“One-two-three not it,” said Heron. “But I will get you a rope. The last building we passed was a hardware store.” She slipped back into the water and Kira followed, not wanting to let anyone—even someone she vaguely mistrusted—enter a ruined, flooded building alone. They touched off from the wall and felt the current catch them, carrying them south between the buildings even as they tried to swim east to catch the next one. Heron caught hold of the rusted rain pipe with one hand and reached for Kira with the other, grabbing her as she rushed by. Kira felt something solid beneath her feet, probably a car or the cab of a truck, and pushed off from it as Heron pulled her toward the hardware store. Kira caught the windowsill, grateful there were no shards of glass poking out from it, and ducked her head below the surface to swim inside.

There was a foot or so of air in the building, trapped between the ceiling and the top of the river, though a faint breeze and a shaft of light showed that the air was kept fresh by at least one hole in the roof above. The damp atmosphere had covered the ceiling and the visible portion of the walls with moss, and Kira brushed some from her hair as Heron surfaced beside her. “Looks pretty well scoured out by the river,” Kira told her, for most of the Sheetrock on the walls, and anything once attached to it, had long ago been washed away.

“There’s bound to be something lower,” said Heron, and they maneuvered to the widest stretch of southern wall—it was less likely here that the objects they needed, and indeed the swimmers themselves, would be swept out to the river beyond. Heron dove first, staying down long enough that Kira began to get seriously worried, before popping to the surface and brushing her coal-black hair from her face. “No rope,” she said, “but I think I found some chain.”

“Let me look,” said Kira, and tucked herself into a duck dive down against the wall. She tried to open her eyes and found the water too dark and muddy to see in. She felt something heavy and coiled, slicker than rope but smoother than chain, and tried to lift it. It budged slightly, but was too heavy to move. She jumped up, breaking the surface and grabbing the wall for support. “I think I found a hose.”

“Is that strong enough?”

“It should be, if it’s long enough.”

Heron pulled her knife from its sheath, popped it open, and bit it in her teeth before diving down. Almost a minute later she bobbed up with the knife in one hand and an end of the hose in the other.

“How long can you hold your breath?” Kira asked.