Test Pilot's Daughter: Revenge (18 page)

All of a sudden he felt like a real man.
Kick ass, buddy, kick ass!

The long and deliberate process gave them a chance to get to know each other. They passed the time with conversations about their pasts and dreams of the future. Billy was totally mesmerized. She was by far the best looking woman he had ever seen. When he finally began to relax, he felt privileged to have her as a captive audience. He went on about his life in West Palm. He had just finished his sophomore year, where he played the coronet in the marching band. A smart kid who excelled in math and science, he also loved the outdoors.

After a while they had collected two canteens full of water.

“
William, I just can’t believe you figured this out,” Heather said. She seemed happy to feed his ego.

“
It isn’t a very good still,” Billy admitted, “but I reckon it’s better than nothin’.”

To keep themselves occupied over the long hours of distillation, they started playing word games in the sand. One would scramble the letters of a long word, and the other would try to figure it out. Heather was quite good at decoding anagrams, and she delighted in the game. With his teenage mind at work, Billy kept thinking up words with sexual overtones. He thought it was great fun to gauge her reaction to words like:

S-E-X-U-A-L-I-T-Y

“
William, aren’t you a little young to be thinking about sex all the time?”

“
No,” he looked down, a little embarrassed. “I expect I’m just right.”

“
So how about girls? Do you have a girlfriend?”

He thought for a minute. “There’s this one girl I really like. Her name is Kathy. She was in my algebra class, very good looking.”

“
So, how long have you been dating?”

“
Dating? Shucks, I haven’t even worked up the guts to talk to her yet. What am I supposed to do, ask her to ride on my bike? Can’t get a driver’s license till next year.”

“
Well, you could talk to her and tell her how you feel.”

“
Sure. She’d laugh right in my face.”

“
I don’t think so. I find you a very attractive young man, and quite clever. If I was in her shoes, I’d be happy if you showed some interest.”

He stammered. Fantasies of Heather in the back seat of a car ran amok. “I’d love to talk to her, but I wouldn’t know what to say.”

“
Come on, it’s not that hard. Just say. . .say anything.”

“
Yeah, easy for you. You’re the girl. You don’t have to stand there and look stupid.”

“
I’ve got it,” Heather volunteered. “Why don’t you pretend I’m Kathy and give me your best shot?”

He started to say something when he looked down at her voluptuous body. He completely choked. “Naaah, too embarrassing.”

“
Come on, there’s nobody here but us chickens. What have you got to lose? Maybe I can give you a few pointers.”

“
Okay.” He cleared his throat and tried to think of something. “Hey. . .Hey, Kathy, do you want to come over to my house tonight? I’ll help you with your homework.”

Heather raised her voice an octave and said, “Why Billy, I didn’t know you cared.”

Billy looked her right in the eyes. He moved up closer to her face, and his voice dropped. “I really do care. I just think you’re the most beautiful girl in school, and I’d be honored to call you my girlfriend.”

“
That’s one of the nicest things anyone ever said to me, Billy. Do you really mean it?”

“
I’ll show you.” Mustering his courage, Billy leaned over and kissed her right on the lips. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her harder, then backed off expecting the worst.

“
Easy there, fella,” Heather smiled. “Well, at least you don’t need acting lessons.”

“
So what do you think? You said take my best shot.” He wanted to kiss her again.

“
Uh, I have to say, William, that approach would do it for me,” she lied, trying not to hurt his feelings. “If I was Kathy, I’d be all over you. But that’s because I already know you. You’ll have to go a little slower with Kathy. The main thing is to create situations where she can get to know you like I do. See if she’ll sit with you at lunch or at the library. Find out what she likes and doesn’t like. Make a point to talk to her a little every day. After she gets to know you, ask her to a school dance, even if you have to get your parents to drive. Believe me, unless she’s a bimbo, she’ll respond.”

As Heather ran on, Billy didn’t hear a word. He could still feel the smooth texture of her lips and smell the sweet aroma of her breath. His mind’s eye was melting into a world of pure fantasy. He’d forgotten all about Kathy. Heather was the most beautiful girl in the world, and at that moment, she was all his. He had to struggle to force himself back to reality.
What the hell, go for it!
He cleared his throat again. “Well then, what about you, Heather? Would you be my girlfriend?”

Heather blushed. “Me? I’d say there’s a pretty big gap in our ages, don’t you think? If you were twenty-one, I’d be very interested, that is, if I wasn’t already spoken for. I am engaged you know. William, one thing’s for sure: you’re going to make some young lady quite a catch. In the meantime, I would like to be your special friend.”

Rejection!
As usual,
Billy felt like a stupid shit. It was hell being a young man and always facing humiliation. He tried to save face and said, “Well, you can’t blame me. Not only are you knock-down gorgeous, Heather, but you just happen to be the only female within miles.”

“
Enough,” she jumped to change the subject. “Now let’s get back to work.”

