The Forsaken

the orange sector. Our survival depends on helping one another. So I race back across the ice, lunging toward Rika.
    I slip across the surface, which is disintegrating under my feet. I inch as close to her as I dare, and hold out my hand, swaying as the ice moves with me. “Come on!” I yell. “Jump toward me!”
    She’s crouched on all fours, pressing herself against the stray piece of ice so she doesn’t get tossed off into the water.
    I creep a bit closer, still hearing those explosive cracks. If any more ice breaks up, I won’t be able to get to the shore either.
    “Grab my hand!” I scream.
    “I’m scared!”
    “Me too!” I stretch my arm out as far as I can, while water billows up around me. I’m so cold, I don’t feel any pain. My whole body has gone numb.
    I don’t think my plan is going to work. I think Rika is just going to sit down on the ice and give up. But then I hear footsteps next to me, and a voice yells my name. It’s David. He has turned around and come back to help us.
    “Give me your hand!” he calls out to Rika. “You can do it.”
    She’s sobbing hysterically. “I can’t.”
    David looks at me. “I’m going to get her.”
    “How?”
    “Watch.”
    He takes a few steps back and then runs forward, leaping up and throwing himself over the water. He barely makes it, landing on Rika’s sheet of ice with a crash, flailing to keep his balance. Wincing in pain from his foot.
    She turns to him, shocked.
    “If I can do it, so can you,” he yells, grabbing her. “Look at Alenna, okay? You’re going to have to jump. Just like I did.”
    Rika starts to whimper, but David forces her forward.
    I lean down, stretching out my arms. “C’mon, Rika!” I yell. “I’ll catch you.”
    David whispers something into her ear. Maybe words of encouragement. Maybe even a threat. Rika looks at me. She shuts her eyes, and then pushes herself off the sheet of ice, right at me.
    For a terrifying moment, I think she’s going to fall into the widening abyss between the two sheets of ice. She lands right at the edge, and is about to teeter backward into the water.
    “No!” I howl, lunging forward to grab her.
    And then her hand catches mine, and I’m yanking her forward to safety. Her feet and legs get soaked, but her body makes it onto the ice.
    She tumbles into me, and we lurch backward. By now, Gadya and Markus have realized something is wrong, and I can hear their voices yelling at us.
    I roll sideways. I sit up, dazed.
    “David!” I scream, as I see the sheet of ice he’s on starting to disintegrate. He’s looking around wildly. His sheet of ice and ours are separating, with only freezing water left between them. “Jump! Do it now!”
    David hears me and runs forward. He has enough momentum that at first it looks like it’ll carry him over the water. Then his injured foot slips at the last second and he stumbles.
    “David!” I scream, automatically moving forward.
    He falls straight into the water. His hands claw at my sheet of ice for an instant and then they let go. He disappears completely. Then his head reappears, choking and gasping.
    I lay down on the sheet of ice, aware that our lives could end at any second, and throw out my arms. He grabs my wrists, hard. I start moving backward using my elbows, pulling him out of the water as his feet kick violently.
    Within a couple of seconds, he’s back on the ice with me and Rika, shivering and soaking wet. He’s so cold, he can’t even speak. I know that without him, Rika probably would have died.
    “We still have to run,” I tell him and Rika firmly. They both look like they’re going into shock.
    We start hobbling toward the bank. Everything goes all strange and distant, too surreal to actually be happening. The only sound I hear is the noise of my own frantic heartbeat, blotting out everything else.
    We move as rapidly as we can. I look for my icy oak tree on the bank, but I don’t see it anymore. My vision is just a blurry frozen haze.
    I can barely make out Gadya, standing on the bank with Markus. The Monk and his drone are almost there too. I run toward them, half-dragging Rika and David along with me.
    Somehow we make it off the lake, through a combination of luck and perseverance. A few moments later, we’re out of danger, collapsing onto the frozen shore next to the others.
    I fall to the ground near Rika, chest heaving for air. David is coughing up water. Gadya and Markus crouch over our shivering bodies.
    “Oh