Sea (A Stranded Novel) (14 page)

“Don’t even move!” said a harsh voice from behind the gun.

Emily straightened up despite the order and saw a scruffy man who hadn’t showered in days. His eyes were fierce and they held depths of desperation.

She looked at the kids now standing behind him and they still looked scared. The little boy was quietly crying into the girl’s side. The girl met Emily’s look and she could see a hint of steel in her eyes. Looking back at the man
, she tried to reason with him.

“Mister, do you guys need any help? We saw the kids on deck and came to offer food and water if you need it. If you are stranded we could take you to shore. You don’t need to point that gun at us.”

The gun never wavered as he let out a bitter laugh. “Oh yeah, that’s what the last people who stopped to “help” said before they took all of our supplies and my wife.  So yeah, I’ll accept your help. I’ll accept that boat you’re on and everything in it as well.”

Emily glanced at the others and saw Lisa frozen in shock. Mason was scowling and David was shaking his head. He tried talking to the man.

“Sir, you don’t have to do that. We will share everything we have and help you and your kids get to land. We stopped to help you guys!”

The man nodded his head determinedly. “A week ago I would have taken you up on that but now it’s too late. I’m all my kids have left and I will do anything to keep them safe. So I want all of you to back up and stand together near the mast. Don’t try anything or I’ll shoot!” he gestured with the gun barrel further back on the boat.

David put his hand on Emily’s shoulder from behind and pulled her gently back away from the edge of the boat. Once they had all moved back, David stepped in front of her so he was between her and the gun.

The man kept his gun on them as he quickly manoeuvred over the rail and on to the Lawless. Once he was braced on their deck
, he scanned it from side to side. Lisa was clutching the bag to her chest and he nodded at her.

“What’s in the bag?”

Lisa looked down at it with a blank look until she realized he was talking to her and then her expression turned into an angry scowl.

“This is the food and water we gathered to help your family. Guess you want that too!” she spat at him.

The man almost looked ashamed for a second before his face hardened again.

“No, you hold on to that for now.” He looked the others over and addressed David. “Who else is on board?”

David shook his head. “There isn’t anyone else. We all came up to help you guys.”

The man frowned again and Emily was getting the feeling that he wasn’t as hard as he was pretending to be. He glanced back at his kids and waved the girl forward.

“Sarah, come over here and go around the other side of the cabin. Take a quick look down there and make sure no one else is onboard with us. Ben, stay there for a minute until Sarah comes back,” he told the crying boy when he tried to follow his sister over the rail.

Sarah scampered over the rail easily and ran around the opposite side of the boat to reach the stairs. No one said anything while she was out of sight. When she popped back up on deck, she gave her Dad a nod and ran back around to stand by him. He took a deep breath and told them what to do.

“You guys are going to cross over onto my boat and stay there. You can take that bag of food and water with you. I’m sure someone will come along and find you. I’ve set up rain water traps so you should be okay for water. I would ration the food though. There’s none on board. There are two fishing rods so you can try and fish.” He turned to his kids and instructed them. “Sarah, Ben, get down to our cabin and get some of your clothes and anything else you want. Sarah, grab some of my stuff too. Be fast.”

The girl still hadn’t spoken and she just nodded and jumped back onto her boat and dragged her brother down below.

Emily looked at the man and decided to try and reason with him again. She slid around David and gave the man her most sincere expression.

“Sir, I’m sorry about what happened to your family but we aren’t a threat to you. We’re just a bunch of teenagers trying to get home. We were in Disneyland when everything stopped and we found a boat to try and get home. We live in Alberta, Canada and if you leave us out here we will never see our parents again. Please don’t do this. We are only a day or two from land. Just tie us up and take us with you. We won’t cause you any problems. I promise!” she begged with tears in her eyes.

The man closed his eyes in sadness but slowly shook his head. In a soft voice he told her, “I’m sorry. I just can’t take that chance. I’m not a bad man and I don’t want to hurt you kids but I have to make sure my kids are safe. I’m really sorry. I wish there was a different way.” His eyes pleaded with Emily to understand.

