After what felt like too long, Mitch’s hand clasped my shoulder, gently pulling me away. I turned, lowering the gun shakily, and let Mitch drag me down the corridor. I ran numbly, barely paying attention to the clunks and bangs coming from Mitch as he alternated dropping grenades and shooting at the people following us.

He must have dropped another smoke grenade because it was getting harder to see in the passageway we were in. I wasn’t even sure how he was navigating but he was managing just fine. He barely even stopped or paused.

I’d shot a gun. I might have killed someone and I didn’t know. I would never know. There was no way to find out and, although I knew it wasn’t real, it still shook me.

Another smattering of gunfire came from Mitch and I forced myself to focus on what was happening despite the fear that was still coursing through me. I couldn’t think about the fact that I'd potentially killed someone, I needed to pay attention and keep running. Mitch could get shot if I didn’t and I couldn’t let that happen.

“Left!” Mitch ordered under his breath and I rushed to follow his direction.

My heart was pounding in my chest, a stitch burning in my side, but I pushed myself to keep moving. We turned down another corridor, footsteps chasing us, and I kept expecting Mitch to stop us to check for traps but he didn’t.

It felt like we were weaving down endless corridors, a maze under the island, but I was suddenly hit with a smell. It was so horrifically strong, so nauseating.

The rancid scent of rotting fish assaulted me, causing bile to immediately rise in my throat. I swallowed it down, trying so hard to keep running but the stench was worse than anything I had ever smelt before. I slapped a hand to my nose, trying to block it out, but it somehow still found a way in.

It was almost like I could taste it.

“Almost there!” Mitch insisted but I could barely see.

The smell was making my eyes water and blinding me. It drew all of my attention away from everything else that was happening. I couldn’t focus on anything other than the festering stink.

I gagged again just as Mitch’s hand shot out and pulled me to a stop. He dropped my arm and I blinked quickly, looking around. The smell was still horrific but I knew that I needed to keep an eye on the corridor behind us.

Wiping the tears from my eyes, I blinked quickly, trying to clear my vision as I turned but immediately I saw the black-clothed Sterlings emerge around the corner far behind us. A shout went up just as Mitch stood and grabbed my arm again.

“Keep going!”

I started moving as fast as I could, my feet pounding against the stone floor, and I could feel myself running faster in real life too. Branches whipped against my arms as I ran too close to them down the thin, barely used paths, but I didn’t care. I just had to keep moving.

The smell was getting worse the closer we got to wherever we were going. I should have expected it but I didn’t. It was horrific and burnt into my nostrils, showing no signs of subsiding.

We turned one final corner and slowed.

The corridor ahead of us was blocked. The roof had collapsed in, stones and boulders scattered over the floor. There was no way forwards.

“Climb,” Mitch ordered, pressing a torch into my hands again.

I looked at him, concern shooting through me. I couldn’t see a way through and it seemed too risky to try. The stones were unsteady and the Sterlings were fast approaching.

But we couldn’t just stand there. I trusted Mitch, he’d been right every time before so I quickly started picking my way over the stones, slipping on them, and trying my best not to fall. It was hard to balance on such uneven ground with the gun still clutched in one hand and the torch in the other. I was so worried that I’d fall and accidentally shoot Mitch even though I kept my finger far from the trigger.

A stone tipped under my foot and my ankle rolled. I started to fall but I dropped the gun, my hand finding the rough wall instead. The wall scratched my palm as my fingers scrabbled to find a grip. It was just enough to stop me from falling fully and I quickly jumped forwards onto a more sturdy-looking rock, ignoring the pain in my ankle and the stinging in my hand.

“You alright?” Mitch asked from just behind me.

I glanced back at him for just a moment, seeing his huddled form as he ducked to stop himself from hitting the ceiling, before looking back in front of me.

“Fine,” I lied.

