Part 38 (1/2)

Jonathan kept his eyes on the drug dealers from a safe distance up in a tree that had a good view of the pot grove. He could hear them talking, but couldn't make out what they were saying. They seemed to be walking around, bending down, looking at the grove. Probably checking their irrigation lines. After they stood in one place conferring about something, gesturing to the area around them, they started heading back in the direction of the beach. Jonathan's heart started beating three times faster than normal.

He put his hands to his mouth, getting ready to make his birdcall signal to Sarah who he could not see from where he was sitting. All of a sudden he realized that the drug dealers weren't going back in the direction he expected them to. They were angling to the left, heading right towards Sarah's hiding place.

”Ke-ke-ke-caw!” burst out Jonathan, but the sound was all wrong. He was so panicked, and his blood pressure was so high, it was affecting the sound of his voice. His birdcall sounded like an island bird being strangled to death.

The two guys stopped walking and turned around. They whispered to each other as they looked at the surrounding trees. Jonathan held his breath and hoped that his cover was good enough that they wouldn't spot him up above. Don't look up, don't look up, don't look up, he chanted inside his head. And don't run into Sarah.

The two guys shrugged their shoulders and then turned back towards Sarah's hiding place, continuing on. Jonathan didn't want to risk another strangled bird sound, so he climbed down the tree as quietly and as quickly as he could. He was going to follow the two guys to make sure they didn't run into Sarah. He was prepared to kick some serious b.u.t.t if they did.

Sarah heard Jonathan's mangled-sounding call, and immediately pulled back on the rubber band to send the berries off towards Candi's hiding place. But the rubber band snapped, managing only to send the berries into a pile at her feet and put a welt on the back of her hand.

Oh no! was all Sarah had time to think, before she took off running as quietly as she could to the lookout tree. She reached the base of it in less than a minute and signaled Candi with a loud ”Pssst!”

Candi looked down and saw Sarah gesturing with her broken slingshot. Candi got a look of horror on her face as she realized what this meant. She scrambled to tie the white flag up in the branches. Sarah stood below, praying Kevin would see it before it was too late.

Kevin made it to the boat and climbed up on the platform next to the motors. He was dripping wet but didn't have time to worry about whether the drug dealers would notice the puddles on their boat or not. Hopefully they would be so wet when they came on board they would blame themselves.

He saw the radio attached to the console near the steering wheel. He ran over and grabbed the handset. He pushed the b.u.t.ton on the side but heard nothing. He looked at the front of the radio, noticing immediately that it wasn't on; the lights were all off, the screen black. He jiggled the first switch he saw up and down, trying to get it to power up, with no luck.

s.h.i.+t! He thought to himself. Where is the friggin' power on this thing? His eyes were scanning the console when he noticed a white and fluorescent orange, miniature buoy-looking thing hanging from the console; attached to it was a key that was sitting in a keyhole.

Duh, he admonished himself. He turned the key partway, hoping it was like a car and would turn just the power on to the radio and not actually turn the engine over.

It worked.

The console lit up, and the radio suddenly had power. Kevin pressed the b.u.t.ton on the side of the handset, putting it into transmission mode. He began speaking.

”h.e.l.lo?”

He lifted his finger off the b.u.t.ton and waited for a response. Then he pressed it again. ”h.e.l.lo? Is there anyone out there?”

He waited again, the silence deafening.

”h.e.l.lo? Mayday, mayday, is there anyone out there?”

He turned to glance at the lookout tree, expecting to see nothing, but instead saw the signal. Holy s.h.i.+t. Then he heard some static on the radio and a voice.

”h.e.l.lo, Juan? Is that you? Who is this?”

Kevin didn't hesitate. ”This is Kevin Peterson ... me and three others are stuck on an island ... our cruise s.h.i.+p the Columbus sank about two months ago and we were thrown by some rogue waves way off course in our lifeboat ... the island we're on is shaped like a big peanut, there are rocks on the south side ... we need to be rescued, there are drug dealers on this island ... please come help!”

