Arena Three

Just then, the other three come over. Everyone hugs, shakes hands, pats each other on the back. But my joy and relief are only short-lived as I remember Emmanuel and our boat.

“What do we do now?” I say.

We all look at Ben’s boat. It’s even smaller than the one the Commander gave us, and there’s no way we’ll fit comfortably in there. And they don’t have any supplies or weapons to speak of.

But we have no choice. The seven of us huddle into the boat, the two dogs squeezing in too. It might be cramped but the important thing is that we’re all together. Everyone I love is in this boat. Everyone but one person… Dad.

“I’m coming, Dad,” I whisper under my breath.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The boat, its engine off, now at full sail, sways and lurches in the water as Zeke consults the map.

“We’ve reached Lake Ontario,” he announces.

I look out, as do the others, shocked by the sight ahead. It looks more like an ocean. The waves are huge and rock our overcrowded boat violently. I cling on for dear life, praying that after surviving an attack from crazies we don’t meet our doom in the water. I would hate to drown like Logan.

The rain is still pounding and we’re all completely soaked and shivering. But we need to keep going, plowing onward, putting as much distance between us and the crazies as possible.

The entire way I kept my eyes peeled for the crazies, for our old boat, for Emmanuel, desperate to save him. But to my horror and guilt, they were nowhere to be found.

Suddenly, a sound dawns on me, one that had been nudging at my consciousness and growing louder with each minute.

“Uh-oh,” Zeke says. “Looks like danger ahead.”

I huddle forward and peer at the map. He’s pointing to something. I read Niagara Falls.

“Oh,” I say, apprehensively.

That was the sound: rushing water, distant, yet growing closer.

It’s a testament to the dangers of the cities that the Commander and General Reece thought it would be safer to direct us via Niagara Falls than have us go by foot for any significant portion of the journey.

“What do we do?” Ryan asks.

“It’s the only way to get into Lake Erie,” I reply. “Toledo is on its west bank. We’ll just have to be careful.”

The tension is unbearable. Not only do we have poor weather and overcrowding to contend with, but now we have to maneuver past a waterfall. I feel Bree’s small, cold hand slip into mine.

“It will be okay,” I say. Then I look up at Ryan, who is steering the boat. “Won’t it?”

He nods grimly, his expression not exactly filling me with confidence.

“We don’t have much gas,” Ryan adds. “And we’ll need as much power as possible to counteract the force of the falls, to get us to shore before we go over.”

“Use it all if you have to,” I tell him. “We can sail the rest of the way. Just don’t let us go over.”

He turns back to the tiller, his features transforming into complete concentration. I hold Bree close to me and whisper a silent prayer under my breath. She nuzzles her head into my chest and squeezes her eyes shut. Penelope sits in her lap, shivering from the rain.

The boat chugs along, churning up water as we go. Ryan steers us smoothly along, trying not to fight the power of the water while also using it to push us forward. I can hear the engine struggling in the choppy water, and then a new noise makes me even tenser. It’s the rising sound of the waterfall, of thousands of liters of water plummeting down a cliff face, crashing on the rocks. And we’re heading right toward it.

I grip the sides of the boat even tighter. Beside me, Molly is doing the same. Zeke has practically turned green. In complete contrast to the others, Ben sits serenely, his gaze locked on me. I can’t help but feel calmed by his presence. We’ve gone through so much together and are still standing; it’s almost like he’s a good-luck talisman. He nods as if to say, “We’ve got this. We’ve been through worse.” Despite my fear, I find myself smiling back at him.

The boat carries on forward and the sound of the waterfall grows even louder. The amount of water spray kicked up by the power of it is immense. It drenches us as much as the rain.

The sound and feel of the engine beneath me changes. I look over to Ryan and see that he’s giving the boat more power. And that means that the pull of the waterfall is starting to take effect. I can’t help but visualize our little boat being sucked into the stream and splintering to a thousand pieces on the rocks on the way down.

I catch my first glimpse of the waterfall’s edge. How strange to think of all the tourists who gathered here and took tour boats across the water. They will all be dead now, all those people whose lives consisted of day trips to beauty spots. They could never have imagined as they stood here looking at the breathtaking sight of nature at its finest that in a few hundred years our species would have almost entirely annihilated itself.