I drew her close and lifted her to the surface to examine the wound on her stomach. “It’s nothing,” she said, but her face was pale as a sheet. I pulled back her dress where it had torn and was horrified to see that the injury she had described as nothing was in fact a gash, several centimeters deep, with a piece of rock buried in it. Blood oozed from it now, coloring the water around us red. The debris was wedged deep and tight in the wound; pulling it out would only make things worse. The cut was bathed in filthy water, ensuring that it would go septic.

“Hold on,” I said, wrapping my arm around her waist to keep her close. I started swimming again with my other arm. Just a few feet more. I neared the far side of the basin. As I did, Sadie slipped from my grasp. She started to sink to the bottom, her weight on the rope pulling me down with her. I took a deep breath, then went under, searching. The filthy water was too dark to see through, so I tried to feel for her. My hands closed around the nothingness. I reached again and finally grasped a bit of her dress, then used all my might to pull her to the surface.

“You have to stop carrying me,” she gasped.

“Never. I’m getting you out of here.”

“Go now, while you can.”

“I told you, I’m not leaving you.” The water was rising rapidly, and once it went over the ledge and filled the tunnel on the far side, our escape would be closed. Every second that we lingered here in the chamber raised the chance that we would not make it out. But as long as Sadie was still alive, there was hope for both of us. I could not leave her.

We reached the far wall of the basin. I looked up uncertainly. Even with the rising waters lifting us, the ledge was still at least a meter above us. I could climb out, but Sadie would never manage it. I would have to lift her out. I paused, gathering my strength, while Sadie lay weakly in my arms.

Her eyes were closing now, though, her breath drawing short. “Saul,” she said, longingly. She looked off into the distance, as if actually seeing him. Was she hallucinating? “He really did love me after all,” she added.

“He does. He still does. He’s waiting for you. We just need to get up that wall.”

“Tell him...”

She was dying, I realized then. Her wound was too serious; she had lost too much blood. My heart screamed. “Sadie, no. We’re going to get out of here and you are going to find Saul and tell him yourself,” I insisted. She did not answer and I could see the last bit of her strength flowing from her body like her blood, as it mixed with the water. “I told you we are getting out of here.”