Arrival

by Morgan Rice

  “Are we going to sink?” Kevin yelled.

  “I don’t know!” Chloe shouted back. The wind howled so loud that Kevin could barely hear her, even when she yelled.

  The boat bobbed, and the waves battered it from the side, so that it was impossible to tell what was seawater and what was rain. They clung to the hull, gripping the rail for all they were worth.

  “We need to pull!” Chloe yelled, bracing against the hull while gripping the rails.

  “Are we even heavy enough?” Luna yelled back to her.

  “There should be self-righting stuff in the hull. We just have to help it. It’s that or we drown, cheerleader!”

  Kevin did his best to copy Chloe, and to his relief Luna did too. They hauled back on the boat’s hull, pulling it with the little weight they had between them. For a moment, it seemed that nothing would happen, then Kevin felt something give in the boat, and it righted itself like a cork bobbing on the surface. The three of them scrambled onto the deck, keeping low because it was the only way to keep from being washed away.

  “I was wrong before,” Chloe called out. “We need the sails down, not up!”

  “We need to make sure we’re not going to fall off this boat,” Luna called out. “There must be safety harnesses somewhere here, right? For climbing the rigging and stuff? Or maybe lifejackets?”

  “Try to find them,” Kevin said. “I’ll help Chloe get the sails down.”

  Already, he could see that it was a lost cause for at least one of the sails. The main sail had been ripped by the wind, or the sudden rise from the water. Kevin and Chloe started to work on the ropes to pull in the smaller, secondary sails, but Kevin heard a ripping sound and one of those pulled free completely.

  “There’s no point!” Chloe called out. “There’s nothing left.”

  Luna was there then, with brightly colored safety harnesses. “I couldn’t find any lifejackets,” she said over the wind, “but maybe if we put these on, we can tie a rope round the mast and clip ourselves to it?”

  “Good idea,” Kevin said, and even Chloe nodded. They all took one of the harnesses, fastening it on as quickly as possible.

  A look of worry flashed over Luna’s face. “What about Bobby? When we capsized, won’t water have gotten in the cabin? We should get him out of there.”

  “He wouldn’t be safe up on deck,” Chloe insisted.

  “He would if we wrapped another harness round him,” Luna insisted. “We could clip him to the mast too.”

  Chloe nodded.

  “I’ll go,” Kevin said. “See if you can find something to hold us to the mast with.”

  Kevin hurried down to the doors to the cabins, and he was relieved to hear barking coming from within. It meant that Bobby was down there and still okay. Kevin threw the doors open and the dog barreled into him, holding something in his mouth.

  “Good boy, Bobby,” Kevin said, as he saw that the dog was holding a dog harness, complete with flotation jacket. Presumably, whoever owned the boat had trained him to bring it if the sea got rough. It would be a lot better than trying to make a human harness fit him.

  Kevin worked quickly, fastening the harness onto the dog and then grabbing hold of it to lead him outside. On impulse, he went to the cupboard with the device in it, taking out its bag and strapping it to him. They needed to keep it safe. The ship was rocking quite violently now, its sails in tatters as the storm blew through them. Kevin had to fight to make his way along the deck with Bobby to where the mast stood. Luna and Chloe had already clipped their harnesses to a line they’d run around it, holding themselves in place against the weather.

  Kevin worked to connect Bobby’s harness to it as well, his hands fumbling with the clip for it in the wet and the wind. He managed to get it fastened in place, hoping that it would be strong enough to hold as he moved to connect his own line to it…

  The ship bucked, and Kevin stumbled, sliding along the slick surface of the deck toward the waiting ocean. He tried to spread out his arms and legs to stop himself or at least slow his slide enough so that he could grab onto something, and he managed to get a brief grip on the railing, but he could feel it was too slippery now, his hold already starting to give way. As the boat tilted with another wave, he got a view of the ocean waiting below him.