David spoke from behind her. “Sir, we can see that you are trying to protect your family and that’s the right thing to do but if you leave us on that boat we will probably die. That would make you a murderer. There is a different way that would give us a chance. Let us take our life boat. We could try rowing it to land. It would take us a long time but at least we would be moving. Your boat is dead in the water, we wouldn’t get anywhere in it. Let us take the life boat and you can keep both boats. Please, sir. Give us a chance to make it to land
,” he pleaded.

While the man contemplated this, Emily was trying not to freak out. What was David doing?! She couldn’t get the image of the life boats filled with sunbaked dead people out of her head. She couldn’t believe he had suggested that! She looked to Lisa whose mouth was hanging open in shock at David. Mason caught her eye and he gave her a brief nod. She was completely confused. Why did the boys think that getting into the life boat was a good idea?

The man was staring at David with a thoughtful expression. “Do you really think that you can row to shore?”

David shrugged. “It’s better to try than to sit and slowly go crazy waiting for someone to maybe find us.”

The man nodded and gave David a grim smile. “I admire that. You’re a strong boy. I hope you make it and I’m sorry.”

David just nodded. “My friend and I are going to go get the life boat in the water. The girls can stay here while we do it. As soon as we get it launched, I’ll come back here while my friends get onboard and then I will follow them.”

The man raised his eyebrows at David’s instructions. “You’re awfully confident for a boy with a gun pointed at him.”

David stared him down before replying. “You’re not going to shoot an unarmed teenager in front of your children
who’s done nothing to you but offer help. Like you said, you’re not a bad man…just a thief.” He turned around without giving the man a chance to respond and tapped Mason to follow him. He looked at Emily and Lisa and said, “Sit tight,” before going to the life boat case.

David and Mason bent over and started to undo the clasps that held the case to the boat. Without looking at Mason, David said in a low voice, “Try and block his view of the bags. I don’t know if he’ll try and stop us from taking them but let’s not bring them to his attention.”

Mason nodded and shuffled around so his body was between the attached garbage bags filled with their backpacks and the front of the boat where the man was standing. Once the case was freed from its clamps, they piled the bags on top of it and carried it to the rail. David made sure he had a tight grip on the release cord before they heaved it over the side. They watched anxiously as the case went under the water and popped back up before splitting open and inflating. Both boys let out the breaths that they had been holding. If the boat hadn’t inflated they would have been stuck on the man’s boat with no chance of getting to shore. David was happy to see the life boat was slightly pulled down on one side meaning that the bags of supplies were still attached.

David stood up and handed the rope to Mason. “Pull it in close and help the girls get in. I’ll be back in a minute,” he said before heading back to where the girls were waiting nervously. Mason nodded and started to pull the boat closer.

David joined Emily and Lisa and moved around them so that he was once again between them and the man with the gun. He gave him a cool nod before talking to the girls. Lisa had a fiercely defiant look on her face and Emily looked slightly panicked.

“It’s okay, guys. Go over to Mason and he’ll help you down.”

Emily shot the man a nervous look over David’s shoulder and then leaned in to him and whispered, “I have the gun. We have to stop him.” Her eyes held a frantic look.

David froze and stared hard at her for a second. His mind flashed to all the outcomes of using the gun to defend the boat. He shook the images of screaming children and a deck covered in blood out of his head.

“No. Just go to Mason and get in the life boat
,” he said firmly.

Emily shook her head. “David, you saw what happened to those men in the life boats! We will die if we go out there!” she pleaded in fear.

He took a hold of her shoulders and gave them a squeeze. “Those men weren’t prepared. We prepared for this, remember? We will have everything that we will need. Please, Emily, trust me,” he told her quietly while staring hard into her eyes.

He turned her towards Mason and urged her on. Lisa was slowly nodding her head in understanding and she turned and followed Emily.

David watched Mason help Emily over the rail and then motion for Lisa. Once he was sure they would be okay, he turned to face the man. The children had returned to the deck of the other boat and stood watching with bags at their feet.

“A good man owned this boat. His name was Tim. He was trying to get home just like the rest of us. We were strangers but he took us with him because it was the right thing to do. One of the guys that had come with us went bad and killed him and ended up dying himself in the process. Tim lost his life because he helped us. We stopped to help you because it was, again, the right thing to do and we wanted to pay back Tim for helping us by passing it along. I want you to remember this. Today you did a bad thing for a good reason. You saved your children but you also showed them not to trust or help others. You need to make that right. So if you come across anyone who needs help in the future you should do the right thing and help them. Show your children that there is still goodness in this new messed up world.”

