Page 5

CHAPTER FIVE

ELLIOT

Plunged into the icy ocean yet again, I gasp and choke. The raft is deflating and sinking next to me, and the current tugs at my feet.

“Hank!” I yell, sputtering and flailing. “Hank!”

“Elliot!” Hank yells, although I can’t find him in the waves.

I’m weak and exhausted, but the shock gives me a burst of energy as I swim. My feet are heavy, so I kick off my shoes. The island is close, but there’s still a daunting distance between us.

Hank appears next to me. “Shore,” he gasps. “We have to swim for it.”

“Oh shit.” I gasp for breath, trying to orient myself, but Hank doesn’t slow down. He spins and starts back-stroking, his face up to the morning sun.

I swim after him, disoriented and terrified.

“Are you okay?” he yells.

“I think so. What about you?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

Something under the water brushes past my leg, and I scream.

Hank turns to me, treading water. “Elliot!”

“It’s fine!” I answer, swimming faster. “I think it was just a fish.”

Hank falls into place alongside me. “Steady,” he says, but another wave pulls us apart.

“Hank!” I yell again, but hear no response.

For a moment, I think I’ve lost him. Fear surges through me. I don’t know if I can do this alone. Hank is basically a stranger to me, but right now, he’s all I have.

I swim as hard and fast as I can toward where I last saw him. “Hank!” I yell, coughing on salty water. “Hank!”

“I’m here,” he says, back-stroking next to me again, his feet kicking behind us.

Another current pulls at us, and Hank tugs my arm, guiding me sideways. We go on like that, my arms and legs burning as we fight the ocean. I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to make it. When I falter and sputter, Hank pulls me along.

“Almost there!”

With the last of my strength, I push forward, one stroke at a time. I think about home and everything good that’s waiting back in Seattle if I can just make it to shore.

“Fuck!” Hank yelps out.

“Is there a shark?” I yell, but when I turn, I see that he’s still, only his head above the water.

“I hit my foot on a rock,” he says.

It takes me a second to process, but when I swim forward and lower my legs, my toes hit something sharp and rocky.

Tears immediately fall down my face. “Oh my god, we made it.”

Another wave comes up, knocking me forward. Surprised, I swallow water before steadying myself again.

“Land,” Hank gasps, and I follow him, swimming and kicking off from the rocks as the water gets shallower and shallower.

I choke as I drag myself onto dry land. Hank falls next to me, gasping air as he stretches an arm over his face.

“God hates us,” he rasps. “This is starting to feel personal.”

I let out a delirious laugh. Every muscle in my body aches, and I’ve never been so tired.

But we made it. We’re on land.

When I push my head up to look around, I immediately spot a small creek, emerging from the trees and trickling to the sea. Scrambling to my feet, I run toward it. “Water! Fresh water!”

I fall to my knees at the creek and start splashing it into my mouth, so relieved I cry some more.

“Not too much!” Hank rasps. “We should taste a little and wait to make sure we don’t get sick.”

I gulp. “I’ll be the test subject. You wait as long as you want.”

He sits across from me with a huff. “We lost almost everything,” he says grimly. “Our jackets.” He looks down. “Our shoes and socks.”

After a moment of skeptically studying the creek, he caves and drinks some, cupping the water in his hands. His stubble has grown out, and his white t-shirt is plastered to his belly and hairy chest, making him appear much more rugged than the accountant in the suit I first encountered.

I lean back and feel something in my pocket. “The lighter survived,” I say, and pull it out to show. “So did the joints.”

Hank snorts. “Of course they did,” he says. “Hopefully we won’t need to start a rescue fire at all. We’ll just find whatever people are, with luck, on this island.”

“Right.” I get down on the rocky ground and lie flat, the creek running right by my ear.

“What are you doing?” Hank asks.

“Resting. I know we have to trek soon.”

“Yes, soon,” he agrees as he stands. “I’ll be right back.”

Hank walks off.

“What?” I yell after him. “Where are you going?”

“Just around these trees!” he yells back. “Nothing to worry about!”

I sit up. “What do you mean?”

He doesn’t answer, so I drink some more water, trying not to feel unnerved by suddenly finding myself alone.

Birds call out from every direction, and waves lap the shore.