  “Hold on, Kevin!” Chloe called out, unclipping her harness from the line and rushing over to him. She grabbed his arm, helping to pull him up while around them the sea continued to batter the boat. Together, they pushed back toward the mast, where Luna was ready with her arms out to catch hold of them. She pulled them in, and Kevin was able to clip his harness to the safety line while the sea continued to writhe and swell.

  “We’re going to die,” Chloe said.

  “If you really believed that, you wouldn’t have saved me,” Kevin said.

  “Of course I would have,” Chloe replied, looking as if the idea was ludicrous. “But now we’re going to sink, and drown, and be eaten by sharks, and—”

  “Chloe, you’re panicking,” Luna said beside them. “Stop panicking and hang on. We’ll get through this. We have to.”

  Kevin suspected that it wasn’t as simple as that. The boat was rising and falling alarmingly now with the waves, making his stomach lurch every time it plummeted. Rain lashed at them, and wind, carrying the boat along in directions they had no control over. Even if Kevin could get to the anchor chain now, he suspected that dropping it wouldn’t do much good.

  All they could do now was ride the storm, and hope that it didn’t kill them.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Kevin woke to stillness, and dared to breathe a sigh of relief, because at least he was alive… wasn’t he? The world seemed almost too beautiful this morning to be real. The sky was blue and calm, the only clouds fluffy and white rather than huge and storm filled. Out in the distance, there was the faintest glimpse of land, although Kevin had no idea where it was.

  Bobby nuzzled against him and Kevin petted the dog, standing up and unclipping them both from the mast.

  “Good boy,” Kevin said. It felt as though every part of him hurt right then.

  The others looked to be in about the same shape. Both Chloe and Luna were sleeping, Chloe’s head on Luna’s shoulder in a way that would probably annoy them both when they woke up. For a second, it occurred to Kevin that they might not be sleeping, and they might not wake up. That moment was more terrifying than anything that had happened in the storm. They were both breathing, though; that was the only thing that mattered. They had some cuts and plenty of bruises, the same as him, but they were both alive.

  “I’m not sure the boat’s in such good shape,” Kevin said to Bobby, who barked back. “Come on, we’ll see if there’s anything left to feed you with, then see how bad it is.”

  When Kevin went down to the stern, the icebox had washed off the deck taking most of the fish with it. One lay there forlornly, and Bobby sat in front of it, looking up at Kevin with his mouth half open.

  “Yes, you can have it,” Kevin said, and the dog chomped it down in a matter of moments.

  There wasn’t much of the fishing gear left to replace it; just a single rod and line. But that looked like the least of the yacht’s problems. It was listing slightly to port, leaning over to the left and limping along. The sails were in tatters, more like long flags and streamers than real means of moving the boat around. They were tangled up in the rigging, and the very top of the mast looked as though it had snapped off somewhere in the night.

  “Let’s see if there’s any pizza left,” Kevin said to Bobby, and the dog followed him over to the cabin doors. Opening them, he started to go down, and then stopped. The cabin was nearly full of water. No wonder the yacht was limping along. With this much water in it, it was amazing that it hadn’t sunk.

  “I guess it’s a good thing we got you out of there,” Kevin said to the dog. Automatically, he checked the bag that held the device Phil had constructed, taking it out and turning it on so that its screen flicke
red into life. It looked as though it had been a good thing that he’d gotten that out of there, too.

  He went back to the others. Both Chloe and Luna were awake now, unclipping themselves from the mast and standing up with the kind of stiffness that said they’d probably been battered about by the storm as much as Kevin had.

  “My shoulder hurts,” Chloe said, stretching it. “I must have hit it.”

  “My everything hurts,” Luna replied.

  “At least we’re alive,” Kevin said. “The boat’s in pretty bad shape, though.”

  Chloe looked at him sharply, and Kevin could see the fear there. “How bad?”

  Kevin wasn’t sure which was worse: the shape of the ship or Chloe’s worry about it. If she was that scared, what did it mean for their chances of getting to LA in one piece?

  “The sails are wrecked and there’s water in the boat,” Kevin said.

