Page 33 of The Most Dangerous Games

Reg immediately takes charge while Alek struggles to keep treading water, and keep her face, red as an apple from the cold, above it. Reg gets a hand under Hannah’s jaw, another under her shoulder, and snaps her over. As soon as he does, they see that her face isn’t as red as theirs.

Hannah’s lips are wrong—too pale, starting to blue.

Alek’s face is red from the cold, eyes wide. “Is she—”

“She’s alive,” Reg says. The words come out clipped. He doesn’t have spare breath for anything else. “Barely.”

Wyatt has no idea what to do.

“Help me,” Reg snaps, not unkind, just urgent. “Alek—hold her head. Wyatt—grab her arm.”

Wyatt does it, fingers clumsy, almost useless.

Reg tilts Hannah’s head back and gives her a breath. He doesn’t hesitate as he begins doing rescue breathing, the kind lifeguards do on a beach, here in the water, because he has no choice if they’re going to save her.

Hannah coughs—thin, weak. Water dribbles from her mouth.

It’s the best sound Wyatt’s ever heard.

“Need . . . to our own boat while at least part of it is still out of the water . . . while we hope other boat . . .” Reg is having the same difficulty speaking as everyone else, almost as if they are all still underwater. But he clearly and urgently says: “Now.”

“How?” Wyatt asks, as he struggles to keep treading water.

Their Zodiac is capsized, only a portion of its bow still visible.

“I’ll hold on to her . . . try to side-stroke,” Reg says. “You get on other side . . . keep her head above water.”

Wyatt side-strokes, one arm doing the work while the other keeps Hannah’s face up.

The rescue Zodiac is closer.

Still not close enough.

To Alek, Reg says, “You follow. Stay close.”

“I’ll do my best,” Alek says.

Reg manages a half-smile and says, “No medals . . . for trying.”

Alek stays close, fighting to keep her own chin above the surface.

Wyatt knows they’ve only been in the water for a few minutes. It feels like hours. But they methodically keep pushing their way toward the capsized boat, only showing its bow above the water.

They’re close when the whales return.

Two of the more rambunctious ones are between them and the Zodiac. They breach hard, not far off, and the water around them heaves. Wyatt feels his grip start to slip. He tightens it with hands that don’t want to close.

A low pulse rolls through the water again. Not the whales.

Reg holds on to Hannah and keeps stroking.

“Don’t let her go,” he says.

Wyatt doesn’t answer. He can’t. He just strokes.

He strokes as the waves the whales are creating make that more and more difficult.

Wyatt can see the rescue boat getting closer.