Nicki barely felt the sharp bump as the anchor landed on the bottom. Her consciousness was drifting rapidly away as the water overwhelmed her lungs. It was just a matter of mere seconds now, she knew.
Would they ever find her down here, she wondered weakly as her mind began blacking out for the last time? Or would she remain a permanent feature on the ocean floor until her body decomposed away, leaving nothing behind? Either way, it didn't matter now. The abyss was right there in front of her; all she had to do was just let go...
When suddenly something touched her face. Fingers, it felt like-fingers pulling hard at the tape over her mouth. Or so it felt like; she was barely conscious enough to react anymore. But sure enough, the tape was ripped apart from her lips, the rag pulled quickly out, and something metallic pushed in. Suddenly Nicki had a fresh supply of air flowing to her lungs. Rescue, she realized, her brain snapping back to life; it had been another ship she'd seen! She wasn't dead yet!
She could make out a voice trying to say something in the water next to her, sounding like, "Keep breathing, Nicki, keep breathing!" Suddenly there was a sharp jerk, and Nicki felt the anchor heading back UP. Yes, her spirits rose, she was being saved! Her immediate savior had grasped hold of the anchor-she could feel the extra weight on the anchor, although it wasn't weighing her down any more than it needed too-and was taking the ride up with her. He or she had one hand on the respirator, making sure it stayed in place in her mouth, and was stroking her hair reassuringly with the other.
The ride up to the surface seemed to take an eternity, but soon enough, Nicki's ears started crackling, hinting the surface was near. Moments later, she crested the waves with a loud splash. "Get her up out of there!" shouted a man's voice. Strong arms seized the anchor and hauled it up onto solid ground. "Someone get a blowtorch!" another cried out.
"Nicki, are you all right!?" came the voice right by her ear, deathly worried. Nicki's heart leaped. It had to be...she knew it was as the tape was peeled off her eyes, to show in the dim light...
"Adam," she sobbed in delight. There he was, standing right over her, a scuba tank in hand, sopping wet, and utterly relieved to see her alive.
"Nicki," without a second thought, he bent down and kissed her. And wouldn't stop the kiss. Which, truth be told, was just the way Nicki wanted it at the moment. How long they stayed in that embrace, she couldn't tell, but it was some time before another male voice called to their left, "OK, step back son, we'll need some room to work with her."
"Right," Adam stepped back. A pair of men in Coast Guard uniforms stepped forward with the blowtorch. "Hold still, miss," one instructed her, bending down to apply the flame to the chains holding her to the anchor. Nicki readily obeyed. She glanced around. The hurricane seemed to be slowing down, as the wind and waves were much more normal-looking now, and what even appeared to be a break in the storm was visible on the eastern horizon in the dawn light. A large coast guard cutter was parked next to the wreckage of the boat she and her friends had been in...her friends...
"Oh my God, Sam and Jessie!" she gasped, her eyes darting all over the wreckage, "Have they...did you...!"
"Don't worry, Miss Price, we found your friends in time," one of the Coast Guard men over her assured her, "Lucky thing that wave smashed the door off that cabin so we could see them right away. See, they're nice and safe up there."
He pointed to the cutter, and Nicki was deeply relieved to see Jessie and Samantha sitting on the deck, being untied. Both her friends looked deathly shaken from the experience, but were clearly going to walk away from it, just like she was. "And those guys?" she asked, noticing the sub next to the wreckage, overturned.
"Looks like they all drowned," the man shook his head, "We'll check for the bodies, but safe to say they're not going to bother you again."
With a clang the last chain broke loose. The men shoved the chains aside, and let Adam join them in releasing Nicki from the sack and then untying her. She threw her arms around him once she was free again. "Oh Adam, I thought you were dead!" she sobbed happily, kissing him repeatedly, "Mr. Smarr, he said you'd been...!"
"Yeah, he got me right in the chest too," Adam lifted up his shirt to reveal a terrible stab wound, "It all happened rather quickly. Heather was with me, trying to force me to come back to her; she tried to run away after he attacked me, but he chased her down and started stabbing her too. The surf was coming in, and I knew I'd be finished off too if I didn't get away, so when his back was turned, I let it carry me into the ocean. The surge was wrecking his station by that point, so he couldn't have checked even if he wanted too. I thought for a while I would still die there in the surf, but the waves eventually slammed me ashore farther up the beach. I knew something was up like you'd said if Mr. Smarr would resort to murder like that, so I willed myself to get to the police despite the terrible pain I was in."