  Chloe bit her lip. “We need to work out how bad it is. If the boat’s filling with water, we could sink.” She put her head in her hands. “No… no, why can’t anything go right?”

  “Then we find something to do about it,” Luna said. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not just waiting here to end up in the ocean. Come on, Chloe, you’re the one with the best chance of knowing what’s happening.”

  “I… don’t know if I can,” Chloe said. “Stop pressuring me.”

  “You can do this, Chloe,” Kevin said.

  It took another minute before Chloe nodded. “Okay. I guess we can see how bad it is.”

  Kevin led the way around the ship to show the others what he’d seen. “The sails are ripped up, and I think there’s a piece of mast missing,” he said, pointing.

  “Maybe we could tie some of it together,” Luna suggested. “I can climb up and try, at least.”

  “Then there’s the water,” Kevin said. He showed them the cabin space.

  “This is bad,” Chloe said. “I don’t think there’s water coming in, because we’d have sunk already, but it’s still too much. It must have washed in with all the waves. There should be a pump to get it out, but if it’s not working, we’ll have to bail it out by hand.”

  “Also, I’m pretty sure the pizza is ruined,” Kevin said. He meant it as a joke, but Chloe winced as if he’d shouted at her.

  “Which means we have nothing to eat except the fish we catch, and no clean water,” Chloe said. “And from the way the wheel was spinning last night, I’m pretty sure that our rudder is trash too. I can’t cope with all this. I—”

  Kevin was going to move to comfort Chloe, but to his surprise, Luna beat him to it. She put her hands on Chloe’s shoulders. “Chloe, listen to me. I’m pretty sure that we’re never, ever going to be friends, but we are going to work together. You don’t have to do all of this, because we’re all going to do it. And that way, we’re going to get to LA. All right?”

  “All right,” Chloe said, in a small voice.

  “So what’s the first thing to do?”

  Chloe looked as though she was about to panic again. “There are so many things…”

  “What’s the first one?” Kevin asked her, echoing Luna. “What do we need to do right now?”

  “We need to get the water out of the yacht,” Chloe said, “otherwise there’s a chance we could sink.”

  “That would be really bad right now,” Luna said, pointing. “Look.”

  Kevin looked at the water where she was pointing. Fins stuck up from the surface, gray shadows down under the water, bigger than Kevin was.

  “I guess those aren’t more dolphins?” he asked, even though he knew they weren’t. One of the sharks nudged against the boat, rocking it slightly as if testing whether it would sink soon. Just the thought that it might sent a thrill of fear through Kevin.

  “We really need to pump out the hold,” Luna said.

  “I saw on TV once that people aren’t attacked by sharks as much as people think,” Kevin said, trying to reassure her. “It’s really rare.”

  “So we get to be an unusual statistic?” Luna replied. “Anyway, something tells me that these aren’t the kind of sharks who watch much TV.”

  As if in answer to that, another one grazed against the side of the boat.

  “Okay,” Chloe said. “I think I’ve found the handle for the bilge pump. We just need to work it until we can get some of the water out.”

  She gestured to a handle sticking up from one side of the deck, then started to work it up and down, pumping out the water below. It looked like hard work to Kevin, and in just a couple of minutes, she turned to him.

  “Your go, Kevin. I’ll see if I can work out where we are.”

  Pumping the water was every bit as difficult as it looked, maybe worse. It took an effort to move the pump, but it was more than that, because of the sheer volume of water involved. It meant that the job seemed to be a never-ending one, with only the repetitive effort of keeping the handle moving. At least Kevin could see some of the water pouring out of the hull, a little at a time.

  “I’ll go up and see if I can disentangle any of the sails,” Luna said.

  It made sense that she should, since she was the best climber there. Even so, Kevin felt his heart in his mouth as she started to work her way up the canted over mast, shimmying up it the way she might have worked her way up a tree. Luna got to the top, and then started working on the sails, cutting sections free, pulling other knots loose, and tying what was left so that they at least had part of a sail in place.

