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Description
Wynn stared down at the rising water under her feet, her heart nearly beating out of her chest as she tried to conjure up a way to get out of the sinking carriage.

"Why are we sinking so fast?"  She called over the roar of the water.  "Isn't wood supposed to float?"  She asked loudly, trying to stabilize herself by holding onto the rope that was hanging about her head.

"Well yes but the metal locks on the back of the carriage must be dragging us down into the water!" Alex yelled, kicking at a couple of boards on the side of the carriage.  "How the hell are we going to get out of here?"  He asked, the water still rising, now up to their waists, filling their boots with icy cold water.

"You expect me to know?" Wynn yelled at Alex, her eyes darting from corner to corner of the room, trying to think of a plan that would save them from a horrible, watery death.  "Maybe if we kick a board out?"  She asked mostly to herself her mind starting to make strands for the web of a plan inside her mind.  "Maybe… what if…" She started murmuring to herself, threading the strands of the web together into a fully functional plan.  "That's it!"  She proclaimed, taking out the rather large pouch of coins that she had successfully taken from the official.  She fished out a coin and flicked it once into the air, a sharp ring echoing through the air.  It fell gently in between her forefinger and thumb.  "Alright now give me a lift.  Hurry before the water reaches above your shoulders!"  She said, grabbing onto Alex's shoulders, pulling herself up and onto his shoulders.  He held as still as he possibly could, his muscles letting her stand almost steadily atop them.

She places the coin on a crack between two wooden planks.  She placed her thumb on the coin, pressing it between the two planks.  The coin only managed to press an imprint between the two boards but Wynn was persistent and kept pressing the coin into the crack and soon enough the two boards were separated slightly, the coin wedged tight within the crack between them.  She then flicked out another coin, pressing it in a space farther away from the original coin.  She smiled as the crack widened and a single breath of air came flowing through it.  She smiled, the corners of her lips just barely whipping up before she brought her arm down and back up, forcing her fist into the coins with an incredible amount of force.  There was a sickening crack as her knuckles cracked and her hand was cut, the wood splintering from the force.  The coins flew through the gap and out, a small splash being heard outside the carriage.

"Alright did you open it?"  Alex called; he was now trembling from holding up Wynn's weight for so long.  The water was now up to his chest and was still rushing in.  They were also now starting to sink faster, the water inside pulling them down along with the chunks of metal on the bottom.

"No.  I'm really close but just give me a few more minutes."  She called down to him, trying to keep herself standing steady as the water grew closer to her heels and they grew closer to their watery graves.  She took out another coin but this time instead of pressing it straight through she turned it and pressed it against the crack with the wide edge at a forty-five degree angle to the crack.  She pressed the coin against the crack hard with her palm, spreading the opening wider.  The coin was then finally wedged in between.  It was then that she heard the first crack.  The board on the right snapped, splinters flying at Wynn, cutting her cheek.  Fresh blood rolled down her cheek and plopped down into the water that had now filled over half of the carriage, staining the water red with her liquefied life. There was only one problem now.  They were more than half sunk and only one board was half broken.  There still remained another 11 boards.

"Damn!  My hand!"  Wynn shrieked, falling off of Alex's shoulders and into the water that had been stained with her blood.  She coughed fiercely when she surfaced, coughing out a bout of blood filled water onto the side of the carriage.  Alex glanced at her for a moment before he propelled into action, the water now high enough for him to reach the top of the sinking carriage.  He reached up and felt around for a weak point in the boards, pushing up against it.

"Alright so we just need to break off a couple more of these boards and we're free."  Alex stated pushing on a couple of other boards which cracked slightly from the pressure he administered but it still wasn't enough to break it.  "I can't seem to break it!"  He exclaimed, continuing to put pressure on the boards.  "They just won't break!"

