Wrecked (43 page)

Kevin got an offended look on his face.  “Handle it?  Sheee-it, just don’t get in my way.”  

Jonathan smiled.  “That’s what I wanted to hear.  Any more questions?”

“I just need to go fill my water bottle up a little,” said Sarah.  “I’ll be right back.”

***

The three stood in the clearing waiting for her to come back, none of them hearing the sound of approaching footsteps.

“Well, well, well … what do we have here?”  The sound of the stranger’s voice sent shivers up Candi’s spine.  She turned slowly with the others to see a gun pointed right at them.  It was being held by a guy dressed in Bermuda shorts and a muscle shirt.  When he smiled, she noticed he had a gold front tooth.

Pirates!
was all she could think.  She risked a glance over at Jonathan and saw him giving her an ‘I told you so’ look.  She was never going to doubt him again.  The only thing the guy was missing was an eye patch or a peg leg.

The guy with the gold tooth glanced up above them, noticing the treehouse for the first time.  “Nice place you got here.  We’re going to like staying in it when we come to the island.  Too bad you won’t be staying in it anymore.”  He laughed at his own lame joke.  “Now we’re all going to go back to the beach and talk to Jean-Philippe.  It’s up to him where you die.”  He gestured with the gun as he moved sideways to make room for them to precede him in the direction from which he had come.  “Get moving.”

Candi forced herself not to look in the direction that Sarah had gone.  She didn’t want to let on to this guy that there was someone missing.  Just because they were going to die, didn’t mean she had to.

They all started down the path, Candi hyper-conscious of the fact that there was a gun pointed directly at her back.  She prayed he wouldn’t pull the trigger until this guy Jean-Philippe or whatever had his say.  Maybe between now and then they could come up with an escape plan.

“Eeeeeyaaah!!”
came a screech from behind Candi.

CRASH!!

“Ooopf!” 
The sound of a man going down with a grunt reached her ears.

Candi spun around to see Sarah standing over the prone form of their captor, who was now on the ground, surrounded by pieces of broken rat cage.  He started to shake off his confusion, raising up his gun to take aim at Sarah.  

She didn’t hesitate; she kicked the hand that was holding the gun, sending it flying, and then bashed him over the head with the piece of rat cage she was still holding.  

He slumped over sideways into the bushes.

They all stood in stunned silence for a second, staring at the unconscious drug dealer and the karate death queen, Sarah Peterson.  “Now stay down, you fugly pirate!” she commanded.

Candi, Jonathan, and Kevin all rushed back to surround Sarah and give her a giant group hug.  Kevin gave her a resounding high five that echoed in the trees around them.

“Sarah, you are the most amazing woman I’ve ever known … thank you for saving us!”  Candi grabbed her around the waist in a tight hug filled with the power of her relief.

Jonathan came up on her side and silently gathered her in his arms.    “You crazy woman.”

Sarah was smiling, if a bit shakily.  “No one messes with my family.”

Kevin stepped back from the group.  “Hey, guys, I don’t mean to be a wet blanket on the love fest here, but before we get going, we have to immobilize this jerkoff, or he’ll alert the rest of them.  We need to keep him quiet at least until we’re outta here on that boat.  If they get to him first, we won’t have the cover of darkness to execute our plan.  And obviously, they know we’re here somewhere.  So let’s get moving.”

They tore off a couple of strips from the precious bed sheet and used them to stuff the guy’s mouth.  Then they bound his hands and feet with lengths of plant rope, finishing him off by tying a cord around his head to securing the sheets inside his mouth.  

Candi felt a little bit guilty.  “What if they don’t find him and he dies out here?”

Sarah looked at Candi incredulously.  “Candi!  This asshole was going to
kill
all of you.  He’s getting what he deserves.  Let the universe sort it out.  We just need to survive.”

“I hate to admit it, Candi, but I agree with her.  We’re living out Darwin’s theory of evolution, or more accurately, Herbert Spencer’s often quoted theory: survival of the fittest.  Only the strongest survive.  We’re a team, and we stick together.  It’s us against them.  If someone has to die today, that will suck for sure – but let it be one of them, not us,” said Jonathan, putting his arm around Sarah’s waist.

