Island Jumper 2

by M H Ryan

  “Eliza, you’re welcome to stay with us,” I said.

  Sherri let her go, and Eliza seemed confused. “You want me to stay with you?”

  “Sure,” Kara said. “This is the best island I’ve felt. It makes you happy.”

  Eliza glanced at me with a hint of red hitting her cheeks. “I do have strange feelings here.” Her hands went to her navel as she kept her gaze on me, moving up and down my body.

  Aubrey and Sherri laughed, covering their mouths.

  “What?” Eliza asked.

  “You’ve never seen a man, right?” Aubrey asked.

  Her face went redder, and she looked to the ground.

  “Sweetie, no,” Sherri said. “We’re not laughing at you, it’s just that you end up on this island and Jack is the first man you’ve seen…”

  “And you’re lucky to see him,” Benji said. “He’s far more handsome than most men and so kind and smart and strong.”

  “And big and good in bed,” Aubrey said.

  “I don’t know what you mean,” Eliza said. “I just have this… feeling in my gut and… I’ve never really felt this way. Is it the island?”

  “Sweetie, did your mom never talk to you about… you know, sex stuff?”

  “No,” she said. “What’s sex stuff?”

  “Oh my,” Sherri said. “We’re going to have to have the talk.”

  I cleared my throat and then said, “You’re welcome to stay here with us, Eliza, but we do work hard here, so I hope you’re up to it.”

  She looked confused but sniffled, wiped her eye, then smiled. “I guess. I mean, I was meant to be here, I think.”

  “Well, since we’re stuck on these islands for now, we could use another set of hands,” Aubrey said.

  “And I’m really helpful,” Eliza said with bright eyes. “I can trap. I can cook. I can cut wood and make fires.”

  “And you can make a canoe,” Sherri said.

  “Yeah, that one takes a while, but yeah, I can make one again,” Eliza said.

  “We’re on a mission here as well, Eliza,” I said. “We believe there are more of us out there. They could be alone as well. They might need our help. We plan to find them.”

  “If we can help others, we must.” Eliza’s gaze moved side to side as if she was performing complex math in her head. “I feel it,” she said, breathlessly.

  “Feel what?” Aubrey asked.

  “My intuition,” she said, eyes wide and looking out into the ocean. “We need to go soon. I feel like someone needs us out there.”

  “Mango’s ready,” Benji announced, carrying a flat piece of wood with the food on it.

  A rumble shook the trees, a noise that I would have mistaken for thunder, but the whole island shook. I spread my hands out, keeping balance, and then the shaking stopped.

  “What the hell was that?” Aubrey asked.

  “That was an earthquake,” Kara said. Kneeling down, she put her hands into the sand.

  “Dammit,” Benji said. “Stupid earthquake.” She’d dropped the tray and now knelt, picking up the sand-covered bits of mango.

  “I’ll have to make more now,” Benji said, looking as pissed off as I’d ever seen her.

  The island rumbled again, softer this time, but I felt the movement against my bare feet. I glanced at Kara, who still had her hands on the sand.

  “This isn’t good,” Kara said.

  Chapter 5

  Over the next day and into the next morning, the island shook two more times, but that wasn’t the strangest thing: it’d been well over twenty-four hours since the geyser blew. Some of us hypothesized that the shaking had knocked something loose and now it no longer built up pressure but instead just went to the surface with continuous bubbles. The other theory was that the force was now locked and building, with nowhere to escape, and that was causing the earthquakes. Kara subscribed to the latter, saying she could feel the pressure like tension in her chest. None of us really knew what it meant, so we kept working.

  Working took my mind off things. An idle mind would be allowed to wonder and daydream about the possibilities and unknowns. Plus, the work gave us a chance to see Eliza in action.

  Eliza proved to be a useful addition to the group, not only with her hands, but with her enthusiasm. The girls took a lot of pleasure whispering to her and then eyeing me. I didn’t want to imagine what they were talking about. They shared quiet laughter and inside jokes, all of it was in good humor, and made the hard work more tolerable, if not actually fun.

