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Lost at Sea

Haley

I ’m gasping. Never a good thing when you’re trying to swim.

The darn life vest is strangling me, and it’s impossible to dive underwater.

But I’m doing my best. If I take it off, Zane will explode, and it’s best we all keep ourselves focused, searching.

Not that I know what I’m looking for, not really.

But if I’ve learned anything over the last few months, it’s to expect the unexpected.

Sam turned up. He’s alive. Just because the Rock Candy’s gone doesn’t mean that Calvin and Easton are dead.

They might have gotten it running and are heading around the other side of the island to pick us up.

Why wouldn’t they go the other way toward us? There could be a reason, a really smart reason, that only someone like Calvin would know.

I’ve never been an overly na?ve-positive person. I wanted my mother to get better when she was sick. But the odds weren’t in her favor. And I knew that she might not make it. I was expecting it when she told me the doctors said she didn’t have much more time.

There’s no way they got the ship running. It was still months away from being done. That’s what Calvin and Sam both said. And done, by any standard, wasn’t taking it for a joyride around the other side of the island.

Reality sinks in—the pirates we’ve heard on the VHF radio are most likely responsible for the yacht being gone.

The guys have to be okay. They have to be.

The water is siltier than normal. But that’s not surprising; there’s nothing for it to flow against. They must have had to really tug the Rock Candy out of its home in the reef.

Still, little fish dart through my legs, swimming away from me as fast as they can; they’re as confused as I am. How could the yacht be gone?

“Haley!” Sam calls from not far away. His head bounces above the waves.

“I’m here.” I put my hand in the air and wave it. “I’m here.”

“See anything?” He takes powerful strokes over to me.

“Nothing.”

Zane joins us.

“We should go back. Let Dante know. We’ll need to make the camp beach look as empty as possible.” Sam reaches his hand out to me.

We head back to the beach where the guys have tied up the raft. I drag myself out of the water onto the thin strip of sand near the bluff. The swim has left me exhausted. But then it’s more than the swim making my lungs burn. Anytime I think of Calvin or Easton, I seize up.

“Did you go to the cave?” I ask Sam.

“No, but I think we should take the tender closer. I want to see if the WaveRunner is there.”

Zane’s already got one of the ropes untied. Getting the rubber bottom of the tender secure next to the bluff was hard. I’m hoping that we can make it out of the opening the Rock Candy was sitting in.

“Here, Little Bird, take this rope, and I’ll get the other one.”

Sam has the outboard motor tilted up. “I’ll give you a push and swim out when you get past the reef.”

“No, you get in. I’ll push,” I say.

Sam flicks his head to me. “Zane can do it.”

I’m chewing on the side of my mouth. Sam didn’t see how Zane has become a better swimmer over the last few months, but I’m still a better swimmer. “Okay. Be careful.”

“Always, Little Bird.” He tosses the second rope in and gives a good push, letting us drift through the channel.

It gives us enough depth for Sam to drop the outboard motor.

There wouldn’t be enough room for Zane to jump into the tender here.

He’ll have to swim out to us. My eyes sting, and I’m barely holding it together, watching Zane get smaller as we zig through the reef.

Sam turns the boat into the waves, holding us in place, waiting for Zane. I can’t take my eyes off him. He’s wearing a life vest. I watch, swimming every stroke with him until he’s at the edge of the tender.

“Give me your hand,” I say.

Zane gives one hand to me and grabs the side rope of the tender, flipping himself in. “I’m good.” He says to Sam, “Let’s check the cave. We won’t be able to get in it with the tender, but we should be able to see if the WaveRunner is there.”

I hold my breath until we can peek into the dark opening. “I don’t see anything.”

Zane moves to the side. “I don’t either. I’m going to––”

I jump off the side of the tender before Zane can do it. Both Zane and Sam are yelling at me. I stop for a second and wave back at them. “I’m good, I’m good. I’ll be right back.”