  “This part’s snagged,” Luna said, pulling on a section of rope. “Just let me—”

  A wave hit the boat just as she pulled, and Kevin’s heart leapt into his chest as he saw her windmill her arms, trying to grab hold of something, or keep her balance, anything to keep from falling. It didn’t help, though, and a second later, she was plummeting toward the ocean like a stone.

  The yacht’s lean meant that she didn’t hit the deck, but she hit the water with a splash that sent spray up high into the air. Luna disappeared out of sight for a moment, then bobbed back into view, not moving on the surface of the water. Fins circled around her, ominously close.

  “Luna!” Kevin cried out, ready to abandon what he was doing and jump in after her, regardless of the danger of the sharks.

  Bobby beat him to it, the dog barking and growling, diving into the water and swimming next to her. He bit at something that came close to Luna, and a fin slid away, but Kevin knew it was only a matter of time.

  “Hold on,” Kevin said, “I’m coming!”

  He started to make his way to the edge of the boat, hoping he would be in time to save her. Chloe was there, though, holding a long pole with a hook on the end.

  “This will work better, and there’s less chance of getting eaten,” she said. She lay flat on the deck. “Hold my legs down so I don’t slide off. I’m not getting eaten for the cheerleader.”

  Kevin didn’t complain about Chloe calling Luna that, because he was too busy trying to make sure neither of them fell off the boat. He lay down over Chloe’s legs, pinning her in place while she fished for Luna like someone fishing for a duck at a fair.

  “Almost got it,” Chloe said. “There!”

  She pulled back on the hook and Luna came with it, just as a lunging shark emerged from the water where she’d been a moment before. Kevin wished he could help pull Luna in, but he knew he couldn’t let go of Chloe, or they might both be in the water. Instead, he had to wait while Chloe used the bill hook to drag Luna in closer and closer to the boat. Bobby hopped up onto the deck, still barking and growling down at the water.

  “She’s close enough,” Chloe said. “Grab her!”

  They moved forward and grabbed hold of Luna’s arms, pulling, but Luna seemed heavier than she should have, weighed down by seawater and unable to help climb aboard. In the water, Kevin could see another fin advancing on them, and that seemed to lend him the strength he needed to pull harder. He and Chloe hauled her up onto the deck, the shark heading for them v
eering away at the last moment as it sensed that its prey wasn’t there anymore.

  Luna lay on the deck for a moment, then gasped, spluttering as she turned to her side and coughing up what seemed like an ocean’s worth of seawater.

  “What… I remember falling…”

  “You went into the water,” Kevin said. “You fell from the mast. Chloe pulled you out before the sharks could get to you.”

  “Chloe pulled me out?” Luna said, and Kevin nodded.

  “I mean, Bobby and I both helped, but she was the one who worked out how to do it,” Kevin said.

  Luna ruffled Bobby’s now thoroughly wet fur. “Good boy.”

  He responded by shaking out that fur and soaking all of them again.

  “And thanks, Chloe,” Luna said after a moment. “I guess I owe you.”

  Chloe shrugged that off. “I guess.”

  The three of them sat there for a little while, the boat drifting, until Kevin remembered that he should be working the bilge pump. He got back to work on it, hoping that eventually they would have enough water out of the boat that they wouldn’t be in any danger of sinking. It didn’t seem likely, right then.

  “I hate to ruin the mood,” Luna said, “but we’re still drifting on a boat we can’t sail, with no idea where we are. I mean, I’m glad I’m not about to be eaten by sharks, but… are we about to float all the way around the world?”

  Put like that, things did still seem pretty bleak.

  “Did you manage to work out where we are?” Kevin asked Chloe.

  “I think we’re pretty close to LA,” she said.

  “Why?” Kevin asked.

  Chloe pointed out toward the shore. Kevin looked, and it took a moment to see what Chloe saw. There, right on the horizon where a faint strip of land stood, he could see skyscrapers and beaches, hills behind them, and palm trees up on the edges of the sand.