Nick
lay in the darkness, flat on his back in the raft, staring up at the
stars. The looked like blurry streaks
of light to him, distorted by the tears that had welled up into his eyes.
He
was the only one awake now. The four
others were sleeping soundly; he could hear their deep breathing, their soft
snores. He felt all alone, and he was
terrified. Terrified of his
surroundings, of being alone, and more than anything, terrified of what was
going to happen to him, to all of them.
They
had been in an extreme situation before, just the year earlier, and this one
was no better. At least no of them were
injured this time, but if they stayed here much longer, they would all be
dead. There was no way to get
help. Before, AJ and Howie had gone out
in a blizzard to find help, but now they were stranded in water, and there was
no way any of them could swim to shore.
Unless a boat, a plane, or something came by, they were stuck.
Salty
tears ran down Nick’s cheeks, and he made no attempt to wipe them away. How could something like this have happened
to them again, after all they went through last year? Was God punishing them for something?
Nick
had no answers.
***
Brian
opened his eyes slowly, only to squeeze them shut again when he was nearly
blinded by the bright sunlight. It was
morning, and surprisingly, he had finally managed to get some sleep the night
before.
Sitting
up slowly and surveying the scene around him, Brian saw that Nick and AJ were
still asleep, while Howie and Kevin had already awoken.
“Hey,
Rok,” Kevin said, his voice monotone.
Looking into his cousin’s eyes, Brian saw that their usual vibrant green
had faded into a dull, lifeless state.
This was taking its toll on Kevin, just as it was on all of them.
“Morning,”
Brian mumbled to Kevin and Howie. He
glanced at Nick, who was curled up against one side of the raft. “I’m glad Nick finally got to sleep,” he
remarked.
“Yeah,”
Howie said. “Poor kid.”
They
all nodded and fell into silence, taking to glancing at the scenery around
them, which consisted of nothing except sun, sky, and water. The day was bright, sunny, and
cloudless. Normally, it would seem like
a nice day, but that day, it seemed like torture, with not even a single cloud
to offer relief from the unrelenting sun.
A
few minutes later, AJ awoke, and Nick not long after that.
“What
time is it?” Nick mumbled sleepily.
They
all shrugged. Only Kevin had been
wearing a watch at the time of the boat wreck nearly two days earlier, but
sometime in the course of their escape from the burning yacht, it had been
damaged and broken, leaving them without any way to tell time except for the
sun above their heads. Judging its
position then, it was around ten in the morning.
“It’s
gonna be a scorcher,” AJ muttered dryly, already fanning his face with his
hand.
The
other four groaned. They were already
hot, sticky, and sunburned. The last
thing they needed was another “scorcher”.
What else could go wrong?
Plenty.
***