Candi nodded her head.  They were right.  This a-hole with the stupid gold tooth had pointed the gun right at her back, knowing he was leading them to their deaths.  She looked at the jerk on the ground who they had just tied to the stand of bamboo.  “Sorry, dude.  I guess you should have picked better friends.”

They all smiled at her wisdom as they walked away.  They hadn’t chosen each other as friends, but in that moment, none of them would have chosen any other people in the world to stand against these drug dealers with.

***

They arrived near the south side of the cove, hiding on the ground in the cover of the trees.  It was late afternoon, darkness was just a couple of hours away.  They stayed quiet, taking a few minutes to eat a meal of bananas.  Sarah started mouthing the words to her favorite song.  ‘
This shit is bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S!’
  No one had the heart to stop her this time.  She found it wasn’t nearly as much fun when it wasn’t annoying someone, so she stopped. 

As darkness fell, they kept a keen eye on the activity surrounding the boats.  One of the guys emerged from the trees and set up a tent on the beach.  He made a fire and started cooking something.  They could catch whiffs of the scent on the breeze, and Jonathan’s stomach started growling.  They all gave him bug eyes, signaling him to shut up.  He mouthed,
What?  I can’t help it!  I’m hungry! 
Sarah blew him a kiss, and he smiled back.  Candi rolled her eyes and Kevin smiled.

They watched as the group of four men, now missing Mr. Gold Tooth, sat down and finished their dinner.  They were talking a lot and gesturing towards the trees, probably discussing their missing friend. 

Eventually it got late.  The kids’ legs were cramped from sitting still for so long.  Kevin signaled that it was time to execute the plan.  He gestured for them to all lean in so he could talk quietly.

“Okay guys, this is it.  I don’t think they can see us now, it’s too dark.  Jonathan and Candi, you guys are going to swim underwater to that boat on the right.  It has two guys on it that I can see.  Tie the stuff around the propellers.  Don’t just twist it around, tie knots in it if you can.  Then swim over to the other boat and join us.  Sarah and I will take your backpacks with us.”  Then he looked at Sarah.  “You and I are going to swim underwater to that boat on the left.  It has only one guy on it.  Put Candi’s backpack on your front and yours on your back.  I’ll do the same with Jonathan’s.  When we get to the boat, we’ll hang onto the back, staying silent until Candi and Jonathan join us.”  He looked around at each of their faces in the dark, barely able to make out their features.  “Does everybody know what to do?”

They all whispered in the affirmative.  “Okay, let’s go.  Candi, you and Jonathan first.  Good luck.”  He gave Candi a swift kiss on the lips before letting her go.  His heart convulsed painfully in his chest as he watched her slip away.

Sarah reached out and grabbed her brother’s hand and squeezed.  He squeezed her hand back but said nothing.

***

After a couple of minutes, Kevin and Sarah slipped from the trees, moving silently down to the water’s edge.  They listened for signs that they had been discovered but heard none.  They crawled on hands and knees into the water and were soon submerged.  

The weight of the backpacks made swimming difficult and awkward.  Sarah had no idea if she was swimming in the right direction, so she stayed close to Kevin, constantly bumping into his arms or legs, which made her feel better because it meant he was close.  She felt him stop, so she stopped too and surfaced, treading water. 

Their heads emerged; they were about ten feet away from their target.  Sarah couldn’t see any sign of Candi or Jonathan.  She and Kevin slowly and silently dipped back under the water and didn’t come up again until they were at the back of the boat.  As soon as they brought their heads up out of the water, they heard a loud belch.  From the sound of it, the guy was sitting in the seat by the steering wheel.

They hung onto the platform that jutted out from the back of the boat, just over the two outboard motors.  Within minutes, Sarah started to shiver.  She didn’t know if it was from the coolness of the water, the adrenaline, or just her general nervousness.  Kevin reached over and squeezed her arm.  She didn’t know if it was to offer support or warn her about her chattering teeth.  She gritted them together as hard as she could, transferring the shivering to her body instead.

Five long minutes later, Candi poked her head up out of the water silently, next to Kevin.  

Then Jonathan arrived.  

Kevin pressed his mouth to Candi’s ear, and Sarah heard him whisper, “All set?”

Candi turned and pressed her mouth to his.  “All set.”

Kevin went to each of them, as quietly as he could, and gave them instructions.

