Part 15 (2/2)

Sarah flipped the latch. ”There are band-aids, some scissors, some white tape, some iodine looking stuff, rubber gloves, some foil packets with antibiotic cream, and tweezers. Oh, and some gauze pads.”

”What about your box, Jon? Anything good?” asked Kevin.

”Well, I think so. This looks to me like ... ,” he pulled out a black box, ”some sort of radio!”

”Does it work?” Sarah asked, desperately.

”I don't know, there's a switch here. If I can figure out how to turn it on ... ” He flipped it back and forth, but nothing happened. ”Hmmm, it doesn't seem to be working.”

”Hand it to me, Jon, let me see what I can do.” Kevin reached his hand out for it.

”No, just wait, I want to look at it first.”

”Give it to him, Jonathan,” said Sarah, a dangerous tone in her voice.

Jonathan disregarded it. ”In a minute.”

Sarah got up on her knees and reached over to take it from him. ”Give it up, Jonathan, you don't know what you're doing. Kevin is very good with electronics.”

”Back off, Sarah, I'm not done yet,” Jonathan warned, keeping a strong grip on the black box.

Sarah had obviously had enough of Jonathan's arrogance. She grabbed the box and hauled back hard on it, yelling, ”Give it!”

Jonathan lost his grip suddenly, and it slipped out of his hands.

Sarah wasn't expecting to win it so easily, and fell back with it in her hands held high above her head.

Jonathan watched the scene as it played out in what seemed like slow motion Sarah tumbled backwards and the box flew out of her hands, over the back of the lifeboat and into the water.

”Holy s.h.i.+t, Sarah!” yelled Kevin, an instant before he got up and jumped into the water after it. Unfortunately, he had forgotten they were all still tied together.

Jonathan felt the tug on the rope first. A burst of air and a loud painful groan flew out of his mouth as he was dragged towards the edge of the lifeboat.

With the combined weight of Kevin in the water and Jonathan connected to him on the same side, the entire boat started leaning sideways and began taking on water.

”Jonathan!! Kevin!! Oh my G.o.d, get back in the boat!”

Sarah threw herself to the opposite side, trying to counterbalance the weight.

Candi reached over and tried to help Kevin get back into the boat. He was finding it difficult with his swollen hand and only one eye to work with. Being fully clothed in wet canvas shorts and cotton made his body a lot heavier than normal.

Kevin was finally able to drag himself back into the boat with Candi's and Jonathan's help. He didn't have the radio in his hand. It was made of metal and had sunk too fast.

Everyone just sat there for a minute, Kevin trying to get his breath and Jonathan wrestling with the knot in the rope around his waist. He didn't want to get dragged overboard like almost just happened. He decided that the idea they'd had of everyone drowning together earlier was a stupid one.

Sarah sniffed and looked down at her nails, saying nothing.

Kevin looked at his sister, a frustrated look on his face.

Sarah looked up and saw her brother staring at her. ”What? I'm sorry, okay? Sheez, how was I supposed to know Jonathan was going to let the thing go like that?” She looked over and shot Jonathan a dirty look.

”Wha ... ? Me ... ? You're blaming this on me? You're nuts, you know that?” He shook his head in disgust, mumbling under his breath. He kept himself busy packing their supplies evenly into the four backpacks, putting items like the flares and flashlight in his and Kevin's packs. Sarah had already proven she couldn't be trusted to be responsible; he wasn't about to have her holding their life-saving supplies.

”Come on, guys, let's not fight. We're going to be out here for at least part of today, so we should make the best of it.”

”I'm sorry to break this to you, Candi, but I think we're going to be out here a lot longer than just today,” said Jonathan bitterly, without looking up.

Candi started feeling sick to her stomach again. ”Why do you say that?”

”Because that storm blew us really, really far away. I'm no expert at navigation or anything, but if I were searching for the pa.s.sengers from the s.h.i.+p, I probably would limit my search to the area near the s.h.i.+p. They might not even know about those rogue waves that kept throwing us farther and farther away from the standard search grid area.”

”What is a rogue wave, anyway?” asked Kevin.

”Rogue waves are really large and spontaneous ocean surface waves that occur far out at sea; a threat even to cruise s.h.i.+ps, let alone little lifeboats like we're on. Maybe that's what caused the problems with our s.h.i.+p, I'm not sure. Technically, rogue waves are waves whose height is more than twice the significant wave height, which is the mean of the largest third of waves in a wave record.”

”Holy, blah, blah, Jonathan, what are you actually saying?” asked a frustrated Sarah.

”Therefore,” Jonathan continued, not even glancing at Sarah, ”rogue waves are, in a nutsh.e.l.l, surprisingly large waves for a given area of the ocean.”

”So, you're talking about a tsunami, then?” said Kevin.

”No, rogue waves are not tsunamis. Tsunamis are triggered by earthquakes that happen out at sea, which cause a wave to travel at high speeds and build up strength as it approaches a sh.o.r.eline. Rogue waves, on the other hand, occur in deep water or where a number of physical factors such as strong winds and fast currents converge, but not earthquakes. Some think a rogue wave is a bunch of smaller waves that join together to make one, large wave; and based on what I was feeling last night, I'd agree with them. The biggest rogue wave ever measured was something like ninety feet high.”

”Which is ... ” said Kevin, trailing off as if he were trying to calculate the size of a wave like that.

”About as big as the one that threw our boat last night the height of a ten story building.”

”You act like you're not really sure, though,” said Candi.

”The problem with rogue waves is that they're rare. Hardly anyone has ever seen one. They have almost never been measured. So the fact that last night there wasn't just one, but several, is some sort of crazy anomaly that no one could have predicted or planned for. It's entirely possible that we're the only ones who even knew they were there!”

Sarah started putting it all together. ”So that means that if someone comes to look for us, they're probably not going to look out this far, and if they don't find us near the s.h.i.+p, they'll probably a.s.sume we drowned.”

”Yes,” answered Jonathan, sighing deeply and sadly. ”That is exactly what I'm trying to say.”

Everyone on the boat went quiet. The only sound they could hear was the gentle lapping of water against the sides of the boat and the sea breeze blowing against their dry, chapped faces. They sat there, absorbing the news that they were probably completely doomed. Each of them was doing the calculation in their heads. Enough water for a couple of days. Food for a couple of days. And an endless expanse of salt water and burning hot sun.

”Hey, I don't want to add more gloom to our doom,” said Sarah, ”but shouldn't we do something about this sun? I'm starting to bake. I may be dying soon, but I don't want to go down prematurely wrinkled.”

Candi nodded her head. ”Yes, I agree, who has the sunscreen?”

”It's in this bag.” Jonathan handed it to his sister. ”I think we should all wear the backpacks, so nothing goes flying overboard again.” He looked pointedly at Sarah, who refused to meet his eyes.

”Should we worry about rogue waves anymore, do you think?” asked Kevin.

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