1Chapter 5

Sink or Swim

Up, up through the labyrinth, half sunken underworld. Water up to my waist, smoke from there to the ceiling, thick and drugging. Adrenalin, sharp and hot, pulsed through my head, making me move though exhaustion and smoke told me to stop.

Sophia was getting heavier and heavier, the longer I slogged through the corridors, half-conscious. I gasped and choked, stumbling now and again as my feet snagged on free-floating wires. The lights had gone completely out, and panic was suffocating me.

Which way had Jules and I come? The smoke was almost tangible. I knew that sooner or later, it would kill me if I didn't get out of here. I stopped, trying desperately to think logically. I dropped Sophia for a moment and unrolled my sleeves. Weakly, I ripped them in half up to the elbow on each arm, then used the ripped fabric to tie around my mouth and nose; a sort of makeshift smoke shield. I wrapped one around Sophia, too. I wasn't sure how long they'd help, or if they would at all, but at least I was doing something.

Somewhere behind and below me in the ship, something crashed and I heard water sucking around. Pulling Sophia with one arm draped around my shoulders, I stumbled along in the water for a few more seconds before I heard something that nearly made my heart stop.

"GADGET!"

It was Chip's voice, somewhere a ways above me. I ripped the cloth off my face. "Chip!" It wasn't half as loud as I wanted it to be, but it got a response, and two seconds later a beam of light cut through the dark smoke. I slogged towards it.

Chip was at my side in a matter of seconds, soot-stained and sweaty. Without a word, he stooped over and picked up Sophia like a baby. She wasn't very heavy, probably didn't weigh much more than I did, but as Chip staggered along beside me, I could tell something was wrong. He shouldn't be having that much trouble with her.

I could smell fresh air, mixed in with the scent of burning steel and smoke. I tried to take a deep breath, but only coughed instead. Chip glanced at me concernedly. I cleared my throat and looked ahead. We came out of the dark and into the dim night air. The storm was over, and the storm clouds had dissipated somewhat, but the sky was still swarmed in smoke.

The deck floor was hot to the touch. The water had kept the inside of the ship cool, but the deck was burning up. I squinted through the thin smoke vapors and saw a makeshift raft full of shivering, howling mice, all frightened nigh unto death. Monterey was lying beside the raft, barely moving.

"Monterey!" I cried, and started to run towards him. I fell down next to him and put my ear to his chest. Still breathing.

Chip stumbled past me and laid Sophia on the raft. Several mice pulled her closer to the middle. I couldn't see Dale or Jules anywhere.

"Gadget, you have to help me get Monty on board...Dale can't do anything," Chip rasped.

"What happened to Dale?" I asked, alarmed.

Chip coughed violently and started pulling at Monterey's arm. I followed suit, grabbing the other one and heaving. The smoke made it slow work. Chip's face was pale, and his breathing rapid and shallow. We succeeded in getting Monty onto the raft where the huddled mice were crying and fretting.

"We're leaving," Chip promised them. "Gadget, help me with this."

Again, I blindly obeyed him, following him to the side of the raft. He had constructed a crude pulley system to get the raft out into the ocean. We both grabbed the rope and pulled hard. I let my weight yank the rope down. My mind was clearing fast. "Where's Dale?" I persisted.

Chip took a shallow breath and dragged the rope down. He wasn't going to make it much longer before he collapsed like Monty. "Broke...his arm." The rope began to give way and I felt the raft begin to swing in free air. "He's in the middle of the raft...with Jules and the kids."

A few more seconds of pulling hard, eyes streaming from smoke, and we were safely off the boat and into the freezing ocean. Chip sank to his knees for a few scant moments before pushing himself back up. He was hyperventilating. "All right, people. Grab the oars and row, or we'll get pulled under too!"

The mice began to scramble frantically for the nearest oar and plunge them vigorously into the sea.

"Is -cough- is Miss...Soph...she all right?"

I put my arm around him. "She'll be fine. Chip, you should really sit down before you pass out."

"No...I'll be fine, Gadget," he gasped.