He waited for an answer, but none was forthcoming, and he knew he had to leave. He put the handset on the hook and ran to the edge of the boat. Just as he was getting ready to jump into the water, he heard some static and remembered the key. He had left it on position.

He was turning around to go back and turn the key to the off position, when he suddenly heard voices coming from the trees. He ducked down and peeked over the edge of the boat toward the beach. The two drug dealers were walking out of the trees, heading towards the water.

I'm trapped! The panic began to rise up and made it hard to breathe.

He crawled over to the console, reached up, and turned the key back to the left. Then he scrambled on his hands and knees over to the side of the boat facing the ocean and carefully slipped over the edge, into the water, trying not to make a splash as his body hit the surface.

Candi couldn't tell from where she was sitting in the tree if Kevin had been able to get on the radio or not. She saw him go to the console area but that was it. Then the bad guys came walking out onto the beach towards the boat. OhmyG.o.dohmyG.o.dohmyG.o.d. Sarah appeared at her right elbow, now able to see what Candi was seeing.

She whispered in Candi's ear, ”What the h.e.l.l! They're going to see him! My d.a.m.n rubber band broke.”

”Get out, Kevin, get out, get out, get out,” whisper-chanted Candi.

They watched as Kevin turned back around from the console area and crawled to the edge of the boat.

The bad guys had started walking into the water and were only about twenty feet from where Kevin was hiding.

Kevin slipped over the edge of the boat and entered the water. Candi and Sarah looked at the drug dealers who were now swimming breast stroke style, about five feet away from the swimming platform near the engines. They gave no indication that they had seen Kevin.

Candi could see the outline of Kevin's body beneath the surface of the water. He was swimming parallel to the sh.o.r.e, underwater, away from the boat.

”What's he doing?” asked Sarah. ”Why isn't he coming to the sh.o.r.e?”

”I think he's trying to get as far away from them as possible before he comes in, just in case they look back at the sh.o.r.e or whatever.” She nodded her head in silent approval. ”I hope he can hold his breath long enough,” she added, worrying he wouldn't be able to; none of them had held their breath for longer than two minutes and thirty seconds.

Soon, Jonathan joined them at the base of the tree. He climbed up in seconds, getting as close to them as he could.

”What's going on?” he whispered.

Candi said nothing just pointed out into the water where Kevin's form was barely visible beneath the water.

”Smart. He's going to surface far away from the boat. That's brilliant.”

At least, it looked like a brilliant plan until the boat started up and headed directly towards him.

”Holy s.h.i.+t, do they see him? Are they trying to kill him with the boat?” asked Sarah, horror coloring her voice.

The boat wasn't moving fast; it was just trolling along, as the two on board seemed to be moving around, getting things out of cabinets and stowing the anchor they had just pulled up by hand.

The three watched in fear as the boat closed in on Kevin's submerged form. Closer and closer it got. Kevin had been underwater at least two minutes by now, according to Candi's estimate. There was no way he was going to survive this.

”We need to get down there, right now!” said Candi frantically. ”Move!”

They all scrambled out of the tree. Candi was deathly afraid of what they were going to see when they got there, but knew they had to do whatever they could to help Kevin.

By the time they reached the tree line, the boat was heading out of the cove. Jonathan held up his arm, stopping them from moving out of the trees. ”Wait until they're farther away.”

”I need to get in the water and find Kevin!” insisted Candi. He still hadn't surfaced yet that she could see.

”Look, they're hitting the gas, they'll be out of sight in ten seconds. Just wait. Kevin wouldn't want you to blow our cover after all he's been through.”

It was the longest ten seconds of her life.

As soon as the boat left the cove and turned the corner out of sight, Jonathan lowered his hand and said, ”Go!” They all took off running to the sh.o.r.eline, Candi diving into the water and swimming over to the place where she'd last seen him. He wasn't there.