  We abandoned the idea of burning through the trees and found the stone axes performed well, allowing us to cut down two of the dead trees. With one of them, we expanded the shelter platform by almost double before last night. Benji called it “the stage.” We made it large enough to sleep us all, with some room to spare. Nothing a hotel could brag about, but sleeping under the stars with soft waves rolling in and out, a gentle breeze pushing around the palms and trees, it felt special to me. Not to mention the gorgeous women I got to share it with.

  We spent some time last night talking about Eliza’s mom and everything we’d been through in the previous five days. She soaked it up like a dry sponge, asking a million questions for all of us. What was it like out there—the cities, the cars, the planes, and the people? When we found out she had never heard music—which didn’t surprise me, her mom hated music—we sang a few songs for her, like an attempt at “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen that had us Scaramouche-ing in laughter.

  Eliza cried as we sang “Country Road” by John Denver and asked if any of us had been on this country road in West Virginia. We hadn’t. Benji said she wanted to reenact various movies, as it was mandatory that she understood some of the classics. Kara and Benji gathered plans to put on a show at some point.

  It had become everyone’s favorite thing to pour as much of our culture into Eliza as she could handle and that seemed to be bottomless.

  Unfortunately, Eliza didn’t have much information to share with us about the islands, as she’d stayed on hers the whole time. After her mother was gone, she wasn’t sure if she could do it alone, and at times, she thought of just going into the sea and let the monsters take her, or setting the island on fire and letting the ship come get her, much like it had for her mom. The one thing that she kept relying on was a feeling that she needed to stay alive. She needed to live and thrive, and when the time came, she would know. She believed that we were the thing she had been waiting for and was so happy that she didn’t give in to the empty feeling of being alone.

  Surviving on her island hadn’t been too difficult, as she said it not only had a hot spring with fresh water but it also had chickens and a mixture of fruit trees, and a couple of nut trees. Before she left, she said the island had been shaking, just like this one, and that many of the trees were dying. The ground had formed cracks in it, with steam rising up.

  It was an unsettling thought, but one we didn’t dwell on. There wasn’t much we could do about earthquakes.

  In tight sleeping quarters last night, I heard the noises of the restless. Kara and Eliza both struggled through the night, while Aubrey, Benji, and Sherri nestled up against me. I once awoke to soft whispers and found Eliza talking to the inside of her bag, or more like arguing. I think she heard my movement and pretended to go back to sleep. I heard her though, whispering until I fell back asleep myself.

  Through the morning, we’d finished the modifications to the raft.

  We all stood next to the raft, admiring what we had built. The soft waves rolled over the white sand, hitting the three large logs we’d attached the bottom. The outriggers floated up and down as the water rolled in and out. The platform was about a foot off the sand now, and the deck would accommodate probably seven of us and of course, one kitty.

  At the center of the raft, a mast rose up fifteen feet. Sherri spent several hours getting the hole through the center log and then pinned the pole to the bottom with a wooden pin. The light breeze pushed against the square sail,
sending ripples down the shiny, emergency blanket. It fluttered and then stiffened as the breeze increased. The mast had a few notches that we could slide the sail up and down with or close it off entirely.

  Unfortunately, it took the last of our rope and most of our duct tape. With the mast and sail up, it limited some of the movement around the raft. We spent a while practicing drills for shark attacks and other foreseeable obstacles we could come across. I knew there would be confusion out there but if we had some drills to fall back on, we’d be far better off.

  Eliza stood back, staring at it in wonder.

  “I hope it floats,” Kara said.

  “It will,” Aubrey said. “I just wonder how much that sail’s going to work.”

  “The sail!” Benji said, looking at it with admiration. “You’re so smart, Jack, to think of that.”

  “Well,” I said. “It was a group effort.”

  And it was. Each of us worked hard to get these modifications completed and we weren’t done yet. This was just the start if we wanted to make this place comfortable and safe to live on.

