The River - E. D. James

Olivia could feel the vibrations of the footsteps pounding up the ladder behind her through the pounding of the blood in her ears and her own breathing. When she got to the rail of the ship she turned towards the stern hoping to get onto the fantail before her pursuers made it out of the hatch. As she ran along the deck her mind worked frantically to come up with a plan for what she would do next. Her foot caught on a thick rope coiled at the base of the rail and she went sprawling, barely catching herself with her hands to avoid smacking her face into the gritty steel of the deck. She glanced over her shoulder as she forced herself back to her feet shaking off the pain. The first of Scriabins men was just turning out of the hatch and had spotted her. Her focus narrowed as she approached the rail at the stern of the ship and leaned out over the rail to survey the river below her. The shore launch was tethered to the pier just to her left. She made a quick calculation of how far out she should jump to clear the launch and the blades of the ships props. Then she swung her leg over the rail, caught her heels in the small seam where base of the rail hit the hull of the ship, held onto the rail and flexed her legs and leaned her body forward and then pushed off with as much force as she could towards what she thought should be the clear spot in the water.

She waved her arms to keep upright like she had at the quarry at the family compound when they jumped off the cliffs into the lake. For a moment she felt weightless and the body memory of those hot and sultry summer afternoons with her cousins and step brothers sank in as her boots hit the water and the dense cool water pushed up the legs of her khakis and pushed her shirt up under her arms. She let herself ride the energy of her jump down as far as she could keeping her legs bent in case she hit the bottom. As the descent slowed she shifted her body forward and started the wide stroke she remembered from the quarry. She spread her legs and kicked widely with her boots, keeping her breath down in her stomach to conserve the oxygen as long as possible. She pulled as hard as she could for dark area of water that she thought would be under the launch and the pier.