Samantha Carter peeled her eyes open and peered through the murky churn, resisting the urge to rub away the grit that worked its way under her eyelids. Her heart thumped against the heavy pressure in her ears. Pressure that placed her more than twenty feet underwater, but she could not spare a thought to figure out how she got there. As silt and sand tumbled through her field of view, she took a moment to look one way and then the other, twisting in place as she pushed her hands against the freezing water. Over her shoulder she saw light, a mottled pale orange glow and well out of reach, but she found her target. She turned and one strong kick propelled her forward.
Her lungs burned, desperate to exhale. Desperate to join the bubbles rushing upwards. She forced tension into her muscles to suppress the urge to breathe, willing her mind away from the instinctive need. The light refracted deceptively, receding and dimming even as she kept moving forward. The edges of her vision faded to gray. Her thoughts muddled any attempt to consider what had happened, so she pushed away the shadows and followed the trail up. She focused only on making each kick count.
She pulled her way through the water as if climbing a steep hill, and felt just as fatigued. Her gear hindered her efforts, creating resistance, but she could not spare the precious moments it would take to discard it. Her oxygen-starved muscles sapped her strength but her rhythmic movements gained a little distance with each reach.
Her periphery briefly darkened and she turned to focus, then recoiled abruptly when she saw movement. A sudden dark shadow above her struck out and gripped her forearm. She kicked her legs forward and shoved against the water to reverse course, disrupting her methodical progress and releasing a rush of nearly-spent oxygen from her lungs. She felt herself hauled forward roughly. She opened her mouth to yell and instead choked on the salty water, her throat constricting painfully. With the last of her consciousness she fought back and swung an elbow, finally connecting with something solid before she slipped backward into the darkness.