A.N: Whaaaaaatttt? An early update? From moi? Unbelievable.
Ahh yes. The nostalgia of those first few lines. I hope they make you feel all warm and fuzzy as it did for me writing it and as for Jack... Well.. You guys will have to read and see for yourselves. CAN HE BE SAVED!?
And of course as always! Thank you to those who followed and favorited this fanfic!
ENJOY!
Chapter 26: Drown and Wash Away All Your Sins
Darkness…
That's the first thing they remembered…
It was dark… It was cold… And they were scared…
Water was all around them…
In the car…
In their lungs.
Everywhere...
None of them could breathe… They were all drowning.
The freezing cold water rushed into the car like a tidal wave.
Rapunzel knew it was coming. She could see them hurdling towards the lake at unimaginable speeds. No matter how much she tried to brace herself it was no use. The impact was bone-jarring; literally. The jerk alone was enough the force all the air out of her lungs. She tried to salvage what little air she had left. She had taken swimming classes before and had an indoor pool to practice in. But nothing would've prepared her enough to face this.
Her first thought was to go for the door handle on her side. She tried the handle but it wouldn't budge. She pulled and pushed, tugged and heaved with all her strength but still, the door wouldn't open. It wasn't locked which meant only one thing; the water was jamming it shut.
She tipped her head back to gulp in some air. Only a little bit of air was left near the roof of the car; which was depleting fast.
She looked to the others and saw them grappling for air as well. She was sure their nerves were all shot to hell; just as much as hers was. Yeah, icy cold water will do that to you…
She saw Jack trying to remove his seatbelt and saw how much he was resisting the urge to gulp in air as well. He'd be a goner for sure if he opened his mouth now; they all would be. She saw a small trickle of red floating around the left side of his temple; Blood. He must have hit his head during the impact.
Merida had grabbed ahold of her bow and arrow and was now trying to smash the window open; she had tried the automatic power window switch but it wasn't working. She momentary stopped and used her elbow instead but the water was softening her blows and was thwarting all her attempts to break the glass. The only thing she'd get out of that was a sore elbow.
Hiccup was trying to do the same on his side though; except that he was using Jack's gun to break the glass but he too, was failing miserably at it. Toothless was clawing at the glass as if it was puzzled why he couldn't get out.
The car was sinking deeper and deeper, and for the first time in her life, Rapunzel wondered how deep the Burgess Lake was. For her, right now, it seemed like a bottomless black hole that went on into the darkness forever.
Everything happened in a matter of seconds. They sunk deeper into the lake and the water got darker as each second ticked by. The pressure she felt in her chest was growing painfully tight; she felt as though it was being crushed.
Water was still holding her door shut and the current was still coming through the broken window; making the situation even worse.
Wait a second! The broken window! Duh!
If they'd just stopped panicking and thought for a second they wouldn't have had to struggle so much to escape.
Rapunzel let her body freely float up and then grabbed onto the sides of the window frame. She turned her head and successfully caught the attention of her friends. She pointed at the window with her index finger before thrusting herself out; praying that her friends would follow suit. She swam upwards and saw the full moon through the water right above her. Its bright reddish light was the only form of luminosity they got.
Wait! Reddish?
She started kicking with all her might and making her way to the top; telling herself that it wasn't far; to just hold on a few seconds longer. And for the first time in her entire life, she was glad her hair was cut short. It would've made her swim a whole lot difficult.
She had just run out of breath as she broke the surface. She gulped in air greedily; sucking as much air as her burning lungs could take and more. She saw that the edge of the lake was not too far away and began swimming towards it—knowing that she could rest once she was back on dry land.
Almost there…
Behind her she heard her friends break the surface too. She heard gasping and splashing behind her. Her heartfelt a little better knowing that her friends were right behind her. She reached the end of the lake and pulled herself to safety and collapsed onto the ground with an exhausted sigh; her legs were still half-submerged in the water. Her limbs felt like dead weight; she could barely even move them anymore. Maybe she could take a teeny-tiny cat nap. It wouldn't hurt anybody…
She let her eyes drop for a moment and just concentrated on her breathing. She opened them again just in time to see Toothless leaping out of the water and shaking itself off right beside her. The action caused droplets to splatter all over her; as if she wasn't drenched enough already she grimaced. She would have protested herself from the doggy sprinkler if she had the energy to.
Three seconds later, she saw Hiccup and Merida make it to dry land as well. Hiccup dropped on all fours and spat out the water from his mouth. She noticed that he still clenched the colt in his hand with a death grip but it looked as though he was unaware of even holding it.
Merida on the other hand; raised her arms to the sky. "Ah! Sweet land!" She yelled and then dropped her bow and arrow by her side and crashed to her knees "Al' never take ya for granted again!" She said; mocking the action of kissing the ground.
