The River

Rose knew it wasn’t a good idea to go into the river with her hands tied behind her back.

She struggled with the ropes, trying to loosen the knots. But when she saw the bald guy coming back, she couldn’t wait anymore. She drew in a big breathe and went off the boat backward, just like she’d learned to do scuba diving down in the gulf.

The Missisissippi wasn’t the clear warm water where she’s learned that move. The murky river closed over her head with complete darkness and an amazing pull of current that immediately swept her away from the barge. Thank goodness she had at least managed to work her feet free, She kicked with all her strength and went with the current. Right now the most important thing was to get as far as possible away from the boat before she had to come up for air.

She couldn’t see or hear anything but she wasn’t afraid of drowning. She was more afraid of being shot. The snub nosed revolver stuck in the back of Baldys waistband didn’t look like it was there for show. And she was pretty sure those long boxes in the bottom of the boat were rifles. She kicked furiously, imagining a long barreled 306 with a high powered scope trained on the water above her head, waiting for her face to show above the surface.

Her lungs were bursting when she finally let herself pop up. She flipped over, filling her lungs and allowing her body to float. All she could see was water, waves all around sloshing up in her face. The current seemed even stonger now that she was no longer actively trying to go with it. She was still moving down the center of the river at an amazing speed, trees along the banks swept by before she could get a look at any particular point. The water was rising and had carried her straight down the center stream. Both banks looked about a hundred miles away. She pushed high in the water as she could, stiffening her body to look around.

Which direction? Where would they be looking? It was a coin toss, both sides were overhung with trees with no sign of civilization in sight