coming back for us, walking, lit from behind by the light of dawn. He grabs me underneath my shoulders and hauls me up onto land until he leaves me on the beach.
He does the same for Lacey and Richard.
Then he goes and collapses on his back further up on the sand.
The waves are breaking on me now, so somehow I manage to get to my knees and then crawl up onto the shore, away from the water, collapsing on my side.
It’s hard to breathe. I spit out water. Everything aches and burns.
I don’t know how long I lie there, but eventually my breathing slows and the sky lightens enough that I can make out the colors in the shadows.
A white beach.
Dark green jungle.
Clear blue water.
We made it.
But where?
“We need to take shelter,” Tai says, helping Lacey to her feet. “Just over here.”
I get to my feet and stagger forward, following, Richard behind me.
The sand gives way to coconut palms and flowering bushes and ferns and a dark, earthy smelling jungle beyond.
I collapse again to my knees, finding a soft spot in the sandy dirt, laying my head against my bag.
“Everyone okay?” Tai asks.
We all make sounds that either sound like yes or no, but obviously none of us are dying.
Yet.
“What do we do now?” I ask, my voice sore and hoarse from screaming and swallowing salt water.
“We wait for the storm to die down a bit,” Tai says, leaning against a palm tree, watching the horizon.
Watching where his boat is.
Or what’s left of her.
My heart sinks for him. As glad as I am to be alive, what happened to Atarangi is all too much to handle.
“Then,” he says, “I’ll use the satellite phone to call for help.”
“Will that work?” I ask, thinking of the VHF.
“It will, as will the locator beacon that activated when the raft opened up. No matter what happens, people will know where we are. People will find us.”
“Do you promise?”
He turns his head ever so slightly, though I can’t read his expression in the shadows.
“I promise. Get some rest.”
Twelve
Daisy
I wake up with my face pressed against wet dirt, my eyes focusing on an ant that is hurriedly crossing in front of me, heading somewhere on a mission.
I’m also drooling. I guess some things don’t change, no matter where you find yourself.
And where am I, anyway?
I blink, my eyes burning from the dried salt water on my lashes, and I slowly, carefully sit up, my head woozy. My muscles ache like I’ve been passed out on the hard ground for a few hours, which isn’t a lie.
The sun outside this thicket of ferns and bushes is bright and I have to shield my eyes for a moment before I focus on Lacey and Richard. She’s sleeping with her back against a coconut palm, Richard is on the ground with his head in her lap. Both of them are snoring.
My first thought is that I am so happy that they’re alive.
Things could have gone so much worse than they did.
My second thought is that Richard snores like a banshee, and Lacey is drooling on his forehead. My god, it must run in the Lewis family.
And Tai…
I look around, slowly getting up.
He’s nowhere in sight.
I try not to panic, looking around.
The jungle behind me is thick with foliage and the sound of birds and buzzing insects. The air is so humid that it takes me a moment to realize my clothes are still wet from the ocean and my skin is damp. The jungle looks like a dangerous place, and by dangerous, I mean full of insects and gross things that I don’t want any part of.
I walk past the row of palms and fragrant flowers between the jungle and the beach, and step out into the sand.
Holy crap.
In the burning light of what must be mid-day, it’s apparent that not only is the storm completely gone, but it’s dropped us off in the lap of a quintessential deserted island.
The sand is blindingly white, the water the palest of blue. To the right of us, the land slopes upward until it forms steep rock cliffs. To the left, the beach continues in a flat track, on and on.
In front of me is Tai, sitting on the sand where it meets the water, gentle clear waves lapping his feet, as if a storm never passed through here at all.
His back is to me and he’s looking out across the blue lagoon, toward the reefs.
Toward Atarangi.
She’s still there! She’s on her