Wynn looked up at him, blood running from her, thought to be, broken hand.  She trembled both from the pain and the iciness of the water which was rising, holding her in an icy embrace, holding her, bringing her closer to the top every second.  That's it.  This is how I die.  We are going to sink and we're both going to die in this carriage.  There are so many things I wanted to do in this lifetime.  She thought to herself, calming her body down enough to stop trembling, the water around her dark with her blood now.  Her head throbbed, her arms ached and her hand pulsed with pain.  She gave in and closed her eyes, ready for whatever death brought her.  She hoped for a white light to make her travel easier but knew she would most likely plummet through the darkness into the depths of hell and suffer there for the sins she had committed.

Just then there was a satisfying crack as one of the boards snapped under the pressure that Alex was applying.

"Finally!"  Alex called out, satisfied for breaking off a full board.  He brought his fist back and up again, causing a crack in another of the boards.  He brought his hand back again and Wynn noticed that his hand was also bloodied and mashed up from the attempt of escape.  She almost wanted to reach out and grab his shoulder to stop him from attempting but she didn't have the courage to act against his hope.  Alex kept punching at the board, snapping another one, splinters falling into the crimson water and over Wynn's face, which she shook her head to remove from her face.

Wynn was amazed at the amount of persistence that Alex had, punching each board even after his hands were bloody and most likely broken.  He just wouldn't let go of his life.  Inspired Wynn tried to steady herself in the water, thinking of how she could be of any help to him.  A moment later it came to her mind and she dived down into the water, grabbing his feet and pressing up, helping him gain leverage to put more force into his blows.  The only problem was that the height of the water was now smothering Wynn, the surface a good foot above her head as she held him up.

Without pausing Alex continued pounding his fists against the boards, snapping half of a board every once in a while, creating a layer of splinters on the surface of the water.  Wynn's lungs were burning, telling her she needed to get air soon or else she wouldn't be able to help escape at all and might cause both of their deaths so she ducked her head and let go of his legs, pushing off the bottom to get to the surface.  The water exploded beside Alex with her head coming up.  She gasped in air; her auburn hair cleaned of the dried blood but covered with new, watered down blood.  Blood still flowed free down her wrists as she brushed her clumped up hair back.  She gave Alex a signal that she was going to try to hoist him up again before she ducked back down under the water, grabbing his legs and pressing him up once again.

She could hear the blurred cracks as Alex continued snapping the boards.  She couldn't tell how many there were left; she could barely see anything at all through the murky, blood filled water.  Another satisfying crack was heard through the water, bubbles floating up from Wynn's mouth as she let out a bit of the air in her lungs.  She almost didn't notice that she was out of breathe until those bubbles came floating up past her eyes, moving the bloody water around in front of her, she was only focusing on holding him steady.  Her lungs contracted and she swallowed a mouthful of blood and water, coughing into the water.  Her lungs burned and water was starting to fill them, she had reached the point where she had to let go of his legs so she did.

She burst up to the surface, dropping Alex on her way.  Once she reached the surface she let out a shuddering gasp, taking in as much air as she could but it wasn't much.  The roof was only a foot or so above her head, restricting the amount of air that Wynn could get.  The splinters that were floating on top of the water got caught in her skin as she waded there, embedding themselves there.

"Alex!  Are we almost out?"  She asked, hacking up blood.  She didn't know if the blood she just coughed up was from the water or if it was her lungs but she didn't really care at the moment.  The fire of survival has been fueled again by her experience with being close to death and she did not feel like letting herself die at the moment.  "Alex?"  She asked, turning her head to try and find Alex but he was nowhere to be found.  The water was too murky for her to see through but she couldn't feel the warmth of his body near hers and she couldn't feel the waves of his movement.  The panic inside her was growing now, her fret building as she scanned the water for a body.  "Alex!  Alex!"  She called over and over again, moving her hands through the water.  "Damned boy!  Where are you?"  She screamed at the water, groping the water to try and find anything that had a pulse but there was nothing.

