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“What does that mean?” I screamed at Matias, who was hunkered down next to me. “What’s she saying?”

“We’re going to fucking sink!” he shot back, trying to be heard over the sound of the waves crashing down. “That’swhat she’s saying! We’re too small for these waves.”

“Hang on everybody!” Jim yelled from the back. “I’m going to give her more speed! We’ve got to get past the surf zone!”

Wes pointed out to the left of the peninsula. “Go left! The cove is to the left and the water eases up…maybe thirty more feet.”

The raft surged high into the air again, tilting sharply to the right and leaning heavily on its left side.

“Shit! We’re going to flip!” Calista screamed.

Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod!I was going to die, right here, right now. It was all going to be over, and the girl who came from a country that feared drought was going to die by drowning. Go. Fucking. Figure.

“Lean to the right!” Wes yelled as he threw his weight onto the right of the dingy. “Push!”

Matias lifted off the ground and threw his body next to Wes as Calista did the same. Doing the best I could to swallow my fear, I followed suit, feeling the boat teetering on the edge of flipping over completely before another wave rose on the left, crashing into the boat and sending us flying back down.

The water tasted salty as I gasped for air. My vision covered in ripples of water, I quickly wiped my lenses as the blistering wind ripped through the night. Every part of me was wet, adding to my freeze as I sat in a puddle of water about an inch deep in the raft.

“That was bad, Wes,” Matias griped. “That was really fucking bad!”

Wes ignored him. “More power, Jim! Get us the hell out of here!”

Calista looked like a wet dog as she clung to the floor of the dinghy, and I’m sure I didn’t look any better. I closed my eyes, praying to whatever gods existed up in the heavens to help us reach the shore. I was open to dying by knife wound, gunshot, or even being burned alive, but the thought of drowning sent the biggest shiver up my spine. My worst nightmare.

Please, god. Not like this. Not like this!

I felt as the boat surged again, nose tipping forward, the motor rising higher and higher into the air.

“Shit! Not again!” Calista yelled. But no sooner after the words left her mouth, the wave we were riding came crashing down and surged us forward, spitting us out into calmer waters at last.

“Oh my god,” I breathed out as I flopped onto my back. The amount of gratitude I felt at that moment was greater than anything I had ever experienced before.

The boat still rose and fell as gentler waves continued to propel us forward to the shoreline, but nothing like the crashing swells that tossed us like leaves in a hurricane. As we got closer, Jim killed the motor and lifted the prop to keep it from dragging along the ocean floor. Wes and Matias grabbed paddles that were attached to the raft on either side and began digging into the water, continuing our momentum forward until Jim finally jumped out and began pushing the raft from behind while Matias and Wes leaped out and pulled the dinghy from the front. I felt as the boat met pebbled sand, and we were pulled the rest of the way onto land.

It took everything within me to keep from leaping out of the boat and kissing the ground. Why Matias ever wanted to show me the sea, I’ll never know. But I was good with never stepping foot in it, or around it,everagain!

Blondie leaped out, looking just as harrowed as I felt. “You’re freaking crazy if you think we’re going to get past that surf zone again.”

Wes looked at his tab and began typing. “That’s our way out, Calista, so I’d get used to it.”

“Did you not just see what happened? We’re lucky we didn’t flip over!”

Wes faced her, all hard lines and looks that could kill. “Are we going to have a problem?” It was a simple question. But one that effectively said,stand down and get your ass back in line.

Calista cracked her neck. “No,” she sneered.

“Good. We’ll leave the raft here. We’ve got a small hike to the cliffs and then we need to begin our ascent. Jim?”

Harper gave a wave as he fiddled with a rope attached to the raft. “We’re good. She’s not going anywhere.”

“Perfect. Let’s move out.”

I took a deep breath as I tried to calm my nerves. I prayed that the worst was over. That the rest would be easier. But I was wrong. I just didn’t realize how bad it was all going to get.

55: Clink and Snap!

The climb was anything but easy. Our original plan was to approach the tower from the west, but the waves were too intense. There was no way we were ever going to get up that side. The peninsula jutted out into the sea, however, and curved slightly to the south. That meant there was a little spot that was mostly shielded from the constant onslaught of angry surf, and that’s where we made our climb.