Rapunzel smiled but it quickly turned into a deeply troubled frown. Worry began creasing her forehead as she looked around her but didn't find what—or who she was looking for. "Wait! Where's Jack?!" She yelled in alarm; as panic, fear, dread and guilt dripped her heart.
"Wasn't he behind us?" Hiccup asked with worry; looking back at the water for his silvery-haired friend to pop out at any time and yell; Surprise! Had you guys going, didn't I? But no such thing occurred. Holy shit! Had the zombie gotten him? HE WAS STILL UNDERWATER!?
"Oh god!" Rapunzel shrieked. "Something must've happened to him!" Two words repeated themselves over and over in her mind no matter how hard she tried to tell herself to stop.
He's dead, he's dead, he's dead…
She stood up in a hurry and stumbled on unsteady feet. She saw Merida already diving back into the water; the loud splash echoed through the empty forest. She began to follow Merida but the hand that caught her arm stopped her. She turned back to see Hiccup shaking his head. "You're in no condition to go back in there… Merida knows what she's doing. She'll bring Jack back." He wanted to go help too, but he barely made it to the shore thanks to his injured shoulder and his aching leg.
She wished she believed him. But by standing there, doing nothing except waiting, she felt like she was letting the snowy-haired boy down. After everything he'd done for her… Was waiting all she could do in return?
(Underwater)
Jack's lungs were screaming for air. He had already lost all the oxygen he tried to conserve. He found himself unavoidably gulping in large amounts of water.
'Oh Shit!' Was all Jack managed to think I'm screwed! I'm so so screwed!
He tugged and wrenched at his seatbelt but something was wrong. It wasn't unfastening. It was kinda ironic really… It was the seatbelt that saved his life about a year ago and now, it was the one that's going to be the death of him. He thrashed wildly and his arms flailed; like a fish out of water… Or rather, a drowning boy underwater.
He was just barely aware of the fact that Rapunzel, Hiccup, Merida, and Toothless had left the car; left him. But it was okay, he wasn't complaining-He was actually glad. Even with his fading consciousness, he was thankful that they made it out and were alright.
He had never been much of a praying type, not since that incident with Emma but with his last dying thought—he prayed that they would make it out of this Zombie Apocalypse alive and well. And Emma… Oh Emma… What he wouldn't give to see her one last time? And his parents too…
It had taken him his last conscious thought to realize that he had forgiven them… Now he only wished to see them and apologize one last time.
But it was too late.
He knew he was dying...
And dying alone…
His chest didn't contract and expand anymore.
His eyes closed as he slipped into the darkness; never to return again.
Merida swam as fast as she could. It was dark and extremely cold; the deeper she went, the darker it got but thank the heavens she could still see…
The moonlight glow was brighter tonight than any other night; even though it had a strange tint in it instead of the normal silvery rays. It was astonishing to see the moonbeams so big and so bright.
Her heartbeat got quicker and hammered against her chest when she caught sight of the dim outline of the sunken car. She kicked at the water more vigorously trying to propel her body faster towards the vehicle.
The first thing she saw when she came to the passenger seat window was that Jack was ghostly pale and unmoving. He was drifting lifelessly and the only thing keeping him stationary was the seatbelt.
The seatbelt?!
Merida quickly realized that the seatbelt was the reason he couldn't escape.
She was the last to swim out of the car; she should have been the one to check if Jack was following her. But now wasn't the time to think about what could have been done nor was it the time to feel guilty about it. She wasn't the type of person who over thought every single decision she made. Not like she did in the past. She had learned her lesson.
Her top priority right now was getting Jack out of the car and back to Rapunzel and Hiccup.
Outta the water n' back ta air!
She swam back inside the car with ease; the current of the water guiding her in. She knew trying to unbuckle the seatbelt was a waste of precious time; there was no point. She needed to find something to unjam it or cut it. And then it struck her again for the second time that night.
The knife!
But where was it? She had used it on Rapunzel's hair and then… Well, she was sure she didn't secure it back to her boot, which means it should still be somewhere on the back seat or on the floorboard. She grifted into the back seat and began scrabbling to find the object. She knew they didn't have time to be searching for it but what choice did she have? The knife was Jack's only hope.
Just when Merida was starting to question her decision, her hand brushed against the weapon she'd been looking for. Lady Luck I thank ya! She snagged the knife and made it to the front seat again. She didn't dare look at the silver-haired boy. She had to focus.
Merida gripped the strap that was trapping Jack's chest and began cutting through it. It was much harder than she thought it would be… And on top of everything else; she was running out of oxygen. She was virtually at the point of losing consciousness when the belt finally tore.