Suddenly the back of her now see through blouse was being tugged and she found herself being pulled up through the splintered boards.  Her body could barely fit through them as she being pulled up.  The splintered edges scratched and tore her arms, creating fresh cuts and lacerations, leaving multiple splinters in her arms.  Her upper body was now out of the wooden frame, she was now free of the prison which could have been the death of her.  A smile found its' way onto her face as she took in a long, extended breath of the lake air.  It was foul, cold, dry air but it was air nonetheless.  Her nostrils burned from the stench but she ignored it, pushing herself all the way out of the carriage, sitting on top of it as it continued to sink slowly.   Her eyes darted to the side, noticing for the first time that it was Alex that had pulled her out of the sinking death trap.  Shyly she gave him a thankful nod before letting one of her hands dip into the water beside the top of the carriage.  I need a drink.  She thought, cupping her hands under the surface, dragging a dripping handful of water to her mouth, slurping it down in an instant.  She hadn't noticed how parched she was until now but it was no surprise to her with all the blood and sweat that she had lost over the course of the last day or so.

"Hah!  We made it!"  She exclaimed, looking over to Alex who didn't look as relieved to her as she was.  "What is it?"  She said but just as the words came out of her mouth she realized, they were sitting on the top of a sinking carriage, bloody and scraped and they were at least a kilometer from shore.  The current must have taken them out while they were trying to escape.  Wynn didn't know if she had enough energy to swim across or even if her legs were able to.  While holding Alex up her muscles had been strained due to his weight and the lack of air as she had held him there.  Alex didn't look too up for a long swim either, his arms and hands covered in blood and wood.  She even thought that she had seen a bone sticking out of his hand where he had been punching the wood.  The water started slipping over the right edge of the carriage top, showing that the carriage was almost ready to sink to the bottom of the rather large lake.

"How are we going to get all the way to the shore?  I don't think I have enough in me to swim that far."  Alex said, somehow reading Wynn's mind.  "Maybe we can make something out of these boards."  Wynn knew that the boards that remained weren't enough to make a boat of sorts but they would have to do for now while they thought of a way out of this mess.  It was settled, they gathered the boards that remained of the carriage and floated in the icy waters, trying to think of some way to get to the far away shore.

Description
Wynn stared down at the rising water under her feet, her heart nearly beating out of her chest as she tried to conjure up a way to get out of the sinking carriage.

"Why are we sinking so fast?"  She called over the roar of the water.  "Isn't wood supposed to float?"  She asked loudly, trying to stabilize herself by holding onto the rope that was hanging about her head.

"Well yes but the metal locks on the back of the carriage must be dragging us down into the water!" Alex yelled, kicking at a couple of boards on the side of the carriage.  "How the hell are we going to get out of here?"  He asked, the water still rising, now up to their waists, filling their boots with icy cold water.

"You expect me to know?" Wynn yelled at Alex, her eyes darting from corner to corner of the room, trying to think of a plan that would save them from a horrible, watery death.  "Maybe if we kick a board out?"  She asked mostly to herself her mind starting to make strands for the web of a plan inside her mind.  "Maybe… what if…" She started murmuring to herself, threading the strands of the web together into a fully functional plan.  "That's it!"  She proclaimed, taking out the rather large pouch of coins that she had successfully taken from the official.  She fished out a coin and flicked it once into the air, a sharp ring echoing through the air.  It fell gently in between her forefinger and thumb.  "Alright now give me a lift.  Hurry before the water reaches above your shoulders!"  She said, grabbing onto Alex's shoulders, pulling herself up and onto his shoulders.  He held as still as he possibly could, his muscles letting her stand almost steadily atop them.

She places the coin on a crack between two wooden planks.  She placed her thumb on the coin, pressing it between the two planks.  The coin only managed to press an imprint between the two boards but Wynn was persistent and kept pressing the coin into the crack and soon enough the two boards were separated slightly, the coin wedged tight within the crack between them.  She then flicked out another coin, pressing it in a space farther away from the original coin.  She smiled as the crack widened and a single breath of air came flowing through it.  She smiled, the corners of her lips just barely whipping up before she brought her arm down and back up, forcing her fist into the coins with an incredible amount of force.  There was a sickening crack as her knuckles cracked and her hand was cut, the wood splintering from the force.  The coins flew through the gap and out, a small splash being heard outside the carriage.

