Fingers aching as she tied off the ends, Kendle flexed her hand a couple of times before starting on the next side, making small, tight squares that would trap anything bigger than a marker. She let her mind wander as she worked on it, each piece a different color or type of material. She was almost out of things to drink and was hoping for a bottle of water. Kendle croaked a bitter laugh, thinking of the saying about 'water everywhere and not a drop to drink'.

"Definitely fits."

Her throat was raw from trying to scream the shark away, and at that thought, her eyes looked around wildly, searching for a Great White with a hammer in its head and revenge in its heart. Instead, murky waves, the unnatural, vivid green sunset, and the dark layer of clouds now ever-present in the sky, were her only companions.

Below was another world, but it was one she was terrified of now, full of foreign creatures that brushed against her wooden home and stole her breath. Where the hell were the planes, the rescue ships? The land?

"It was a Carnival Cruise Liner, for God sakes!" she blurted in frustrated fear, head turning as if to see the Coast Guard pulling alongside. "Front page news! Wealthy stars go missing, massive search ensues!"

Someone should be looking for all those citizens, all those lifeboats, shouldn't they? And what was with the ocean? While she was grateful - it had certainly kept her alive so far - she could only worry about an explosion that had been big enough to literally litter an ocean with debris.

Just about anything she could think of was floating in the salty waves -bottles, cans, cups, clothes, jugs. It was like a constantly moving store shelf of surprises (some awful, like the hand she'd pulled up, still inside the leather glove), and she was constantly scanning the water, trying to find more each day than she used. She currently had three weeks worth of food, divided evenly into the corners for balance, but her stomach clenched painfully at the thought of being on the ocean long enough to use it all. Where was the land?

Kendle tied the net to the remaining guardrail on the faded orange and white speedboat with thick knots, finishing as a wave broke over the side and soaked her from head to toe in cold saltwater. Her vision faded a bit, eyes blurring, and she was thrown back in time to the storm that had taken her sister just days after they'd snuck off the doomed cruise ship.




Most Popular