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The water poured in and around Damien, it’s cold temperature causing him to lose his breath. He tried to swim toward the opening, but the force of the flow was too strong, and he was flung to the back of the tank. The remains of Taylor’s skeleton were swallowed up by the rising water, scraping across the metal near Damien’s feet.

Within seconds almost half the tank was full and the container started to shift, tipping upright, but the hatch remained below the water line. The movement tossed Damien and Taylor’s bones into the middle of the tank and the flow of spring water was still too strong to fight.

He’d have to wait until the tank was full and the current had ebbed. Then he could try to swim out.

As he waited, Damien realized his cellphone and wallet were in his pockets. The phone he could replace. The picture he kept in his wallet from he and Raquel’s first date may not survive.

Raquel.

She supported Damien’s dream of being a cop, but he knew she was nervous about the dangers that brought with it. Guns. Thugs. Violence. Car chases.

Never did she worry about Damien drowning in an abandoned water tank.

If he made it out alive, she could add that fear to her nightly prayers.

And then there was his baby.

Was this the right profession for a father? Would his child forgive him if he died in the line of duty?

Damien looked above him. Like Charity, he was now stuck in the tank with a limited air supply.

He held his breath and swam to the hatch and tried to push his way out, but the current wouldn’t let him through.

Through the opening he peered into the clear spring water and saw that the tank was beginning to sink, spinning its way toward the bottom of the deep sinkhole. He swam up to the small air pocket as the pressure of the descent began to press against the metal tank, creaking. Drops of water started to fall from above him, cracks forming in the rusted cone.

The oxygen in the air pocket was quickly diminishing.

Damien took one big breath and swam toward the hatch, his fingers clawing at the opening.

He grabbed onto the metal door frame and pulled himself out as the tank continued to sink.

He looked up, the sky undulating with the waves atop the water.

His lungs began to burn and he wasn’t sure he had enough oxygen to make it.

He swallowed hard, trying to keep from gasping in the water.

His vision was going black. He was going to drown.

He heard a splash above him and the long reach of Ted’s arms grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him to the surface.

As soon as his mouth pierced the water, he gasped in as if it were his first breath.

Ted moved behind him and swept his long arms under Damien’s, grabbing onto Damien’s shoulders. He pulled back, pushing Damien’s body a few inches out of the water, and kicked backwards toward a human chain of first responders waiting on the shore to pull them out.

“I’ve saved your life twice in one hour,” Ted said. “That makes me the best friend ever.”

“I owe you,” Damien said through a cough. “Do me a favor. Don’t tell Raquel about this.”

“I won’t. I’m going to let you do that.”

“You suck.”

“I think the words you’re looking for are thank you for saving my life, again.”

A few strokes later, they made it to the shoreline. Decker reached out, grabbed Damien’s hand and lifted him out of the water.

“Well done, cadet,” Decker said. “Thank you, sir. How is she?” “Alive, thanks to you.”

Using the first responders to balance himself, Damien climbed to the top of the bluff. Charity sat on the back bumper of the ambulance as a paramedic checked her out.

She smiled, gave Damien a grateful wave and mouthed “thank you.”

Damien winked, grateful the nightmare was finally over. As he looked at all the people and agencies that had come together, he couldn’t help but feel proud of his small town. They had saved the victim of one serial killer while
finding the victim of another.

The town was on the precipice of amending its ways and overcoming its sins. It was close to being the place in which Damien would want to raise his child.

Damien counted the police officers and paramedics, security consultants and firemen. Everyone involved in the investigation had helped save Charity.

All but one.

Sanders was gone.