"He must really care for you, young lady; he demanded we bring him with us when we came out here to search for you and your friends," one of the Coast Guard men draped a warm blanket around her, "And when he saw the boat get swamped, he just grabbed some air and dove overboard after you without a second thought."
"Yeah, he is wonderful," Nicki gave Adam another kiss and resumed embracing him.
"Hey, when I give someone a ring, it means something," he held up her finger with the ring, "I want to be there for you for the rest of my life, Nicki. Come on," he helped her up and led her across the wreckage of the boat towards the cutter, "There's some other people here I think you'll be glad to see right now."
"Who?" Nicki asked. Her question was almost immediately answered by a loud cry of, "Nicki!" when she climbed on the cutter's deck, prompting a thundering of footsteps right towards her. "Mom, Dad!" she cried in delight, ecstatic to see them, even though she had no idea how they'd gotten there. She lunged towards them herself and embraced both of them at once. "Oh you don't know how glad I am to see you!" she sobbed in delight.
"Oh my God, Nicki, what happened to you!?" her mother gasped at the slash wounds on her arms.
"It's a long story, Mom," she told her, accepting a relieved kiss from her, "But what are you two doing here!?"
"Your mother and I decided we'd surprise you and come down to visit," her father explaining, giving her a kiss of his own, "But with the hurricane coming, our flight was diverted up to Fort Lauderdale, and then we read in the papers that dead bodies were washing up on shore down here, and no one was answering the phone when we called, so we drove down here in the heat of the storm, but we found your place deserted, and when we went to the police, we heard you might have been lost at sea...bless you, young man," he turned to Adam and gave him a hearty handshake, "For saving Nicki's life now and getting the police involved, you have our eternal gratitude."
Adam merely blushed. "This is Adam," Nicki introduced him, "And yeah, he is really special. Well, I suppose I do owe the two of you an explanation..."
She told them her entire experience. "Well, I'm glad you cared for the safety of others, Nicki, but next time, just let the authorities handle something like this," her mother said, shaking a little at the thought of what might have befallen her daughter.
"I was planning on it, Mom; they tricked me out here to be captured after I'd decided to give up being a sleuth," she admitted.
"Well," one of the Coast Guard men had been listening in, "It's clear your daughter's done quite a bit of good any way, Mr. and Mrs. Price; she exposed a pretty cold-blooded operation here. They could have kept doing this with impunity if she hadn't been paying attention."
"Yes, I guess we are proud of her for that," her father hugged her, "She is a very brave girl most of the time. Now let's get her and her friends to the hospital while this storm seems to be letting up."
"Looks like the eye's coming in," the Coast Guarder glanced up at the sky, "We probably have a half hour before it starts up again, but that'll be plenty of time. OK Captain, everything's good!" he called up to the bridge, "Take her in."
Nicki breathed in relief as the cutter lurched through the now less threatening waves towards the thin sliver of land in the distance. She had made it through the worst. She walked over to where Samantha and Jessie were sitting, staring at the wreckage of the boat and sub, being lashed to another Coast Guard ship to be towed in. "You two all right!?" she asked them, concerned, "I am sorry I dragged you two into this and endangered your..."
"Hey, Nicki, don't blame yourself," Samantha told her encouragingly, "You had no way of knowing it was going to come to this. Like that guy said, we ended up doing a lot of good."
"Yeah," Jessie added, although she was still shaking from the experience, "Now that we're OK, I guess it was a good experience in the end. Just next time," she fixed Nicki with a firm gaze, "Make sure we get the police first so we don't have to fight for our lives."
"Well, I hope there isn't a next time, Jessie," Nicki chuckled.
"Same here," Adam sat down next her, "I don't want to see anything else bad happening to my precious Nicki."
"Oh, I'm precious to you too?" she smiled from ear to ear.
"You're precious to everyone you know, Nicki," he leaned forward for another kiss. Nicki happily obliged, throwing her arms around him. She felt safe now, hugging him tight and feeling her parents gently rubbing her shoulders. Her nightmare was over, and she had survived.
THE END