I confronted him sternly. "Chip, you just single-handedly saved an entire ship of mice from drowning. You're having trouble breathing, I can tell. Sit down."

He looked at me, eyes red from smoke. He sat down.

I sat beside him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and holding him close against the cold. Unbidden, he began talking, his voice slow and strained.

"Monterey and Dale and I were making the raft. We heard someone above us scream. There was...some mouse kid trapped on top of the smokestack. You know -cough- the ones bent on top?"

I nodded. Chip coughed violently for a moment.

"Monty and I climbed up to get him, but the ship started shaking. Monty lost his grip -cough, cough, cough, gag- and fell. On...on top of Dale. Knocked him right out, broke Dale's arm. I got the kid to climb down a rope, but he grabbed my foot...I fell into the smokestack..."

Chip stopped abruptly and doubled over, clutching at his sides, squirming. "Oh, Chip...you were in the smokestack. Everybody here is going to be sick from the smoke, but under normal conditions, I'd really like to get you to a doctor."

He managed a small smile. "Under normal conditions, Gadg, I wouldn't be feeling this crummy."

He shook a bit, trying to refrain from coughing. But the more he tried to suppress it, the more it built. Finally he doubled over, gagged, and started hacking fit to die. Nausea rolled through my stomach again as I watched him. I was surprised he wasn't coughing up blood. The coughing kept up and up until he was heaving and gagging. He held his breath, trying to stop it. His eyes were clenched shut.

"Chip!" I was no doctor, I couldn't help him. "Just...just try to relax." I felt useless as Chip shivered in my arms.

At last he stopped and looked up at me, watery-eyed. He forced himself breath slowly and deeply. "Gadg..."he couldn't finish. His voice was almost completely gone. I gasped and felt a couple of tears burn my cheeks.

"Chip, don't talk. Just lie still. I'll take care of everything." I tried to sound reassuring, but knew I was failing miserably.

Chip just smiled up at me in a hollow sort of way. "I know," he said, without using any voice. The words were just air passing his mouth.

A loud shriek from the middle of the raft grabbed our attention. Chip braced himself on my shoulder and heaved himself up. I pried myself loose from his grasp and stood up to see better. "What's going on?"

There was no need for an explanation. Sophia was cowering in Jule's arms, a large and nasty grey mouse towering over her. "Where is she?" the assassin shouted.

"Impossible!"

"The assassin!" gasped Chip in his half-voice. Before I could do anything, Chip had vanished from my side.

"Chip!" I tried to catch up with him, but seconds before I was anywhere near, Chip had launched himself into the larger mouse, knocking him over.

They rolled sideways on the deck. People were screaming, stumbling away. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dale with one arm around a small child. Everyone had backed away from Chip and the mouse. I looked at them, spellbound for several crucial moments. Chip was on top of the assassin, but just barely. He was also in no condition to fight. And in his weakened state, he was probably only going to end up dead.

"Get off, slime," the mouse spat, uncoiling and sending Chip flying almost to the edge of the raft.

"Chip!" The scream tore itself involuntarily from my throat. The assassin turned on me, and a sudden change, for the worse, if possible, came over him. He roared and charged. As he came flying at me, I ducked, causing him to tumble over me, knocking me over with him. We rolled sideways together. I came to a halt only when I smacked into him.

"You little monster!" he shouted, picking me up by my arm. "My brother was right about you. It'll be good to bring these back and show him I've killed you." He put his knife between his teeth and yanked my goggles off my head. He laughed, pleased with himself, and grabbed his knife.

I twisted wildly, clawing at his arm. He shook, trying to throw me off-balance, but I clung on desperately, and finally got what I wanted: his arm bent, and I lunged forward and sank my teeth into him. He screamed in pain and raised the knife.

Just as he was about to stab at me, Chip flew headlong out of nowhere, straight into the mouse's stomach. The assassin dropped me and went flying, his weight the only thing keeping him from going right overboard.

