Water flooded into the bus through the open door. Joachim was swept off his seat.
No clear thought could take shape in his head while everything was spinning, up and down no longer making sense.
The cold water, which tried to force its way into his lungs, forced Joachim out of his confusion. At last, he thrashed his arms around to reach the oxygen above. Greedily, he gasped for air.
Screams and sobs echoed on the bus. Joachim looked around, his skull throbbing with pain. His eyes stung, yet he quickly grasped the situation at hand.
The water level in the bus was rising unceasingly. The air in the bus was getting less. The vehicle was almost vertically in the water, which resulted in all the passengers lying and sitting on the backs of the front row of seats. Panic and fear distorted the face of each child into a grimace. Their mouths opened so wide, he was afraid that their heart would jump out through it.
The teacher wasn't really doing any better, she had also been swept off her seat and was still trying to force her way through the turbulent water.
Joachim dove down grabbed one of the woman's arms and pulled her up.
As soon as their heads broke through the water surface, the woman latched onto Joachim and, coughing, drew oxygen into her lungs.
Joachim swam to a seat and clung to it. The water continued to rise.
After a while, the woman had calmed down, separated herself from Joachim, and grabbed the seat instead. Her black hair stuck to her face, she had lost her glasses some time ago.
Now the water had almost reached the first child. Sheer horror was etched on the boy's face as he backed away from the water. But it was useless.
Joachim made a decision, without hesitating any more he swam to the boy, while he shouted to the teacher, "Can you swim?"
Tears streaming down her face, the teacher shook her head, denying his question.
Joachim could feel a tinge of hopelessness in his heart before he reached the boy and told him to climb on his back. The boy followed his instruction and clung to Joachim's shoulders. Satisfied, Joachim swam back to the teacher.
"Then I'll take you up first, and you will lift the kids onto the jetty."
The woman nodded, tears still streaming down her cheeks, but she also reached for Joachim's shoulder, sandwiching the boy between her and Joachim.
Joachim disengaged himself from the row of seats, quickly positioning himself over the door.
"Take a deep breath and hold it!"
He could hear the two people on his back drawing in air, Joachim did the same. He quickly dived down and exited the bus through the door.
The world before his eyes was a dim green and hurt, but Joachim looked up. With powerful leg and arm movements, Joachim pushed his way through the masses of water, again and again having to adjust the pressure in his head before they broke the surface.
He felt dizzy, but still, he searched for the jetty with his eyes. When he found it he hurried to reach it.
The boy and the woman on his back were panting heavily, but they were unharmed.
Joachim grabbed the footbridge, "Climb up! Quick!"
Hastily, the teacher propped herself upon him to reach the edge of the footbridge, where she then pushed herself up and rolled on it. She didn't give herself a rest, directly after she was safe, she stretched out an arm to accept the boy on Joachim's back.
With this, they had brought a boy to safety, but he still had a few more dives ahead of him.
Joachim dove under again, quickly reaching the bus. The water had continued to rise.
This time he stood in front of a group of three, he gave them the same instructions as the teacher and the boy, but with an extra 'hold on very tight' before diving again.
Once at the top, the teacher accepted the children and placed them on the jetty.
He repeated the whole thing over and over, the water rising and rising.
He felt terribly sick, his muscles and lungs were burning and he suspected that it wouldn't take long for the diver's sickness to set in, but he didn't mind.
It would be nice if he could save all these children, whether they were real or not.
Routinely, Joachim handed over the children before disappearing back under the surface of the water.
Unfortunately, he missed the relieved face and the call of the teacher, because his ears were beeping, droning, giving him no peace, forcing him to concentrate on something else.
Joachim swam into the bus. Without any difficulty, he reached the last small part of the bus that was not yet filled with water.
No one.
There was no one left.
Relief washed over him. The stinging in his heart relaxed a little as he took a few normal breaths.
Suddenly, however, the vehicle tilted, a wave slamming into Joachim and pushing him beneath it.
The bus hit the seabed, now standing horizontally. Joachim was tossed back and forth by the currents in the bus. He slammed into the ceiling, seats, and floor, the little air in his lungs threatening to escape him as well, air bubbles leaking from his nostrils.
When he finally recovered, he desperately swam towards the exit. But he was blocked by the seabed.
Terror gripped his heart, he swam around the vehicle to find an exit, any exit.
But there was no escape.
He banged against the glass of the windows, tried to put his arm through the small slit that could be opened, but he had no chance.
Suddenly a silvery-white figure appeared in his field of vision.
Joachim pressed his hand toward it on the window, seeking its help.
The figure could not help him, it copied his gesture. Before it reached an arm through the slit and patted Joachim's shoulder.
As if the figure wanted to reassure him, to comfort him before his imminent death.
Joachim did not feel the least bit better.
He could not hold his breath any longer, bubbles rushing out from his mouth, escaping the deadly prison without taking Joachim with them.
Reflexively Joachim breathed, water poured down his throat into his lungs. Pain shot through his body. He was forced to cough. But with every movement oxygen was consumed, oxygen he did not have.
One more time he swallowed water, inhaled it, filled his lungs with it.
His body grew heavier, his limbs felt like they were filled with lead as he desperately tried to keep swimming, to escape.
Finally, he could go no further, the water inside him crushing and suffocating him. His being burned like fire before everything went cold.
His body collapsed, no matter what he did, it was over.
He slowly sank toward the bottom.
The one hand on his shoulder became two, hooking onto him and holding him up.
Joachim, however, could only dully perceive this before his mind completely drifted away.