I was mostly fine. The pain was receding, leaving just a faint throbbing in my hand, but it didn’t matter. I had just seen the way out. There was a gap in the rocks ahead and I was pretty sure we’d be able to slip through.

“Okay. Leave the gun there,” Mitch said, “Just keep moving.”

I nodded, my gaze fixed on the hole ahead of us.

I had to get there before the Sterlings rounded the corner. We were too out in the open, too vulnerable. If they started shooting at us, they wouldn’t be able to miss.

It felt like the footsteps were too close to us. They echoed in the tunnel, making it hard for me to actually work out where they were.

I climbed up the slope of fallen rocks towards the hole, the stones slipping under my feet and making me feel unsteady, until finally, I reached it. The hole was small, barely big enough for me to fit through and so high up that I had to just dive through it and hope for the best.

I was already hauling myself through it when I realised how stupid that was. My hands grabbed at the loose stones on the other side, trying to catch myself. There was too much of a drop though, the slope too steep, and I fell hard.

I hit the ground, the breath knocked out of me, and blinked in the sudden brightness. Confusion hit me at the same time as pain and I stared around the forest.

Pain shot through my hands and I was lying face down on the forest floor. I lifted my hands, tears springing to my eyes as I stared at the blood slowly oozing from them. It was surprise more than pain that was making me cry but it did still hurt.

Rolling over, I wiped my hands together, trying to get rid of some of the attached twigs and leaves before pushing myself up. Even as I cried, I knew I had to return to Crete. I had to get back there.

I sniffed, starting to walk again and blinked again.

“Are you alright, kid?” Mitch asked as he climbed much more skilfully through the hole, managing to land on his feet somehow.

I sniffed, embarrassment washing through me as I climbed up from the slimy ground.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said, breathing deeply and trying to stop myself from crying.

Mitch’s face was concerned and he shone the torch over me.

“Are you sure? Your hands are bleeding!”

He took one of my hands in his, examining my scraped palms. He was gentle despite the urgency of the situation. Footsteps were racing towards us still.

It felt weird. Having someone care for me like that set me on edge and somehow made it harder for me to stop crying. It wasn’t what I was used to. If I got injured in real life, I just dealt with it. My mom wouldn’t care unless it was really bad and not even then sometimes.

“It’s fine,” I said, taking my hand back and wiping my eyes with the back of my hands.

Mitch glanced back through the hole before nodding.

“Okay, I’m sorry we can’t stop and sort them out now but we will as soon as we get to the plane. Here, get this on and put the respirator in,” he said, hefting an oxygen pack off the ground and holding it out to me.

I turned, putting my arms into the straps he was holding, and tried not to stumble as he slowly lowered the weight onto me before passing me a weighted belt.

I turned back towards him, watching as he checked the dials and handed me the goggles. I wiped my nose with the back of my hand before putting them on and slotted the respirator into my mouth, biting down on the rubber.

Mitch dropped a pair of flippers onto the floor in front of me and I slipped my feet into them before looking up at him uncertainly. He’d already strapped his backpack to his chest and was pulling the oxygen tank into place.

“Alright, kid. Put this around your wrist,” he said, holding out a strap to me.

It looked a bit like the kind of thing a kid would have to wear so that they didn’t run away from their parents.

I looked down at it in confusion before sliding it onto my wrist and doing the Velcro up.

“You’re going to go first so you’ll need your torch back. Here,” he picked it up off the ground and handed it to me before picking up a spear gun, “and this will stop you from getting too lost. Lauren’s attached a guide rope down there too which should help. Okay, let me just trigger this.”

I watched silently, tears still slowly leaking from my eyes and the plastic torch feeling skippering in my hands, as he typed something on a small device that was attached to his oxygen pack.

“That should do it. Go on, the rope has enough slack and I’ve got a few more tricks up my sleeves here,” he said.

I nodded uncertainly as he started to pull another grenade off his belt and turned towards the hole in the ground.

