The three slipped beneath the surface, swallowed whole by the black water. The light from their torches wavered, slicing through clouds of silt and fractured stone. The tunnel angled upward, a jagged chute winding toward what Elias prayed was open water.
They moved in slow, measured strokes, exchanging the regulator every few seconds. Each transfer felt like eternity. Breathe. Pass. Breathe. Pass. Halfway through, the current strengthened, tugging them backward. Elias’s muscles screamed as he kicked harder, pulling the old man forward with one arm. The pressure in his chest grew unbearable.