"Alright did you open it?"  Alex called; he was now trembling from holding up Wynn's weight for so long.  The water was now up to his chest and was still rushing in.  They were also now starting to sink faster, the water inside pulling them down along with the chunks of metal on the bottom.

"No.  I'm really close but just give me a few more minutes."  She called down to him, trying to keep herself standing steady as the water grew closer to her heels and they grew closer to their watery graves.  She took out another coin but this time instead of pressing it straight through she turned it and pressed it against the crack with the wide edge at a forty-five degree angle to the crack.  She pressed the coin against the crack hard with her palm, spreading the opening wider.  The coin was then finally wedged in between.  It was then that she heard the first crack.  The board on the right snapped, splinters flying at Wynn, cutting her cheek.  Fresh blood rolled down her cheek and plopped down into the water that had now filled over half of the carriage, staining the water red with her liquefied life. There was only one problem now.  They were more than half sunk and only one board was half broken.  There still remained another 11 boards.

"Damn!  My hand!"  Wynn shrieked, falling off of Alex's shoulders and into the water that had been stained with her blood.  She coughed fiercely when she surfaced, coughing out a bout of blood filled water onto the side of the carriage.  Alex glanced at her for a moment before he propelled into action, the water now high enough for him to reach the top of the sinking carriage.  He reached up and felt around for a weak point in the boards, pushing up against it.

"Alright so we just need to break off a couple more of these boards and we're free."  Alex stated pushing on a couple of other boards which cracked slightly from the pressure he administered but it still wasn't enough to break it.  "I can't seem to break it!"  He exclaimed, continuing to put pressure on the boards.  "They just won't break!"

Wynn looked up at him, blood running from her, thought to be, broken hand.  She trembled both from the pain and the iciness of the water which was rising, holding her in an icy embrace, holding her, bringing her closer to the top every second.  That's it.  This is how I die.  We are going to sink and we're both going to die in this carriage.  There are so many things I wanted to do in this lifetime.  She thought to herself, calming her body down enough to stop trembling, the water around her dark with her blood now.  Her head throbbed, her arms ached and her hand pulsed with pain.  She gave in and closed her eyes, ready for whatever death brought her.  She hoped for a white light to make her travel easier but knew she would most likely plummet through the darkness into the depths of hell and suffer there for the sins she had committed.

Just then there was a satisfying crack as one of the boards snapped under the pressure that Alex was applying.

"Finally!"  Alex called out, satisfied for breaking off a full board.  He brought his fist back and up again, causing a crack in another of the boards.  He brought his hand back again and Wynn noticed that his hand was also bloodied and mashed up from the attempt of escape.  She almost wanted to reach out and grab his shoulder to stop him from attempting but she didn't have the courage to act against his hope.  Alex kept punching at the board, snapping another one, splinters falling into the crimson water and over Wynn's face, which she shook her head to remove from her face.

Wynn was amazed at the amount of persistence that Alex had, punching each board even after his hands were bloody and most likely broken.  He just wouldn't let go of his life.  Inspired Wynn tried to steady herself in the water, thinking of how she could be of any help to him.  A moment later it came to her mind and she dived down into the water, grabbing his feet and pressing up, helping him gain leverage to put more force into his blows.  The only problem was that the height of the water was now smothering Wynn, the surface a good foot above her head as she held him up.

Without pausing Alex continued pounding his fists against the boards, snapping half of a board every once in a while, creating a layer of splinters on the surface of the water.  Wynn's lungs were burning, telling her she needed to get air soon or else she wouldn't be able to help escape at all and might cause both of their deaths so she ducked her head and let go of his legs, pushing off the bottom to get to the surface.  The water exploded beside Alex with her head coming up.  She gasped in air; her auburn hair cleaned of the dried blood but covered with new, watered down blood.  Blood still flowed free down her wrists as she brushed her clumped up hair back.  She gave Alex a signal that she was going to try to hoist him up again before she ducked back down under the water, grabbing his legs and pressing him up once again.