Once I had goggles and a respiratory in, I couldn’t smell it but looking at the green slime-covered rocks and dark hole in the floor was terrifying. I couldn’t see much under the water, just murky water. I didn’t want to go near it but I knew I had to.

I started towards it, feeling the rope between me and Mitch trailing between us, and stared down into the hole. Even shining my light into it didn’t help.

Gunfire roared behind us, slamming into the rocks that separated us from the Sterlings and I turned back.

Mitch threw himself to the side, shielding himself behind the bigger and more protective rocks before looking at me and calling, “Go, kid!”

I nodded, panic overriding my reluctance to get into the water, and I started to climb down the slope. It was uneven, worn away from the tide lapping at it for years and I was quickly in up to my waist.

I glanced back for just a moment, seeing Mitch throw multiple grenades through the hole before he whirled around and started rushing towards me.

“Go!” he called again.

I dove forwards, flinging myself into the water and paddling forwards as the water got too deep to stand. Just before my head dipped under the surface, I heard a thud followed by a skidding noise.

Fear pounded through me in time with my heartbeat as I swan deeper into the dark cavern. What if Mitch had been shot and I’d heard him fall? Then, I’d just left him. Sterling’s people would find him and kill him if he wasn’t already dead. And what would happen to me? I wouldn’t be able to get to the plane or whatever we were going to without him. Not that I’d even want to. I didn’t want to stay in this fantasy without Mitch.

So, I had to believe that he was still alive. That the noise I’d heard wasn’t him falling, it was just him… kicking some rocks as he ran towards the water. That made more sense, right? There were a bunch of loose stones on the ground and it was so unsteady, of course he would have stumbled. That’s what had happened, it had to be.

Not really. But I needed to believe it. Plus, there was that wall of rocks between Mitch and the Sterlings so it was unlikely that a bullet would have even been able to get through. Although, maybe one had. They’d been shooting at it a lot. What if they’d somehow managed to wear some away and a bullet had gotten through?

I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t keep swimming and not look back. One hand shot out to grasp the guide rope and I turned as much as I could in the narrow tunnel, contorting my body and searching for Mitch. My torch light quickly found him right behind me and, with a sign of relief, I turned back and continued swimming.

It was easier, once I knew that Mitch was alive, but not by much. The tunnel was dark and the light from the torch only reached so far. I kept expecting to run into a wall or a dead end or for some horrific creature to suddenly appear and attack me.

That thought almost made me pause. I was bleeding. My hands were still bleeding. I could feel it every time I touched the rope, the slight sting of my cut palms.

What if there were sharks in Crete?

I was bleeding and everyone knew that sharks could smell blood from like a mile away. What if they attacked? Mitch had a harpoon gun but that wouldn’t do much, surely. We wouldn’t be able to fight them all off.

Or what about other creatures? Sharks probably weren’t the only animal that could eat a person in the sea. What if there were other ones there?

Part of me was tempted to leave the fantasy, disappear back to Scotland and quickly google if there were sharks in Crete, but I couldn’t. I was too terrified that I’d return in the midst of a shark attack or something. I couldn’t leave. I wouldn’t let myself.

I was somehow both relieved and more scared when I burst out of the seaweed-encrusted cave entrance and emerged into the sea. I looked around, frantically swinging my torch from side to side in an attempt to try and spot any of the dangerous fish or animals that could be swimming towards us.

I couldn’t really see anything. It was still too dark and the torchlight just stretched out into the empty water. I could only vaguely see the light of the surface far above us. What time even was it? A hand touched my leg and I whipped around as quickly as I could, my heart racing.

Mitch was floating behind me, both hands held up reassuringly. Relief washed through me and I waved at him awkwardly. He returned the wave before pointing forwards. I nodded at him before turning and swimming in the direction that he pointed.

He swam next to me, checking behind us frequently for the Sterlings. They couldn’t follow us though. There had only been two oxygen tanks down there, one for Mitch and one for me. They wouldn’t have been able to make it through the collapsed cave and out the other side without one.

