Part 18 (1/2)

Jonathan didn't answer. He just took the rope off and continued trudging through the water until he reached the sh.o.r.e. Once there, he dropped down in exhaustion, his face landing sideways in the sand.

”Jonathan!” yelled Candi. She couldn't move fast enough to get to him because she was still hauling the boat.

Sarah didn't think she just jumped into the water and started swimming, cutting a clean line through the surface, swimming freestyle towards the sh.o.r.e.

As soon as she reached the shallow water, Sarah stood up and ran over to Jonathan, dropping down beside him and turning him over.

”Hey! Are you okay? Jonathan! Say something!”

Jonathan squinted his eyes, trying to open them, the color slowly returning to his face.

”What do you want me to say?” he asked innocently.

”Oooh, you ... idiot!” said Sarah, flinging sand on him as she stood up quickly and moved away from him.

Sarah saw that Candi was nearly to the dry sand now. She was trying to figure out how they were going to get Kevin out of the boat so they could start taking care of him. They weren't going to be able to pull it up very far because it was so heavy.

”Here, let me help.” Jonathan had stood up again and got behind the boat where Sarah had already gone, and began pus.h.i.+ng along with her.

The boat made contact with the sand and stopped abruptly. They heard Kevin groan as his body was jerked to the side.

”Errrh! I can't. Push. This. Thing. Any. Farther!” grunted Sarah.

”Just do your best ... a couple more inches,” said Jonathan, putting his shoulder against the back of the boat and pus.h.i.+ng with all his might.

They got two more inches of movement before the boat dug itself into the sand. It wasn't going any farther today, they decided.

Jonathan and Sarah dragged themselves around the side of the boat to stand on the beach next to Candi.

”How are we going to get him out of the boat?” asked Candi, concern marring her features.

”First thing we have to do is prepare a place for him to be taken to.” Jonathan looked at Sarah. ”Can you manage that?”

”Of course I can,” responded Sarah indignantly. ”What do you want me to do?”

”Just make some sort of shelter up there in the trees. Use the tarp and the sheet put the sheet on the ground and the tarp in the tree as a canopy of some sort. We need to protect him and us from the sun as best we can.” He looked up and squinted at the sky.

Sarah could feel her face burning. She looked at Candi and Jonathan and saw that they had pretty bad sunburns too. All she could think about was the skin cancer that was probably being created on her face as she baked under the sun.

He turned to Candi. ”Let's go see if we can wake him up enough to get him out of the boat.”

Sarah climbed into the boat, taking the sheet from the puddle in the bottom and the tarp from above Kevin's head. She headed up to the tree line with the two items to begin making their shelter.

After Sarah was gone, Candi and Jonathan got back into the boat, studying the situation. Jonathan was the first to speak.

”Wake him and try to get him to sit up. When he does, I'll try to get him on his feet. Watch his hand.”

Candi bent down over Kevin's face. ”Kevin. Wake up. Kevin, we need you to wake up.” She started shaking his shoulder as she continued. ”Keeeevin, wake uuuuup. We're home! Look, Kevin, we're home! Time to get up!”

”Mmmph, home. Good. Tired.”

Candi looked up at Jonathan. ”He isn't budging.”

Jonathan sighed, making his decision.

”I'm sorry to have to do this to you, Kevin, but it's the only way.”

He reached down and squeezed Kevin's sore hand.

”HOLY FFFFFRIG WHAT THE h.e.l.l ARE YOU DOING? ... I'M GONNA KILL YOU!”

Kevin sat bolt upright, cradling his hand, his eyes ablaze with pain and fury.

”Grab him!” yelled Jonathan.

Brother and sister each grabbed him under an arm and lifted with all their might. Kevin's body didn't budge.

”What the h.e.l.l are you doing? Getting rid of the dead weight?” asked Kevin indignantly, thinking he was being offed by the Buckley kids.

”We're trying to get you out of the boat!” yelled Jonathan, frustrated that he had no upper body strength.

”I can't swim like this ... I'll drown!” yelled Kevin.

”Kevin, we're on an island right now. Look.” Candi gestured towards the sh.o.r.e.

Kevin sat up straighter, looking out over the bow of the boat. ”Hey. We're not moving anymore. And there's trees. Lots of 'em. Holy s.h.i.+t, Jon, you did it, man!” A beaming smile broke out over his face, now that he realized he wasn't being fed to the sharks. He looked over at Jonathan. ”Way to go, dude. You're the man. Help me get out of this s.h.i.+tty boat, will ya?”

”Yeah, like I haven't been trying to do that for the past five minutes,” he said wryly, as he bent over to grab Kevin under his arm again.

With Kevin helping, they were able to get him over to the side of the boat. After a few seconds of calculating and debating the best way to get him onto the sh.o.r.e, Kevin managed to roll himself over the side to land on the sand below. He yelped in pain, but it seemed to wake him up a bit and made it easier to get him stumbling up the sand to the tree line.

When the three arrived at Sarah's camp, they were pleasantly surprised to see that she had been very busy setting up a temporary shelter for them. ”Wow, this is nice,” said Jonathan.

The sheet was laid out over the sand and the tarp had been tied at three corners to nearby trees with some sort of vine. Sarah was nowhere to be found.

Candi and Jonathan got Kevin settled on the middle of the sheet, then worked on carrying the supplies out of the boat and over to their shelter.

”We might as well bring it all over here for now, just in case there's another storm and our boat gets pulled away.”

”I hope that doesn't happen. We want to keep the boat, right?” asked Candi.

”Of course, but I'd rather keep our supplies close. Those rogue waves scared me.” Jonathan looked at the boat stuck in the sand. ”Honestly, though, I don't know that we're going to get that boat moved at all. I'm afraid we're going to have to leave it there.”

Candi nodded in agreement. ”Yeah, me too. It's already sunk into the sand a little bit, even after just thirty minutes.”

Four trips later they had everything around the blanket. Candi started unpacking the first aid kit, laying out the items she thought they could use for Kevin.

”There's antiseptic here, and some gauze and tape. Also, I think this is antibiotic ointment.” She held up a small, foil packet.