They toiled for hours, feeding and fanning the fire and refilling the pail with seawater. It was hot work in the afternoon, and the fire had to be constantly fanned. With a great deal of effort, they were able to make enough to drink a few ounces each and fill three canteens. It wasn’t a lot, but they were quite proud of their accomplishment. As a byproduct, they accumulated a small bag of salt, which would be welcome on the bland tasting fish.

Since they hadn’t had time to gather any food, Heather and Billy had granola bars for dinner. A few thunderstorms appeared over the ocean, but no showers fell on their small island. As the sun set, Billy began to worry about Christina and Jessica. He had been thinking some scary thoughts all afternoon. As darkness rolled in, there was no more putting it off.

“
Gee, I wonder where they are?” Billy asked.

“
Yeah, I thought they’d be back by now. I hope nothing happened.” Heather had a worried look too.

“
Think I’ll pump up the fire in case they’re trying to find their way.” Billy built it to bonfire proportions. An hour later, it was pitch dark with no sign of their friends.

“
William, I’m really getting scared. I know they didn’t plan on staying out there all night.”

“
Maybe the island is bigger than we thought. If it’s as much as ten miles long, they wouldn’t be able to circumvent the whole thing in one day.”

“
You might be right. But they didn’t have any food or water, and they didn’t take anything to sleep on. I wonder if they might have gotten dehydrated. They could be lying out there somewhere, passed out.”

“
Nothing we can do in the dark. If they’re not back by morning, I’ll take a canteen and go find them. It’s pretty easy to follow tracks in this sand.”

They both stared at the fire with all kinds of horrible thoughts and visions. Suddenly they heard an eerie squeal and some noises rattling out in the brush. Heather jumped over by Billy and snatched his arm with a death grip.

“
What was that?”

“
Don’t know. Probably some rodent attacked by a predator, that’s all.” Billy tried not to sound frightened.

Out of the darkness came the ghostly calls of a hoot owl.

“
What’s this shit?”
Billy was terrified. “I feel sure there are no owls here.”

Heather’s long fingernails were digging into his arm. They just sat there huddled by the fire. All of a sudden the quiet was shattered; all hell broke loose with blood-curdling yelps. They were attacked by a shadowy monster, something big crashing through the brush.

Heather and Billy screamed in horror, shot up on their feet and spun around in the direction of the assault. Two dark figures came running their way.

Christina and Jessica were cackling. “Did we scare you?”

“
Jesus Christ!
You scared the living shit out of me.” scolded Heather. “Not funny. Not funny at all. We were worried sick, then you come running in here like maniacs. Not funny
,
dammit.”

Billy was breathless. He couldn’t speak.

“
What’s the matter, Billy? Cat got your tongue?” Christina teased.

“
Uh. . .yeah. I’m. . .I’m uh.”

“
Sorry,” Christina was still laughing. “We just thought it’d be funny to give you two a little jolt. Come on, Billy, snap out of it. We’re dying of thirst. Did you make any water?”

Billy was still gasping, he held up his hand. “Yeah. . .uh . . . we worked our butts off all day to get some drinking water, but after you almost gave me a heart attack, I’m not sure if we want to give you any.”

“
Come on, where’s your sense of humor? We must have walked twenty miles today, and we’re dying.”

“
Okay, have a seat by the fire.” His heart was still pounding, but he was quite relieved to have the girls back. They passed the canteen like a bunch of good ole boys passing a jug of white-lightnin’.

“
Man, I never thought distilled water could taste so good,” Jessica exclaimed. “Billy, great job. How much can you make in a day?”

“
Looks like only about three quarts, unless I can figure how to improve the condensation,” he answered.

“
Our still isn’t very good,” Heather added, “takes a lot of work fanning the fire.”

“
But three quarts a day isn’t bad,” Christina praised their work taking a couple of large gulps. “I bet it’s enough to keep us alive. You guys saved our bacon.”

“
So what did you find?” Billy inquired.

“
We saw the whole island, end to end,” Jessica said with a mysterious tone. “It’s about seven miles long. We found some swampy looking areas, but all the water had a salty taste. There still could be some fresh water somewhere.”

“
Tell them what we found. . .on the south end.”

“
Someone was here in the past. There were some burned out shelters.”

“
We started kicking around in the clutter,” Christina jumped in, “and found some bones. . .human bones. Actually we found a full skeleton. It was scary; the skull had a hole like someone had been shot. The fact that no one took the time to bury the body probably means foul play.”

Christina’s story put a chill on the group. Billy looked around in the dark and shuddered at the thought of drug runners. They had no real defense.

After a while, they all fell asleep around the fire. Late in the night, a clap of thunder stirred the group, and rain poured down on their world. While the girls dove for cover under the wings of the airplane, Billy scrambled around in the dark taking full advantage of his collection system. In a matter of minutes, he was able to fill every available container.

They were all a little wet and uncomfortable, but no one complained.

Chapter Thirteen

It was Monday night, and Lazer was disappointed when Christina didn’t call after the first two days of her vacation. He felt they were at the point where a phone call would be expected, and he really wanted to hear how it was going. On the other hand, he wasn’t too surprised. Christina was a very independent female.