But then, there had to be more of them about. They wouldn’t have only sent one team, they were better than that, I assumed.

Just as that realisation hit me, I saw movement. My head whipped to the side as quickly as I could underwater and I squinted at the distant vague movement. I could see things or maybe people floating in the water near what I assumed was a boat. I closed the distance between me and Mitch and tapped his arm, pointing as subtly as I could at the people.

He glanced at them before looking back at me and shaking his head. Confusion washed through me but I didn’t know how to communicate that to Mitch. We were underwater, I couldn’t exactly just ask him and the basic scuba diving training we’d done didn’t cover anything more than simple communication.

I lifted my arms in an exaggerated shrug, hoping to convey my confusion.

He glanced at the two people who were sinking slowly lower before looking back at me. He pointed at them before raising one hand in an ‘okay’ gesture, holding it for a moment before pointing back in the direction we’d been swimming in and then tapping his watch.

He was clearly trying to say that the people weren’t Sterling’s and that we needed to hurry up and get to wherever we were going but I was still confused. I repeated the gesture back to him before starting to swim again.

I kept an eye on the two people as we swam, trying not to be too obvious about it, just in case but I wasn’t sure what was happening. They just seemed to be swimming slowly lower, holding hands. After a minute, they stopped and faced each other. They seemed to be communicating and soon, one of them lifted a hand to their bikini bottoms and began slowly lowering them.

My eyes widened and snapped forwards as the other person began to remove their swimming trunks.

Mitch had said that there were swingers about but… I hadn’t expected them to actually get in the water.

But then there was movement even closer to us. A woman, already naked apart from a scuba tank, was pulling her partner deeper under the water. They were so close to us and the light from the boat above lit up the water making it very clear what she and her lover were doing.

I fought to look away, embarrassment coursing through me. I couldn’t believe that some people were doing that, so close to us. They didn’t even seem to notice that we were there, or maybe they just didn’t care.

I kept my eyes pointing straight ahead as my heart pounded. There were so many people in the water with their partners and we were just swimming through it. It was overwhelming and kind of scary. Surely it was too dangerous. The Sterlings would be following us or they could be watching us right then.

But… how would they see us with so many other people underwater too? Not everyone was entwined with their partner, some were just swimming like we were.

It was genius. With so many people in the water, the Sterlings wouldn’t be able to distinguish us from the others. And surely they wouldn’t risk just shooting people at random, right?

I wasn’t sure but the thought made me swim even faster.

A huge shadow and the hull of a ship appeared in the distance and I glanced at Mitch. He didn’t change our direction at all. That must be our target.

I continued swimming forwards, keeping my eyes fixed on the boat and not looking at the many naked people in the water around us. My face felt hot, even underwater, and every time I breathed, the bubbles sounded so loud.

My stomach hurt. I was so self-conscious and conscious of everything that was happening around us that my stomach physically hurt but luckily we reached the boat before long.

Mitch tapped my arm as we approached the shiny ladder that hung into the water and pointed to himself, then the ladder. I was pretty sure he was trying to tell me he would go up first so I nodded to him before hastily doing another okay symbol with my hands.

He returned it before taking hold of the ladder and starting to climb.

I hesitated, watching him climb before shooting a furtive glance towards the nearest couple who were flailing together. I looked away quickly, staring up at the ladder and realising that Mitch had reached the top. I quickly started climbing, my face flushing even darker. I really didn’t want Mitch to think I was snooping or watching the couples underwater.

Emerging from the water was surprisingly hard. The tank on my back threatened to drag me down into the depths but Mitch’s hand found mine and he hauled me up out of the water with a soft grunt.

“You alright, kid?” he asked softly.

“Yeah,” I said, staring past him at the huge yacht we were now on.

“Andrew!” a voice called.

Mitch straightened, turning in the direction of the man.

“James,” he replied in a deep, smooth voice. “It’s been a while.”