They all moved to put his plan into action.

***

Thirty seconds later there was a splashing sound coming from the water in front of the boat, courtesy of Sarah.  Candi heard the boat’s occupant get up from where he was sitting and start walking towards the bow.  Jonathan and Kevin rose up out of the water as silently as they could and climbed onto the platform.  

Candi stayed in the water at the back of the boat, now in charge of holding all four backpacks.  They were so heavy she was struggling to hang onto them.  She felt her hand slipping and realized she was going to get dragged to the bottom of the ocean if she kept ahold of all the backpacks in her hand.  She dropped one, letting it sink down below her.  

Jonathan and Kevin were dripping all over the place, the sound like a loud shower to their ears; but Sarah was doing a good job of acting like a deranged dolphin, so the boat guy didn’t hear either Kevin or Jonathan coming.  They snuck up behind him as he peered over the bow to see what the splashing noise was.  

He stood up and turned around, running right into Kevin coming up the tiny set of stairs that led to the bow; Kevin immediately knocked him back with an upper cut to the jaw.  

The guy let out a yell as he went down that was heard by the guys in the other boat.  Jonathan came racing up the stairs behind Kevin and headed straight for the drug dealer who had recovered from his fall and was getting up to face off against Kevin.  Kevin had maneuvered himself so he was on the right side of the bow.  

The guy didn’t see Jonathan coming until it was too late. Jonathan lowered his shoulder and gave the guy his best Kevin-style rugby-tackling move ever.  The guy went flying towards the side of the bow where his leg got caught in the metal bar that ringed the edge of the boat.  His leg stayed put, but the momentum sent his upper body over the top.  The rest of him followed, and a loud splash signaled his departure from the boat.

In the meantime, Candi had pushed the backpacks up onto the platform.  Sarah joined her, having finished her task of getting the bad guy to the front of the boat, and they both launched themselves out of the water and into the platform.  They heard yelling pirates behind them on the beach and next to them in the other boat.

Kevin raced back to the console, turning the key that was luckily sitting in the ignition, trying to get the engines to start.  The engines were turning over, but nothing was happening.

“How do you start this friggin’ thing?!” he yelled, desperation flooding his voice.  

They could hear the sounds of men yelling and engines coming to life close by.

“Hurry up Kevin!!  That a-hole in the water is going to get back up here!” yelled Sarah.  She ran to the front of the boat and climbed up on the bow, peering into the water below.  

“I know!  Stop harassing me, I can’t start it!”

Jonathan joined him at the wheel.  “Give it some gas.  Maybe it needs some fuel in the lines.”

“Okay, boy genius, how do I do that?” asked Kevin angrily.

“I think you move these two levers.  I used to watch Miami Vice re-runs, and they used boats a lot on the show,” he explained.

Just then a movement coming from the boat’s galley area caught Candi’s eye.  Suddenly the sliding door opened and a guy emerged.  He was holding a gun, pointing it at Jonathan who was standing right in front of him.

Before she could even consider what was going to happen next, Candi saw a black shadow move away from the front of the boat.  

“Hee yah!!”
yelled Sarah, as she launched herself at him, leg out, giving the guy the most painful karate kick to the head that he would ever experience in his life.

The gun jerked away from Jonathan, a shot ringing out, gun flying from his grip and landing on the floor of the boat.  Candi gasped, watching the guy fall to the ground, dazed.  Jonathan and Kevin sprang into action, grabbing the guy and sending him overboard to join his friend.

“Where the hell’d that guy come from?!” yelled Kevin, totally freaked out.

He didn’t wait for an answer – he just rushed back to the steering wheel and turned the key again.  They all listened as it turned over.  They heard the other boat turning its motors over as well.  It sounded clunky, like the bed sheet and ropes were doing what they wanted them to do.

“Try it again, I’m going to press on this lever,” ordered Jonathan.

Kevin turned the key, just as Jonathan was pressing one of the levers forward.  Immediately the engine caught, and the boat leapt forward.  All of them were caught by surprise and thrown to the back of the boat by the forward momentum, except for Kevin who was stopped from going very far by the seat behind him.  He heard the girls scream, and he turned around to see total chaos, outlined by the moon that was now out in full force, no longer covered by clouds.