A wave crashes over my head, and I suck in a mouthful of water. I’ve always preferred swimming underwater, but that’s impossible with a life vest on. I sputter out the seawater and swim freestyle to the cave.

In my head, I was a good swimmer. But that was before I saw how effortless Easton made it look.

I’m sure I’m splashing more than a toddler in a kiddie pool as I grasp for the water with my hands.

It’s moving me forward, though. So that’s something.

But darn if this damn cave isn’t a lot farther away than I ever thought it was.

It’s only the second time I’ve been in it.

The tide wasn’t as high as it is now. Entering the cave, the water temperature drops.

There’s something more terrifying to me about swimming in water where you can’t see the bottom of the seabed too.

Dappled sunlight bounces on the waves as they crash against the walls.

I had heard Zane talking about sinking a carabiner into the wall to secure the WaveRunner.

The WaveRunner is gone. But on the wall, hanging from the carabiner, is one life jacket.

One? I make my way onto the rock shelf and reach up.

The jacket is tied with three different types of knots.

I’m not sure what they’re called. This is one of the thousand times that I wished I knew more about the exterior of the yacht than how to set a table. But still, it feels like a message.

I unhook it and take the vest, then take a look around underwater.

There’s something dark and large down there.

A box? I’m fighting not one but two life vests to see what it is.

But I lose and they burst me up to the surface.

I gulp air and head back down. I can only pull myself a few feet.

The box is large and dark and covered with seaweed.

Whatever it is has been down there a long time.

And it can stay there for a while longer.

I bounce to the surface. I can’t do that again. It’s taking too much out of me. It also has nothing to do with Calvin or Easton or the Rock Candy.

I head back to the tender. Each stroke on the way back is like fire shooting through my shoulder blades.

By the time I reach the tender, there’s no hope for me to be as graceful as Zane was getting in.

I hold my hands up like an overtired child, and Zane and Sam pull me into the boat.

Once I settle on the bench, they’re scowling at me.

Zane has his arms crossed over his chest. Sam has one hand on the tiller, and his lips are in full pout.

He has no idea how handsome he is when he’s mad.

“I could have––”

I cut Zane off. “I know, but I can swim too. I found this.” I hold the life vest up. “It was tied to where the WaveRunner was.”

“Easton––he never takes the life vest with him.”

“The WaveRunner wasn’t there, but there’s three fancy knots in the vest, ones that I don’t think Easton would have known.”

“Could be they left it for us as a clue. Letting us know they have the WaveRunner.” Sam maneuvers us away from the cave.

I wring out my hair and use my T-shirt to dry my face. I’m holding the spare lifejacket on my lap like it’s a teddy bear. My stomach clenches. “I like the idea. But if they have the WaveRunner, why didn’t we see them on our way here?”

“They wouldn’t want the pirates to follow them back to camp,” Zane says.

“All right. Well, let’s go get them.”

“No, Little Bird. I think what Sam said before is the best. We need to get back to camp and make the beach look as empty as possible.”

“But what if they’re hurt?” I’m shaking, even though I’ll be dry in a few minutes from the beating sun. “We have to go after them.”

“No, we have to get you back to camp. Then Sam and I can come back out.”

“That’s a waste of fuel and time, and we only have so much fuel. We should go now.” I point to the beach around the bluff where Zane found the eggs. Chicken Beach.

“Is the gun still at camp?” Sam asks Zane.

I clutch the spare vest in my lap tighter. “There’s a gun back at camp?”

“Yes.”

“And why didn’t you tell...” Now isn’t the time to be mad at them for being overprotective assholes.

I’ve known for a while that they were trying to keep me off the boat and back at camp, and I suppose it makes sense now.

There are a lot of fates that I never wanted to befall me, and I can’t be mad at them for not wanting me to be captured by pirates either.

But then, I didn’t want any of us to be captured by pirates.

“Fine, let’s go and get this gun and go and find Calvin and Easton. ”

They both stare at me like I’ve asked them to watch Poltergeist in a haunted house on Halloween.