With that said David nodded at the man, turned, and got into the life boat.

Emily watched as they drifted further from the Lawless. The others were busy pulling up the bags with their backpacks in them but she was so despondent that she made no effort to help. She pulled her knees up closer to her chest and laid her head down on them. How could this have happened? Her worst nightmare had come true and all she could think about was what happened to the last life boats she had seen. She couldn’t understand why David and Mason had chosen this. She also was struggling to understand how that man could do this to them after they had tried to help his family. Was this what they had to look forward to for the future?
Every person for themselves and no one willing to help each other? She felt the tears slide down her face and dampen her knees. She missed her mom and dad and just wanted to go home. She felt her heart ache at the thought of never seeing them again and let out a sob.

Lisa settled down beside her and put her arm around her shoulders, trying to console her.

“It’s going to be okay, Emily.”

Emily lifted her tearstained face and looked at her blankly. “How is it going to be ok
ay? We are going to die out here just like those other men we saw.”

David shuffled over to her on his knees. “No
, we aren’t, Emily. I’m sorry I couldn’t explain before we got off the Lawless but I didn’t want that guy to change his mind. I know you think it was a mistake but let me explain. If we had been forced on to his boat we probably wouldn’t have made it. It was dead in the water and way too big to try and row. The chances of anyone finding us on it are slim. We could have been out there for months and a bad enough storm will probably swamp and sink it. I know being on the life boat is scary, but we have a better chance. It’s small and we can all take turns trying to paddle. We figured we were only a day or two from land with the Lawless, and this will take us longer, but we shouldn’t be out here for more than a week. We have six backpacks full of supplies and the emergency kit that was already on the boat. That man’s boat had nothing on it for food and water. The canopy on this one will protect us from the sun and rain and we should be okay in any storms because it’s light enough. We will get tossed around and it won’t be fun but we shouldn’t sink. Emily, we honestly have a better chance in this one.” He looked to Mason for help when Emily didn’t respond.

“It’s true
, Emily. If we were farther away from shore, I would have picked the other one and hoped for rescue but we could have sat on that boat for months slowly dying of starvation and dehydration. We have a better chance in the life boat for making it to shore. That other boat had no way to steer into the waves if there was a storm. We would have been broadsided and sunk. You also need to remember that those life boats with the dead guys were really old. They didn’t have canopies on them so they were exposed to the elements,” Mason explained.

Emily looked at all her friend’s faces and they all seemed confident in their survival. Slowly the feeling of hopelessness eased and she took a deep breath and nodded.

“Okay, so who’s paddling first?” she said with a trembling smile.

“Actually, that would be me.” Lisa surprised them. At their sceptical looks, she lifted her chin. “What? I’ve been using the rowing machine in the gym for the past two years. It’s a great workout for cheerleading. I know it’s not the same as real life rowing but at least my muscles are used to that exercise. I’ll bet I last longer than you boys and won’t hurt as bad after
,” she said smugly.

Emily smiled at her friend’s proud expression. “Wow
, Lisa. Is that one of those skills you thought was useless?” she teased.

Lisa blushed in embarrassment. “I guess there are some things that I can help with after all.”

Mason was looking at Lisa with a thoughtful expression and David was grinning. “All right then. Let’s get this canopy pulled down halfway and get rowing!” David said in an upbeat tone.

Emily marvelled at how her friends were staying positive in such an uncertain situation. She firmly squared her shoulders and leaned forward to help.

** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

The sun was going down and they were all exhausted. Lisa was right about the new muscles they needed to use for rowing. It was impossible to tell if they had made any real progress, but they all felt like
they had rowed miles. David checked the compass often to make sure they stayed on course. They had a simple dinner of water and beef jerky with half a power bar each for dessert. The dark clouds they had seen earlier in the day were much closer and they were all resigned to the fact that it would be raining some time tonight. Emily prayed it was only rain and not a fierce storm. She almost laughed at the irony. Two weeks on a large comfortable sail boat and they had no bad weather, but the minute they leave it they get hit with a storm. Murphy’s Law was rearing its ugly head.