She could hear the blurred cracks as Alex continued snapping the boards.  She couldn't tell how many there were left; she could barely see anything at all through the murky, blood filled water.  Another satisfying crack was heard through the water, bubbles floating up from Wynn's mouth as she let out a bit of the air in her lungs.  She almost didn't notice that she was out of breathe until those bubbles came floating up past her eyes, moving the bloody water around in front of her, she was only focusing on holding him steady.  Her lungs contracted and she swallowed a mouthful of blood and water, coughing into the water.  Her lungs burned and water was starting to fill them, she had reached the point where she had to let go of his legs so she did.

She burst up to the surface, dropping Alex on her way.  Once she reached the surface she let out a shuddering gasp, taking in as much air as she could but it wasn't much.  The roof was only a foot or so above her head, restricting the amount of air that Wynn could get.  The splinters that were floating on top of the water got caught in her skin as she waded there, embedding themselves there.

"Alex!  Are we almost out?"  She asked, hacking up blood.  She didn't know if the blood she just coughed up was from the water or if it was her lungs but she didn't really care at the moment.  The fire of survival has been fueled again by her experience with being close to death and she did not feel like letting herself die at the moment.  "Alex?"  She asked, turning her head to try and find Alex but he was nowhere to be found.  The water was too murky for her to see through but she couldn't feel the warmth of his body near hers and she couldn't feel the waves of his movement.  The panic inside her was growing now, her fret building as she scanned the water for a body.  "Alex!  Alex!"  She called over and over again, moving her hands through the water.  "Damned boy!  Where are you?"  She screamed at the water, groping the water to try and find anything that had a pulse but there was nothing.

Suddenly the back of her now see through blouse was being tugged and she found herself being pulled up through the splintered boards.  Her body could barely fit through them as she being pulled up.  The splintered edges scratched and tore her arms, creating fresh cuts and lacerations, leaving multiple splinters in her arms.  Her upper body was now out of the wooden frame, she was now free of the prison which could have been the death of her.  A smile found its' way onto her face as she took in a long, extended breath of the lake air.  It was foul, cold, dry air but it was air nonetheless.  Her nostrils burned from the stench but she ignored it, pushing herself all the way out of the carriage, sitting on top of it as it continued to sink slowly.   Her eyes darted to the side, noticing for the first time that it was Alex that had pulled her out of the sinking death trap.  Shyly she gave him a thankful nod before letting one of her hands dip into the water beside the top of the carriage.  I need a drink.  She thought, cupping her hands under the surface, dragging a dripping handful of water to her mouth, slurping it down in an instant.  She hadn't noticed how parched she was until now but it was no surprise to her with all the blood and sweat that she had lost over the course of the last day or so.

"Hah!  We made it!"  She exclaimed, looking over to Alex who didn't look as relieved to her as she was.  "What is it?"  She said but just as the words came out of her mouth she realized, they were sitting on the top of a sinking carriage, bloody and scraped and they were at least a kilometer from shore.  The current must have taken them out while they were trying to escape.  Wynn didn't know if she had enough energy to swim across or even if her legs were able to.  While holding Alex up her muscles had been strained due to his weight and the lack of air as she had held him there.  Alex didn't look too up for a long swim either, his arms and hands covered in blood and wood.  She even thought that she had seen a bone sticking out of his hand where he had been punching the wood.  The water started slipping over the right edge of the carriage top, showing that the carriage was almost ready to sink to the bottom of the rather large lake.

"How are we going to get all the way to the shore?  I don't think I have enough in me to swim that far."  Alex said, somehow reading Wynn's mind.  "Maybe we can make something out of these boards."  Wynn knew that the boards that remained weren't enough to make a boat of sorts but they would have to do for now while they thought of a way out of this mess.  It was settled, they gathered the boards that remained of the carriage and floated in the icy waters, trying to think of some way to get to the far away shore.