"

         "I think we've done both, dear.  Sounds like . . . a man and a woman, two women arguing with each other."

         "Whew!  I'm getting . . . tired.  Let's give them . . . a loud welcome."  

         He stopped to tread water and was beginning to with her when his entire body was sharply pulled down beneath the surface.  She saw his arms waving about below and loudly said, "Vaughn?  What . . . happened?"

         He was pulled down deeper as she drifted slowly away.  Her eyes widened after a few bubbles disturbed the quiet surface, and the three other people walking along the edge of the wider channel came into view as she was about to try to dive for him.  She raised her arms promptly and yelled, "Here!  Over here!  I need help.  Hurry!"

         The two women on shore ran a few steps, despite Russel's objections, and plunged into the water largely to escape the oppressive heat and humidity also.  Making him more angry was an added bonus, but seeing Vaughn's head pop back above the surface was everyone's surprise.  He shook his head, blinked his eyes to clear them, and said, "Are those the people . . . we heard?"  

         "Yes!  Yes, Vaughn," she replied, noticeably elated.  "God, you scared me.  What happened?"

         "Something got me, wrapped around my legs and pulled me down."  

         "What was it?"  

         "I don't know.  It looked much like some kind of . . . octopus, maybe, but the thing's gone now.  Thought for a bit I was a goner," he said and moved in front of her.

         She held onto him while scanning the water immediately around them, still concerned.  "What do you mean?"  

         "Just what I said.  It had a bunch of tentacles around my legs and tipped me upside-down.  Then, it just let me go . . . for some reason and moved away faster than a bat out of Hell.  Don't worry.  It won't be back."

         "I . . . I hope not."  

         Iris embraced him as Doreen and Maxine reached them and splashed the warm water about, trying to keep afloat.  The two women sputtered and spoke fast and incoherently as if the situation was still life-or-death perilous, but he informed them that they were uninjured and could easily get ashore.  Russel yelled at them to return with the fiery rage of an army drill sergeant, and they did, but at a greater distance away as the current dictated.  When they staggered out of the water, he took a hold of Maxine's arm and ordered Doreen to put her hands up and get beside her.  

         "What are you waving that gun at them for?  They just helped us out," Vaughn said.

         "These two bitches are criminals, drug smugglers and prostitutes.  I'm detective Landiner from the San Francisco police department and have a long rap sheet on them."  

         "Sure, but this isn't San Francisco or even California anymore.  What harm could they do here of all places?"  

         "Yeah!  Listen to him," Doreen quickly said.  "This isn't your jurisdiction."

         "Shut the fuck up," he replied and looked back at him.  "Don't trust these two for anything.  They each carry blades and only God knows what kind of filthy diseases too.  They're nothing but trouble and -- stop that!"  

         Maxine bolted upon hearing the degrading remarks and shook her head fast to deliberately sprinkle him with water.  "Hey, pig!  We're clean.  There ain't nothing germy 'bout us."  

         "Oh, yeah?  Then, where's your other young screwed-up friend?"

         "Good question.  Why don't you tell us?"

         "Yeah!" Doreen added.  "What did you do, Landiner, land-on-her an' feel like a real tough man?  Get it?"  

         Maxine let out a loud sudden laugh, and they slapped each other's hands together in a high-five.  He turned red in the face, squeezed her forearm tight and angrily said, "Oh, very funny, slut!  Get those hands on your head now -- both of you, and shut up."  

         "Alright!  You don't have to get all . . . radical."  

         Iris and Vaughn studied the situation carefully, where they were from, and how they behaved, and both reasoned there was at least some truth in it.  The brazen leather and decorative metal Doreen wore and Maxine's bold shiny, mostly rubber attire convinced them that the two women could well be what he described.  How they met so soon from such different locations in the same weird place was not understandable by any of them, just barely believable because it happened; Vaughn suggested with care that they work together to find some way, any way out of it.  

         The bellicose detective looked ahead staring, and all of them got completely out of the water when they saw something big and dark move just below the surface in the channel about fifteen meters away.  After it passed them, they watched two dragonflies the size of model airplanes move irregularly in the opposite direction low, and the lurking predator make its deadly swift attack.  It's large fish-like head rose out of the water toward the faster tantalizing insect, and most of them flinched in some way when it's powerful jaws snapped loudly shut.  Then, they slowly stepped backward and gazed in awe as it disappeared back underwater and continued its unending hunt for other easier prey.  All of them remained silent, more frightened, and retreated cautiously into the eerie dark "Coal-Age" forest -- until more people could be heard further on.


Continued to Pt. 16.