River Odyssey by Philip Roy

Author:Philip Roy [Roy, Philip]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-55380-105-4
Publisher: Ronsdale Press
Published: 2010-01-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

I FELT SICK. I was in shock. When the river turned, it was as if I had been pushing a cart uphill and it suddenly got away from me and was tumbling back down. It would take five and a half hours for the tide to flow out, all of that water rushing back out to sea. The thought of the sub lost in it was too overwhelming for me, and it took me a while to really understand what was happening. For a couple of minutes I just stood there and stared, while the fog continued to break up. I was waiting to see the sub appear. I turned my head from side to side expecting to see it at any moment and realize, oh, that’s where I left it.

But that never happened. As the tide went out, the river began to pick up speed. It pulled the water from the shoal into the current. The river had never filled the shoal completely, and now it was going to empty it. The cat had indeed wandered out in low tide, and if I had left it alone, it would have just walked home the way it came. I might have realized that if I hadn’t been so tired.

I broke my trance and jumped into action. Although the sub had been swept away, it wouldn’t have travelled far yet. I crouched down and looked carefully down the surface of the river for any rises but couldn’t see much through the fog patches. Had the sub gone completely under? Different images raced through my head. Probably what happened was that the current pulled the sub sideways and tilted it because it was tied to the rock. As it tilted, water spilled inside. Then, the rope slipped from the rock and the sub started to drift. As soon as the sensors on the floor picked up water rushing in, the hatch shut and sealed automatically. Hollie and Seaweed had gotten wet but were fine. I felt certain this was what happened, exactly like that.

I jumped into the water and began to swim downstream. It was a desperate thing to do but I felt that the sub wasn’t far away, and maybe with a little luck I would find it. It didn’t take long to realize what a foolish idea that was. The current was so strong I could hardly even swim with it; it just pulled me where it wanted me to go. And I was so busy fighting it I couldn’t look for the sub.

“Come on!” I yelled to myself. “Find it!”

With a lot of effort I managed to get back to the rocky shallows, pull myself up and make my way to shore. It was exhausting. But at least I was on dry land now. I could run along the bank and try to spot the sub.

That was very hard and very discouraging. Not only was the fog hanging around still, but the sky had darkened. It was going to rain.

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