In the quiet, the emotional weight of our circumstances catches up to me.

My friends are going to be worried sick that I’m dead, and Hank and I are still far from safety.

He’s only gone for a moment, but it’s enough time for my nerves to work up.

He returns, barefoot and stepping awkwardly to avoid the pointier rocks.

“Find anything cool?” I ask, hiding how scared I was.

He rubs the back of his head. “If you have to know, I used the bathroom, okay?”

“You found a bathroom? That is cool.”

“No, smart-ass. You know what I mean.” He crosses his arms over his chest. “Eventually, you’ll need to do the same.”

“I dropped my anchors off the side of the raft,” I tell him as I stand up.

“Excuse me?”

“While you were sleeping.”

“You just like, hung your butt…” He closes his eyes. “Forget I asked.” Hank opens his eyes again and glances around, taking the area in. “The good news is that we don’t have to march across the island immediately.”

“We don’t?” I stand. “Did you see a sign of civilization?”

“No.” Hank stretches his shoulders, rolling them backward as he looks around. “If you’re lost, the best way to figure out your bearings is to find a high spot. So I’m going to climb a tree.”

I’m both surprised and impressed.

“Hank likes to get things done right,” I say, nodding. “I’m into it.”

Especially if it means I get to skip a long hike.

He tries to frown at me, but I think I spot a slight smile.

“Do you get lost in the woods often?” I ask. “That’s fairly untypical of accountants. Although I know you want to hike that big trail one day.”

He rolls up the bottom of his pants. “I’ve only been lost in the woods once,” he says. “Briefly. But I do hike often, so even before that, I knew the safety protocols.”

I hesitate. He looks confident, but he also looks exhausted.

“I feel like I should offer to climb the tree because I’m younger,” I say.

This time, he manages to pull off the frown.

“Now I’m definitely going to be the one to climb the tree.”

I nod, too tired to laugh. “At least let me give you a boost.”

Hank and I walk up the incline until we reach a high spot and he selects his tree, an evergreen with thick branches, right on an outcrop. He grabs my shoulder, and I cup my hands, giving him somewhere to stick his bare foot as he hoists himself up.

He has such a big foot, I notice. Kinda sexy.

I watch from below as Hank works his way, one branch at a time. The sunlight is warm on my skin, and I manage to summon more optimism.

“You’re doing great,” I call after him, hoping to lighten the mood. “You’re basically like a… A squirrel-man! Your butt looks good, too!”

“Don’t distract me!” he yells back.

I sit down. He’s probably right that it’s inappropriate to joke, but some levity could help us keep going, and my emotions are ricocheting all over the place. Joking lets me vent the fear out, but still, I try to wrestle control back.

It doesn’t take Hank long to get surprisingly high. He sits on a branch, both arms wrapped around the trunk of the tree, and looks out with his legs dangling.

“Can you see anything?” I yell up to him. The wind blows through the trees and over the water, and I don’t think he hears me.

I watch Hank look around, turning this way and that with the sky behind him. He eventually climbs down, almost falling on the last step, and I jump forward to help steady him.

He crashes and nearly pulls me with him as he tumbles to the ground.

“You okay?”

Hank nods without getting up. “Fine.”

“What did you see? Is it too much to hope that you saw a restaurant?” I step back. “Maybe even somewhere with breakfast sandwiches?”

Hank shakes his head. He’s breathing heavy, and there’s sweat on his brow. “No buildings. No people that I could notice.”

“Oh.”

Disappointment settles in my gut.

It’s not like I really expected a breakfast sandwich, but at least something.

Hank sits up and gestures toward the water. “I’m not sure, but I might see another small island beyond us. West. And I spotted two boats, both quite far away and in opposite directions. Although it’s hard to see far with this haze.”

He wipes at his forehead, and I see the grim reality on his face.

“Damn,” I say.

Hank continues, purposeful. “This island doesn’t look to be more than a half a mile long, small enough to explore. If there really is no one here, we’ll make a fire and send a distress signal. Someone will quickly notice it.”

I pull the lighter from my pocket. “Good thing I came prepared!”

“Small blessings.” He nods seriously to himself. I can tell he’s discouraged, but like me, he’s putting on his brave face.

“Should we make a proper plan?” he asks.

“Let’s do it,” I agree.