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I’d almost died. Or had I died, and he’d revived me? Tears burned my eyes as one name screamed in my head. “Zoe. I need to get back to Zoe.”
My affection for the man next to me had grown to epic proportions, but I loved one person more than myself. That was my daughter.
“Good news or bad news first?” he asked.
“Whatever. Just tell me all of it,” I demanded.
“Good news: there was a black box on board. An extra feature my father insisted on,” he said. I blew out a breath. “Bad news: it’s at the bottom of the ocean with the boat.” Before I could go on, he continued. “Good news: there was a beacon with the life raft. I activated it just before we jumped. Bad news: it isn’t working anymore.” He held up a yellow handheld device that was not as wide as a phone, but longer.
“How is that good news?” The thing didn’t work.
“It would have sent out an initial signal and continued until it stopped working. I was busy trying to save your life, so I can’t say when it stopped working.”
I reached out a hand and placed it on his forearm because there was something I should have said from the outset. “Thank you.”
His somber eyes met mine. “I’m sorry, Haley.”
Confused, I asked, “Why?”
“I brought you on this trip and now…” He waved a hand, indicating our situation.
“This isn’t your fault. There was a storm.”
“That’s the thing. I don’t think a storm did this. I heard a rumbling. I got up and went deck side. We had already been flung forward, but we were dragging because of the anchor. Thank God I got it up or we would have been at the bottom of the ocean before I had time to wake you up.”
“What do you think it was?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know, but we are far from where we should be. I’m certain of that.”
“What do we do?” Then I asked the question that scared me most. “Will we be found?”
He scoffed. “My father will find us for sure. How long?” He shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“How will we survive?”
He glanced back, and I followed his line of sight. The bag he’d taken was behind us. “There are several bottles of water and protein bars. But we should be careful how we use them.”
I glanced back at the ocean that had spit us out on this island. “I have to get back to Zoe.”
“I know. I’ll do whatever it takes or die trying.”
I agreed with his sentiment as we remained quiet for a time.
He finally broke the silence. “I’m going to explore the island and see if there’s anything. Plus, I need to gather some wood that isn’t wet to start a fire.” I nodded. “You stay here in case you see a boat.”
“Then what?” I asked, in case his black bag held some tricks I wasn’t aware of.
“Then you jump up and down and make yourself as big as possible, so you’ll be seen.”
He didn’t mention yelling, but then again, a boat out far wouldn’t hear me.
I didn’t like the idea of being left alone, but he was right. One of us needed to stay on the beach and be a lookout. So I kept my fears of being alone to myself as he walked deeper into the island. As he went, he passed many trees that had been sheared off, leaving a wide swath of spikes of tree trunks. Whatever happened to us had happened here too. Off in the distance, I had a little reminder of home as a small mountain made up the center of the island.
The land wasn’t flat, and when he dipped out of sight, an idea struck me. I went and gathered thick fallen tree limbs. Then I got to work on using them to spell out the word “HELP” on the beach.
TEN
Agan arrivedwith an armful of wood.
