Maze: The Waking of Grey Grimm by Tony Bertauski

Author:Tony Bertauski [Bertauski, Tony]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Tags: scifi action, techno thriller novels, video game novel, young adult thrillers, artificial intelligence fiction, top dystopian novels, techno thriller authors, science fiction technology, best techno thrillers, best scifi, alternate reality fiction
Publisher: DeadPixel Publications
Published: 2018-02-14T16:00:00+00:00

GASOLINE.

The ridged hull rocked like the belly of an aluminum whale, bloated and still. The prop slapped the water.

Grey couldn’t feel his fingers.

“Rach!” He wiped his face, a warm sting on his lip. “Rach!”

He kicked the black water. His jeans were heavy. A sock wagged off his foot. He was missing both shoes.

They were full throttle when the cliff came into view, a rock wall of iron-laced stone that plunged into the water. Points of light dotted the top. Grey was pressing the binoculars to his eyes—a three-story mansion coming into focus—when the boat lurched.

Rach didn’t see the old post lapping just below the surface, a remnant of a forested town when the manmade lake was flooded. There were markers they didn’t see in the dark.

The water hit them like concrete.

“Rach!”

The boat rocked on the waves, catching his chin. The blow opened a gash and slammed his teeth together. A bell rang between his ears, a high tenor that refused to fade. He drifted from the humpbacked boat, legs numb. Water filled his mouth, nipping his chin where the flesh hung open. The sound of the slapping hull faded as he went under, the green wash flushing his eyes.

Fingers clamped his wrist.

He was yanked up. The hard edge of the boat was in his hand.

“Hang on.” Rach put his other hand on the hull. “Don’t let go. You got it?”

He pushed his hair away. Her eyes were big and white, hair slicked back. She swam away before he could say anything, returned with a cushion and shoved it between his legs.

“You all right?” she asked.

He rubbed his face. His nose was slick. He felt the slash beneath his chin, raw and wet. “I think I’m bleeding.”

“Don’t touch it.”

“Are you...” He swallowed. “Are you okay?”

Her chin was quivering. She didn’t look scared, but the lake was sucking the warmth from them. They clung to the boat, huffing, shivering. There would be no turning it over in the deep. The shore was far off. If they took their time and traded off the cushion, they might get there before hypothermia set in.

“What happened?” he said.

“We hit something.”

Grey knew what had happened, knew boats hit posts and trees all the time, usually inebriated captains or distracted teenagers that had to be pulled from the water and wrapped in towels. Sometimes they were arrested for drunk driving, but they were saved. Always saved.

That was during daylight.

“Just hang on.” Her teeth chattered. “Someone will pass by.”

The only lights were perched high on the cliff, too far away to see a couple of bodies on the water.

“No one’s coming,” he chattered. “We should start swimming.”

Rach ducked below the surface. Grey panicked for a second, thinking she was giving up or leaving him behind. She popped up several yards away. He heard splashing and saw her retrieve more debris. Where was she finding the strength to swim that far? He didn’t like floating in black water, let alone swimming in it.

This is all too stupid. All of it.

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