Chip scrambled away from the mouse, coming to my side. The assassin raised the dagger, readying himself to throw it. I started to grab at Chip, intending to pull him away from the mouse's aim, but Chip was faster. In a nanosecond, he had once again disappeared from my side and hurled himself at the kneeling assassin. This time though, the mouse's position worked to Chip's advantage. And disadvantage. I watched in horror as Chip bowled into the mouse, sending them both overboard into the freezing water.

"Chip!" The shriek came from behind me, and I knew Dale was on his feet, ready to dive in head-first.

"No, Dale!" I commanded, and ran forward. I grabbed the nearest abandoned oar and knelt at the edge of the raft where they had gone over. I waited on tenterhooks for Chip to surface. After what seemed like minutes, but I knew wasn't, Chip surged upwards, the mouse right behind him, both gasping for air. Only Chip didn't seem to be able to breathe. Water on top of all that smoke...I rejoiced that he wasn't dead.

"Chip! Chip, over here!"

He turned his head weakly, still flailing, and began slowly, agonizingly, to swim towards the raft. Crying, I laid down on my stomach and extended the oar towards him. The instant I felt his weight on it, I pulled hard, taking him out of the mouse's reach, who was still fighting desperately to attack him.

No sooner had I pulled Chip to the edge of the raft and worked both paws under his arms than the mouse made it to us, knife still barred. I then did the most difficult thing I've ever done: I let go of Chip, and he immediately slipped beneath the waves.

"Monster! My brother and I will see you dead yet!" the assassin shouted.

I snatched up the oar and looked at the floundering mouse. There was no fear on his face, just hatred. We made eye contact, and I swung the oar, feeling immense satisfaction and relief as it collided with the mouse's skull. There was a resounding thunk, and the mouse went limp and sank, knife in one hand, my goggles clenched in the other.

Chip had been under too long. Taking a deep breath, I hurled the oar aside and jumped into the icy water after him. I heard Dale shout my name, but I didn't care. I was running off adrenalin and instinct. There was no logic left in my brain at that moment. I had to get Chip out of there. If he was going to die, it was going to be on that raft, with Dale and me right next to him.

The water's temperature shocked me, even though I knew how cold it was. As soon as I was under, my body went rigid and refused to work properly. It was just too cold. I probably would have stopped then and there if my blood wasn't boiling with injustice and anxiety. I thrashed for a split second, then mastered myself and swam downwards.

There was a murky object, moving slightly in the ebb and flow of the current, some two feet below me. Thankfully, I had found Chip on my first try. Still miraculously conscious.

His eyes were open, but he didn't seem to register anything as I wrapped my arms around his chest and started kicking upwards. It felt like he weighed ten pounds as I struggled to drag him up. Even as I kicked valiantly, the cold water was closing in on me, seizing my muscles up. Just as my legs gave out, my head broke the surface and air flooded into my lungs. The raft was right there, and a frightened-looking mouse reached out a hand to help Chip and I up.

We slammed onto the deck together, my wet hair all over the place. Dale was standing near, holding his injured arm to his chest and dancing uncertainly. I flipped my hair out of the way and rolled Chip onto his back, checking for a pulse. The smallest, weakest of heartbeats was still toiling on. "Hang on, Chip," I muttered, pulling him up into a sitting position. I hit his back gently, coaxing him to cough up the salty water he had swallowed. I knew it would hurt him, might even kill him, but better to die...well, I don't know how I'd prefer to die, I just know I'd want my friends to be doing everything they could.

He started coughing, lightly at first, then he gurgled, and without warning, retched out of my arms and forward, spitting up blood and water together. He coughed and coughed until all the water was up, then he shook violently and collapsed, his body rolling slightly over to meet my knees.

There was a crowd of mice around us now. "We have to get him dry, try to get him warm," I started, but then my tongue stopped working. I was surprised. I tried again, but my head was getting heavy. I tried to move, but my body no longer worked. My vision blurred, and I blinked uncertainly. Two Chips...how did that happen? I was fairly certain he didn't have a twin...Four of him...eight, dozens...blackness.