PULAU MATI by John L. Evans Read Free Book Online Page A

floated up through the debris that had accumulated in the air pocket.  Someone, no, two or more people were splashing and gasping within feet of him but the lighting was so poor he did not recognize anyone until face to face with Melanie.
    “Melanie, Melanie!” he choked out.  “The water is shallow out there!”  He choked and coughed.  When the coughing subsided he said, “Just pull your head under and push out that way!”   She did not register his presence in her panic.
    “Mel anie, I’ll go with you!  Take a deep breath!  You’ll be out in seconds!”
    She wasn’t responding.  He worked his way behind her, catching some blows from her kicking feet.  He took s everal breaths and grabbed her belt and hair, pulled her under and shoved her toward the opening.  She rose through the tentacles of cabling at the edge of the section and he turned and pushed along the ceiling to work his way back into the air pocket.  The other person in the air pocket was less frantic but from the rapid breathing still sounded very frightened.  When he moved close he recognized one of the flight attendants.  Her veil was snagged onto something underwater and she had gotten tangled in it while trying to remove her uniform.
    “Take deep slow breathes and stop kicking so hard,” he said, coughing and trying to follow his own advice.  “We are only six feet below the surface and there’s a beach very near.  We’ll need to get that veil off.  It may catch in the cables.  Can you take it off?”
    “ Need veil undone.  You do that.”  She found a hand hold and relaxed.
    Gray slid his hand along the veil under water and found where the attached cap was wedged between broken panels of the interior.  The veil was as strong as a rope but by wrapping it around his hand and yanking he pulled it free from where it was sown to the cap.  With the end free, the young woman unwound it from her neck and arm and lifted it over her head.  In seconds she had her uniform jacket off and had kicked out of the skirt.
    “Now can swim,” she said.
    Gray said, “Good.  Just nod when you have a deep breath and I will give you a shove and follow you to make sure you don’t get tangled up.”
    “Okay,” the young woman said , sounding surprisingly confident.
    She inhaled and nodded .  She had so little mass Gray was able to shove her well under to clear the cables and jagged edges and then shove her past the open end of the section.  When she was clear he pulled himself back into the air pocket.  A head floating face down in the water bobbed beside him.  He lifted the head.  It was Lleyton Parker, the tennis player and he appeared alive but unresponsive.  Gray turned Lleyton away from him and bear hugged him twice, as hard as he could.  The young man spewed a stream of water from his mouth and coughed but was still limp.  Gray squeezed twice more, took breaths of his own and pushed out of the air pocket with Lleyton in front of him.
    When Gray popped out of the water, Anna was beside him.  “Did the flight attendant make it?” he asked.
    “Yes.”
    “Can you take this guy to shore?” he asked.  He heard her say, “Yes,” and then something else but he had filled his lungs again and was diving under.  He made a run seat by seat across the front of the cabin.  The water was cloudy, he thought from blood.  His eyes were hardly focusing and fatigue was sapping his will.  He rose to the air pocket.  The air was foul but it took away the need to go to the surface.  He fought the urge to cough.  Two inert bodies floated among the debris.  Despite their condition, he pushed them out of the air pocket.  Twenty one passengers and four attendants had been on the plane, so where were the others?  For a moment he blanked and found himself entwined in the cables.  He pushed out of them and found himself in the air pocket again.  The dizzying fog engulfing him told him the air in the pocket was no longer fit to