After they had eaten, there was some uncomfortable and embarrassing business to attend to. Going to the bathroom over the side of an inflated boat was not fun. The boys had an easier time of it but that would change once they had to do the second job. Emily and Lisa worked out a system where they held onto each other’s arms while hanging over the side. It was embarrassing but with the boy’s backs turned they got it done.

They all settled down for the night and David closed the canopy. It was a lot like being in a tent except for the rocking and rolling over the waves. The emotional and physical day took its toll and they all fell asleep quickly.

Emily was dreaming. She was just a little kid and she was playing on her parent’s water bed. She loved the way it would roll her around when she bounced her bum on it. She was giggling in delight when the man who had forced them off the Lawless came into the room and shoved the end of the water mattress sending her flying up off the bed. Her laughter turned to screams. Emily was torn from her dream as her body crashed into Lisa’s and their heads connected. Dazed from the blow
, she was unable to control her body as it was sent tumbling in a different direction. She once again connected with a body but this time her head bounced off the side of the canopy. Strong hands gripped her and she was dragged up against Mason. He had anchored himself against the side of the boat and wrapped one arm around her and held on with the other.

When Emily’s head cleared enough to process what was happening, she saw David holding on to Lisa, who seemed to be unconscious. The boat was being tossed all over the place and Emily closed her eyes in fear. That was a huge mistake because her stomach lurched and she couldn’t control the hot wave of vomit that came rushing up her throat. She was powerless to do anything except let it out. Hot tears of misery poured down her face as her stomach heaved again and again.

Emily wasn’t the only one to lose her stomach contents that long, wave-tossed night. Sleep was impossible and they were all weak with exhaustion from clinging to the sides of the boat so they wouldn’t collide. Emily had no idea where David found the strength to hold onto Lisa for so many hours. The roaring wind made talking nearly impossible but he shouted out that she was breathing, just knocked out. Emily thought she might have lost her sanity if not for the small light that was clipped onto the canopy. It wasn’t very bright but being able to see her friends made all the difference.

Her eyes were grainy and her head
ached when the canopy slowly started to lighten and the waves calmed. She had to peel her fingers away from the handle as they were without feeling after clutching it for so long. She used her other hand to massage some feeling back into the bloodless fingers. David lay Lisa on her side and crawled over to the opening. He pulled the flap aside and tied it back. The fresh air blew in and washed away some of the vomit stench.

Emily breathed the clean air in gulps and with the sun lighting up the inside of the boat, she took stock of the night’s damage. Their bags were tumbled everywhere and many of their supplies had come loose and were scattered all over the bottom of the boat. Worse was the vomit that coated almost everything. The fresh air helped to clear some of her headache and it also seemed to help revive Lisa, who let out a moan and struggled to sit up. Ignoring the mess around her, Emily scooted closer to her and helped her sit up. She winced at the bruised knot on Lisa’s temple and raised her hand to gently probe the matching goose egg on her own forehead.

When Lisa’s glassy eyes cleared, she looked around at the mess in the boat with confusion.

“What the heck happened?” she asked and wrinkled her nose at the foul smell.

Emily slumped down beside her. “A big storm hit us and we knocked heads when the waves tossed us. David, Mason and I all contributed to the wonderful aroma that you currently smell. How’s your head?”

Lisa tentatively rubbed the lump and winced.
“Um, ouch?”

“Yeah, me too.
Just be grateful you weren’t awake for that roller coaster ride. It went on for hours.”

Emily sighed. She snagged a backpack and rummaged through it until she pulled out a bottle of aspirin. She handed Lisa two of the pills and took two of her own.

“Thank God for the canopy. If it wasn’t there, we would have lost everything and probably gone over the side, too.”

Lisa gave a half-hearted laugh. “Yeah, but at least it would have washed the puke away!”

Emily sent Lisa a devilish grin. “So…remember when you said you would do the laundry next time?”

Lisa started to shake her head frantically.
“Oh no, no way! That’s not fair. I didn’t even puke. I shouldn’t have to clean this up!”

Just as Lisa took a deep breath to make her case a gust of wind came into the boat and sent a strong wash of the foul air right into her face. Her eyes got huge and she lunged towards the opening but she wasn’t fast enough and her vomit joined the mess that the other three had left on the bottom of the boat. After wiping her mouth on her sleeve she flopped back beside Emily.

Emily closed her eyes and shook her head. “Welcome back, Murphy!”