6.2
The chasing rogues were relentless, but the runners didn't let up. Echo checked her speed just enough so that Jelani, waddling at full speed with the kayak pinched above his head, would be able to keep up.
They just had to make it to the river.
When his feet finally reached the sandy bank, Jelani eagerly waded into the water and plunked the kayak down onto its surface, gratefully shaking his burning shoulders as soon as they were free of their burden.
He nearly tipped the boat as he clambered into it, and the paddles almost escaped down the river, but in a wobbling panic he regained his balance and retrieved their means of transportation.
Finally ready, he looked back at Echo expectantly.
But all she did was stare at him with an odd expression on her face.
"What are you doing?" he asked hastily. "Get i-"
He froze with his mouth open.
"Ahh. Should we go back?"
Echo fixed her gaze on the frail plastic boat. "Well, it's a fishing kayak, so it can probably hold a lot of weight."
"But there's no more space in here."
They had taken a single-person kayak.
Echo sighed.
"It's gonna be wobbly," she said, "but I'll just sit on your lap."
Jelani thought about it for a second before nodding. "That might work."
Echo climbed in and sat on top of him. Somehow, the boat stayed upright as Jelani pushed his paddle into the bank, sending them out into the river and drifting towards the center of Portland.
The water's flow was painfully slow, so they both gripped their paddles and dug them into the water, propelling themselves forward as quickly as they could manage.
But Jelani was unfortunately ineffective and closely resembled a T-rex as, because of Echo's back, he had no space to extend his arms while he was holding the paddle. The two weren't in sync whatsoever, and the kayak awkwardly rocked back and forth with every paddle stroke, so they simply dug their heels into the small plastic boat and held on for dear life.
BANG
If Echo hadn't been sitting on top of him, Jelani would likely have capsized as he jerked in reaction to the gunshot.
But the bullet dropped into the water, and no harm was done.
"Don't worry," Echo said, "I've got us covered."
Gunshot after gunshot spurred them on like horses under a whip, and they finally developed a little rhythm and got some speed behind them.
Jelani felt a thud against the bottom of the kayak.
"Was that you?" he asked Echo uncertainly.
"What?" she replied, not having felt a thing.
"I think something hit th-"
Echo, Jelani, and the kayak were launched into the sky.
As their bodies were flipping through midair without anything to grab onto, they desperately tried to contort themselves so that they might have some chance of defense.
The dark water below was far too murky for them to see into it.
Jelani could do nothing but clench his fists around his steel knuckles and watch as his body came down hard on the river's surface.
The ripples from their crash landing silently dissipated, and they floated along unharmed behind their kayak.
But it was a tense silence.
Jelani kicked his feet hard, trying not to look down as he chased after the rapidly escaping boat.
He lunged forward, just able to latch his fingers onto the end of the kayak.
A dark shape clouded the deep water beneath him.
He punched downward, but he was in the water. On this playing field, he couldn't hope to compete with… it.
He grunted as a chunk was torn out of his thigh.
"Get in the boat," Echo ordered from somewhere behind him.
Choking on water, Jelani clambered into the little red kayak, blood pouring from his leg as he dragged it up and over the side.
The instant his foot cleared the river's surface, its waters buzzed beneath him. He felt the vibrations through the bottom of the boat, and they were followed by a powerful, bubbling fizz on the surface.
Echo swam after the kayak like her life depended on it, but her primary concern was not that it would drift away.
BANG
Jelani flinched and felt the impact of a bullet, but it wasn't in his body.
Instead, the bullet had pierced the kayak's red plastic wall.
"Ah, shit," Echo cursed as she climbed on top of him. "Did it hit the boat?"
"Yeah," Jelani replied, watching helplessly as Echo's weight caused the bullet hole to sink beneath the surface of the water.
Precious air poured out of the little opening, popping into nothingness as it broke the surface.
"Put your finger in it," Echo commanded impatiently.
Jelani plugged the hole with his finger and said, "I'm not gonna be able to paddle anymore."
"That's fine. Your paddling was useless anyway."
She looked down and froze.
"Ahhh, shit."
Both paddles were floating innocently, somewhere far out of reach.
For their stint on the Columbia River, it wouldn't be much of a problem because they were going downstream. However, Echo had been planning to paddle the kayak up a river that would lead them into the center of Portland.
"Did you get the thing?" Jelani asked as he awkwardly reached around Echo to hold his finger over the puncture hole.
"What thing?" Echo snapped, drenched with water and fully pissed off.
"The thing that was attacking us."
"Yeah, probably. Tell me if something hits our boat again."
After covering a few more miles and getting shot at a few more times, Jelani felt another mysterious impact against the bottom of their kayak.
"Something's under us," he hastily told her.
Echo plunged her hand into the river, and a light, accompanied by a kind of whirring sound, flashed in the water beneath them.
"Ah," Jelani exclaimed, feeling a sharp pain in his hand, which then went completely numb.
He could no longer control the muscles in his fingers, and they slipped off the kayak's puncture hole.
"I think you zapped my hand," he told her. "I can't hold the hole anymore."
Echo begrudgingly reached down and plugged the hole with her own finger. Actually, the puncture was closer to the front of the kayak and far easier for her to reach, so she should have been the one holding it to begin with.
Free from hole duty, Jelani was finally able to sit back and relax as he stretched his spine, which had been awkwardly curled forward for hours on end.
"You think we should bail on the kayak?" he suggested.
They still had many miles to cover, and the final stretch of the journey was going to be far more dangerous than what they had experienced so far.
"Not yet," Echo refused, although she was beginning to feel the same way.