  “Okay, the new raft looks awesome, but where are we taking it?” Aubrey said.

  “That way,” Eliza pointed to the north, an area we’d never been. The sack she brought with her was now slung across her back like a backpack.

  “Why there?” Aubrey asked. “And if you tell me about your hooker’s intuition…”

  Eliza's lips thinned as she looked at the horizon. Aubrey had been skeptical of our extra senses and rightfully so. I wasn’t exactly a hundred percent with even mine, but I was getting used to it, because it felt as real as the air we breathed and it seemed to be getting stronger.

  “I think it’s as good of a direction as any other,” I said. “We’ll go north. We haven’t been that way, so it’s probably safe to say we’ll find a new island.”

  “Or just endless seas with currents strong enough to strand us worse than we are,” Aubrey said.

  The island rumbled again, sounding like thunder. The trees shook and the leaves fell. The sand around the beach smoothed out, and I sunk several inches into it. The shallow water rippled and bounced near the shore. I took a step toward the raft, and then it all stopped.

  “That was a big one,” I said with a chuckle.

  “It’s getting worse,” Kara said, with her hand crossed over her chest.

  “On my island, it started a few months ago, right when I started building the canoe,” Eliza said.

  “There’s nothing we can do about it but we can find another person out there. So, let’s put this raft in the water,” I said.

  “We sure?” Aubrey said, looking at the clear, blue sky.

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know. Could be a storm coming,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s nothing, let’s just go.”

  I stood at the rear of the raft and the ladies stood at the sides, making sure they didn’t get their hands on the black tar coating much of it. I didn’t like the idea of going back to Tar Island, but I knew we’d have to make another trip to get more of the shark repellent. Another day perhaps, but right then, we needed to get this monster-sized raft on the water.

  “Okay, on three,” I said. “One, two, three.”

  We lifted the raft, and I was actually pleasantly surprised at how light it was with all hands on deck. We carried and then slid it into the shallow waters. The hefty-looking logs dipped a few inches in the water before floating off the surface. We guided it a few more feet into the water, nearly knee deep for me before Kara hopped on board first.

  “Everyone get on,” I said.

  They got onto the raft, some helping others, and I was the last one on.

  Among raft modifications, we also made more paddles and spears. Eliza hadn’t used a spear before, but she took to it with ease.

  “It works!” Sherri said, rushing to me with a big hug.

  “Of course it does,” Aubrey said.

  “I just want to let you guys know,” Sherri said with an arm around me still, “That this is the greatest adventure I could have ever asked for, and I love you all.”

  Eliza beamed with a bright smile. Aubrey rolled her eyes as she faced the bow.

  “Benji, you want the honors of opening the sail?” I asked.

  “Yes!”

  She rushed to the mast and raised the two long branches holding the sail up to the lower notch. She secured the bottom branch on the lower notch and then slid the upper branch to the higher groove. The sail fluttered and then stiffened against the wind. The raft pulled hard enough that we all had to do a balance check.

  “Wow,” Benji said.

  I used the back paddle to steer us into the small waves and in a northerly direction.

  The girls cheered at the speed, and I smiled. It felt good to have a win. I studied the design, thinking of further modification we could make to capture more wind. We’d just need some kind of fabric or something to catch the wind.

  Kara went to the front of the boat. “The logs are cutting through the water.”

  She had spent hours cutting the front of the boat. She gazed back at me with those ocean eyes, and a big smile. She was so stunning, with the dark tattoos contrasting to her pale skin, and ever since getting her off that island, she seemed happier by the hour. She held my gaze, her mouth parting as her smile faded. She blinked, looked away, letting out a long breath.

  A dorsal fin popped up near Kara and she staggered back, landing on her butt.

  “Jesus,” Kara said.

  “Shark,” Benji said.

  “Another one on this side,” Aubrey announced.

