Part 15 (1/2)
”I don't know! Just hold on and pray!! And put your backpacks ON!! We can't lose our supplies!”
Everyone scrambled to grab a totally soaked backpack and put it on. Sarah put her backpack on and grabbed her makeup valise. She put it in her lap and held onto it with one hand, holding onto the side of the boat with the other.
”Would you get rid of that thing?!” yelled Jonathan.
”No! Leave me alone!”
Candi glared at her brother. ”Just leave it, Jonathan; we have bigger eggs to fry.”
Sarah felt the boat rising up and up and up again just like last time only last time, they had the cover on the boat. This time the boat was wide open and already half-full of water.
The boat started to spin as it reached the crest of the wave, which was just starting to break at the top. Sarah began to feel dizzy and sick, losing track of where they were.
The only thing they could hear was the roar of the wave and their screams. The only thing they could see was spinning, spinning, spinning and a great yawning, foaming whiteness. The water rushed over the boat and filled their mouths, trying to force its way into their lungs. Sarah gagged on the salty seawater, holding on to her brother and the boat as tight as she possibly could.
The wave seemed to be pounding around them over and over. Just when she thought it was calming down, it would rise up again. It was like a series of vicious waves, growing and climbing, with the specific purpose of destroying their little boat and sending them to the ocean floor to become food for the sharks that were certainly waiting for them below the turbulence of the surface waves.
One last wave, bigger than all the rest, rose up out of the black sea. All four of them looked up, and the last thing any of them remembered seeing was a wall of black water, coming to claim their lives.
CHAPTER SIX.
Adrift Jonathan was the first one to wake up, slowly at first. Then enough that he could taste the dried salt water covering his chapped lips. The inside of his mouth felt wrinkled and salty. He sensed the heat of the early rays of the sun, already burning his salt-damaged skin. He moved his fingers and felt the skin crackling, as if they were coated with dried glue.
He tried to move his legs but they were pinned in place. He had a momentary panic attack until he opened his eyes and realized he couldn't move his legs because someone was lying across them. He wiggled them a little bit and managed to rouse Candi.
Candi sat up all of a sudden, quickly leaning over to the side of the boat to vomit into the water.
”Uuuuhh. What the h.e.l.l happened? I feel so sick. Oh no ... here it comes again ... ” She leaned over and vomited a second time.
She wiped her mouth off with the heel of her hand and laid back down in the boat, arched uncomfortably over the pack that was still strapped between her shoulders.
The noise woke Sarah up. She lifted her head off the tarp where it had been resting. Her hair looked like it hadn't been brushed or washed in a month. Jonathan was afraid of what she might do if she saw it, doubting that she'd ever seen herself look this bad before. He wisely kept his mouth shut about it.
”What? What's happening? Are we rescued yet?” She looked around and her face dropped.
All Jonathan could think was, water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink. Funny that The Rime of the Ancient Mariner would pop into his head right now. Hopefully their little boat would have better luck than the one in that story. He s.h.i.+vered to himself thinking about it.
Kevin stayed put, giving a slight moan as an indication that he was still alive.
Sarah looked over at her brother, frowning in concern.
Jonathan saw that Kevin's eye was swollen shut and looked pretty gross. His lips looked as chapped and dry as Jonathan's felt.
”I need some water,” croaked Sarah. She started shrugging off her backpack to get a bottle from within.
”No! Wait!” yelled Jonathan.
Sarah shot him a dirty look. ”Why? I'm thirsty.”
”Yes, I know. We all are. But we have very limited supplies, and we don't know when we're going to be rescued. We have to take stock of what we have and then ration it. We have to use as little as possible.”
Sarah thought about what he said and nodded slowly.
”Everyone take your backpacks off and empty them here on the tarp. Let's see what we have,” instructed Jonathan.
Slowly they all sat up, Kevin more slowly than the rest, and wrestled with their backpacks to get them off. It was easier said than done, since the salt.w.a.ter had started to dry into a stiffness that made the straps difficult to bend and pull off.
They each opened up a backpack and started putting things out on the tarp. Kevin and Jonathan organized it all into separate piles and tallied it up.
”Okay, Kevin, how many ounces of water do we have?”
”Well, we have six, eight-ounce bottles, so that makes forty-eight ounces, give or take.”
”Okay, so there are four of us, that makes twelve ounces each. Maybe a little less for us and a bit more for you, since you have a bigger body ma.s.s than us. Now, how much food do we have?”
Kevin answered, ”We have three protein bars, one bag of airline peanuts, two melted candy bars, and a mini bag of beef jerky.” He held up the bag of beef jerky and smiled. ”Who's the genius who brought this?”
Candi smiled mirthlessly and raised her hand. ”That would be me.”
She looked around at everyone looking at her like she was crazy. ”What? I like to eat beef jerky when I go on road trips! I figured I'd like it on a cruise, too.”
”Hey, it's good protein, Candi, don't worry about it. We just have to be careful because of the salt. We can't afford to make ourselves more dehydrated than we probably are already going to be. We'll save that one for last,” said Jonathan.
”Okay, what else do we have with us?”
Kevin held up a sopping wet hunk of white cloth and some other miscellaneous things. ”One bed sheet. One pocketknife. One black thing I don't know what it is. Two rain ponchos. Two pairs of sungla.s.ses. One compa.s.s. One baseball hat. One tiny scope thingy ... aaaaand ... that's about it.”
”Don't forget the tarp,” said Candi weakly.
Jonathan frowned at the file of rations on the boat cover. ”That black thing is a flint, for starting fires. So, let's start with water. I think we're all pretty thirsty. Only two ounces each, though.” Jonathan looked each person in the eye and they all nodded in agreement.
As she drank, Sarah looked around. ”Don't we have some stuff on this boat from the s.h.i.+p? I mean, it's not like they'd send people out on a lifeboat with nothing in it, would they?”
Everyone started looking around them at once. It was then that they realized the lumps they were leaning against actually were hard, covered boxes with latches on them.
They each hurried to open the box nearest them. Kevin got his opened first. ”Ha! Water! A big container of it, probably ten water bottles' worth or more. Plus some vacuum-packed foil packets that might be food ... Yes, I think these are meals. There are twelve of them.”
”I have a flashlight with batteries! Hey, and it works! There's also a mirror in here, a hatchet, and ... um ... dynamite sticks,” said Candi.
Kevin and Jonathan looked at each other with confused expressions on their faces. Dynamite?
”Flares!” they both yelled at the same time, grinning at each other.
”My box has a first aid kit in it. Should I open it?” asked Sarah.
”Yes, open it,” said Jonathan.