For a second or two I imagined the way I wanted it to happen, imagined the waters swirling apart and forming another void in the water. But then I stopped myself. Farmer had said my brain was in charge, that it would decide how it worked and what constituted one usage of the Gift. So I changed my strategy.

All I did was make it very clear, and imagined it, envisioned it in my head, that I wanted the three of us safely on the boat again, alive and well. Then, just as I did with the other Gifts, I thought it into action.

Some unseen force exploded beneath me. With the Shield acting as the prow of a ship, it parted the water before me as I shot toward the surface. The sensation of flying through water was breathtaking, and I allowed myself to enjoy it for the few seconds it lasted.

I broke the surface with a loud pop and swish, catapulting forty or fifty feet into the air. My stomach and lungs seemingly stayed in the ocean, because I couldn't breathe. I looked around and saw two other figures in the air with me, and for a split second we all hung there, looking at each other. The three of us were meteors in reverse, trailing streams of water still connecting us to the ocean.

Then a great wind came from nowhere, and lifted us into its arms, swirling around us, holding us, carrying us with a gentle but massive sigh of air to the waiting ship below. Soon, to the shock of our companions who happened to be on the decks, we were placed without harm onto the yacht, safe as can be.

My only regret was that I didn't have a camera to capture the look on Rusty's face.

Mom threw her arms around me and didn't let go for the longest time. During our reunion, I thought about what just happened.

One down, three uses of the Third Gift to go. It was a little discouraging, but if given the same chance a million times, I would've saved my friends without fail. But the power of the Anything was more than we realized.

Joseph and Rayna both told us that a pocket of air had formed around them as the water crashed down to the ocean floor. That meant, as far as we could tell, that the Anything could actually work before I invoked it, that it could somehow see into the future. Either that, or it could go back in time to fulfill its beckoning call. Either way, we were all relieved it had worked so well.

Rusty could not get over it. He kept going on and on about what it was like to see three bodies suddenly shoot out of the water then float down safely to the ship. If only we'd caught it on video.

The first thing I did after catching my breath was to check on Dad. He had not changed, still sleeping in his bed like a dead man. It made me ill now, knowing what I did about the Stompers. I still didn't understand how they worked, but the thought of Dad being infected by one of those things made me sick to the core. I spent some time with him and then went back to join the rest of the crew.

The remainder of the day was spent in the Mess Hall, resting and filling each other in on what had transpired since we'd set out on the raft. Joseph and Rayna and I went first, taking turns telling them everything. I told most of it, since I had been the only one to go through the door far below us.

Rayna had given us the two hours she had promised and then set out down the stairs, bent on saving us. She'd been wary of the many leaks, but it only increased her concerns over us, so she had kept coming. The stairs had collapsed when she was only twenty feet from the bottom, or else her fall would have surely killed her. When the Tower began to collapse, and we were all swimming around at the bottom, we'd somehow missed her in all of the commotion and noise. I couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if I had not heard her scream at the last second and therefore had not included her in my invoking of the Third Gift.

As for the ship itself, they had been able to sense the weakness in the Tower long before it imploded, so they'd taken the ship a little further out to avoid being sucked into the whirlpool its collapse caused. They knew they could do nothing but hope that my Gifts saved the day.

In the end, that was exactly what had happened.

Feeling safe once again, and warm, I told them that in the morning, I would give more details concerning what needed to happen next. They could see my exhaustion and did not argue. I also had not yet told them about the Stompers—I was just not ready for that.

I hit the sack. After what I had learned from Farmer, I was very glad that I did not dream that night.