  I reached out, feeling the sharks. They weren’t pissed, but nervous feeling. Beyond just the two, wait, three sharks, I felt that unfamiliar presence again. The unwelcome member to the party that I suspected the sharks knew of as well. I wondered if they were nervous about this other presence or the tar we’d smeared over the ship. I hoped it was the tar, because I didn’t want to see what made these sharks nervous.

  “That way,” Eliza said, pointing out to the horizon.

  I used a paddle as a rudder and steered the raft a few degrees in that direction. With the wind at our backs, the raft pushed along the water, gaining as much speed as we could have mustered with paddles alone.

  “Save your energy, girls,” I said, watching them paddle.

  Aubrey and Sherri pulled up their paddles.

  “Good, now I can just work on my tan,” Aubrey said.

  “This is so cool,” Sherri said. “I mean, we built this!”

  “We should name her,” Kara said.

  One of the sharks slapped its tail on the water before diving below. A mist of ocean water sprayed over us.

  “Why don’t you name her, Eliza?” I asked.

  “Me?” she said, looking surprised and then touched the bag on her back. “I think we should name her Luna.”

  “Oh,” Benji said. “Like Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter? I loved that name, and if you ask me, she would have been a good partner choice for Harry, perhaps better even than Hermione.”

  “I don’t know this Harry Potter, but it’s another name for the moon,” Eliza said. “I’ve always loved the moon and its many faces.”

  “Don’t know about Harry Potter?” Benji muttered, talking about adding it to the list of plays we’d need to be performing for Eliza.

  Aubrey gazed at the sky, looking around it all, and then she shivered, as if she got the chills.

  “It’s a good name,” I said.

  Over the next thirty minutes, I kept an eye on the horizon, looking for the next island and through the telescope, I finally spotted it, like a green smudge on the horizon. Too far to make out the details, but it was an island for sure. Small, but a tall one.

  “I see it,” I said. “Straight ahead.”

  I handed the scope to Aubrey. She eyed it and then it rotated between the girls, all wanting to take a look.

  “There’s something in the water,” Sherri said,
pointing off the bow with scope in hand.

  I looked ahead and saw nothing but one shark fin and open ocean.

  Sherri put her hand to her stomach and looked pale. “We should adjust our course. How do you not see it?”

  I took the scope and looked and then without it. All of us were gathering near the front of the raft that I felt it dipping a few inches forward.

  “I don’t see anything,” Aubrey said.

  The shark in front of us dipped under the water with a dramatic flair of tail whipping and water splashing. Then the two behind us did the same. It wasn’t precisely fear that I felt from the sharks but there was a trepidation there laced with curiosity.

  “We should turn the boat,” I said, rushing to the back of the raft and grabbing the rudder.

  “Go left!” Sherri said.

  I still didn’t see what we were avoiding, but if it spooked Sherri and the sharks, that was enough for me.

  That’s when I felt the boat speeding up, as if we were being pulled along.

  “What’s that?” Kara said, pointing ahead.

  About a hundred yards ahead, I spotted what Sherri had a while ago. The water frothed and swirled in an area as big as a tennis court, and at the center, the ocean plunged down into the whirlpool as if someone had pulled the plug below.

  “Whirlpool?” Aubrey said. “A fucking whirlpool!”

  The raft sped up more, and I turned as hard as I could but it was still pulling us in.

  “Paddle!” I said.

  The girls jumped to their stations and started paddling hard.

  The raft tilted, and we all leaned to the left and got a horrific view of the maelstrom. The water swirled around the center, where it plunged into the depths like a black hole. If we didn’t get out right then, we would reach this whirlpool’s event horizon and never be able to escape.

  Chapter 6

  I’d seen whirlpools, mostly in my bathtub as a child, watching the water go down the hole. In my child mind, I thought there was a risk of me being sucked into the drain, and then I’d be trapped in the pipes like that kid that fell into the well all those years ago. I understood how they worked, and I suspected that it was a tidal thing, which was pulling water down through something I couldn’t see below. All of this adult knowledge didn’t help me from the terrifying sight of the watery, black hole right in front of us.