No time to celebrate though. No matter how much she urged herself not to, Merida accidentally opened her mouth to breathe and sucked in a large amount of water. Shit! No! Her mind screeched. She clawed at her throat and struggled to get a hold of herself.
So close! She was so close…
Black dots began appearing around Jack's deathly pale face. She knew she had to at least get his body out of the water. She couldn't just abandon him at the bottom of the lake; she owed him that much at least.
With a last bit of resolve she had left, she grabbed onto the door handle on Jack's side just as it swings open slowly. She blinked back the surprise and relief as she saw Hiccup's stern face nodding to her.
Since the pressure was equal on both the inside and the outside of the car, opening the door was relatively easy. It was a much better option than trying to manhandle Jack's lifeless body out the broken window.
Lifeless…
They tried not to think about it as they both somehow managed to hustle Jack out of the car and hauled him to the surface. They both gulped in harsh breaths of fresh forest air, but of course, Jack did no such thing.
His head lolled against the brunette boy's uninjured shoulder; his damp silvery hair obscuring his forever closed eyes, his blue-tinged lips slightly agape.
With the help of each other; Merida and Hiccup heaved Jack back onto dry land. When they were close enough, Rapunzel too jumped into the water and helped. Merida was already on the verge of blacking out as they reached the safety of the shore. Hiccup seemed to be doing much better than her as he and Rapunzel both lugged Jack farther away from the water by his shoulders.
Rapunzel shakily looked over at the lax face of the snowy-haired boy for a moment before dropping down to her knees and beginning to bring him back from the dead.
No way was he leaving her like this… No way in hell was she letting him off so easy…
No freaking way!
Death by zombie? ME: Nah
Death by drowning? ME: Now that's the shit.
Shout Outs!
elocin the lost: C5: Hahaha. IKR! I loved writing that part! Hiccup wouldn't have felt like Hiccup without it. C7: ^^ The perfect reaction! C8: Hahahaa! A solid idea tbh. Maybe my next fanfic could be about that? I'd love to write some Mericup with that concept! C10: OMGOSH! You got it XD Plus another secret which you'll find out eventually. ALSO IKKRRR! I LOVE THEIR LOVE/HATE friendship dynamics. Also one of my favorite things to write. JESAS The big four are the best things to ever happen to me. C11: Hehehe. I donno how far money is gonna get them when the world is ending. But lol… keep them theories flowin' ma dude! C12: IKR. Hiccup is just speaking what we're all thinking. C13: More to come; hang in there. *wink wink* C14: Answer – They don't… ^^ Water is a luxury in the apocalypse… It'll probably dry off till they can get to some water source (Casually hides Chapter 25 behind me) C15: Wait, who's Mk/nod? C17: *winces* Yeeeahhh…. Poor Jack. C18: EXACTLY! God damn! The things I do to these beloved characters… I should be behind bars honestly. C19: EPIC! C20: Hahahahaha OMG I legit laughed a few hard minutes at that joke. You win best pun of the year idc what anyone says. C22: MUHUHAHAHA! Didn't expect that, didja?! Feed me your our despair! C23: Hahaha You seem more obsessed over the crow than I am! Respect bruh. And yeah I know exactly what you mean. I'm not catholic either… actually I'm not even Christian. But like you said, something about the aesthetics of it is very cool and perfect! C24: ^^ Hell yeah. C26: Awww! Thank you! It makes me so incredibly happy to know that you've enjoyed it so far. And hehehe, again thank you. I am actually pretty proud of some of them myself. XD I often end up surprising myself. Lol. I swear to god. Punzie just can't catch a break… none of them can. Eesh. Sorry guys! Forgive me. I know. Poor baby Hiccup. Honestly, we all face trauma… at some point in our lives one way or another so I'd like to believe its not a recurring thing. So.. No more major trauma for Hic… maybe. Merida ADHD is like… accurate af?! I'm not sure if even therapy is gonna help buuutttt it'll be start! XD Maybe Ariel did and it didn't work or she would've mentioned it? Or perhaps it was the author's oversight? We may never know. *giggles* Me too! Its what made me fall for each of them in the first place! They were well rounded and absolutely amazing even before I ever got to borrow them. No way! Thank you for taking the time to read it and sticking with me! Thank you so much for all the love and support and for being proud of me too! Its not something I hear irl and… I'm tearing up! Thank you. Its for people like you that I will keep comin back to update this fic no matter how long its been. I appreciate the extra-long review so much! Hope your staying safe as well. Especially during times like this. Until next time. Kudos! And Cookies! (::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)
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IT GIVES ME LAAAFFFEEEEE!
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Please stay extra safe! Until next time!
Byeeee!